I recently read your book and was thrilled to learn of what you and your son have accomplished! It was so inspiring! For several years, I have researched everything I could about alcholism and addictions, trying to help my ex-husband. Eventually, I realized that there was more to it than what AA and other places were addressing. While I have tried to share what I have learned with him, he has not yet found it in himself to stop drinking. I wish there was a...
There are four main differences between Passages Addiction
Cure Center and all other treatment centers in the world:
1. We believe in a cure.
2. We have the highest success rate anywhere in the world.
3. We know that addiction is not a disease; rather a symptom
caused by underlying problems.
4. We offer a unique, one-on-one treatment program tailored
to each client that helps you discover and cure the real underlying
causes of your dependency.
TREATMENT PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Here at Passages Addiction Cure Center, every person benefits from a drug rehab, alcohol rehab or detox program custom designed for them. One aspect of our program that makes it so powerful is that our therapists work as a team. When a client checks into Passages Addiction Cure Center, he or she is assigned a 10-person team, which includes a medical doctor that we recommend, who is also a psychiatrist. In addition to that, we also assign a clinical psychologist to your team, a licensed marriage and family counselor, a certified drug and alcohol counselor, a certified hypnotherapist, a spiritual counselor, a certified physical trainer, a life purpose coach, a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, a nutritionist, a massage therapist, and a licensed massage practitioner. We also provide nursing 24 hours a day, everyday. In addition to that, Chris and Pax, the co-founders and co-directors, are available to meet with you or your loved ones.
You will meet with your entire treatment team every week in individual, hour long sessions; more than 15 individual sessions each week. This amounts to more than 60 individual sessions each month, far more than most other treatment centers which usually only provide 4 individual sessions per month.
Every week, your team of treatment therapists will meet to discuss their various findings, and to redesign your treatment program for the coming week, so that your program will progress as you do.
Unlike other treatment centers, which often prohibit communication with family and friends during treatment, we emphasize and encourage communication by email and telephone, plus visits on weekends. A strong family component is part of our program. During the final stages of your stay, we urge your family to participate in your treatment by inviting them into your individual sessions, so that your entire family can gain a clearer understanding of the transformation that you have made. That level of care is not available anywhere else in the world.
It is partly responsible for our extremely high rate of success and is yet another factor that sets Passages Addiction Cure Center apart from all other treatment centers.
“The promise that Pax and I make to you is that you or your loved one will receive the finest addiction care available anywhere in the world,” says Chris Prentiss, cofounder and co-director of Passages Addiction Cure Center. Read Chris’s and Pax’s statement here.
“We believe in a cure, and we believe in you.” is our slogan at Passages.
A HOLISTIC (WHOLE) TREATMENT APPROACH
Here at Passages Addiction Cure Center in Malibu, California, we feel that it is essential to treat the whole person who is dependent on addictive substances. Therefore, we feel it necessary to address every physical, mental and spiritual need of our clients. We provide an individualized treatment plan designed and implemented by our team of specialists to discover and cure one or more of the four possible causes of your dependency.
These practitioners will look at your individual situation from different points of view, treating every aspect of you, which is what makes it a holistic approach. Holistic means relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than the treatment of parts. In this case, it means freeing you of dependency forever by curing all of you – mind, body, and spirit.
We invite you to explore each facet of our treatment program in more depth below. Additionally, we encourage you to read about our treatment philosophy to better understand the effectiveness of our program. We invite you to read more about our founders’ methodology in Chris Prentiss’s breakthrough new book, The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure. It will open your eyes as never before about alcoholism and addiction.
INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE AND 24-HOUR NURSING
To reach your goal of optimum health, we provide you with the support of a medical doctor we recommend who incorporates natural, holistic approaches to wellness, thus integrating mainstream and alternative medicine. Your physician will help you through drug and alcohol detoxification and withdrawal, diagnose minor or major ailments, provide blood chemistry analysis, and evaluate whether your glands and organs are functioning properly. He will also check whether you have any allergies and diagnose where you are deficient in key vitamins and minerals, a crucial factor in the health of those who have been alcohol or drug dependent.
Patrick Hanaway, M.D., medical director of Genova Diagnostics in North Carolina, who works at Passages Addiction Cure Center, explains that an integrative medicine approach is important because “treating the whole person – body, mind, and spirit – is critical to success. Healing…requires an inquiry into the source of illness and imbalance. At Passages, the goal is to bring many healing modalities together to help each individual discover the source of his or her imbalance, and then to support the process of healing. That is true healing. Healing is not simply taking a drug to suppress the feelings of imbalance that are causing the addictive behavior.”
To ensure the safety of our clients as they undergo their holistic healing process, we also provide 24-hour, on-site nursing care with nurses who are trained in our field of work. Here at Passages, you or your loved ones are in caring, capable hands.
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY
A clinical psychologist can be of great benefit in your treatment program by helping you to discover, understand, and resolve the underlying pain you have been self-medicating or drowning out with drugs, alcohol, or addictive behavior. Since alcoholism and addiction are not the problems but are just symptoms of the problems, your psychologist helps you discover and deal with underlying psychological issues that have led to your dependence.
