Chronic Relapse Program

Progress-based

Burning Tree Ranch shares one unified goal amongst every team member, to help the chronic relapser create a life of excellence beyond sobriety.

As a specialty program dedicated to permanent, lifelong recovery, Burning Tree utilizes milestone-based metrics to track, analyze, and examine the progress of our clients during every phase of treatment. What we don’t do, and never have done, is depend on the number of days, weeks, or months to inform us of a client’s preparedness for full-time sobriety. We know the chronic relapser too well for that.

Afterall, our clients did not get sick over the course of a few months. It took years. Most families, by the time they reach us, have already come to terms with the fact that easy, short-term fixes are no longer worth pursuing. They have done that already; sometimes repeatedly. And here they are again.

Finally, our families are ready for real and tangible solutions. They are ready to do something different.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

~ Frederick Douglass

From Resistance to Willingness

While other treatment centers track days, we track our client’s resistance and willingness towards the process of becoming fully sober for life. As stated throughout our website, the therapeutic process at Burning Tree Ranch is engineered towards a single objective: permanent sobriety. We correlate a client’s progress towards this goal by measuring the varying degrees of willingness they demonstrate in pursuit of absolute freedom. When willingness is high, resistance is low. As we address chronic addiction it is not uncommon to engage an entirely surrendered client one day, while the next day they are devising schemes and designs to take back their will and do life their way. Sadly, “their way” is what got them here in the first place.

This is where honesty comes in.

“Progress is not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.”

~ Khalil Gibran

The Relationship Between Honesty and Willingness

For the chronic relapser and their family, the consequences associated with addiction have grown more and more grave. Generally, our families recognize that short-term 90-day programs, and even longer ones, are no longer suitable for their loved ones. They know deep down in their heart that something different is needed entirely.

As our families grow more honest, they also become more willing.

At Burning Tree Ranch we have the time and the skillset to address the entire person: mind, body, and spirit.

~ Brook McKenzie, LCDCI, Chief Operating Officer

What they Say They Want

A major indication as to whether a client is making progress is how strong their resistance is to treatment, the environment, and to doing the work required to achieve what they say they want.

It is very easy for the chronic relapser to say they want to be sober. It is quite another to do all the things required to have it. Much like becoming an accomplished businessperson or professional, the training hours are long, the work is hard. Only the ones that strive to their limits will succeed. In the world of chronic relapse, the stakes are higher than in any business, and the room for error lower. We seek to help our clients match the same passion they held for using and drinking with the intensity and fervor that will be required for permanent sobriety. This is why we let behaviors indicate progress, and not words. The chronic relapser may very much believe that they want a new life of sobriety, but only their actions will inform us of their progress towards that goal. At Burning Tree Ranch, we provide a place and time for the chronic relapser to come to terms with the reality of their condition. We help them see more clearly what changes they must accept in order to get what they say they want. When the time is right, we ask the chronic relapser one simple question, “What are you willing to do to get what you say that you want?”

They always have an answer. We help them with the action.

What Progress Looks Like at the Ranch

The treatment team makes observations on behaviors exhibited by a client over a long period of time. Clients become open and aware of how their behaviors, beliefs and attitudes are blocking them from long-term sobriety. At the same time, the team is working to determine if newly introduced disciplines such as honesty, integrity, and selflessness are becoming practiced enough to sustain the chronic relapser into aftercare and beyond. Our motto is that we’d rather keep a client one day too long, than one day too short. Instead of looking at the clock or the calendar, we look at behaviors to tell us about progress. While the client may lie, or fail to match their actions to their words, the behaviors always tell the truth.

Over time, as the chronic relapser deepens their relationship with honesty, they gradually begin to respond to life differently. A focus on self is replaced with a focus on others. They start to engage a more altruistic view of life, their peers, and family.

Acknowledging their wrongs, making amends, and growing in self-awareness become more commonplace disciplines. Above all else, their resistance lessens, their willingness grows. This is what progress at Burning Tree Ranch looks like.

It looks like new behavior.

Progress-Based Assessments

Burning Tree addresses co-occurring disorders that may have blocked our clients from achieving recovery in previous, shorter-term treatment episodes. We do this in an intimate, progress-based setting that integrates world-class clinical interventions with useful, esteem-building life skills. Each of our clients undergo advanced psychological screenings, clinical evaluations, and medical assessments to determine the best, most tailored treatment plans for their needs.

If you want to learn more about Burning Tree Ranch’s authentic, long-term approach, call our admissions team to learn more.

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not just sobriety

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Chronic Relapse Program

Progress-based

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

From Resistance to Willingness

The Relationship Between Honesty and Willingness

What they Say They Want

What Progress Looks Like at the Ranch

Progress-Based Assessments

Our Chronic relapse therapies

find recovery,not just sobriety

DISCOVER FREEDOM

Gerad Davis

Admissions Specialist

Paulo Jacuzzi

Admission Specialist

Holly Burnett

Admission Specialist

Jim Long

LCDCI, COUNSELOR

KRISTINA ROBERTSON

LMSW, LCDC | Counselor

SARAH ADAMS

Admissions Specialist

Erik Jokinen

Admission Specialist

Sally LeBeau

Admission Specialist

"A Message To Families"

Alexis "Lexi" Thomas

Admission Specialist

Jimmy Epperson

Chief Communications Officer

Lauren Juvers

National Business Development Rep.

Julian Duran

National Business Development Rep.

Patty Raymer

SR. National Business Development Rep.

KC Gooding

National Business Development Rep.

Eric Button

PRSS | Family Liaison & Sr. Business Dev. Rep.

Anthony Marengo

Chief Marketing Officer

Olivia Wilder

Director of Admissions

Jade Perry

Human Resources Administrator

Kristie Mays

Finance Assistant

Cody Odom, MS

Chief Financial Officer

Shelia Sirls

Client Care Manager

Keisha Miller

Treatment Tech

Leroy Wooldridge

Director of Maintenance

Donna Brown

Operations Assistant

Shelley Long

Operations Manager

Angie Buja

Family Program Facilitator

David Elliott

Founder & President

Dawn WIlson

BS | Director of Transition Services

Carey Ferren

LCDC, Director of Alumni

Brook McKenzie

LCDCI, Chief Operating Officer

Ashley Martinez

Professional Fitness Trainer

Colleen Quinn

LCDCI, Clinical Team

Meghan Bohlman

LPC, LCDC, EMDR-Trained, Clinical Director

Jesse Earwood

Executive Director

find recovery,
not just sobriety