Latest / Finding New Waters / Navigating the Waters of High-Functioning Addiction with Trey Laird
Transcript
- 0:00I needed to see successful guys in meetings.
- 0:02I needed to know that like, you know, you know, going into into
- 0:06into a A was not me, did not mean that I was going to give up
- 0:09my career. And you know, I'm never going to
- 0:11have fun anymore. And so guys who come to the
- 0:14Lighthouse and look around as they get to know each other and
- 0:17realize that, you know, there's a lot of pretty successful men
- 0:19and women coming through treatment here that have had
- 0:22this, you know, alcohol use disorder.
- 0:24By the way. They've also been running
- 0:25Fortune 500 companies in the meantime.
- 0:27So. Right.
- 0:28You know, it's it's healthy for them to see that.
- 0:33You know, recovery doesn't necessarily mean that, you know,
- 0:37I'm, I'm lowering my goals or my expectations or you know, or or
- 0:42changing sort of where I want to get to put me at both Visa V, my
- 0:46family, my my my, my, my profession and my passions,
- 0:49right. Good morning.
- 1:16My name is Graham Durge and I'm the Founder and CEO of New
- 1:18Waters Recovery in Raleigh, NC. Welcome to our weekly podcast,
- 1:22Finding New Waters. Our goal in creating Finding New
- 1:25Waters is to provide a resource for families to help navigate
- 1:28the complexities of supporting a loved 1, struggling with
- 1:30substance use or mental health. When we find ourselves in crisis
- 1:34due to one of these issues, most people have no idea where to
- 1:36turn. We hope to shed some light under
- 1:38what is often the darkest family, darkest hour for many
- 1:40families. I'm joined today by our
- 1:43Executive Director Justin McClendon and Trey Laird, who's
- 1:46the founder of Lighthouse Recovery in New Canaan, CT Trey
- 1:49Laird is CEO and Founder of the Lighthouse Sober Living and
- 1:52Lighthouse Recovery Coaching 365 program.
- 1:55Before founding Lighthouse, Mr. Laird was a Wall Street exec
- 1:58Equities trader for 22 years, starting his career with Bankers
- 2:02Trust and exiting with Lazard. Mr. Laird attended the Trinity
- 2:06School in Manhattan and Dartmouth College.
- 2:09Mr. Laird has five children and lives in New Canaan, CT with his
- 2:12wife. He's an avid golfer, marathoner,
- 2:14regularly travels to share his expertise on recovery and
- 2:17treatment, best practices and makes regular media appearances
- 2:21to speak on addiction issues. Mr. Laird feels that his choice
- 2:24to recover out loud has had an extraordinary impact on his life
- 2:27in recovery. Trey, thank you for joining us
- 2:31today. Always a pleasure to to get to
- 2:33connect with you and hear a little bit about what you're
- 2:36doing. Thank you for being here.
- 2:38Graham, Thanks for having me, man.
- 2:40Good to good to catch up. Yeah, absolutely.
- 2:43So I always like this kind of start off with a little bit
- 2:46obviously introductory information about you now.
- 2:49Can you tell us just a little bit about, you know, your story,
- 2:52how you got into this field? I I just find it always really
- 2:56interesting to see how people got into this work, because it's
- 2:59not very common, right? Yeah, it it was definitely not
- 3:03on my radar or road map when I was growing up.
- 3:08I was in the middle of what ended up being a 22 year career
- 3:13on Wall Street. 15 years in, I developed a substance use
- 3:18disorder, and I ended up going to treatment in 2008.
- 3:24And while I was in treatment, my wife invited me not to move home
- 3:28afterwards. There had been a lot of damage
- 3:30done in marriage, and she needed more time.
- 3:33And we had two kids at home. And so I went to my counselor at
- 3:37Silver Hill, where I was in treatment, and I said, you know,
- 3:40I need to figure out where I'm going to live next.
- 3:41And she suggested that I go to a sober house.
- 3:44I'd never heard of a sober house.
