Ep 565: Uncovering The Real Cause of Midlife Addictions with Rachel Graham

Podcast Introduction and Healing Springs Ranch Overview 0:00

Welcome to the health fix podcast where health junkies get their weekly fix of tips, tools and techniques to have limitless energy, sharp minds and fit physiques for life. Hey health, junkie's on this episode of health fixed podcast. I'm interviewing Rachel Graham. She's the chairwoman, CEO and co-founder of the healing Springs ranch in Cuyahoga, Texas. Now this is a fun podcast because we're talking about. disorders, we're talking about process addictions. We're taking about how to get help in a way that you go, you get a toolbox of solutions, and you come out with an Ivy League training in addiction and a PhD in yourself.

Now, while that might sound kind of bold, talking to Rachel, I kind believe that this is a real deal here. Now there's a lot of scams when it comes to addiction and treatment disorder clinics and we kind of bust open the door on that and talk a little bit about it. One of the biggest things I see is that folks go to these places, they kick back, their eating bonbons and they're just away from their environment and their expected to get better with a lotta downtime. But the truth is, you need the tools to better.

And this is where Rachel's group really fascinates me and all the folks at the Healing Springs Ranch. Now, I'm asked quite often for clients in terms of, well, i need to find someone that can help me with an eating disorder. I need someone to help with a hoarding issue, a gambling addiction. porn, even sex addictions. We didn't get into the deep about those necessarily, but here's the thing. All of these addicitons are processed additons. It's processing pain. we develop additions as a coping mechanism to process some type of painful situation that happened to us.

There's no shame in that. it happens. But here's the thing that's really cool about the Healing Springs Ranch. They bring in the family and they bring the in family to help as well because if you just go away to a treatment center and you are treated, let's put it that way, but your family doesn't have any involvement or your peer group or support group doesn t have involvement in the therapy, chances are you're not going to be returning to a supportive environment. And so what's really cool is these guys have weekly family support.

They have monthly family intensive. She's going talk about it in this podcast. The reason I really wanted to bring her on is that we are in a state where many folks are struggling with process addictions, pain, emotionally, trauma, you name it. the world is kind of a stressful place right now and a lot of folks feeling that. And they're turning to gambling, sex, porn, eating, hoarding, you name it. There are all kinds of things that we develop in terms of coping mechanisms to help process pain. And I really like that the folks at the Healing Springs Ranch are understanding that it's a family thing.

It's not just the person having the issue that needs. In my almost 20 years of practice, one of the biggest things I can see when we deal with addictions is that It's not just the person alone. They need support and family that's educated. And this is so important. Nevertheless, I know it's hard to figure out where to possibly send your loved ones or even yourself when it comes to looking into a treatment facility. This one in Cuyahoga, Texas really impresses me in terms of all of their offerings and even the fact that they have an alumni group.

Rachel Graham's Motivation and Treatment Philosophy 3:34

So not only do you have some care while you are within the program, you support outside the programs. So if you or anyone in your family, anyone you know is struggling, this is a really great podcast to understand what's out there to help with addictions. And then you may be thinking, well, I don't have a drug or alcohol addiction, because that's what we think about for these kind of facilities. Food and sugar addictions are on the rise. And sadly, so many people are suffering in silence. I think that we do need to recognize that having an issue with food is so much more, and in sugar too, is much so more than just willpower.

Like you don t have enough will power. The shame and guilt can run deep, but I get it. someone who is a stress eater and definitely struggled over, you know, the course of my life. This type of facility is something like, hey, it may be something to consider. So nevertheless, I hope that this podcast can help you to have some resources and share some information with your family and loved ones. Let's introduce you Rachel Graham from the Healing Springs branch. Rachel Graham, welcome to the health fix podcast.

Thanks, Janine. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for asking me. Well, you know, in just our conversation before hitting record, I am like, You know what you guys are doing is so important and such a unique aspect when it comes to helping folks with addictions that I was like We have to share this information. So of course, I always like to start podcasts out with that background in terms of you saw what was going on in the adult glorified babysitting industry of addictions treatment, which is what I do.

