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What is “Private” Treatment?

Recently I’ve noticed that the search term “private alcohol treatment,” or variations on that theme, are leading people to our website. I assume that they are looking for confidential assistance with a difficult problem which is proving resistant to their, or your, solo efforts.

Recently I’ve noticed that the search term “private alcohol treatment,” or variations on that theme, are leading people to our website. I assume that they are looking for confidential assistance with a difficult problem which is proving resistant to their, or your, solo efforts.

The problem?

Most of us have inculcated a number of beliefs which don’t hold up. These include:

  • treatment programs generally are confidential;
  • insurance records are confidential;
  • prescription medication records are confidential;
  • medical records are confidential;
  • AA is anonymous;
  • And so on and on.
  • In fact, none of these are true.

Virtually all “programs” are primarily “group” based and no group is ever confidential. Nor are the client members bound by any prohibitions against gossiping about who they met at treatment.

Sometimes this just happens innocently. A client, in discussing her previous experience at a notorious treatment center, mentioned that the only other women she could relate to there was the CEO of “XYZ” corporation. The client had no idea that she had just breached the other woman’s privacy.

Of course it isn’t just other clients. Its staff, hourly or otherwise, contract service providers, and, of course, the inevitable AA meetings. Folks, AA hasn’t been anonymous since about 1955 – if then. Virtually everyone who’s ever attended an AA meeting, especially in small communities, has been accosted publically by some zealot asking, loudly, “I haven’t seen you at a meeting lately.”

Moving along, insurance records, medical or otherwise, are not covered by HIPPA. Your record, when a claim is filed, includes a code number which identifies what you are being treated for. BINGO! You are now an identified “alcoholic” – which most of the time you aren’t – and that public label (the insurance companies do trade and sell that information) will haunt you for the rest of your life.

We are quite serious when we say that we offer the only confidential program in the country. So how do we differ?
You only ever deal with one of us, from the first phone call to the last follow-session – with only one exception, your medical eval with our consulting physician, never enters your official medical history;

  • We do no group work whatsoever – meaning you will never encounter another client;
  • We have no other staff to put you at risk;
  • We advise you to never ever become involved with AA;
  • We do all of the foundation work in one “all substance, no filler” 5-day intensive portion so you don’t rat yourself out by disappearing for 30, 60, or 90 counterproductive – and expensive – days;
  • Follow-up sessions are done by phone or Skype from a private setting of your choosing.
  • Even obtaining a prescription for Naltrexone can be managed, for U.S. residents, through a Canadian pharmacy, and vice versa.
  • We take your privacy seriously and you should too. You don’t need to spend the rest of your life attempting to refute the new Scarlet Letter, “A”lcoholic.

Looking at alternatives? Please do – and use our list to see how many ways they intend to expose you.

Then give us a call and discuss receiving help that actually works without ending up worse off than when you were drinking too much.

So Where Do You Come From?

Periodically, I look back at where you’ve come from in your search for effective and private solutions that neither label, demean, nor disempower. It’s always interesting and helps us realize just how rare real help actually is.

So where do you hale from?

The U.S. of course. The states of California, Colorado, Ohio, New Jersey, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania lead the way, but another 25 states are also represented.

Canadians arrive from British Columbia and Alberta with a smattering from Saskatchewan, Ontario, the Yukon, and Manitoba.

Then come the other countries whose citizens are also looking to escape both alcohol and stigma: India, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa, and the Philippines, primarily.

We think that’s amazing for a small, “two professionals and you” practice here on a hillside on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

We’d like to thank you, too. You who traveled from 4 blocks away to those who arrived from Albany, Anchorage, Atlanta, Austin, Bismarck, Bombay, Boston, Calgary, Cape Town, Charlotte, Chicago, Christchurch, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Edmonton, El Paso, Fargo, Grand Junction, Grand Prairie, Grand Rapids, Homer, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kodiak, Los Angeles, Manila, Miami, Minneapolis, Newark, New Delhi, New York, Orange, Phoenix, Reading, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Saskatoon, Seattle, Sydney, Topanga, Toronto, Vancouver, Whitehorse, Victoria, and dozens of other cities, small towns and rural areas.

Yes, we are unique. Two of us focused on you. Research, not cults. Empowering, not demeaning and degrading. Respectful, not sneering. Resources, not childish slogans. Professional, not patronizing. And perhaps most important, recovered, and “in recovery.”

As we say, perhaps too often, do you want research or “magic”? A life or a cult? Solutions or “steps”? Help or excuses?

Your choice, real help or “rehab” – either is just a phone call away.