Our Philosophy of Treatment

From the Clinical Director

At Malibu Horizon, we do not believe in superficial advice or magical cures. Our philosophy revolves around providing a therapeutic environment where real change happens: behavioral change and personality change. The important curative factor is the fragile alliance, and the quality of the relationship between the primary therapist and the client. Human beings do not get processed through our system. Our clients are invited to participate in a special type of community.

We challenge the deterministic notion that humans are a product of their early conditioning and their past. Unfortunately, there is a large connection between trauma and addiction. When necessary, this past history is explored in an environment where safety comes first.

Evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy illuminates how thinking influences the way we feel and behave. Clients identify unrealistic assumptions and cognitive dysfunctions that may be sabotaging their goals in life. Homework assignments and therapeutic contracts help to ground the therapy so that every session counts and every session is potentially productive.

Empowering clients in their search for increasing insight and awareness, we focus directly and indirectly on motivation. The level of motivation must remain high so that clients can put into their recovery program what they are learning in therapy.

Not accepting responsibility is the universal neurosis, so there are groups about owning feelings and choosing the future. We maximize the power of individual choice. Family therapy teaches us that it is not possible to understand the individual apart from the context of the general system. Rules and dynamics of the alcoholic family are discussed when this is indicated by therapist and client. Family education is available for those who believe this will be helpful for their loved ones.

Even though addiction is a brain disease, we do not see our clients as sick patients who need to be cured.The exclusive focus on pathology overlyshapes therapeutic practice to emphasize deficits rather than strengths, and negative problems over positive solutions. We always create space for the new answers.

Clients write their own autobiographies within the guidelines of Narrative Therapy. There is a therapeutic movement from a victimized to an empowered story of their life. Clients rediscover their personal competencies and challenge many of the ways they have been defined or labeled by others, or by the dominant society.

We see ourselves, not as technicians or finished products, but as individuals who are able to engage in genuine dialogue with others. No technical intervention is effective if the relationship is not cultivated.

Different clients need different therapies and approaches to master addictive behavior at different developmental periods in their life. Clients respond better to one type of intervention than another, even in the brief course of therapy. We do not force our clients to shrink down and fit one approach; we invite your complete presence . . . person to person.

Join us in the adventure...