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Historically speaking, addiction treatment, mental health services, and trauma care  have been provided in a sequential (one after the other) process.  The old philosophy dictated that providers needed to determine the “primary” diagnosis and treat that first before moving on to other, less acute, issues. Thankfully, the field is starting to recognize that trauma, mental health, and addiction need to be treated in an integrated process.   At Jaywalker Lodge we believe that unresolved trauma creates significant, unique challenges to long-term recovery and must be treated in a holistic, integrated way. We call this a “trauma integrated model” that serves to address all the underlying challenges that create road blocks to successful recovery.  Listed below are the philosophies, goals, and core components of the model.   Philosophy: Unresolved trauma creates road blocks (stuck places) to an authentic recovery journey and inhibits the effectiveness of addiction treatment. Trauma resolution and addiction treatment should take place in an integrated process….

The other night I had the opportunity to sit at a closed round table discussion with the United States Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams and share ideas with him about treating the opioid epidemic in our country. There were 18 individuals sitting in on the discussion whom all work in the healthcare industry and have experience with the opioid crisis our nation is facing. We introduced ourselves and then shared a bit about our best practices and also what may not be working so well. I got to share about my belief in a strong continuum of care and the need to have that continuum available to all levels of income, not just to the wealthy because they can afford it. I also shared my disagreement with treating opioid addiction with Suboxone and the need to educate physicians on the reality of the addictive qualities and behavior involved with Suboxone….

Please join us at the West Coast Symposium on Addiction Disorders in Palm Springs, CA. Jaywalker’s Chief of Clinical Operations, Stefan Bate, will be speaking Saturday, June 2nd at 4:15 p.m. on the importance and implementation of Mindfulness in Recovery. Mindfulness need not be an alternative to 12-step treatment, indeed, it is an effective and viable bridge to a sophisticated 12-step treatment protocol that meets the needs of diverse client populations. In today’s treatment landscape, critics of 12-step recovery argue that the 12-step approach is limited and fails to meet the needs of complicated clients with co-occurring mental health challenges. Often, “evidence based” practices steeped in mindfulness centered cognitive behavioral interventions are offered as a replacement to more traditional addiction therapies. The goal of this workshop is to help practitioners understand that the fundamental concepts and essence of mindfulness are in-line with those of 12-step approaches and can, in fact,…

Mindfulness based CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) interventions are now widely accepted, evidence based practices are used in many of the country’s best treatment centers.  These practices are often offered as a replacement to more traditional addiction therapies and placed in opposition to 12-step facilitated treatment.  Mindfulness need not be an alternative to 12-step treatment; we believe it is an effective and viable bridge to a sophisticated 12-step treatment protocol that meets the needs of diverse client populations.  At Jaywalker Lodge, the mindfulness curriculum is designed to support each client’s 12-step program and focuses on teaching clients skills in the following sections: meditation, loving kindness, compassion, equanimity, wisdom, skillful action, attention, and values.   In practical application, our program mirrors the wisdom of the 12-step traditions.  We start each day with a reading/lesson, reflection, prayer, meditation and intention setting session that lasts about 20 minutes.  Throughout the day, clients are asked to…