Pasadena Magazine published “A Legacy in Bloom: At the Pasadena Recovery Center, compassion is a family tradition” in April 2011. We’re reprinting the piece by Linda Immediato below but you can view the original here.
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.”