I'll be honest, it's kind of what i've seen for a lot of folks and why when I recommend facilities, i'm very nitpicky because I basically see the people kicking back in bonbons. And so in your own experience, you noticed there were some serious issues going on with the facilities and give us your backstory here. What did you discover and what are you on a mission to help change? Thank you. Yes, You are absolutely correct. I had a family member that struggled with addiction and he was in and out of three different places and it was one of those types of experiences where there wasn't robust programming.

I don't know that there was any focus on really getting to any underlying issues and so as a result I was pretty upset and we spent a lot of money for that and I decided that I could go two routes.I could down a punitive route or I can go out and hang a shingle out to build a better mousetrap. So my focus was to do just that and create a program that is not just centered around addiction and addictive patterns. It's really about understanding self. And so I jokingly say, you know, we're the Ivy League of treatment facilities where you get a PhD in yourself.

So our core foundational element is getting to the why. We all know the what, but let's get to why, because if you don't get the the Why, when they leave treatment and they're outside of that controlled environment, they're likely, their opportunity for relapse increases. Yeah, absolutely. I've seen it over and over again. And here's the thing, and something we definitely talked about earlier and want to highlight is the stigma. Because a lot of folks are thinking addictions. They're thinking alcohol, drugs.

they are not thinking necessarily about food, they aren't thinking about gambling, although we see a little bit more press with gambling addiction, shopping addicitons. A lot folks don't think about that. And at the root here is it's all a similar pain and I know you have your four essential pillars that you talk about. Share with us this unique pain pattern that every addiction kind of has a root in. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you teed this up. Most people don't understand that there are substance use addiction and then there's And so substance use is what we traditionally think of drugs, alcohol, those types of things where we're inducing some sort of substance into the body.

But process addictions are any behavior that we repeatedly do that leads to either financial problems, emotional problems health problems legal problems all of those things. And so all of them, whether it's a substance or it a process, is a way of medicating pain. And that's the piece that most people don't understand. It's just a different drug of choice. If you do cocaine and I'm a shopping person, we're both medicate some sort of pain And so I often tell people that the same part of the brain here, the prefrontal cortex that manages physical pain, manages emotional pain.

And most of us can understand physical. You cut your arm or you pull your neck or whatever, you kind of know what to do at that point. but most of us don't understand emotional pain and how to to alleviate that in a healthy way. So we turn to these behaviors because they make us feel good if only for a few minutes and that's the dopamine piece that we're getting.

Understanding Process Addictions and Trauma 8:36

That's, the the piece of understanding all of this is that, we are all the same. We all breathe oxygen, we all have belly buttons, and we bleed red. And we have pain and traumatic events in our lifetime. What may be traumatic to you may not be to me. At the core of addictive patterns is some sort of trauma that you have to get to and address and alleviate for the individual for them to go on and be successful. It makes perfect sense. And one of the big things that I notice, especially in this timeframe that i am in life with, with being in perimenopause and a lot of my clients going through peri-menopausal menopas are hormones and the drop in dopamine related to hormone shifts and especially estradiol and estrogens going down.

I have a lotta women that they're like, I thought I dealt with my binge eating, i thought i dealt this or that and it seems like it's coming back up. Do you tend to see that there's any particular times in life, whether it's a new trauma or something like that, might bring this up for folks? Yeah, and it could intensify the pain. So maybe you've had some childhood trauma and maybe it was from a parent, the abuse was a from parent and then later on the parent dies. And so you kind of open up some of these things and there were things that were left unsaid, things you would like to have cleared with them, whatever it may be, so it can trigger a response.

to then tie you back to the emotions that you're stuffing from that childhood piece. So we see that a lot. And there's also situations where if we were to send our client, we call them clients, not patients, because it's about the client experience. If we sent our clients back home and we weren't doing anything to help support the family, their chances of relapse go up much higher. So we've created a program where we bring the family along and help the families understand what their loved one's going through and look at their own family dynamics.

I tell the members, you're not off the hook when you put someone in treatment. You've got to do your own work and your recovery looks different than theirs. But there's work that needs to be done by all if you want to grow as a family or whoever the support group is. if it's friends, whatever it may be. So we do that for the family so that they can get engaged and involved and also get the benefit of a lot of education to help them. Yeah, you mentioned monthly family intensive. You mentioned the BOM program as well that you're offering, which is Be a Loving Mirror.