- 3:45I didn't know what she was talking about, but she described
- 3:47it as a, you know, kind of a next step after treatment where
- 3:51guys live together but they went back to work and live their
- 3:54lives, but they had the community and accountability of
- 3:57of the other guys in the house. And I said that sounds like a
- 4:00pretty good idea. Give me the phone number, I'll
- 4:01go. And she said, well, Trey, you
- 4:05should probably go to Florida or California.
- 4:07And I was in New Canaan, CT and I said why would I go to Florida
- 4:10or California? And she said, well, frankly
- 4:12because there's nothing around here for you and it didn't make
- 4:17sense to me to go to Florida or California.
- 4:19So I didn't. I rented a house right into
- 4:21Canaan. I went back to work.
- 4:25You know, I went to a lot of 12 step meetings and navigated
- 4:28early recovery with the help of those guys that I met there.
- 4:32And so, you know, 6-7 years later, there still was no
- 4:36significant, no no good options for, you know, continuing care
- 4:39and sober living in the Northeast.
- 4:42And so that's when we got together and decided to to open
- 4:46the lighthouse in in Darien originally and now in New
- 4:49Canaan. So I even then I thought it
- 4:51would be like a side project for me.
- 4:53I was not going to give up my Wall Street career but it
- 4:56quickly became obvious that there was a lot to do and this
- 5:00was not a a side project And so and so I left and that was we're
- 5:05coming up on eight years in January that we've been much
- 5:09great. Yeah.
- 5:10So you never know where you're going and and here we are.
- 5:14Yeah, 100%, yeah. And obviously it's it's, it's
- 5:18such an important piece to the process, to the continuum of
- 5:22care, you know that kind of step down component transitioning
- 5:25back into life after treatment or or whatever you've kind of
- 5:29done prior to that. And in my mind, I I feel like
- 5:32it's probably the most pivotal decision that you make in that
- 5:36process, right. You know because that's where
- 5:38the rubber hits, hits the road, that's where things get tough,
- 5:40that's where life starts happening and and do you have
- 5:44those tools, are you going to implement those tools.
- 5:46So you know it's definitely such a needed resource, certainly up
- 5:50in your area, so happy that you did that, but specifically too
- 5:54like you guys cater to kind of a a a niche demographic and and
- 5:59kind of an executive demographic, is that correct?
- 6:03Yeah, yeah, Graham. So I mean the lighthouse I, I,
- 6:06I, you know, I I started it because it was the program that
- 6:09didn't exist when I needed it. I was 38 years old again, you
- 6:13know midway through a you know a Wall Street career and with a
- 6:17wife and kids and everything that comes with that.
- 6:20So our clientele, the average age is going to be you know mid
- 6:2340s up to 50. You know the average client is,
- 6:28is is working, employed usually in a very high senior level
- 6:31position. You know most of our clients are
- 6:34are married and trying to stay married.
- 6:36They're they have kids they have families they have a lot going
- 6:40on. They have a lot to lose and and
- 6:43they're they're you know they're invested in in what they're
- 6:46doing in their lives and frankly a lot of the parts of their
- 6:49lives are working and and substances have worked in their
- 6:52life and and specifically in their professional career for a
- 6:54long time. So what they get it with us to
- 6:58your point is like you know after treatment going back into
- 7:01your life with these new tools that you've obtained in
- 7:04treatment and utilizing them is is difficult and you got to you
- 7:08know you have to practice and you got to you got to get reps
- 7:11and you have to you know learn what it's like to go to that
- 7:14board meeting and sit there and not be drinking.
- 7:19And so that's what our clients get to do on a regular basis.
- 7:22I mean we'll have a client come to us and you know say I know
- 7:27Trey, I have to go to work in the city on Monday and we say
- 7:30great, we're how can we support you doing that.
- 7:32Whereas a lot of the, a lot of other you know extended care
- 7:35program, sober livings that I'm familiar with, they they say hey
- 7:39you know for the first month you're not going to really do
- 7:41anything and then we'll talk about it in the second month and
- 7:45you know that's not us. We want to support client.
