Therapeutic Communities (TC) have not re-invented the wheel, so to speak. In fact, Therapeutic Communities have been around since the 1960's, and follow the same evidence-based practices of any other addiction-treatment program, we're just able to do much more of it!

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Every family of addiction knows that the real solutions are going to happen over a longer period of time than most drug and alcohol programs offer. TC's are designed to offer more in-depth programming over a longer period of time.

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Most Therapeutic Communities are located in higher-end residential properties that have been retro-fitted with all the safety and handicap measures you would expect in a hospital.  A home environment makes for a more safe and comfortable atmosphere for the patient to relax, slow down, and, engage in a deep journey of self-discovery.

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Also, Therapeutic Community treatment models appeal to people who have been though the 'clinical addiction-cycle' many tines and recognize that a more in-depth program in needed. This makes the general population of the Therapeutic Community a more serious patient. A person and their family who is sick and tired of being sick and tired, which translates into a serious environment where all patients and families are invested in the ultimate goal of 'change'.

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Anyone who's ever been through a clinical program has learned that 80-90% of the patients are not serious, spend their treatment time disengaged, chasing the opposite sex, stealing from group-mates, and even fighting...

 

... This simply doesn't happen in the serious environment of a Therapeutic Community!

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TC's allow for the patient and their family more appropriate time and space to;

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• feel safe

• learn

• feel

• heal

• practice new ways of thinking

• develop new emotional management skills

• gain new perspectives

 

 

The more time you have to change the more likely you are to change

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Achieving lasting recovery is all about time;...

• time to resist

• time to accept

• time to learn

• time to get honest

• time heal

• time to practice

• time to solidify

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Facilitated in more comfortable environment that feels more like home than a hospital

Which allows for safe  spaces to;

• touch old feelings

• heal resentments

• bitterness

• regrets

• shame

• forgive (this include yourself)

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Therapeutic Communities go way beyond

addressing the symptoms of addiction

This is the part i never understood. Both, as a professional, a brother of an addict, and also having my own personal journey of addiction and redemption... Why do most addiction centers only address the symptoms?

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And, why does anybody think that 7-20 days is going to have any lasting affect?

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Yes, genetics are definitely involved in addiction, but the behavioral process of addiction is all behavioral. It becomes programmed in the brain at an early age and with each passing bad decisions and follow behavior, it becomes solidified in the brain.

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What addiction really comes down to is... A THINKING PROBLEM!

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When you change a person's thinking, how they see themself, how they interpret a life-time of difficult experiences, and moreover, how they respond to these faulty thinking cues, are the real culprit.

 

Only Therapeutic Communities are equipped to resolve all of these issues in one single program-process.

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12-24 months in a Therapeutic program is not uncommon.

Wait, hang on a minute... I know 12 months, or more, sounds like a lot of time, but here's your first example of "thinking", or perception issues;

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1. How much time has the addict already wasted?

2. What quality of life has the family enjoyed in the last 3-10 years?

 

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​Addict's are notorious for thinking (and actually believing) that "If only" some other thing would happen, then they will be fine. So, how many years has the family spent trying to make this other happen?

You know what I'm talking about, things like:

• Get a new car

• Set-up the addict with another 6 months of rent

• get cell-phone turned back-on

• take clothes shopping

• wait for the other to drop

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When the family is sick and tired of being sick & tired,

longer-term recovery programs start to make sense

I want you to keep one thing in mind, and I don't say this to scare you. I share this with you because after my little died from an accidental drug overdose (yes, it was opioids), my mother never stopped saying;

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"I wish I had done less for him"   (B. Lewis, Justin's mom)

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But, back then, we didn't what to do. We thought like everybody else, we'll just keeping sending him to 30- day treatment centers until it finally sticks.. He died 2 weeks after getting home from this "treatment" center.

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It was never going to stick because clinical treatment modalities are flawed. They aren't designed to help you get better, they're designed to bill your insurance!!! What does an insurance company know about how much time your family needs to deal with all the trauma, healing,  teaching, to solidify an entirely new way of living?

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This is why our family has spent the last 24 years breaking down what works and what doesn't. When we opened Justin's Lighthouse 19 years ago, we could've easily set ourselves up as a "clinical" addiction treatment program, billed the daylights out of people's insurance companies, and made a very, very nice living.

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However, I couldn't do it. I knew our tragedy had to be used for 'good'. That's why we have developed a longer-term program that has impacted the lives of thousands of families over our 19-year span. Not because we've re-invented the wheel, we do the exact same things that clinical programs, we just do about 20 times more of it!.. THAT'S HOW REAL CHANGE OCCURS!

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