I don't hear about the families being involved. It seems like more often than not, it is just the individual that's being focused on. Honestly, I have not heard that. And it's unfortunate because I was a family member and you're sitting out there with a loved one in treatment and and the reality of it is that's a good time for the family members to do their work. And so the Balm program, we actually enroll the families in that and it online educational system where there's groups and there are books, recommendations, there is stuff to read, videos, the whole thing.

And so the family can do that at their leisure from home. They can log in and manage that. Then we also have weekly family calls where the members of the folks that are currently in treatment come where they can ask questions, air their concerns, support each other. Cause that's a big thing that happens. We find that there's friendships that forge cause they're supporting each other and they've had a similar experience. So that a piece that we wove into it. Then we also have to what you mentioned, the weekend family and it's virtual so that everyone can attend this family intensive weekend.

And that is a really great opportunity for the family members to have a safe space to unpack their own stuff and be in an environment where other people are sharing that same vulnerability. So it makes it comfortable. And then lastly, what we do is we allow the clients, they have some ownership in their treatment plan. If they want to bring in the family to some of their individual sessions at our facility, we allowed them to do that. So we're really big proponents of the Family Member and that's really probably because I was frustrated with what was happening and I felt like we cannot leave the family members behind.

Absolutely, absolutely. You know, in my almost 20 years of practice, I've had some pretty heartbreaking cases where I think if the Family was involved things would have gone a lot better. I remember one particular case with hoarding. that, that just was heartbreaking. And I think a lot of folks don't realize, you know, hoarding, we don' think treatment facilities for hoardings. We just don''t, right? And we dont think of the family being involved and how to help in that case because a lotta times there's a lots of family shame.

There's alot of things that go around with that. I'm mentioning it, one, because it doesn't get alot o' talk. Two, because I have a family member, not who's a hoarder, but she's the best friend with the hoarders. And it is just heartbreaking to watch the dynamic and thinking of how you said you're not only allowing family to come in, you are having friends or the support group and how important that can be because conditions like that sometimes are hard to really understand why. And I love that you mentioned hoarding because you're right, most people don't think of that.

And so what happens if you have a hoarder in the family, everyone wants to be punitive saying, you need to clean up your environment. How can you live like that? All these things that invoke shame. Mm-hmm. So at the core of addiction is shame, and shame is different than guilt. Guilt is, I feel bad for maybe something I said to you, Janine, that I need apologize. Shame is I'm inherently bad and I don' have place on this planet. And so when you're hearing this constant berating of people telling you you should change your environment, how can you do this?

It's gross, your house is gross. Whatever it may be. It only reinforces the behavior because then they want to act out more to alleviate the pain. So if you have someone that's struggling with hoarding, there's a there there. You just need to get down to what's going on underneath that and help them address those issues so that they can break the cycle.

Family Involvement and Support Programs 14:45

We also see generational cycles. That's not uncommon. So we see where if dad came home and had two scotches after a hard day at work, well then kid came as an adult child and has two Scotches because we learn behaviors by watching those people that are caregivers or who are responsible for us. There's some generational patterns and all kinds of generational behaviors that might be handed down as well as depression, anxiety, all of the other stuff that can run in families that we seek. I definitely know about that.

I watched my mom, you know, binge eat. And of course, after some kind of fight with my dad, or some sort of thing that got her flustered. So then, when I got older, what happened? What was my coping mechanism? And yeah, I've been through certain eating disorder programs thinking that was going to solve it. But at the end of the day, yeah. You gotta get the PhD in you. to understand where this all comes from and unraveling it. And I would love to really start to talk about the different offerings you have for learning more about yourself, because you've a couple of things that I think some people might not have heard about.

Yeah, no, thank you. We have a robust schedule. I mentioned to you that the comment we get sometimes when the clients give us feedback on the exit survey is that they wish they had more downtime versus them saying all we had was downtime. Typically in a treatment facility, you see a lot of downtime. So we feel like if you're going to give us the gift of your time and resources, we're gonna make the best use of it while you are here. We have a very robust program where we tend to have an educational session in the morning and then an experiential in afternoon.

So we might be talking about anger and the emotion of anger. And what too much anger is rage. That's not healthy. How do you get back to anger, which is a normal emotion that we all have. Then we might go to anger management or we call it fit now and it's where they actually throw clay balls at the wall and what the therapist and the therapists is provoking some of the things that were triggering them and making them very upset. So they're actually tying that emotion to a physical release and there's a lot of opportunity for them to heal from being able to connect that in that way.

