Pros
A. Nice location
B. Great Food
C. Most of the therapist and staff really care for and try to help clients within their ability
Cons
A. One shoe fits all approach.
B. The management team has no influence over the course of a client the decisions are all up to one man
C. There is no real Science-Based approach the owner and director himself claims to offer different methods for recovery but he himself is an Addict and therefore only supports a 12 step based solution for his clientele.
D. No real transportation rides for clients to meetings and events are provided by staff usually piling unsafe numbers of people into small cars with not enough seatbelts.
E. punishment for clients who do not follow protocol is usually a backslide stay back at detox where there is more chance for risky behavior which the client pays for.
Here was my experience.
I went through New Found Life twice. The first time I went through I left thinking the added money did not equate to better treatment than the government paid programs.
I have to admit the accommodations were nice and the staff friendly and really caring. Of real substance, I feel like there was none.
They did offer one Psychiatric appointment in the beginning and after discussing very difficult stuff and past psychiatric diagnoses and current symptoms I never saw the doctor again that whole stay.
My second trip was to appease my worried grieving mother. After the loss of my father to cancer. My mom had reached out Because she feared for my life.
I was actually clean for 6 days but not completely detoxed and was adamantly against her spending the money for N.F.L because I knew in my mind they weren't gonna offer anything new or beneficial.
I didn't want her to waste 20-30 thousand dollars when I could get the same or better help for free.
Against my own instincts, I caved to her plea and checked in to new found life. I could not bear to hear her cry anymore and I felt responsible for all the pain I caused.
She spoke to a staff member and he was listening to mine and her concerns.
I was to have a more structured program this time with frequent psych and therapy appointments. The program cost more than double the first stay and was supposed to be open-ended based on my progress. If I did well I would be there a month or two if needed maybe three.
He talked a very good game but the follow through was not there.
I did not see the Psychiatrist or therapist more than a couple of times and again most of the work for my recovery was put on me working a 12 step program. The classes were no different than the first time with that old tv and VHS tapes often being the teacher. Basic entry level cognitive behavioral skills were taught by counselors at times but there were no in-depth skills taught for people who had been through treatment before. its like going to kindergarten year after year.
I suffered bad anxiety when I arrived at New Found Life. One particular instance, I was denied an ambulance call or ride to the hospital by by staff. I chose to leave against staff approval late at night and walk through a particularly sketchy part of town to ask a liquor store owner to call the paramedics because I thought I was having a heart attack.
I was then as punishment forced to go back to a detox facility they work with. At the time I was sent there they were having a problem with drugs that had been brought in and people using and I oddly wondered which place was safer NFL or the detox with the drug problem.
I went back to N.F.L and continued the best program I could because I had decided that no matter what I was gonna stay clean and make the best of the gift mom had tried to give me. I worked the steps again, did assignments twice sometimes if they weren't in my mind perfect. I met all the criteria and was set to transition to the halfway house. I had found a career job with a sober boss that was almost too good to be true. I graduated and was approved to start my new Job the next day. When I reported to the transitional living there was no bed for me. They put me in another man's bed who was out of town visiting his mom. No change of sheets.
The first day at my new job and this part baffled me. I was visited by two staff members from NFL who wanted to buy me lunch. They were sent I thought to congratulate me? Maybe apologize for the dirty bed? Instead they wanted to let me know I had two options quit my new job and go back to the inpatient treatment or leave the program altogether.
The only thing that makes any sense with this ultimatum is that they didn't have a place to put me.
Nor did he want to finish the contract that my mother had been promised and that she had so gladly paid for just to keep her jonjon safe.
I stayed at that job for a year and still do business with them today.
Newfound life was more of a liability than a help.
I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.
