FREEDOM FROM ADDICTION

Malibu's Passages Rehab Eschews 12-Step Programs

The gate buzzes and opens, revealing a secluded street winding its
way up a Malibu hillside marked by lavish homes and lush landscapes.

Up one driveway, between the marble columns and carved stone lions
and just past the koi pond, is the front door of what could be a
palatial residence or a very exclusive ocean-view resort.

But Passages is neither. It is a highly successful drug and alcohol
rehabilitation center, according to proprietors Chris and Pax
Prentiss, and possibly the most expensive facility of its kind in the nation.

It's not just the high price $57,550 for 30 days of intensive
therapy and the reported 84 percent of its clients overcoming their
bad habits that distinguishes this facility. It's that it claims that success

while flatly rejecting the widely accepted 12-step model created by
Alcoholics Anonymous.

As tabloid headlines announce this or that celebrity returning to
rehab after falling off the wagon, this father and son are bringing
clients through a system they developed themselves, without
professional training but with the knowledge that comes from Chris
who has a background in real-estate investing having helped Pax
overcome a long, life-threatening dependency.

"Basically, I was hooked on heroin and cocaine and alcohol for 10
years," said Pax, who at 32 looks like he hasn't been sick a day in
his life. "I've tried the 12-step program many times; I've probably
been to thousands of meetings.

"And it wasn't until my dad and I started looking for underlying
problems in my own life and found them and started to work on
healing those that I was able to get sober and stay sober."

His grueling story of escalating drug use, being beaten by dealers
over unpaid debts, desperate fixes and, ultimately, resolution and
sobriety are recounted in a chapter he wrote for Chris' book "The
Alcoholism and Addiction Cure: A Holistic Approach to Total
Recovery." The book also details their treatment approach and their
argument against 12-step programs as demoralizing and too often
hopeless endeavors.

A NEW APPROACH

Chris, now 70, stood by his son through his multiple attempts to get clean.

"We went to meetings, we went to doctors, we went to psychiatrists,
psychologists, drug and alcohol therapists, addiction specialists,
rehab 90-day, 60-day, 30-day programs," Chris recalled from his
second-floor office overlooking the Pacific.

"They were all ineffective. And they were not only ineffective for
Pax, they were ineffective for most of the people in the program.
They were relapsing. They'd leave the program, two days later be back."

Passages is more than comfortable for its mostly well-heeled
patients. Among its three houses and three guest houses, there is a
tennis court, a pool, an expansive lawn overlooking the ocean, a
24/7 gym, surf gear at the ready, and therapy rooms for massage and
acupuncture that compare to those in any high-end day spa. The
residents' rooms could be in a nice hotel, and a chef formerly with
Spago prepares meals aimed at pleasing sophisticated palates while
healing often malnourished bodies.

But all those creature comforts are in support of a rigorous program
of 20 hours per week per client of one-on-one therapy aimed at
getting to the reason he or she turned to drugs or alcohol in the
first place. (It is all those specialists on staff 34 counselors for
up to 29 patients that requires the high fee.)

"There are only four causes of addiction and alcoholism," Chris
explained. "Chemical imbalance, events of the past they haven't been
able to cope with, current conditions they haven't been able to deal
with, and things they believe that aren't true."

In Pax's case, it was a feeling that he couldn't measure up to the
expectations of a successful father he adored.

During a recent visit, residents were in different stages of
recovery. One had a spring in his step and clear eyes and greeted
visitors warmly. Another slinked out of a therapy room, her hair
rumpled and her eyes looking weary and clouded. But both would be
expected to attend the next graduation ceremony, a gathering in the
living room where nearly everyone sits on floor cushions and a large
brass gong is sounded while incense wafts through the air.

OTHER VIEWS

Chris Prentiss says many addiction specialists denounce his program
as "snake oil." But Passages is part of a trend toward downplaying
12-step therapy, which requires, in part, turning to God or a higher
power, and looking at the bigger picture of the addict's overall health.

Psychotherapist and family counselor Steven M. Orenstein worked in
addiction treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center before opening
New Seasons, a residential treatment center in Port Hueneme, eight
months ago. It uses 12-step and intensive one-on-one therapy as well
as brain mapping and neurocognitive rehabilitation.

He says studies have shown that treatment facilities working on the
"mind-body-spirit package" have greater success rates than more
conventional methods.

New Seasons uses 12-step group sessions along with personal
counseling because Orenstein sees a benefit in working out those
issues with peers without a leader dominating the discussion.

"It's not the perfect solution," he says of 12-step programs. "Their
success rates are low. But the people that do participate in it tend
to do well.

"The success rate of treatment overall is not phenomenal, and we're
still trying to work on that," Orenstein added. "I think taking an
integrated approach and trying to integrate the best of every type
of modality that's offered out there is the best thing we can do at
this point."

Rachel Ballon, a marriage and family therapist whose West Los
Angeles practice includes addiction treatment, says she refers her
patients to 12-step programs because she likes the personal
accountability involved.

"Therapy alone and I've been a therapist for 26 years can't stop
people from being alcoholics, overeaters or whatever the issue is,"
Ballon said. "I think the tools of the 12-step program are
wonderful, if they don't become an addiction in themselves."

Twelve-step programs didn't break John Higholt's habit. He had been
on heroin for six years, and then abused marijuana and OxyContin,
scoring the pills from hospice workers who stole leftover
medications after their patients died.

"That was my 16th treatment facility," said Higholt, 31, an L.A.
resident and recent Passages graduate. "Every other time was a guy
in a big black robe who told me I had to go. This time I went on my own."

A few sessions with the right therapists were eye-opening for him.
"I spent a long time in the victim role," he said. "My mom committed
suicide when I was 4, and I went into an abusive boarding school.

"But I learned I am responsible for what happens now. I was
powerless over events in my childhood, but I have no one to blame
for what happens to me now but myself," Higholt said. "It was like
getting hit over the head with a hammer in a very good way."

He knows of a couple of individuals who attended Passages with him
who have relapsed, but he is looking ahead with another graduate
toward opening a clean-and-sober recording studio and label.

The strongest testimonial probably comes from Pax, whose idea it was
to open Passages. Every Friday night, while his old acquaintances
likely are scrounging for drugs, he is leading a group session in
which he talks frankly about his dark past.

"I was using heroin to cope with my problems. So once I got my
problems handled and healed, I no longer needed the heroin," he said.

"I've been sober for six years, and I do not get cravings. And I'm
telling you, I tried to get sober for 10 years and I couldn't do it.
And I used to struggle with cravings on a day-in, day-out basis. It
was like white-knuckling it.

"Ten years of drugs. It was a long time," Pax said.

Added his dad, "I'll say it was."