We also have art therapy, so we do that through. They make art and then we have a clinician that goes through and breaks that down. We do a lot of the other modalities. 12 step may work for you and celebrate recovery works for me And so we want them to know that there's other things out there if something's not working for You try something else. So we also I actually curated a class called lit So it's a play on the term getting lit together and it leaders in training and so I bring what I believe are the best in class modalities I've been exposed to in leadership development and And it's really kind of a corporate leadership opportunity.

And some of the people are needing to switch jobs. So we'll work on what do you need to do? Some of them maybe are happy in their job, but they want to level up within their company, whatever it may be. Some are not working. They're not, working but want a purpose. It's centered around purpose finding meaning in some of the rough things that you've been through in life and how do you apply that in a healthy way and do some things and basically look at where you are now and How do I move forward because so much of treatment is here's where your how did you get here?

Absolutely. Absolutely unraveling a little bit of that. Now, one of the things that I found on your website was psychodrama, and I'm pretty sure a lot of people don't know necessarily what that means. They might have seen something on Instagram, but it meant completely different. So I am curious about that and then brain spotting. I m familiar, But I had not sure. A lot folks are familiar with brain spottings. Love to highlight those a bit so folks can understand what other options are out there for them.

Yeah. Yeah. And one of the other things that I'll add to that is ETT that we do, which is very different. So I will start with E.T. T. so it's emotional transformation therapy and it was traditionally used in the autism world and we brought it into the residential treatment side and In doing so, it's actually a very unique modality where it has a color wheel of all different intensity, all the different colors with the really, really rich intensity on it. Then what the therapist does, which they have to be specifically trained in this and there's different levels, they actually walk the individual through and certain colors evoke certain things.

And so the idea is that the color, when it comes through your eye, you see the colour, but it also impacts neural pathways that also regulate emotion. So if we can get to that emotional response, then we work through alleviating that. So most of our clients are blown away. They don't know how it works or whatever. And they feel better and it's really helpful with depression and anxiety. We were published in one of the trauma journals for outperforming the anti-anxiety medication and also the antidepressants.

So by doing some of these things we were able to, our whole program was able, to outperform that. As far as psycho drama, psycho dramas actually quite fun. You have the protagonist, you have somebody that is going to be featured in the psycho-drama and we're going act out a particular situation that they went through, a traumatic situation.

Therapeutic Modalities and Daily Treatment Structure 20:30

And so they have an opportunity to have their community members, the other clients, play different roles in that, the dramatic play, if you will, of reenacting that with a therapist walking you through the pieces. And so it's powerful. It's an element that really, really helps individuals. I think most of them don't want to do it when they get there. They're like, I don' want do this. But once they do, they said, oh, it feels so much better. We do that, we do some meditative stuff, We actually teach clients how to self-regulate through breathing, through different types of things, because the goal for us is to not have people on medicine if they don't need to be on it.

If they need other things first before we go to a pill to help us. And so one of the beauties of being in residential treatment is that we can switch meds and play with things and find the right thing for the individual because they get to participate in that too and say, you know, this is not making me feel good. I need something different. So our doctors can then switch that up and they're monitored and fill out forms in the morning so they are monitored on the medication but they fill forms out in kind of how they slept.

So sleep is a big part of our program. We really work on eating, you know, and one of the things you mentioned, eating disorders. It is not uncommon for the eating disordered people or disorted eating patterns folks to come in and have some trepidation about that. So we curate even special foods and special eating protocols for those individuals as well. We have a ton of different programs and the goal is I'm gonna give you a hundred tools in your toolbox when you leave here. Tools don't work, know that there's thousands more out there that you can go try and bring them in.

Yeah, I noticed, you know, and folks you can all head over to healingspringsranch.com. There's a ton of different modalities I didn't even list. I just picked out the ones that I was like I've never heard of that. You know a lot of people are starting to talk about somatic experiencing. A lot folks are trauma-informed trained and now trauma You know, people are aware of trauma, getting stuck in the body, let's call it, other than that. And folks are really starting to become aware, but I don't really think that at the end of the day, we know that that's a possibility.

