Tough love is turning tender at rehab clinics where gourmet food and whale watching are often replacing bed making and group therapy as part of the treatment for addictions to drink and drugs.
Luxury rehabilitation centers aimed at stars and the super rich have mushroomed in Southern California in recent years, offering relaxing ocean views, massages and horse riding to cater to a stream of troubled celebrities.
Malibu alone has 12 rehab centers, most of them high end, leading Malibu Mayor Ken Kearsely to dub the wealthy coastal city “Drug Rehab Heaven.”
With inspirational names like Passages, Renaissance and Harmony Place, high-end facilities treat everything from alcoholism and eating disorders to executive burnout at prices of up to $80,000 for a month’s stay.
“Our clients are seeking a secure and luxurious environment in which to address their uniquely individual issues,” said Heidi Kunzli, director of Beau Monde (Beautiful World) which has facilities in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Hollywood.
Beau Monde, which opened in 2002 as one of the first of the new “boutique” rehab centers, treats no more than five people at a time and eschews traditional group therapy for customized one-on-one intensive counseling and treatment.
If it worked for Courtney Love...
The program also offers twice-weekly massages, a gourmet cook and opportunities for whale watching and shopping. Singer Courtney Love is one of center’s past clients.
The so-called “spa” treatment centers are a far cry from the traditional 12-step and group therapy programs created by Alcoholics Anonymous 70 years ago, and those at the renowned Betty Ford Center where celebrity and other patients make their beds and their coffee.
At the Betty Ford Center in the California desert town of Rancho Mirage, patients live in groups of 20 for a typical 30-day, $21,000 stay and are expected to make their own beds, hang up their clothes and do tasks like making coffee.
“Taking responsibility becomes the whole key to recovery,” said John Schwarzlose, CEO of the Betty Ford Center, now in its 25th year.
“Chemical dependency isn’t a soft and easy disease. By the time someone has become addicted it has taken over their lives,” he said.
Cushy incentives
Kunzli said Beau Monde’s program is aimed at high profile people who need help but who are put off by traditional rehab programs and “sitting around in groups.”
“What good does it do to have a very wealthy person have a roommate, have to get up at 6 a.m., make their bed and go to breakfast? That’s not their real life,” Kunzli said.
“They are used to getting weekly massages, to the food, the private bedrooms and everything. That’s what gets them through the door to get the help they need.”
Success rates at the new breed of clinics are hard to come by, partly because relapse -- in months or years — is common whatever facility an addict might attend.
Dr. Marc Graff, a spokesman for the American Psychiatric Association, acknowledged that while the 12-step program was still regarded as the gold standard in chemical dependency, its spiritual approach was not for everyone.
But Graff said the point of rehab was hard work — on one’s self — and that denial was a common problem among those with addictions.
“Most people do better in pleasant surroundings. But what really counts is the patient’s wishing to get better, making an effort, and good staff. It is not a nap. It is a commitment to work and to solving problems.”