For more than 30 years, the Houses of Healing Program has led the way in social and emotional learning for incarcerated adults. The program provides a proven path to emotional healing, behavioral change, and successful reentry, helping participants transform their lives from the inside out.
Built on evidence-based practices, the Houses of Healing Program guides participants through a journey of social-emotional learning that results in deep personal transformation.
At the heart of the program is the book Houses of Healing: A Prisoner’s Guide to Inner Power and Freedom and its companion workbook, Making Time Count.
Through cognitive-behavioral skills, mindfulness meditation, and positive identity development participants learn to:
Houses of Healing is a cornerstone of rehabilitative programming in prisons and jails nationwide.
Houses of Healing resources are effective for both group and individual work. Materials include:
Written specifically for incarcerated adults, Houses of Healing includes proven cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness skills, reflective exercises, and stories from incarcerated learners.
Can be read on one’s own, as part of a Houses of Healing group, or used as a therapeutic resource with a counselor.
The Houses of Healing book is available in English and Spanish
Making Time Count (MTC) walks the reader through the Houses of Healing Program, empowering them to integrate the concepts, insights, and self-regulation skills taught throughout.
MTC is available in 13-session and 6-session editions depending on the length of sentence.
Making Time Count 13-session is available in English and Spanish
Provides all the necessary guidance to support staff, volunteers, and peer mentors to lead Houses of Healing groups.
Groups can also be facilitated with the Making Time Count workbook.
Incorporates all of the elements of the Houses of Healing Program on more than 1 million tablets held by incarcerated individuals.
“I would definitely recommend Houses of Healing to others because it cracks the hard shell of the self-created personas created to survive in the streets. It installs compassion or turns it back on when it’s turned off. I love this course.”
“For 16 years nothing else had deeply reached me. After sincerely working with Houses of Healing, the desire to reach out from my Core Self to improve the world I see around me has transformed the way I deal with some of the most oppressive situations.”
“Thank you, my search is over, after two years of incarceration, three years of sobriety, and forty-two years of pain, I’ve finally found someone who looked into my heart and soul… You identified the secreted anger, loss, pain, denial and causes of criminal behavior. You gave us a “How To” manual on surviving prison. You gave us a practical and spiritual guide out of this nightmare time loop in hell.”
“I always felt like I was the only one with issues and that I was always alone and didn’t nobody care until Houses of Healing saved me and helped me understand that I can be healed and make my time count.”
“Thanks to Houses of Healing, I have discovered spirituality, love and forgiveness. It has truly changed my life, which is amazing, because up until now, nothing else has.”
“I have been facilitating Anger Management at Riverhead Correctional, a maximum-security facility, for almost five years and have been working with inmates and former inmates for 26 years. I use Houses of Healing almost exclusively. Your book is life changing and has set countless lives on the path to recovery.”
“I wish prisons had more programs like Houses of Healing. It would make a big change. People need purpose, guidance and help. You gave that to me and so much more. For that I’m beyond grateful.”
“Houses of Healing brought more awareness into my life, allowing me to become mindful in triggering situations. It’s helped me respond and react with my values and future at the forefront of my mind. It will most definitely keep me mindful of making these next 8 ½ years count.”
“Participating in this course has impacted my life dramatically. The program helped in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Coming into the course I had little expectation. Now I would recommend this course because everybody deserves a chance to rehabilitate the way they think. Especially in this environment.”
“Houses of Healing helped me look into some areas in my life that I wanted to bury and never attempt to look at. In reading HOH and being honest with myself I was able to not only bring them back up but to then work thru them. I’ve been doing time since the late 70’s and I’ve never felt freer in my life. I can’t praise the course enough.”
“This program, without any question, saved my life. I still have a lot of time to do here, but you know what? It’s not important to me because one day I will walk out of here a new man, with a better outlook on life, but most importantly, a better look on myself. My life means something now. I may not be the man I want to be yet, but with this program I am not the man I used to be.”
Houses of Healing is a widely implemented correctional rehabilitation program recognized in the Federal Bureau of Prisons First Step Act Approved Programs Guide and used in prisons and jails across North America. A growing body of research, including multiple independent studies and Lionheart’s National Solitary Project, has examined Houses of Healing’s impact on depression, alexithymia, and other markers of emotional well-being. The National Solitary Project represents the largest study of a mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy intervention in highly restricted housing.