But I think the biggest question I always get is, how do I get it out of me? And this is where the psychodrama, you know things of that nature come in. Now, do you guys get that comment often? Like, I know I have trauma. How do fully release it? Yeah. We do and and I love that you're talking about the somatic piece of that because there is you think about it. If I'm carrying a bunch of weight around my middle and i'm a 50 year old woman that's likely hormones. You can look at me and you can tell kind of, that is likely hormone.

So we kind wear and behave the things that are going on in our body. Our body wants to reach homeostasis. And then when it can't, it has different things that come out. And so we talk about suppression of emotions. Most of the folks that have come to us have been suppressing and pushing down the emotions to where it gets here and there's just no other place for it to go. They're filled with it and it explodes in some kind of way that is often the catalyst for them getting into treatment. And so one of the things that we really encourage people to do is, and Joseph Campbell has a brilliant phrase, it says, the cave you fear the most holds the treasure you seek.

So the idea is you're going to have to go into these deep caverns and it might be scary and you might exploring different emotions that you've not felt before or maybe not even understand the emotion that's coming out. but you have to go there and we create the safe space for them to help them understand what that is. And we have clients that kind of operate from a head space sometimes and some that are more feelers. The headspace people, we sometimes have get them out of their head and get into an emotional space so that they can understand because they've just been intellectualizing it, you know, away and it doesn't work.

You know for us women, by the time we're about 40, if we've been stuffing it it comes out in very weird behaviors. It might be different things that we do to self-destructive things or it might self esteem issues, whatever it may be. And then for men they could hang on a little longer and then it come out and they're 50s and we call it a midlife crisis, But it's really just a situation where now I'm going to be forced to reconcile with these feelings because they don't go away. And you can actually help someone with the psychological aspects and the physiological stuff.

So we use things like yoga and mindfulness, deep breathing, things that to help people learn how to regulate. and how to work through and let this out, let it come out. I think that's a fear a lot of people do have is how it's gonna come, what's going to happen. It's it's I get it. I got it there's real there are fears around what it what happens when I go to to a place for 30 plus days. You know, how is this going to go? Give us a little like take us inside take is you know what what someone might experience if they are working with some fears and working With really being able to express themselves.

What kind of things would you guys do to help have someone be feel more comfortable expressing themselves and things of that nature? Mm-hmm. Well, thank you. We do the typical process groups, so that's where we actually work with the individuals in group setting. And so what we find is sometimes when you're sharing your situation in a group, someone else can connect to your story. They may have had a similar story, something that about your stories makes them want to connect, and then you don't feel as alone.

And all of that and so we have group programs we even separate genders sometimes so, we can talk about male issues and separate from female issues. And so. We do that as well and then they go to individual therapy. So they have an individual therapist that they work with several times a week. And they actually have the opportunity to start drilling down into all these things. But a lot of the exercises we do in the educational sessions are to provoke kind of getting them thinking about what is it that I need to address when I'm here.

And I think one of things that we've had people come back a second time and they told me this is kind interesting and it's important for someone to know when you're going to treat. When I asked them, what do you think got you into a situation that, you know, You're now back here. And they said, it really is about the fact that I didn't unpack everything the first time and I'm here, I am ready to unpack it. and i'm gonna go the distance because I was scared to go to the distant. So they'll unpack at that point in time.

I tell them if you don't pack everything in this environment, It becomes that cancer that becomes metastatic. And so that's typically, I think, if people are struggling and come back when that happens, it's because of that. And I encourage people, when you do go in to treatment, is go there. It's a safe place to go. You can't surprise us with any of your stories. We've heard all kinds of challenging stories, there's some people I can believe they're still alive, you know, and I hear their stories and you can help but just feel compassion for these individuals.

Makes sense. I think for a lot of folks, one of the other things, and this is also for me asking because of being a provider, what kind of things might someone think about before going into a treatment facility to help maybe expedite the processes that happen while in or to prepare them? for getting into a facility what kind of things might you think that would be beneficial if someone's listening that's like okay i'm scared i want to do it ii'm not really sure if i i met the place right now what kinds of thing could could you encourage them to work with yeah i think it's inventorying your

Preparing for Treatment and Alumni Support 28:30

life you know let's look at how happy am i when you look in the mirror are you pleased with the situation or the outcomes or whatever you've been going through And so identifying the areas that you're not happy with, you know, and oftentimes that's already identified for you. If it's a DWI and you were arrested, whatever it may be, identifying some of the pain points. But I think also identifying who's going to be your support system and who is healthy enough, because what you don't want to do, if you are in a toxic relationship, You don' want go to treatment and come right back to that toxic relationships.

