Letter from the Executive Director
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Jamison and I started Newport Academy with one mission in mind, to develop the most effective adolescent treatment program available. Throughout my career I have been involved with a number of adolescent treatment programs. I was also the Executive Director and helped launch an adolescent program in Malibu, California. Jamison, on the other hand, went through multiple treatment programs as an adolescent with limited success. From his experiences, he realized first-hand the components that need to be integrated into an adolescent treatment program to insure best possible outcomes. Treatment components that were lacking in the centers he went through as a teen.
When we met a few years ago, we immediately realized that our core beliefs were aligned. We understood that for adolescents to flourish in a residential treatment environment, the setting must be gender-specific allowing for teens to recover and heal without the obvious distractions of a mixed gender residence. This is also well documented, as a disproportionately high number of adolescents who enter treatment with abuse and/or trauma issues. Obviously, a mixed gender environment is not ideal for adolescents to work through such issues.
We also both strongly understand the importance of the 12-Step treatment model and intensive therapy with teens in an individual, family, and multi-family group setting. However, we also believe that teens need to remain inspired and engaged in the recovery process if treatment outcomes are to be successful. With this in mind, we have developed a program in which teens are involved in a number of experiential therapies such as Art Therapy, Dance/Movement Therapy, Yoga and Meditation, and most notably, Equine Assisted Therapy. Equine Assisted Therapy helps adolescents address and break down barriers and resistance they feel toward the therapeutic process. Substance dependency is a disease characterized by self-absorption and self-centeredness. This is often the case with adolescents. With Equine Assisted Therapy, not only is the therapy itself remarkably effective, but teens learn to focus and care for something other than themselves. While other adolescent treatment centers have realized the importance of Equine Assisted Therapy, taking residents off grounds to Equine Therapists once a week, Newport Academy has an on-site Equine Assisted Therapy Program and each teen is assigned a horse to work with and care for.
When developing the treatment team at Newport Academy, Jamison and I held firmly that we wanted to recruit the most qualified staff specific to adolescent addiction treatment. We approached Dr. David Smith, who many experts in the treatment field consider the foremost authority on addiction treatment. Dr. Smith is the immediate past Medical Director, State of California Alcohol and Drug Programs and Past President, American Society of Addiction Medicine. We are honored to have Dr. Smith as our Chair of Addiction Medicine. Dr. Smith facilitates monthly groups with families, and is a significant resource to the residents, families and staff. Our medical team is also led by Monisha Vasa, MD, ASAM, AAAP, a board-certified addiction psychiatrist and member of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. The clinical team is led by our Clinical Director, Dr. Barbara Nosal, a noted psychologist and marriage and family therapist recognized for her work with adolescents and women with substance dependency.
I hope you take the time to read through our website and learn more about the program we have developed. We truly believe it is a program that has integrated key elements necessary to effectively treat adolescents with substance dependency and co-occurring disorders. Please feel to call me at anytime.
Sincerely,
Scott Sowle
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Newport Academy
310-903-1155
