The Connection Between Childhood Trauma and Adult Addiction — What You Need to Know
There is a question that comes up, in one form or another, in almost every honest conversation about why people develop addiction. Not the question of how substances work on the brain — though that matters. Not the question of what choices were made along the way —...
What Is Intensive Outpatient Treatment — And How Do You Know If You Need It?
When someone is ready to get help for addiction or a mental health challenge, one of the first questions they encounter is what kind of help to get. The landscape of treatment options can feel bewildering — inpatient, outpatient, IOP, PHP, standard outpatient — and...
The Question I Get Asked Most — And the Answer That Never Changes
In years of leading a behavioral health organization, I have been asked many questions about our programs, our outcomes, our approach to medication-assisted treatment, our philosophy on family involvement, and our position on the role of community in recovery. These...
What Real Leadership in Recovery Looks Like From the Inside
There is a version of leadership that gets celebrated in boardrooms and business books — the visionary at the front of the room, casting the future with confidence, inspiring the team with clarity and certainty, and the kind of authority that makes everyone around...
What Is Dual Diagnosis Treatment — And Why Does It Matter?
If you have ever tried to get help for addiction and been told that your mental health challenges need to be addressed somewhere else first — or tried to get mental health treatment and been told that your substance use needs to stop before they can help you — you...
The Hardest Part of This Work — And Why It Is Also the Most Sacred
People ask me what the hardest part of this work is. They usually expect me to cite the funding challenges, the workforce shortages, or the complexity of navigating a healthcare system not designed with our participants in mind. And those things are genuinely hard....