So it's identifying who's on your team, so to speak, and who is going to be involved and let them know you want them involved in their treatment and your treatment so they can actually be prepared and do some of the work and we'll encourage them to do the some work too with the BOM and some other programs that we do for the family members. But I think there needs to a readiness and sometimes people say I'm going put so and so in treatment. They have to ready. You cannot force someone to something they don't want to.

But what you can do and as a family member is hold healthy boundaries. So if you've been enabling this person by giving them money and they're using it to buy alcohol, you know you cut off the supply. You're not going to be providing money anymore. Oftentimes with an addict you see an enabler. There's someone playing that role in their life that's actually enabling that behavior. we try to help in the family session them identify who's the enabler and why are you doing it. And when people enable, it's because of their own pain.

Most people don't associate that. They think they just being nice or they're worried about their child or their spouse or whatever and that's true. But they are doing because there's something within them that needs to be looked at. So I think as a family member, if you want to encourage someone to go to treatment, You can start holding healthy boundaries and encourage them to go and do a tour of the facility. We do that all the time. Get familiar with the program. Call their admissions office. Ask them what all they do.

What does a typical schedule look like? And let them give you a schedule and tell you more about the so that it's not so scary coming in. And I think, you know, if you come in with a mindset of I'm here to work, I am ready, let's get this done. I don't ever want to have to do it again. and I want go on and live a happy, healthy life. If you coming with that mindset, You're going to get exactly what you're looking for. You tell the clients you are going get what put in to the program. So you came in and you do in a way that is not fully unpacking everything.

Then yeah, your going have some things later on that are creep back up. We have an alumni group too that's very busy. They do some activities. We do different things and they get together outside of Healing Springs and so the alumni support each other as well. So they might call each if they're going through something difficult and you know another person might be there for you to help you talk through that and whatever the situation may be. And then we have alumni call every week so if want to get on the call with one of our folks, our staff members, they can get some help and support on that phone call as well.

That's really neat. I saw that, I thought that was pretty cool that you, you know, a lot of places you leave and you're done, right? And you that's all you get. And to be able to do that that huge. Now, one of the things we talked about before you hit record is the situation where there's some scammers out there. who are impeding folks ability to get to quality care and also like directing people to the places that they get kickbacks from. Let's talk a little bit about that because I think this is huge and so such an important topic because when you're vulnerable already and then you've got this on top of it, man, not good.

Not good. Thank you for opening up the door for this conversation because I don't think people know what's happening in the industry at times. We were alerted to this because we had a mom who was trying to get her son into treatment and she called and finally got through to us and talked about how obnoxious and rude our intake person was and I said, who did you talk to? And she said so-and-so and i said we don' have anyone by that name. So I said, what number did you call? So she gave me this number.

She said when I searched you online, it was the first number I saw the picture of the facility and it said to call it. So, I did the same thing she did. and I called the number and it wasn't us. And so I had to start putting together what was happening and so basically there are marketing companies out there that have treatment facilities that pay to play and those facilities get leads from the call center fed to them so that they can have admissions. So what we notice is they use the likeness of other facilities to attract people in and that's kind of a bait and switch.

You come in, you might say you want to go to Healing Springs Ranch and they tell you you're a better fit for XYZ treatment facility. And so these folks call in they're confused, they don't understand I was calling Healing springs. They also get misinformation about the different treatments facilities are asking about. So I could not believe how systemic that was. What I'm encouraging family members and individuals to do is when you call that facility, call from their website. Don't search it because when you do that, the pay-per-click ads are at the top and those are the folks that are scamming everybody.

And so the FTC has taken a look at it now and they launched a lawsuit in January against some of the people who are doing this. So I'm happy to see them cleaning up what I would say is probably a dirty part of this industry. It's just ugh. You know, we have so much scams against vulnerable populations and folks who just looking for help and it just chaps my hide. We had a guy that was at a 0.387 blood alcohol level, which four is catastrophic. It can lead to death. And he was trying to get into our treatment facility and they Google search, they were headed there.