- 7:47We want to be able to support clients and wherever they're at.
- 7:50And a lot of times our clients are, you know, going back into
- 7:54life pretty, pretty quickly. And I think that's my design,
- 7:58so. So yeah, yeah.
- 7:59No, 100% and I think you know we, you know we had a client
- 8:02here a couple months ago that was you know definitely in that
- 8:05that fit that category and it's just you know with gentlemen
- 8:09like that it's just they can't take two, 3-4 months off.
- 8:13You know, that's just not the that's not a realistic thing.
- 8:17So, yeah, having that, that kind of piece that you have there to
- 8:21kind of meet them where they're at, I think is is such an
- 8:23important part of the puzzle. Trey, can you tell us a little
- 8:26bit about, you know, it sounds like like you're saying you're
- 8:29you're supporting them, trying to help them learn how to
- 8:32navigate, you know, career and life and things like that in the
- 8:34early stages of recovery. Can you tell us a little bit
- 8:36more about kind of what the programming, what the structure
- 8:39of Lighthouse kind of looks like?
- 8:41Our program is called Recovery 365 and so everybody that's
- 8:45living in the homes is in that program.
- 8:48But important to note that we also offer that program to
- 8:52clients that aren't living in the home as well and it's a
- 8:55coaching programs. Every client has their own
- 8:57recovery coach. We have a team of about 10
- 8:59coaches. We pair each client up with the
- 9:02best coach. When they arrive, they meet with
- 9:05that coach twice a week. They they decide, the client
- 9:08decides sort of where and when those meetings are going to
- 9:10happen again because they have busy lives.
- 9:13So they might want to meet early in the morning before work.
- 9:15They might want to, you know go for a walk or hike on a weekend.
- 9:20They might want to hit golf balls, you know, it's sort of we
- 9:22want to make it less therapy and more interactive with the client
- 9:27and and fit into their life. So two meetings a week and then
- 9:31the coach proactively checks in with the client every day.
- 9:35I think that's an important piece and our clients agree
- 9:38because you know a lot of them go to 12 step, a lot of them
- 9:41have sponsors. But the sponsors say, well you
- 9:43can call me, but a lot of new people in new, in early recovery
- 9:47and you know going to meetings don't feel like calling their
- 9:50sponsor until they get, you know, they don't get into that
- 9:52rhythm and the sponsor won't reach out to them.
- 9:55So we have our coaches reach out to the clients every day and
- 10:00then in addition to that, so we got groups every day at our
- 10:03men's and our women's house. So those groups are usually late
- 10:07afternoon or early evening even at dinner to accommodate again
- 10:10the people that are working all day.
- 10:11And then we do alcohol monitoring and drug testing in
- 10:17the homes. We we, we do have an abstinence
- 10:19policy. Having said that, if you're in
- 10:22our Recovery 365 program and not living in the lighthouse, you're
- 10:26not required to be abstinent. And we do have clients here and
- 10:29there that say that they would like to, you know, moderate,
- 10:33they would like to curtail, they would like to, they're not
- 10:36interested in and 100% abstinence at the time.
- 10:39And our coaches meet them where they're at, too.
- 10:43Are you, are you seeing a lot of people 'cause obviously, you
- 10:45know, this like sober curious movement has really taken shape,
- 10:50right? So are you seeing folks in that
- 10:52category that are utilizing Recovery 360?
- 10:56Yes, I would say it's definitely not the majority.
- 10:59It's more kind of like you know, ten, 1015%.
- 11:04And so far what we've seen is that after a period of
- 11:08exploration, the client has generally come around to the
- 11:13idea that their life is better without any alcohol and that,
- 11:18you know, having that glass of wine on Saturday night with
- 11:21their wife as their only drink of the week, you know, isn't
- 11:26isn't not that it's not attainable, but what Why would I
- 11:29want to have a glass of wine with my wife and and do I really
- 11:32just want to have 7 glasses of wine?
