What Makes The Non 12-Step Alcohol Treatment Program Different?

You'll receive the most advanced, effective, and research based alcohol treatment in America. Instead of focusing on your "disease," we focus on proven behavior change models and the medication support that has proven effective helping end your alcohol cravings. This, and the assimilation of our own research and work of the past twenty years, provides you with the best individual treatment available anywhere at any price.

We are different in other important ways as well. You won't be fobbed off on interns, other clients, outside groups, or former clients. We have a staff of two experienced, competent, well educated and involved individuals. You will get our direct and continuing attention.

We aren't true believers in one-size-fits-all models that blame client failure on s/he "didn't work her/his program." We work with you to learn what does work for you, not why you resisted being crammed into someone else's ineffective mold.

Additionally, we do not recycle flawed men's programs that are especially ineffective for women. We are interested in differences, regardless of the basis, and how these influence outcomes.

Finally, we want you to regain your life, a new, exciting, and rewarding one, not one dedicated to the dreary rituals and tokens of lifelong "recovery."

Aren't You Just Like Other Non 12-Step Programs?

No, we're not. While we appreciate the hospitality and perspectives we have shared over the years with programs in Phoenix, Atlanta, Montreal, Santa Monica, and elsewhere, our services are not based on any of their models. While we have some common program elements – primarily the use of CBT and supportive medications – the delivery and philosophy are completely different.

Our treatment program philosophy and research are based on twenty years of work by Dr. Ed Wilson, Program Director, and an early pioneer in the field of Alternative Alcohol Treatment. As a result, our program is truly customized to you, your problems, and your desired outcomes. We offer far more individual counseling than any other program – residential or outpatient – total confidentiality (partially because we do not engage in group work, nor exposure to other clients), and 90 days of follow-up with your counselor, not just a referral to a group or an online chat room.

What's Your Success Rate?

As you can imagine, success rates vary, but the following rates reflect client outcomes over the past two years:

Abstinence: 82% of these clients have achieved their goal. Of the remaining 18%, half continue to make good progress.

Moderation: 73% of these clients achieved their goal and about half of the remaining 27% have switched to an abstinence focus.

Finally, we want to tell you a true story that happened to co-founder and Clinical Director, Dr. Ed Wilson, over twenty years ago. We still find it chilling because of what it said (and still says) about the treatment industry in our country. Dr. Wilson says "I was in my first position as a substance abuse counselor in a nationally known and still operating Minnesota residential treatment program. I thought I was doing very well with my clients. Most of them were getting sober, getting their lives back and moving on to greener pastures. All was going well or so I thought. Nine months into my job, the director of the program called me into his office and fired me, because my clients weren't relapsing at the required 90% rate. Turns out they depended on a high relapse rate to keep the business going. I was messing up their business model. Unfortunately, this is still a consideration at many programs, where recycling clients is a major part of the business."

So, please ask questions carefully and persistently when looking into treatment program. Take "success rates" with a grain of salt. Maybe ask about how many clients return for a second or third round of treatment or how many staff are former clients (not a good sign). The answers to these questions will tell you a lot about the program you are considering.

How Does Your Alcohol Treatment Program Differ From 12-Step Programs?

Why Should I Consider Outpatient Alcohol Treatment Rather Than Residential Treatment?

We provide out-patient treatment because we believe that your success depends upon changing your alcohol based behaviors while maintaining and enhancing your life, not by taking a vacation from real life and expecting that to last. Anyone can change most any behavior given the right surroundings, but few can maintain change when they return to the usual realities of daily life. Vacations are nice, but it's cheaper and more fun to take them as such.

Out-Patient services are integrated into your usual life. We become a detour away from your drinking patterns while maintaining the other aspects of your life. Treatment is a change process that occurs and accommodates to the realities of your life. When you stop drinking other areas of your life will be affected and out-patient allows for the necessary micro-adjustments success will require. Residential isolates you, and those around you, from the effects of change thus leaving everyone ill-prepared for your return. It is hardly surprising that relapse is the rule, not the exception.

What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or CBT is based on a few simple principles

1. You are responsible for your own emotions and actions,
2. Your harmful emotions and dysfunctional behaviors are the product of your irrational thinking,
3. You can learn more realistic views and, with practice, make them a part of you,
4. You'll experience a deeper acceptance of yourself and greater satisfactions in life by developing a reality-based perspective.

A difficult part of the recovery process is learning how to be happy without the use of alcohol or drugs. To assist individuals in this, we use many of the tools of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to address the psychological and social components of alcohol dependence. These tools are designed to assist individuals in their recovery process. They include, but are not limited to:

Enhancing motivation to quit drinking and to remain abstinent

• Risk/Reward Analysis (costs/benefits of drinking/quitting)
• Setting sensible, measurable, achievable, reasonable, and timed goals and working towards achieving them.
  Learning how to refuse to act on urges when they arise.
• Understanding triggers and where they
  come from.
• Understanding “slippery” social situations
  and how to deal with them.
  Learning how to manage life’s problems in a sensible and effective way.
• Using CBT to identify irrational beliefs.
• Learn self-acceptance and other-acceptance.
  Developing a positive, balanced and healthy lifestyle.
• Recognizing the importance of exercise and nutrition in the recovery process.
• Replacing destructive habits with constructive habits.
• Avoiding replacing one bad habit with another bad habit.

Do you accept medical insurance payments?

No, we do not accept medical insurance payments. If you wish, we will be happy to provide you with a "superbill" that you can submit to your insurance company for reimbursement.

Keep in mind however, that while medical and counseling records are confidential, insurance records are not and are widely shared and sometimes sold. Unlike your credit report, things stay on your insurance records forever. Having alcoholism on your record could adversely affect your ability to buy health insurance or even life insurance in the future. You need to look carefully at the cost of the program and the amount you could be reimbursed and decide if submitting a bill to your insurance company is really worth it to you.

How do I start?

Call us toll free at 888-541-6350. Come in for a free consultation if you are in the Los Angeles area, or call us and schedule a phone consultation if you are out-of-the area. Let's get to know each other a bit and see what possible. A lot is, you know.