Richard Taite didn’t know if he would ever experience a normal life. Ten years ago, it was unclear whether or not he’d even survive his addiction. Addicted to cocaine, briefly homeless, living on an occasional Big Mac and not sleeping, he was constantly at war with his inner demons. 

Like many addicts, Taite tried everything he knew to overcome his addiction but every effort failed. Each failure decimated the little self-esteem he still had.
                 
In desperation, Taite surrendered himself to a sober living facility, where he was exposed to a new world of possibilities. He began seeing a therapist who introduced him to ideas about change that literally saved his life. This was the “Stages of Change” model, developed by Dr. James Prochaska and his colleagues. Taite learned, through intensive therapy, about the core issues that triggered his drug addiction. Taite took to this new life with a zeal that only a rescued man knows.  He married an amazing woman who consistently inspires him to be a better man and together they created a family.

Taite decided to pay his good fortune forward. He created one of the leading and arguably one of the most effective treatment centers in the world, Cliffside Malibu Treatment Center.  There, on a sprawling property overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Taite and his team of professionals help addicts attain the kind of life they only dreamed of, but didn’t think was possible for them.

Building the treatment center and helping the addicts who come through its doors wasn’t enough for Taite. “I operate a boutique facility. We can only help eighteen or twenty people at a time; yet there are millions of addicts who are suffering in this country alone. There are few treatment facilities that have the resources we do or the success rate we have. I wanted to get the word out that people really can recover from hopeless cases of addiction like I did. That’s when I decided to write, Ending Addiction for Good.”

To get the word out about his cutting edge treatment protocol, Taite teamed with friend and colleague, Constance Scharff, PhD. Scharff has a PhD in Transformative Studies in which she specialized in addiction recovery. “I became interested in addiction research because I wanted to help those with severe trauma successfully overcome their addictions,” Scharff said. She should know. Before earning her PhD, she was a hopeless alcoholic with a two liter a day habit. She drank, she reports in her story in Ending Addiction for Good, to ease the pain of horrific childhood abuse and neglect. However, she too became sober using the same principles Taite used.

Taite and Scharff write that the core issues with addiction for most people come from being unable to deal with pain. This pain could stem from long held, erroneous beliefs that began in childhood or could come from traumatic events in one’s adult life. Abusing alcohol or drugs is an attempt to cope with the pain these experiences cause when no other solutions seem available.

Cliffside Malibu’s methods, which are detailed extensively in the book, center on helping addicts uncover and face the core issues that started their addictive process, based on the addict’s level of readiness to change. Treatment is based on intensive one-on-one psychotherapy. In addition to psychotherapy, Cliffside Malibu also offers a range of holistic treatments given on a highly individualized basis. These include but are not limited to: acupuncture, massage, yoga, meditation, orthomolecular medicine, personal training, and equine therapy. Each type of treatment is given by the most highly skilled staff available. Most importantly, each member of the Cliffside Malibu staff is dedicated to the client’s recovery. As Taite states, “They’re here because they love what they do and never lost that.”

Cliffside Malibu treats all forms of addiction and welcomes clients with co-occurring disorders. The treatment center has a successful history with treating alcoholics and also specializes in pharmaceutical addiction. As individuals are increasingly over-prescribed potent medications by doctors, Taite has been asked to provide treatment for a whole new group of addicts who might never have needed treatment in the past.  Special protocols are in place to assist those recovering from prescription medication abuse and addiction.

Taite says that at the end of the day, his goal is to create a shift in his clients’ hearts and heads, in which their lives are no longer driven by the anxiety and trauma of their past, but a desire to live a hopeful, contented life.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  It’s that all important first step in changing your life forever that Cliffside Malibu offers.  Recognizing the roots of your addiction, receiving holistic treatment and intensive psychotherapy opens the gateway to a full and addiction-free life.  You just need to make a simple phone call.

To learn more about Cliffside Malibu, go to www.CliffsideMalibu.com. Links to purchase the Amazon.com bestseller Ending Addiction for Good are on the website, as are phone numbers to speak to an intake specialist 24 hours a day.