At The Refuge we look at the underlying causes for a client’s addiction, essentially we focus on the etiology of their addiction. We look at the dependency, and we ask why. Why does this person have the need to feel better, or even to feel normal, using external substances or inappropriate behaviors. We take the time to let our clients reveal the often untold and secret ‘why’ that they have not been able to speak of before coming to treatment.

We link trauma to addiction by defining a trauma as an event or events that go beyond a person’s ability to describe how confused or devastated they feel as the result of that event, circumstance or experience. Addiction has created a safe place for the trauma to hide.

The Refuge teaches the Disease Concept of Addiction; we are closely allied with A.S.A.M. (American Society of Addiction Medicine) and firmly believe and support 12 Step recovery models in our treatment practices.