- 11:35So yeah, we've had some clients that that start down that road,
- 11:41but we've also had clients that start down that road and then
- 11:44say, hey, you know what, why do I need one?
- 11:48So I think more, more what we've seen is that you know say
- 11:52somebody comes in with an opiate use disorder and they say well
- 11:56you know I'm still, I still want to reserve the right to you know
- 12:00smoke THTHC or or or drink And and we've seen that happen a
- 12:06couple of times where you know again they say they're, they say
- 12:11it's successful we need, we need a larger length of study to
- 12:14understand if it really is successful, right.
- 12:18Yeah, 100%. And and you guys are also doing
- 12:21interventions and you know, doing some work on the front end
- 12:25as well. You've got some folks on your
- 12:26team. Are you seeing and one of the
- 12:28kind of, you know, I'd love to hear your opinion on this,
- 12:30right? Because I think with
- 12:32interventions in particular, you know, people have this kind of
- 12:35preconceived notion that you've got to hit bottom, right.
- 12:39And, you know, what's your opinion on that?
- 12:41You know, for families who are, you know, potentially wanting to
- 12:44intervene, We're now coming up on the holidays, which is always
- 12:47a a tough time of year, families getting together.
- 12:50You see your loved one for the first time.
- 12:51Maybe they're not doing as well as you thought they were or
- 12:54there's some sort of an incident.
- 12:55So yeah, what do we say to those families who are, you know,
- 12:59thinking in that direction but just not quite sure if if the
- 13:02timing's right? Yeah.
- 13:05So I would say we do inter interventions.
- 13:09We, we like to call them structured family conversations
- 13:12as opposed to interventions. It's not a it's not a main part
- 13:17of our business. But we also we also want to
- 13:20support the family when they call.
- 13:22I would say that you know for us we started a whole new line of
- 13:28business just in the last six months of family recovery
- 13:31coaching. And what that looks like is
- 13:34family member calls and says, you know, my husband needs help
- 13:37or my son needs help or my my wife needs help.
- 13:40And if that person, you know, the identified patient is not
- 13:45interested in getting help, but we can work with the family and
- 13:48coach them, which may ultimately turn into an intervention or a
- 13:54family, a structured conversation with that loved
- 13:58one. But it might not either.
- 14:00And so we've had clients that have successfully, you know,
- 14:04come into our family coaching program and gotten some relief
- 14:08for themselves and even if their loved one is still drinking,
- 14:14we've also had situations where that, you know, going down that
- 14:17path with the family has led to the family themselves speaking
- 14:22with their loved one and and and affecting change.
- 14:26And so I think we all agree that you don't have to hit a bottom.
- 14:32I think that the reason that families and people in general
- 14:35are so hesitant to reach out for help is because their view of
- 14:40what is out there, what's provided for help, is not
- 14:43appealing, right. I don't want to go away for 30
- 14:45days. I don't want to give up my
- 14:47phone. I don't want to leave my house
- 14:49ID. And so, you know, the question
- 14:52then becomes, well, how do we give them what they want,
- 14:56literally meet them where they're at.
- 14:58And so we also have times when you know what we'll do a
- 15:02conversation with a with a family and instead of like
- 15:06having the car outside bags packed on the way to rehab, they
- 15:10may be going for you know a psychiatric evaluation.
- 15:14And then we're going to make a decision after that or go to a
- 15:17place like like like yours where you know, you can get five to
- 15:20seven days of just some you know, rest and care.
- 15:24And it's, it's a good time frame to be able to figure out next
- 15:28steps and next steps. You may not be a 30 or 60 day
- 15:31treatment center. It might be back at home with a
- 15:33strong clinical team in your house, right.
- 15:35Yeah. So it's all about giving them
- 15:38giving people options and ideas as opposed to cookie cuttering
- 15:42it and saying this is what you have to do, Period.
- 15:45End of story, right? Yeah, yeah.