“Dependency comes from a desire to escape pain,” says Keith McMullen, Ph.D., Clinical Director at Passages Addiction Cure Center. “Continuing sobriety requires understanding the sources of pain and addressing them rather than finding a quick way to mask the pain.”
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY
Marriage and family therapy at Passages focuses on family and relationship dynamics. “Hurts and injuries that occur in the context of our family can lead to substance abuse,” says Noah A. Rothschild, one of the marriage and family therapists at Passages Addiction Cure Center. He continues, “A marriage and family therapist can help someone suffering from dependency discover the origin of their dependency and resolve its cause.” Seeing a marriage and family therapist can also help you “uncover the layers blocking your core self from being fully realized and expressed,” he says.
In short, marriage and family therapy can help both you and your family resolve issues around your dependency and become more communicative with each other. This is why we encourage such a strong family component in our treatment program at Passages Addiction Cure Center. Dependency is caused as a result of past pain, which very often originates in our early family dynamic, and a marriage and family therapist can help you discover these origins and underlying causes of your dependency.
CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY COUNSELING AND CASE MANAGEMENT
During drug rehabilitation. and alcohol rehabilitation, each client attends regular sessions with a Chemical Dependency Counselor. This counselor can also be made available to the individual and family upon completion of the program as a Case Manager. Case management is planned and adjusted according to the needs and progress made by clients during the transition back into every day life.
Contact sessions can be facilitated anywhere our new alumni may live or travel. Contact sessions support ongoing adherence to an after care plan while providing revisions to the plan as needed. Case management is also available to new graduates who choose to transition with the support of a recovery assistant so he or she is able to maintain sober living. Read more about our Aftercare Plans below.
HYPNOTHERAPY
In some cases of dependency, especially if you are not able to discover the underlying cause of your dependency in any other way with any other therapist, hypnotherapy can hold the key. Through hypnotherapy, our clients are gently guided to explore the core patterns of their behavior, distinguish the repeating patterns of their life and discover the origins of that behavior. They discover their coping mechanism and receive guidance and exercises to modify their behavioral patterns.
MaryLou Kenworthy, hypnotherapist at Passages Addiction Cure Center, explains how hypnosis can help us get in touch with the hidden causes of dependency, often associated with childhood memories. “As children, we have only a few ways of coping, and quite often, burying hurt feelings is all we are capable of doing,” she says. “This helps us survive trauma and pain. However, it does not serve us as an adult, for what is buried in our subconscious mind drives our behavior and runs our life. One way to free ourselves to live the life we deserve is through hypnosis that can free us from those early, buried memories.”
SPIRITUAL COUNSELING
Our goal is to assist each individual as he or she embarks on a journey towards permanent sobriety, and this includes an effort towards returning to a path of self-love, self-esteem, and self rule with spiritual therapy.
Spiritual counseling must first be understood based on what it is not. Spirituality is not a religion, a doctrine, or a set of rules to live by. “Spirituality must be redefined as the return to our higher consciousness of love,” says Audrey Hope, Director of Spiritual Counseling at Passages Addiction Cure Center. She adds, “Healing is not done in the rational mind. Some people have been in therapy for years and can write a thesis on their problems, but they don’t heal. Healing must take place on a deep energy level in the soul…A talented healer has radar into your soul, eyes that know where to look, and wisdom to ask the right questions.”
We all possess the power to heal ourselves because our thoughts create our reality. In the moment of self-realization, one has the potential to be forever changed, free from addictive substances and behavior. This is why spiritual counseling is so important to your treatment program here at Passages. It aids you in understanding that you have the power to create your own reality, your own life completely and permanently free of addictive substances.
PHYSICAL TRAINING & NUTRITION
This facet of our program is designed by Certified Fitness Instructors. During treatment at Passages, clients are provided two individual sessions per week, utilizing our residential gym, tennis courts as well as the adjacent beach. A good exercise program, customized to your body’s needs, will increase your energy and aid your recovery.
David Appel, Director of Physical Fitness at Passages Addiction Cure Center, and certified fitness trainer, explains that “all too often, those who are being treated for dependency will say, ‘I feel tired or depressed today.’ That’s a sign that they need to boost their energy system through exercises that tax their muscular and cardiovascular systems during the same workout.”
During treatment, we aim to keep each client healthy through tailored exercise and strengthening programs. Among these programs, we offer tennis, golf, Pilates, personalized core strengthening, and individualized aerobic exercise plans.
In addition, we offer yoga for meditation and fitness, and our clients find that it increases flexibility and reduces stress while maintaining health. Several studies have shown that yoga helps lower blood pressure and improves a person's perception of health. As part of the meditation program at Passages, yoga improves mental clarity, thereby calming the spirit, and aiding in your recovery.
Proper nutrition is an essential component that goes hand-in-hand with a healthy workout regimen and is a part of your holistic treatment program here at Passages. We offer expert nutritionists, who assess your eating habits and advise you on dietary matters relating to your health, well being, and optimal nutrition. Additionally, Passages’ chefs create healthful, healing, nurturing meals in a diverse range of cuisines that are as delicious as they are nutritiously balanced.