They Google searched and called that number and sent him to another treatment. And so it's scary what they're doing. And I feel like what's going to have to happen? Someone's gonna have die for people to finally get it. So I'm so excited that the FTC has taken an approach to start going after these individuals. Because you're right. When you are looking for a treatment facility, it is not because everything is going great. You're in crisis. These companies are taking advantage of people in one of their most vulnerable moments where they are just needing help.

They're relying on you to be the subject matter expert on where your loved one needs to go and make sure that they get to the place safely. That's just horrible. Well, let's turn it around and talk a little bit about maybe a case or two of your favorite cases that have come through. your door and some of the like greatest successes you've seen because i think for folks listening right now they might be thinking okay maybe maybe there's someone in their life maybe it's them themselves you know what kind of success stories do you have i know you Have some on the site and i knew you you got lots of them but maybe some that resonated with you.

I think one that stands out to me is we had someone that was a repeat not to us but had been in and out of many different treatment facilities And he came to us and he had this stack of papers that he carried around every day like Linus's blanket. And I said, what's in that stack a paper? And you said it's my life and don't touch it. You didn't want me to touch and so we got him to a place where I say, okay, let's look at the stack and let us organize it so he did and there was past

Scams in Addiction Treatment and How to Avoid Them 35:48

due bills and you know all the stuff that none of us want to look out that brings us down. So we get it organized in a system. And so I said, well, are you interested in going back to college? You know, you have some college. What do you want to do? And he said to me, I can't go back. I failed out of so many classes. It's just going to take me too long. So far behind blah, blah blah. And I say, let's call the university. We call it the University. Well, he's like 12 credits short of a degree. So I said to him, you do not fumble the ball five yards from goal line.

We got him back into school and he decided to be an Uber driver so that he could have some accountability in staying sober. He went on and finished school. Then not only did he do that, but he went to law school, and his completed law. And he is now an attorney for people like him that didn't have the money to get help when they're in trouble from their addictive patterns and so he's just done a wonderful job in really taking this and letting it empower him and let it be a voice for him to connect with other people.

We don't realize that connection is at the root of addiction too because when you're an addictive cycle you disconnect. You know that's one of the first things you can see in someone if they've relapsed is they start disconnecting from everybody they care about. Another one we've had, gosh, we had so many different ones. We actually had someone who came through our program who the minute I saw him, I knew he had that special something that there was something bigger and greater for him to come. And so I gave him a nickname while he was in treatment.

So I still call him that to this day. but he also went on and became an entrepreneur and is now doing amazing things and his now married and you know, it's so amazing when you see marriages that happen or babies that were born after the fact and they're born to healthy parents. We put a testimony online on our website, two of them actually, and one of the is a gentleman who his family's actually interviewed in the interview where they talked to the dad and the adult son and what the impact was for them.

And you know, he said, I have a daughter in that video. He said I, have daughter now who's never seen her father used and it's a great feeling. So there's so many amazing stories and so, many things that I could tell you go on and on. I really feel like there could be a whole TV show on it. Sure, I'm sure. No, it's wonderful to hear that and you know I definitely always want to end on a positive note because I find it so important for folks to here that there are successes. There are possibilities and this can happen for you too.

You know, its one call away literally and once you go to the website guys though. But you've got so much going on. So healingspringsranch.com guys, just amazing place to, to check out. And of course you've got some Ted talks. You've, I will put that in the website in a notes there at drjcrossind. com. and you also have a book coming out with short stories about connections. So we're going to be looking forward to that. What else are you up to? What can we expect, you know, from the healing Springs ranch and your guys going forward?

I think a couple things. So I spend a lot of time traveling the globe, speaking about this to business leaders predominantly, but sometimes we get the spiritual leaders and political leaders. And I go to these places and speak to educate so that people understand what addiction really is, that it's pain, it is pain underneath that. Giving them some tools if they encounter someone or they already know someone in their family that's struggling, how they might be able to interact with them. That's something I'm super passionate about and like I said, I've been on six out of seven continents.

I am not sure that Antarctica and the penguins want to hear what I have to say, but you know, that's the last one. But then we're also really focused on innovation. So we are trying to stay ahead of the industry. The industry is very stodgy and so we trying change that by looking at different things, wearables, different thing that people can use where they can start seeing where their gonna getting dysregulated or where the need to take a step back, do some breathing work to bring down that anxiousness.