- 15:47And I think that's been that's been kind of this cycle for so
- 15:51long, right. This cookie cutter treatment,
- 15:53you know, fits, fits everybody, right.
- 15:55And and that's just not the case.
- 15:57Every client that comes in has different complexities, has you
- 16:01know, different acuity and and is you know, we need to kind of
- 16:04meet them differently, you know, with every client, right.
- 16:07So, yeah, I think that we're starting to see that that
- 16:11traditional kind of retreatment model is just not really working
- 16:16anymore, so. And I would say, I think that's
- 16:21true, right. And I think that there's certain
- 16:23people that still do need that, right.
- 16:24You really do need that you know 3045 sixty day kind of primary
- 16:28treatment to kind of jump start things and and.
- 16:32But it's true and I think it's refreshing that we are seeing a
- 16:34big change in the in the field that that's not always the case
- 16:38with everybody and that we really do need to take the time
- 16:40to understand what that person's specific needs are and what the
- 16:45family system needs and to really try and get creative and
- 16:48come up with something that's going to be most helpful for
- 16:50everybody, right. Yeah.
- 16:52Yeah, yeah. So now tell me a little bit
- 16:57about like the some of the recovery stuff that you guys
- 16:59know, you guys are all 12 step based, correct.
- 17:01You're you're, you know obviously a huge advocate of 12
- 17:04step recovery and and you know go to meetings in your own life.
- 17:08I know. So how does some of that
- 17:09programming look with your guys and kind of getting them
- 17:11integrated with that? Yeah, no, let me.
- 17:14So let me slight correction. I'm not sure I would say that
- 17:18we're 12 step based. I would say that I'm a 12 step
- 17:22guy and you know I got, I got sober and treatment and then AA
- 17:28and still you know go to meetings, have a sponsor, have
- 17:31sponsees actively involved in in 12 step.
- 17:34Having said that, we don't have any requirements for our clients
- 17:40to go to meetings. We believe in attraction not
- 17:43promotion. I would say that our, our staff
- 17:47is primarily drawn from the 12 step community.
- 17:51And so you know if you're living at one of our houses or working
- 17:55with one of our coaches, you're likely going to hear about their
- 17:5812 step experience. But again we're not forcing
- 18:03anybody to go to meetings. And what I what I tell people
- 18:06that call and ask questions about the lighthouse is and they
- 18:09say do I have to go to meetings, I say no, you don't have to go
- 18:11to meetings. Having said that, if you don't
- 18:13go to meetings, you'll be in in a minority and you'll likely
- 18:18have somebody, one of the other clients ask you why you aren't
- 18:22going to meetings because and again not not to be, you know
- 18:27mean about it, but just to understand like why somebody
- 18:30wouldn't. So we're very blessed and
- 18:32fortunate here in Fairfield County.
- 18:34New Cane in Westport Greenwich has a really strong 12 step
- 18:37community. You know there's over 100
- 18:40meetings a week, breakfast, you know, morning, lunch, evening.
- 18:43And so there's literally thousands of people doing the
- 18:47deal here in Fairfield County which is unlike some other you
- 18:52know, geographies in the country as I understand it.
- 18:54You know if you live in Rochester, NY and we've had a
- 18:56client from there, he'll say Trey, I have one meet, one group
- 18:59that meets three times a week near me.
- 19:01And so you know if I and there's six guys that go and so that's
- 19:05not a robust recovery community and so he doesn't use 12 step
- 19:09recovery at at his home. He comes back and visits with us
- 19:12regularly and and loves it here. But we we are open to any
- 19:18pathway we've seen guys and women get you know you know
- 19:21their recovery path would include you know robust new
- 19:25exercise regime plus church community plus you know an
- 19:31outdoor adventure pathway. You know, we, we encourage them
- 19:36to check out meetings, but we're not, we're certainly not going
- 19:40to mandate them there. And and again a, A is not
- 19:44created equal everywhere. I feel like there's geographies
- 19:48where it's strong and geographies where it's weak.