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE
The approach of Traditional Chinese Medicine is different from Western Medicine in that its goal, above all others, is to bring balance to the body physically, emotionally, and spiritually. A doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, licensed to practice acupuncture and herbology, will most likely give you a program of acupuncture, acupressure, and herbal teas.
Herbal teas strengthen and rejuvenate as well as detoxify and cleanse your body. Acupuncture and acupressure stimulate the tsubos (pressure points) along the body’s meridians (nerve pathways or channels through which the body’s energy flows) to improve circulation to the organs, balance qi (energy), relieve tension, release stored toxins from the cells, and improve all bodily functions.
Here at Passages Addiction Cure Center, a great many cases of dependency are cured as a result of Eastern medicine techniques. Clients who have been dependent on pain pills such as Vicodin, OxyContin, and methadone, and to other opiates such as heroin tend to respond well to acupuncture and acupressure. These Eastern techniques can release endorphins, the body’s natural “feel good” chemicals, which have become suppressed through drug and alcohol abuse.
MASSAGE
Emotions can generate adverse neuromuscular and other physical influences that are distributed throughout the body. Here at Passages, our massage program is designed to counteract these physical and psychological effects generated by our emotions. We offer Deep Tissue and Swedish massage, and our massage therapists can modify to the clients’ needs.
Massage is a safe, physical procedure that helps clients through any necessary detoxification period. It also aids an individual physically and emotionally as he or she works through the therapeutic process. Release of physical tensions in the neuromuscular and other body systems through massage facilitates emotional and physical healing.
ANGER MANAGEMENT & ASSERTIVENESS
Each client receives a workbook and weekly individual and group instruction. The purpose of such education is to improve awareness, self-expression, and tolerance of the points of view of others. We also teach moderation and how to set limits. When clients learn to implement these tools, their families and friends are able to respond, and strained relationships can begin to be repaired, an essential step to any successful long-term treatment plan.
CONTINUING CARE PLANNING
Continuing Care Planning begins on the first day of treatment. The development of this plan begins during the initial assessments made by the multi-faceted treatment team. We construct the aftercare plan much like the treatment program. Our goal is for our clients to be able to maintain the same balance after graduation that was attained during their treatment stay. To do this, each member of the multi-faceted treatment team is responsible for the formulation of his or her segment of this plan. All modalities are represented to maintain balance in the life healing process.
RELAPSE PREVENTION
Another key factor in the success of your program and your lasting recovery is your environment outside Passages. “It is not enough to make profound changes in your life and then return to the same environment,” says Mary Van Lent, a certified chemical dependency counselor who works at Passages Addiction Cure Center in the area of education and after-care programming. “Speaking as a person who was once alcohol and drug dependent, it was not enough for me to change and then go back into the same environment. For this reason alone, I relapsed many times before I recognized the problem. It was not until I was willing to set out on a new path, with new friends and a new environment, that I was able to sustain sobriety.”
This is why we encourage and emphasize the importance of adapting your lifestyle to the incredible transformation that you have undergone at Passages. At this point in your treatment program, you will have traveled a great distance since when you first came to Passages Addiction Cure Center, and it is important that you find fellow companions who are of like mind and spirit, and who are headed in the same direction as you are now going.
OUR TREATMENT PROGRAM IN SUMMARY
Our standard program is thirty days, but we are flexible on this point and will also arrange stays of shorter or longer length depending on your specific requirements and needs. If you are not yet ready to return home once you have finished your main treatment program, we also have extended care programs available to you.
Another unique feature of our program is that we do not prohibit you from bringing your cell phone or from using our telephones. We also invite you to bring your personal belongings such as your computer, preferred music, books and other personal items you would normally use while at home. We have realized that limiting or forbidding telephone use or prohibiting visits from family members or friends only causes you stress and unease, which certainly does not aid you in your healing process. We prefer for your normal life to be maintained as much as possible when you come in for treatment at Passages Addiction Cure Center. We are able to weave our treatment program into your existing life so you will not experience any stress from breaking contact with loved ones or from leaving behind business responsibilities while you are here. We believe that this method permits you to achieve the highest level of effectiveness from our treatment program. Our main goal with implementing this technique is that our clients do not experience return shock when settling back into their normal lives outside of Passages Addiction Cure Center.
Our unique treatment program is designed with holistic, one-on-one healing in mind, and here at Passages Addiction Cure Center Malibu, we guide you or your loved one to a life completely free of dependency on alcohol and/or addictive drugs.
We invite you to read through our client testimonials for comments from many of our happy, sober graduates, and to call us at from 7am-10pm Pacific Standard time, 365 days a year to discuss exactly how we can help you.
For even more in-depth information on this breakthrough treatment technique, read Chris Prentiss’s book, The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure. It is available wherever books are sold. It will open your eyes as never before about how to cure dependency by healing the underlying causes.
From all of us here at Passages Addiction Cure Center, we wish you permanent success in achieving your goal of returning to a life of healthful happiness and sobriety.
And remember, we believe in a cure, and we believe in you.
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