So our goal is to continue that. We're also a teaching facility, so we teach our competitors what we do because we feel like everybody needs to understand good quality treatment. And for me, the full circle moment, and I'll tell you this, this is no one really knows this. I'm going to share it on your show is that when the treatment facility that did so much damage to my family, when I saw their clinicians in our program, learning from us, I turned to.

Success Stories and Healing Springs Ranch Future 40:36

My business partner. That's the group that is now learning. From us. And I said, we won. you know, because it's just getting people to do good quality work. So that's what you can expect from Healing Springs. And I'm excited. I am full of energy. with not only our clients, but our alums. They wanna participate in some of that. So that's where we're headed and I can't be more excited. I'm excited for you guys. And I also excited everyone that, you know, needs some help and is looking for somewhere to go to.

Now, of course, I never even mentioned that you are in Texas. Let's give folks a little rundown of like where in the Texas area, because I am not familiar of, am I gonna probably say it wrong, Tioga? Tioka. You did good. So tell us where is that and some of the highlights of that area too for folks. Yeah, so we're about an hour north of DFW airport, that's the main hub that we use. We transport clients from the airport so if they want to fly in we'll go get them and bring them to the facility. But we are out in a rural area, it's a horse country, where there's lots of horse breeders for racing horses, for show horses.

And so it's a very beautiful atmosphere. And, so we're on 80 acres. So when you come up to our gate and you look out, we have a nine-hole golf course on the front, and then we several buildings, but we a big lake that's stocked with fish so that people can fish. When you see it, it is an expansive piece of property that is very peaceful. And so the goal is to get you out of the hubbub of city life and all the things that are going on and the distractions of that. And let's put you in this environment where you have some peace.

You have beautiful nature. We have the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets. we have all kinds of critters that come around.We even have a pet chicken. She showed up one day on our door and she had a little bum foot. Her name is anime. Anime is now probably a mascot. anime gets more attention than most human beings do. So she's an added benefit to coming to us. So it's just a peaceful place. There's something about it. It's called healing Springs because there are Springs that come from West Texas under there.

And so it really is a healing place and I think that's. Something I see in the exit survey with the clients. They said this is. A healing. Place. And so we wanted that in the name. So that's part of the reason it's named that. That's awesome. Oh man, sounds lovely. Sounds like a great place to also, you know, rejuvenate yourself. And sometimes I always wonder if there's a space for folks that, I feel like most of us have certain types of pain we're working with. I was wondering if it is a place for anybody who's trying to get a PhD in themselves for overcoming.

You're not the first person to ask. Many family members, when they come to the family sessions, they go, what do I need to do to check in? I want to stay here. And so we're looking at expanding the product offering because you're right, I'm doing CE credits for all kinds of different licensed individuals and I am teaching the material that we teach at Healing Springs, and teaching it to them to help them in their business. So that's one way we are getting it out there by teaching CEs to realtors and to clinicians and whatnot, but we're looking at different product lines where we can do that because we have a lot of folks that are asking for that, are Asking for continued education because they said that felt like I was on hyper warp and then I Discharged and I want to keep going in my learning and so we were listening and we are trying to figure out how to design that Because you know all of us could use a of that education you don't necessarily have to be in a catastrophic situation and to understand how to apply that and live a healthier life.

Makes sense, makes sense. Now Rachel, where else can folks find you besides the website Healing Springs Ranch and the TEDxTalks? Are you guys on Instagram, are you on LinkedIn, or are active on any other social media sites? We're on instagram, facebook, and linkedin. We love to connect with everyone. we put information out there, we do some supportive stuff. We're going to start putting some of the video clips out there and different things that we do. So it's a wonderful place to come get some knowledge and take it with you.

Great work there, I'm inspired. I will definitely be talking to clients about it and I look forward to hearing more good things from you guys and seeing that book at some point here. I know you're inspired, I just need to finish it. So now that it's out there, you put it out, there it has to get done timely. I'll get it there and then we can talk about that. That'll be fine. Sounds like a plan. Thanks again for coming on, Rachel. Okay, thank you. Hey fellow health junkie, thanks for listening to the health fix podcast.

If you enjoyed tuning in, please help support me to get the word out about the podcast, subscribe, rate and review and just get that word. Thanks again for