- 19:50And so we're blessed to have a a really strong community around
- 19:54us, but doesn't exist everywhere.
- 19:56Yeah that's awesome. I mean I think that that's
- 19:59that's obviously like with that clientele that's where you've
- 20:02got to be, right. You've got to kind of meet them
- 20:04where they're at. But but it's, it goes back to
- 20:06kind of the the foundations of a, A and and 12 step programming
- 20:10is as you said attraction rather than promotion, right.
- 20:14And that's just such AI think that's such a pivotal part to
- 20:17the success of a A. So implementing that into your
- 20:20program and really kind of. You know, using those strategies
- 20:26is is going to be a really, really smart thing for your.
- 20:29Obviously has worked really well for you, yeah.
- 20:31I would say, Graham, you know like if there's one thing about,
- 20:35you know our core beliefs at the Lighthouse is that we believe
- 20:39that a connection to a a recovery community is the is the
- 20:45essential part, one of the essential, if not the essential
- 20:47part of someone's recovery. And so we believe in the idea
- 20:51that, you know, a client can connect with other, you know,
- 20:55other lighthouse clients, other lighthouse alum, other
- 20:58lighthouse staff and start to see what recovery can look like
- 21:02for that for them because they're looking at what it's
- 21:05what, what, how it's, you know, how it's worked for people that
- 21:07have gone before them. They're all smart enough to make
- 21:10their own decisions about do I want what Graham has, do I want
- 21:13what Justin has? Do I want Tray has and or maybe
- 21:17a little piece of what Graham does or a little piece of what
- 21:19Justin does. And so we believe in throwing a
- 21:22lot of different examples of recovery in front of our clients
- 21:27while they're in residence or with us and they can choose for
- 21:30themselves what works for them and it's worked really well,
- 21:33right. Like we have guys that go on ski
- 21:35trips. We have guys that go to you know
- 21:37and women that go to church together where they have they
- 21:40form yoga groups. They do you know alumni zoom
- 21:43calls and and you know they like to be with each other.
- 21:47I mean for me for me like what it what I loved to do was you
- 21:51know things like playing golf and and skiing and surfing and
- 21:55and and so how was I going to do those things without a drink or
- 22:00a drug in my hand. And well, the answer for me was
- 22:04that I found other guys that like to do those things without
- 22:07drinking. And so, you know, my, my first
- 22:10time back at Yankee Stadium, you know, which had become, you
- 22:13know, I was always a huge Yankee fan and went to a lot of games
- 22:15as a kid and growing up. And then at some point Yankee
- 22:19Stadium just became a big bar for me and I couldn't get out of
- 22:21there not being blocked out. And so I was concerned about how
- 22:26I was gonna go back to Yankee Stadium or even if I could go
- 22:29back to Yankee Stadium and not. Right.
- 22:32And the first few times I went, I went with three other guys,
- 22:34you know, who I met in recovery, who didn't drink.
- 22:37And that gave me sober reference that showed me how to do that
- 22:41kind of thing. And and that's what we do with
- 22:43our clients, right? Like, you know, you want to go,
- 22:45You want to go play golf. It's your club.
- 22:47Great. I understand that might be
- 22:48nervous for you because you always drink with those guys.
- 22:50How about you play with some of the other guys that don't drink
- 22:53and and and build up your sober reference over time and doing
- 22:57those things you love to do. Because, by the way, if you
- 23:00don't find things that you love to do without a drink in your
- 23:04hand, you're not likely to continue to have not have a
- 23:07drink in your hand. You're gonna keep, you're gonna
- 23:08start drinking again. So.
- 23:11Yeah, I mean, that's always been like the most pertinent thing to
- 23:15me was finding fun stuff to do right.
- 23:18And and I was super fortunate and I've said this before on the
- 23:21podcast that I I kind of made that connection and treatment
- 23:25that I can sit here and say my life is over or I can just start
- 23:27doing awesome stuff, you know, and start doing things that I've
- 23:30always wanted to do but just haven't because I've been
- 23:33drinking myself to death in a basement in Boston.
