Treatment is not just what happens within the context of therapy, it is the community we build that naturally supports itself in beautiful, powerful ways. Most people with mental health struggles and substance abuse issues suffer in isolation due to shame.

 

Disconnection is the number one issue that inhibits recovery and worsens relapse. This is why our connection with our members extends far beyond the time they are just in inpatient treatment. Plus we are ALL recovering from generational trauma, it is just a matter if we are doing it alone or in community.

 

We believe in undoing the aloneness and we create a culture of connection that extends far beyond the physical location of RDL, or your time in residential treatment with us. 

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CONNECTION IS VITAL FOR HUMAN EXISTENCE

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All of human life depends on connection.

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It is our very beginning.

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As we continue to form, our primary connections form the very circuits that become our operating system. Our connections determine our ability to self-soothe and to connect to inner resources (feelings of worth, safety, personal power, boundaries, and a sense of a bright future). Our connections are vital to our ability to self-regulate and to express outwardly into whole, fully developed, healthy, flourishing beings. If there are times in our life, especially during developmental stages when our connections are not secure- if they provide uncertainty or poison rather than stability and vital nutrients- if we are overwhelmed or hurt by our connection to others instead of soothed, we go into disconnection. We disconnect from a sense of belonging and from the instinct to reach out when we are in pain.

 

We become depressed, anxious, fractured, and dysfunctional in ways that are often pathologized (which only amplifies the issue). Often our sense of being alive is a mélange of non-descript sensory overlays that are too painful to even articulate. We have no ability to know our needs or get them met, we are so embedded in this experience we don't even know it is not what BEING ALIVE is meant to feel like. We are living as our trauma, not our self. In this state of suffering, we turn to destructive substances to cope.

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THE BEGINNING OF CONNECTIOn AT RED DOOR LIFE

 

When we first hear from someone struggling with substance abuse or mental health struggles our first thought is how do we establish a relationship with you? Each person is at a different place in their journey and has a unique life. With reverence for your life first and foremost we meet you exactly where you are at.

 

Our first priority is getting to know you, letting you know you are not alone, and that you are a meaningful human being. Just that initial attitude of creating a safe bond rather than a sales pitch can help people feel less alone and more inclined to feel ready for help. 

 

Of course, we want everyone to come in, detox, and get to living their best pain-free lives as soon as possible, but we understand sometimes that must happen on your own terms, and we value your autonomy. We want to inspire you to participate in your recovery, not force you.

 

Your RDL journey may just start with a long discussion- hearing you out and making suggestions. We invite you to check out our online program for a few weeks' free trial to get to know some of our facilitators and community members. We invite you to come by our beautiful houses on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, CA for a Sunday community dinner, one of our special events, or recovery meetings. Or just to come by the residences and be surrounded by safe peers and recovery partners for an afternoon. Come and make some friends!

 

We invite you to speak to our co-founders, client advocates, or any of our specialized staff all of whom are in recovery and have remarkable stories. Learn about our sober companion services and harm reduction model, if you are not ready to come in for inpatient treatment. Our priority is how can we establish a bond, stay connected, and help you stay as safe as possible because your life is valuable.

 

Our culture at Red Door Life is CONNECTION. Connection is what lessens relapse rates, reduces the depths and dangers of relapse, dissolves shame, and lets the light of hope in... as it eases your burdens and helps you co-regulate. 

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RED Door LIfe: CONNECTION culture

 

A rising tide lifts all boats, and the emphasis CONNECTION CULTURE has on our members is palpable.  We are residences full of people striving for better lives and having deep, honest conversations. Our members provide medicinal peer- support for each other and form strong bonds as they participate in heartfelt ways in each other's transformation. We are much more than just a community of people seeking to recover from substance abuse issues and trauma, we are an incubator of ideas, entrepreneurship, experiments,  and discoveries in the newest healing modalities, crowd-sourced ideas in healing perspectives, and innovations that no one would be exposed to living in separately working on healing in isolation. 

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As a community, we are able to do powerful work.  We dissolve our shame and gain the safe support we need during times when we may be secretly suffering with heavy burdens. A healing community is imperative to dissolve our trauma lenses, rewire unhealthy thought patterns, inspire us, and help us grow and evolve as we do the work to return to our true nature.

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Your family and loved ones are part of the journey in addition to your multidisciplinary team. We focus on family dynamics, support for family members, and helping repair ruptured relationships. At RDL you have a peer-support community, recovery partners, sober companions, and your individualized team built from our vast network of extraordinary doctors, therapists, psychologists, and facilitators all doing cutting-edge work and the newest modalities. You learn extraordinary new skills as well as skills that are our inherent human need like the ability to find safety in others for nervous system regulation. We offer extraordinary online and in-person specialist-led topical groups that cultivate a deep sense of community as shame dissolves and you feel connected to others going through the same struggles. This peer support becomes like family- a community of kindred spirits for life, through weekly events and dinners you are invited to be a part of whether you are currently in residential treatment at RDL or not.

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THE POWER OF GROUPS: UNDOING THE ALONENESS

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Specialist-led, topical, peer groups are a huge part of healing through the CONNECTION CULTURE here at Red Door Life. Interconnection is a vital part of healing. We wound in relationship; we heal in safe, stable relationship to others. As we learn this through groups, it translates outward to our lives.

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Group work is one of the many ways we improve positive recovery outcomes. Clients are not as reliant on therapists and learn to trust and bond with those around them. They develop deeper healthy friendships, perhaps for the first time. This restores the innate ability to connect often wounded by trauma and addiction. Often this is an area of life that has not been developed or has been destroyed by substance abuse. 

 

We can rebuild the template of co-regulation & connection within a safe group and then develop the ability to take that outside the group into our lives, redefining our experience of being with friends, family, and loved ones.

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Connection resculpts the traumatized brain as we learn to look beyond our trauma lenses, cognitive distortions, and the often frightening stories we tell ourselves about who we are and our potential.  As we hear others' stories, we step out of our suffering and into a sense of being in it together.

 

Shame often prevents people from reaching out and asking for help. Aloneness causes detrimental behaviors that are meant to self-soothe. Through group work, we learn to co-regulate in healthy ways. Our groups are a powerful combination of being able to connect with peers and support each other with the added bonus of a trauma-informed specialist to help guide and process whatever may come up in a meaningful and safe way.

 

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Connection, feeling like there are people who get you and care about you- who are rooting for you- is a key part of recovery. When we can bond and feel the support of connection in safety it eventually becomes our new way of navigating life.

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