Richard
Taite didn’t know if he would ever experience a normal life. Ten years
ago, it was unclear whether or not he’d even survive his addiction.
Addicted to cocaine, briefly homeless, living on an occasional Big Mac
and not sleeping, he was constantly at war with his inner demons.
Like
many addicts, Taite tried everything he knew to overcome his addiction
but every effort failed. Each failure decimated the little self-esteem
he still had.
In
desperation, Taite surrendered himself to a sober living facility,
where he was exposed to a new world of possibilities. He began seeing a
therapist who introduced him to ideas about change that literally saved
his life. This was the “Stages of Change” model, developed by Dr. James Prochaska and his colleagues. Taite learned, through intensive therapy,
about the core issues that triggered his drug addiction. Taite took to
this new life with a zeal that only a rescued man knows. He married an
amazing woman who consistently inspires him to be a better man and
together they created a family.
Taite
decided to pay his good fortune forward. He created one of the leading
and arguably one of the most effective treatment centers in the world,
Cliffside Malibu Treatment Center. There, on a sprawling property
overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Taite and his team of professionals help
addicts attain the kind of life they only dreamed of, but didn’t think
was possible for them.
Building
the treatment center and helping the addicts who come through its doors
wasn’t enough for Taite. “I operate a boutique facility. We can only
help eighteen or twenty people at a time; yet there are millions of
addicts who are suffering in this country alone. There are few treatment
facilities that have the resources we do or the success rate we have. I
wanted to get the word out that people really can recover from hopeless
cases of addiction like I did. That’s when I decided to write, Ending Addiction for Good.”
To
get the word out about his cutting edge treatment protocol, Taite
teamed with friend and colleague, Constance Scharff, PhD. Scharff has a
PhD in Transformative Studies in which she specialized in addiction
recovery. “I became interested in addiction research because I wanted to
help those with severe trauma successfully overcome their addictions,”
Scharff said. She should know. Before earning her PhD, she was a
hopeless alcoholic with a two liter a day habit. She drank, she reports
in her story in Ending Addiction for Good, to ease the pain of horrific childhood abuse and neglect. However, she too became sober using the same principles Taite used.
Taite
and Scharff write that the core issues with addiction for most people
come from being unable to deal with pain. This pain could stem from long
held, erroneous beliefs that began in childhood or could come from
traumatic events in one’s adult life. Abusing alcohol or drugs is an
attempt to cope with the pain these experiences cause when no other
solutions seem available.
Cliffside
Malibu’s methods, which are detailed extensively in the book, center on
helping addicts uncover and face the core issues that started their
addictive process, based on the addict’s level of readiness to change.
Treatment is based on intensive one-on-one psychotherapy. In addition to
psychotherapy, Cliffside Malibu also offers a range of holistic
treatments given on a highly individualized basis. These include but are
not limited to: acupuncture, massage, yoga, meditation, orthomolecular
medicine, personal training, and equine therapy. Each type of treatment
is given by the most highly skilled staff available. Most importantly,
each member of the Cliffside Malibu staff is dedicated to the client’s
recovery. As Taite states, “They’re here because they love what they do
and never lost that.”
Cliffside
Malibu treats all forms of addiction and welcomes clients with
co-occurring disorders. The treatment center has a successful history
with treating alcoholics and also specializes in pharmaceutical
addiction. As individuals are increasingly over-prescribed potent
medications by doctors, Taite has been asked to provide treatment for a
whole new group of addicts who might never have needed treatment in the
past. Special protocols are in place to assist those recovering from
prescription medication abuse and addiction.
Taite
says that at the end of the day, his goal is to create a shift in his
clients’ hearts and heads, in which their lives are no longer driven by
the anxiety and trauma of their past, but a desire to live a hopeful,
contented life.
The
journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. It’s that all
important first step in changing your life forever that Cliffside Malibu
offers. Recognizing the roots of your addiction, receiving holistic
treatment and intensive psychotherapy opens the gateway to a full and
addiction-free life. You just need to make a simple phone call.
To learn more about Cliffside Malibu, go to www.CliffsideMalibu.com. Links to purchase the Amazon.com bestseller Ending Addiction for Good are on the website, as are phone numbers to speak to an intake specialist 24 hours a day.