- 23:35Right. So yeah, I mean that's that
- 23:38rings so true to me. I think that's such an important
- 23:41piece to this. This puzzle is just making that
- 23:44connection for these folks, showing them how incredible life
- 23:47can be sober and in the community aspect, right.
- 23:50I mean we all need and crave that community and when we're in
- 23:55our disease you know, we're isolated, right.
- 23:58And and you know, I know at the end for me the last six months
- 24:01were you know as I said just solo in a basement with no heat.
- 24:05So it wasn't glorious at all and and now coming into recovery and
- 24:09having this community and this fellowship and you know, the
- 24:13support and camaraderie and I mean it was, it was definitely
- 24:17alien for a while. But it was it was exactly what I
- 24:21needed, right? Those guys kind of holding me up
- 24:23when I on those days that I was down and keeping me accountable.
- 24:26And so yeah. I think that's and I go ahead,
- 24:30go ahead, Trey, no. No, no.
- 24:32To elaborate on on that point is I needed to see early on I
- 24:37needed to see successful guys in meetings.
- 24:39I needed to know that like you know you know going into into
- 24:43into a a was not me, did not mean that I was going to give up
- 24:46my career and you know I'm never going to have fun anymore.
- 24:49And so guys who come to the Lighthouse and look around as
- 24:53they get to know each other and realize that, you know, there's
- 24:55a lot of pretty successful men and women coming through
- 24:58treatment here that have had this, you know, alcohol use
- 25:00disorder and and and by the way, they've also been running
- 25:04Fortune 500 companies in the meantime.
- 25:06So you know it's it's healthy for them to see that.
- 25:12You know, recovery doesn't necessarily mean that, you know,
- 25:17I'm, I'm lowering my goals or my expectations or you know, or or
- 25:21changing sort of where I want to get to put me at both vis A vis
- 25:25my family my my my my profession and and my passions.
- 25:28Right. So yeah.
- 25:31Yeah. And I completely what's coming
- 25:33up for me as we're talking about this is, you know, not to say
- 25:37anything negative about primary residential treatment, which we
- 25:39talked about a little while ago, but I I agree.
- 25:41I think, you know, there's a place for residential treatment.
- 25:44It's a good place for people to learn.
- 25:45It's almost like, I think about it as like emotional Graduate
- 25:48School, right? Like you can go there, get a ton
- 25:50of information, further stabilization, things like that.
- 25:53But you know, in my opinion, exactly what we're talking
- 25:56about. I think the most important part
- 25:59of the early phases of recovery is exactly this, right?
- 26:01The community learning how to live in sobriety, learning how
- 26:05to find your way and have fun. And you know, just like we're
- 26:08saying, I mean the the idea or learning the lesson that like
- 26:11this doesn't have to be horrible, this doesn't have to
- 26:13be deprivation, right? I can find a way to be
- 26:16successful and like live a happy and healthy life is the biggest
- 26:20part in my opinion. Yeah.
- 26:21And these are all high functioning people, right.
- 26:24So and they're and look at what they're accomplishing while
- 26:28they're using imagine what you can accomplish if you're sober.
- 26:31Yeah. I mean, gosh, you could light
- 26:33the world on fire. So yeah, it's pretty amazing
- 26:35seeing that light turn on, right.
- 26:38And and you know, see those people make that connection and
- 26:41start to have some success and and then, you know, just light
- 26:44the world on fire. I mean there's nothing better
- 26:46than that. And that's why we do this work,
- 26:47right? Yes, absolutely.
- 26:52You know, the other thing I, I would, I just wanted to mention
- 26:55is this idea too of practicing your recovery.
