Family therapy
Sessions with a clinician, together. Less about relitigating the last two years than about how the next two are going to work.
You are carrying this too
Most people who find this page are not the person who needs treatment. They are the one who has been holding it together: checking a phone at midnight, covering at work, running the same argument for the fourth time this month. There is help here for you as well, and some of it you can use before anyone agrees to anything.
What you are allowed to know
This is the first question families ask, and the honest answer is an uncomfortable one, so here it is plainly. If the person in treatment is an adult, they decide who we may speak to. HIPAA covers that, and a stricter federal rule covering substance use records specifically covers it again. Most people sign a release for at least one family member in the first few days.
Until they do, there is still a lot we can do. We can listen. We can take what you tell us and pass it to the clinical team. We can answer any question about how this place works, what the days look like, and what happens next. What we cannot do is confirm that a particular person is here.
If that sounds like a wall, it is the same wall that protects them, and it is the reason people are willing to come at all.
How families are involved
Education
What addiction does to a brain, what enabling looks like from the inside, and why some of what felt like helping made it easier to keep going.
Communication and boundaries
Practical work on what to say, what to stop saying, and how to hold a line without it turning into a fight by Thursday.
Aftercare planning
Families are part of the plan for the weeks after. Where they will live, who they will see, and what everyone does on a bad week.
Before you say anything to them.
You do not have to have the conversation first. Plenty of families call us before saying a word at home, to find out what would even be on the table. You can ask everything you want to ask without giving a name, and nothing happens as a result of that call unless you ask for it to.
If you are going to raise it
Pick a sober hour
Not mid-argument, not at one in the morning, not on a birthday.
Say what you have seen, not what you have concluded
“You have not slept properly in three weeks” lands differently from “you are an addict.”
Bring one option rather than five
A phone number is enough for a first conversation.
Expect to be told no
It is usually the first answer rather than the last, and it is worth leaving the door open rather than winning the argument.
Support that is for you
Your own support is not a luxury item on top of theirs. Families who have somewhere to take it tend to hold boundaries better and last longer.
Al-Anon and Nar-Anon
Free groups for families, in person across Los Angeles and online.
SMART Recovery Family & Friends
A secular, skills-based alternative if the twelve-step framing is not for you.
SAMHSA National Helpline
1-800-662-4357. Free, confidential, twenty-four hours, English and Spanish.
Your own therapist
If you do not have one, this is a reasonable moment to.
If it is an emergency
If someone is in immediate danger, call 911. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text at any hour. If there is overdose risk in the house, keep naloxone on hand and make sure more than one person knows where it is and how to use it; in California it is available at pharmacies without a prescription.
The first call can be yours
Many families make it themselves. Say as much or as little as you like, and we will take it from there, quietly.