Blog

When the weather started to drop quickly in Colorado this October alerting us that autumn was here (with winter not too far behind), most people in our community were just finishing up their outdoor camping, fishing and hiking. Not the Jaywalker Solutions program! We quickly packed up our things and set off on a 7-hour trip to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, for an outdoor men’s retreat. Up and over Independence Pass, across the Continental Divide, and down into a beautiful autumn picture that could have only been painted by Mother Nature herself.  We traveled down a long dirt road surrounded by deep reds and vivid yellows the whole way, until we finally found ourselves in a magical open field with five large tents and a refurbished old barn surrounded by the San Juan mountains. It was here that the magic of our journey happened. Each day began with a taste of…

On the surface, sending a group of newly sober men to spend time with wolves, camp, and use power-tools probably does not seem like the smartest idea. Wolves, like addicts, are big, bad, and scary! They are not to be trusted! Especially with power tools! But, this is exactly where I spent the last 4 days and my experience could not have been more peaceful or rewarding. Mission Wolf is a non-profit, educational wolf sanctuary in the remote mountains of Southwest Colorado. It is run largely by volunteers and focus on sustainability, operate on solar power, and build with recycled materials. They focus on connecting people with nature through hands-on experiential education; they believe the best way to build empathy and understanding is through experience. Mission Wolf is home to over twenty wolves or wolf-dog mixes. Because of the wolf content, they are not able to be adopted or released…

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,…