- 26:58And so people always ask me, well, Trey, what happens if a
- 27:01client, you know, has a drink, you know, while they're living
- 27:05with you? And I say, well, if someone has,
- 27:09it's really good information and really good data for all of us
- 27:12to have, right? So if you went to work and then,
- 27:15you know, you got invited to a happy hour, 'cause you haven't
- 27:18told your Co workers yet that you're not drinking and you went
- 27:22to that happy hour to appease, you know, your boss or a
- 27:25colleague and you got there and the next thing you know, someone
- 27:29ordered you a drink and you drank it, then you know, that's
- 27:33good information for us all to have.
- 27:35It's not the end of the world. You don't need to go back to
- 27:38another 90 days of treatment. You know, we can work with that.
- 27:42I understand, you know, that the family's likely concerned and
- 27:45other stakeholders may be very worried about it, but it
- 27:48happens, right? Like normal recovery, you know,
- 27:51typical recovery is not maybe not linear, right.
- 27:54There might be you know periods of of of reuse again and so you
- 28:00know the importance of family work and the importance of a
- 28:04coach who and and the importance of not being punitive like we
- 28:07would never punish a client for for taking a drink or having a
- 28:10recurrence like that's that happens.
- 28:12You know what what's not OK is to put our head in the sand and
- 28:15pretend it didn't happen and we all what also is not OK is to
- 28:19punish somebody for that recurrence.
- 28:21And so, you know, I think we're sort of moving in this direction
- 28:25where where people who are working in the field understand
- 28:29that like you know, you got to walk with your client and you
- 28:31got to the UPS and the downs. And I think that that's what we
- 28:35do really well. And by the way, it's also why I
- 28:37got a lot of people that don't want to go to treatment or don't
- 28:40want to start the journey because they, they think that
- 28:42like you know, that if they have one drink or one recurrence,
- 28:46like you know, the world's going to end or they're going to, you
- 28:51know, be punished for that, right.
- 28:53And so we have no, our coaches and our team are really good at
- 28:58being like, listen, this happens.
- 29:00Now what are we going to do, right?
- 29:01What are we going to learn from this?
- 29:02What are our, what are our takeaways and how are we going
- 29:05to monitor or sort of you know, adjust what what you're doing or
- 29:09not doing to to get the better, to get a better goal?
- 29:12Yeah, Yeah. And I think in many ways it can
- 29:15be an asset to you, right, moving forward.
- 29:17I mean I had a relapse about five years in, you know, when I
- 29:22originally from when I originally got sober and you
- 29:25know my sponsor at that point said, listen, this is part of
- 29:27your story now and you can now help another man who's
- 29:30struggling with the same thing, right.
- 29:32And you have that experience now to kind of go through this and
- 29:35and it doesn't have to be punitive what like you said,
- 29:37it's it's like all right, let's dust ourselves off and keep
- 29:40moving forward and we know what to do and we had a little slip
- 29:42there and let's, let's keep on moving forward, right.
- 29:44So I love that that kind of notion and you know, I think
- 29:50that's a great way to to end it today too.
- 29:52So much good information, Trey, and really appreciate you coming
- 29:55on here. Now where can everybody find
- 29:58you? What's can you can you give us
- 29:59your website and and maybe social media?
- 30:02Yeah, the Lighthouse. The Lighthouse ct.com is our
- 30:06website we're on. We're on Instagram and LinkedIn
- 30:11at the Lighthouse. We're in New Canaan CT, so
- 30:15fortunately we don't have a ton of competitors up this way.
- 30:18So if you just Google the Lighthouse Connecticut you
- 30:21probably find us quickly and there's phone numbers on there.
- 30:25Anybody who wants to give me a shout, happy to talk further and
- 30:31yeah, thanks for having me on guys.
- 30:32It's been great. I I need to get down to Raleigh
- 30:34and and see your guys place and keep doing the good.
- 30:37Running time, man. Love to have you down and and
- 30:40we're going to do something this spring, so we'll we'll let you
- 30:42know and we'll get you down here.
- 30:44Awesome. Awesome.
- 30:45All right, guys. Well, thanks.
- 30:47Fantastic having you on and we will see you guys next week.