The people at Pasadena Recovery Center care. The setting is not lavish, but it is not expensive. It offers human decency and a lot of old-fashioned sobriety. I thank PRC for everything and I recommend it without hesitation.
Kelly S:
I will never be able to adequately thank the compassionate staff at PRC. I recommend this facility without reservation for everyone who is ready for sobriety.
Donna W:
I was on the street spending every dime I had on crack, and the Pasadena Recovery Center literally saved my life. But for the caring, supportive staff and fellow patients I’d be dead right now. I’m certain of it. I felt like all of us were a family with the same goals of staying sober and I felt safe. I admired the counselors that had long term sobriety and were always giving us insight on how to achieve that. Now I’m 6 months sober after a 6 week stay at PRC. And I’m so thankful.
Richard N:
In the end it was the best thing i cound have ever done for myself and the staff at the PRC enabled me to find and discover within myself that i was indeed a person worth getting my head screwed back on straight again.
Shannon M:
My brother was here for treatment towards the beginning of this year (2012) and the Pasadena Recovery Center definitely did their job. My brother has been sober since being released and the staff was always very helpful when I called. I hope he never has to go back there but I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a great rehab facility.
Dr. Drew Ramsey posted a fascinating article at the Huffington Post on the importance of healthy eating in the fight against addiction. He points out that the effectiveness of the 12-step approach is minimized without also adopting a healthier diet:
Without dietary change an individual attempting abstinence and recovery is needlessly more vulnerable to relapse. At the heart of the problem are a new set of dietary choices. Americans mainly eat highly-processed foods — food not designed by nature but in a lab. Their main ingredients are sugar, refined carbohydrates, and vegetable oils, and they are designed to taste great. When we eat these foods we light up the same pleasure-rewards areas in our brains that are activated by drugs like cocaine and heroin as well as by a variety of addictive behaviors. Ingesting dopamine-triggering foods, in other words, subjects your brain to the ups and downs, highs and lows, of any addictive substance or activity since you are stirring the same neurochemical pot (no pun intended).
But the problem actually runs deeper for drug addicts and alcoholics whose very diseases almost always lead to nutritional deficiencies:
Alcohol dependency, for example, can lead to thiamine deficiency, and increases the risk of deficiencies of vitamin B12, vitamin D, and magnesium — all nutrients needed for optimal brain function.
Hence, it is imperative that addicts – who already face so many challenges in their recovery – eat healthier:
Recovery, in fact, depends in part on developing new chemical pathways by which the brain overcomes habitual behaviors. You owe it to your recovery to nourish the brain, to poise it for better learning, stable moods, and less intrusive cravings.
The Pasadena Recovery Center is pleased to announce that PRC alum, Jennie Ketcham, will be speaking about her new memoir, “I Am Jennie,” in the Community Room at 6pm on Wednesday, August 8th. The event is open to current residents, alumni and staff.
The book details how Jennie transformed herself from an addict and porn star into a modern day blogger and author. After appearing on “Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew” and “Sober House,” Ketcham quit the adult film business, pursued a healthier lifestyle, and started a personal blog – Becoming Jennie – where she wrote about her redemption and recovery. And this month she released her first book.
Bio: Angela knew early on that she wanted a career helping people overcome addiction. Both of her parents were alcohol dependent and she lost relatives to drug overdose. She learned first-hand the importance of getting treatment but also witnessed the financial hardship that often accompanies it. With this backdrop, she attended Intercoast College where she received her license in Addiction Counseling.
While Angela was an effective addiction counselor and enjoyed working directly with residents, she believed she could do more good fighting directly on their behalf. Today she battles insurance companies so that our clients can get the treatment coverage they need. In essence, the support group that each client receives at the Pasadena Recovery Center begins with Angela — who is a great person to have in your corner.
Angela beams with pride when speaking of phone calls from former residents calling to thank her and informing her of their sobriety. Watching clients get their family, job and life back is the most rewarding part of her job.
The waiting room of the Pasadena Recovery Center is sun-drenched, warm, painted with soft, muted colors. Orchids bloom in pots on little wooden tables, sleek post-modern chairs line the walls, above hang photographs of exquisite and exotic locales. It looks more like a lobby in a boutique hotel than a rehab hub.
The building was purchased by the late Dr. Lee Bloom with his daughter, criminal defense attorney Alison Triessl, in 2000. Bloom brought his son Mike on as “the money guy.” And after major renovations, the center greeted its first patient in January 2001.
The center treats everyone — and they mean everyone — from celebs to people who would otherwise go to jail, or have gone to jail (no violent sex offenders or anyone deemed a threat to the health and safety of others). The PRC provides scholarships for those who need financial assistance, accepts all insurances and offers a wide range of healing services, from group counseling and one-on-one sessions to acupuncture, yoga, art therapy and massage. And the 50 staff members employed at the center work to help people afflicted with a variety of issues, from alcohol, drug and sex addiction to eating disorders.
Several reality shows have been filmed at the center including all three seasons of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew and several episodes of A&E’s Intervention.
