Alternative Health - Bridges Treatment and Recovery
Dylan Brashear |
Dylan at Bridges Treatment and Recovery
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Occupation: Administrator/Registered Counselor
Company: Bridges Treatment and Recovery
Location: Bellingham, WA.
Website: www.bridgestreatment.com
Views: 542
Last Updated: Sep 21, 2008 7:06pm
About Me:
Dylan Brashear, owner of Bridges Treatment and Recovery, has a personal connection to his clients, having grown up in a household with substance abuse problems.
Dylan Brashear has firsthand experience with how substance abuse can destroy families.
Brashear’s father walked out when Dylan was only two years old, choosing to tend to his heroin addiction instead of his child.
Brashear’s mother struggled with a dependence on alcohol before she became sober 16 years ago.
Brashear, a certified counselor and Bellingham native, now runs Bridges Treatment and Recovery, an out patient rehabilitation center on Fraser Street. He said helping others regain control of their lives is fulfilling because he understands how precious and essential the process of healing is.
“[There are] so many instances of the same [success] story,” Brashear said. “People get their lives back. They get their children back. Their children get their parents back. The biggest thing for me to see is for that little child to have his parents. It means so much to me because [my father] chose drugs over me.”
At Bridges, patients walk into an airy, Zen-like environment with light brown walls, hardwood floors and small bonsai trees decorating the front office area.
Each type of room at the recovery center comes in twos: two group counseling rooms, two individual counseling rooms and two rooms used for massage therapy and acupuncture.
Programs include one-on-one and group counseling, assistance for families wanting to pursue an intervention, relapse prevention services and intensive outpatient programs.
Although Bridges does not limit the amount of patients admitted, it caps the amount of people in a counseling group to 12.
Additionally, Brashear works with patients who have received DUIs and are court-ordered to undergo a certain amount of outpatient treatment. Brashear works with the court system to evaluate the amount of help a patient needs before providing it.
Healing the body, mind and spirit is important at Bridges Treatment and Recovery, Brashear said. This approach is inspired by Brashear’s mother, Janice Edin, who is an addiction counselor with a private practice. Edin developed a method for pairing holistic modalities such as acupuncture and massage with traditional outpatient recovery techniques, like counseling.
Brashear said he loves being a counselor because he loves helping people to make more responsible choices. But it’s not an easy job to have. In this business, the customers are deeply troubled, plagued by habits that are ruining their lives.
“It’s hard to not go home and worry about them and try and fix their problems in my head,” Brashear said.
Brashear originally worked as a counselor at a business his mother owned for 10 years called Pacific Recovery and Healing. He then moved on to owning his own business, a day spa in Seattle, which he ended after he found the work to be less than meaningful.
Brashear no longer works just to make money, but to fulfill a sense of purpose.
He and the other full-time employee, clinical supervisor Cari Jones, hope they’ll be able to help some Whatcom County residents find happiness and stability in their lives.
“This business won’t make me rich by any means, but I love to do it,” Brashear said
reprinted from Bellingham Business Journal September 2008
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Dylan at Bridges Treatment and Recovery | |
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