“When VH1 and Dr. Drew approached us to do his reality shows, my father and I thought it was absolutely perfect,” says Mike Bloom.
Dr. Lee Bloom, who passed away last year, had treated 18,000 people in his life and was widely known and respected by clients and staff alike for his compassion. Mike Bloom remembers his father instilling that same compassion into his sister and him from a young age. “We’d be on our way to a Dodger game,” he says, “but he’d have to stop and do an admission into a psychiatric hospital. We’d be sitting there in our Dodger shirts and hats waiting, while someone was brought in with restraints. I feel like we’ve been cultured into this. I’ve been doing this by osmosis for as long as I can remember. My father used to say, ‘I’m leaving a legacy to my kids.’ And he’d say it in half-joking way, but it is truly a legacy that we inherited.”
Treissl agrees. “This is our life’s work. People have causes and things that mean something to them and for us it’s helping people get recovery.”
Dr. Jeremy Martinez has been employed with the Pasadena Recovery Center since early 2011. He is a Harvard University graduate who earned his medical degree at the University of California, San Diego and completed his residency at UCLA. Board-certified in Psychiatry, Dr. Martinez specializes in the treatment of chemical and behavioral addictions and regularly speaks as an expert on Marijuana and Mental Health issues at national and international conferences.
His approach to therapy involves non-judgmental listening, with elements of cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, and psychodynamic therapy.
Dr. Martinez believes the Pasadena Recovery Center’s approach to treating dual diagnosis clients differentiates it from other rehab facilities. He also prides himself in his ability to listen to and understand people in the broader social context of community, job, and relationships. He is sought out because of his caring, non-judgmental, bedside manner. His clients concur:
“Not only is he a reliable and compassionate doctor but he is kind and I truly believe he cares about the well-being of each of his patients” - Danielle S.
“Caring and professional. Dr. Martinez has helped me address several problem areas in my life in the area of addiction and depression. Highly recommended!” - Vitals.com review
Dr. Martinez also speaks Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.
Quote to live by: “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” - Soren Kierkegaard
The Toledo Free Press has an excellent article on Pasadena Recovery Center alum Jennie Ketcham — who previously worked as a porn star under the name Penny Flame. After appearing on “Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew” and “Sober House,” Ketcham quit the adult film business, pursued a healthier lifestyle, and started a personal blog – Becoming Jennie – where she wrote about her redemption and recovery. She released her memoir, I Am Jennie, this month. From The Free Press:
In an effort to explain, chronicle and aid her transition, she began to write about her life in a blog named “Becoming Jennie.” It was there — among the thousands of words, thoughts, reflections and emotions she shared with her loyal readers — that Ketcham’s unique and fascinating voice as a writer began to come to the forefront.
“I had always kept a blog but never kept an honest one about my feelings,” Ketcham said in an interview with Toledo Free Press Star. “I was also so out of touch with those feelings, and the voice with which to describe them and experience them, I felt safe behind the gossamer veil that is Internet blogging. But once word got out into the porn world that I’d left, the blog’s popularity boomed and the rest is history.”
During the past few years, her site has become an exhaustive and emotional look at the many changes in Ketcham’s life. The world of adult films is, indeed, in her past. She now works as a hostess at a Pan-Asian restaurant. She’s attending college. And — most importantly — she’s becoming happy with who she is.
As Ketcham has grown, so too have her writing skills. Now, all facets of her personal evolution come to the forefront with the release of “I Am Jennie,” a new memoir released July 10.
Ketcham’s book is available at Amazon and other book stores.
The first ever Pasadena Recovery Center newsletter is out. Read it now! Moving forward the newsletter will come out monthly and contain the latest recovery news and happenings at our Pasadena treatment facility.
Marshall Richter, 52, is a recovering addict who hasn’t touched a drug in eight years. An addict for most of his adult life, Marshall checked into the Pasadena Recovery Center (PRC) for a court ordered six month stay in 2004.
Marshall remembers PRC founder Dr. Lee Bloom fondly. “He saved my life,” says Marshall, who has worked the last six years as PRC’s facility manager. He adds that Dr. Bloom was instrumental in repairing his relationship with his family. “When I arrived at [PRC] I had no communication with my parents but three months later I was enjoying Thanksgiving dinner (on a pass) at their house.” Marshall calls his current relationship with his parents “great”.
Marshall, who did suffer a brief alcohol relapse, also credits his turn towards spirituality in helping him get back on the path.
Are you a Pasadena Recovery Center alumni who wants to tell your story? If so, please contact [email protected].
VH1′s blog announced that a new season titled, “Rehab With Dr. Drew”, will begin airing in September 2012. Instead of celebrities, however, the new group checking into the Pasadena Recovery Center are “regular folks who have sought out Dr. Drew’s help after seeing just how dedicated and successful his treatment with celebs has been.” In addition to the Pasadena Recovery Center, fans will recognize Bob Forrest, Dr. John Sharpe, Shelly Sprague and Jennifer Gimenez from Dr. Drew Pinsky’s previous celebrity oriented shows.
