You Finally Escaped Addiction.
Can You Afford to Be Dragged Back In?
It was hard enough just deciding to stop.
Maybe you did a full detox followed by residential or intensive outpatient treatment. Maybe you jumped straight into 12-step meetings. Or maybe you just quit cold turkey on your own. And now, finally, you’re gradually starting to reclaim your life, self-respect, and a sense of dignity. However you got here, one thing is clear:​ Escaping the hamster-wheel of addiction can be one of the toughest things you’ve ever done. That should be the end of the story… right?
So why does staying sober still feel like walking a tightrope over a fire pit?
Despite all the hard-earned gains there can still be a gnawing apprehension and distrust of yourself and how you’ll handle “real life” without intensive substance abuse treatment.
Without a clear plan, even the strongest recovery can come undone.
Sometimes the undoing happens fast—even hours after discharge. One minute you're sober, next you're staring at an empty bottle wondering how you got there.​
​It can also be painfully slow. Every day feels like an uphill battle, and resisting intense cravings becomes the full-time job until finally you give up.
"Leaving substance abuse treatment without solid support is like jumping off a speeding train expecting you’ll be able to keep up on foot."
Some manage to stay drug- and alcohol-free, but after a few months, maybe years, something still doesn’t feel quite right. You’re not drinking, but you’re not thriving either.
Risk of Relapse in Addiction Is Always Dangerously High
Relapse Rates Are Shocking
The first year after quitting is often the most dangerous, with the weeks right after leaving substance abuse treatment posing the highest risk. Studies show that on average:
-
40% to 60% of people recovering from addiction relapse;
-
Nearly two-thirds do so just weeks after leaving rehab facilities;
-
Over 85% return to substance abuse by year end;
-
Up to 95% relapsed on heroin and 62% for alcohol users;
-
At two years the relapse rate is still 40%.
Untold Hidden Forces Can Pull You Back In
Returning to life without the daily check-ins, support groups, and intensive therapy provided by rehab facilities can be emotionally destabilizing.
The daily demands flood back before you can catch your breath. Everything seems urgent. Meanwhile, the places, people, and situations related to your addiction are right where you left them. Home, work, social life all feel like a minefield of triggers for craving and stress.
Even the most motivated people can slowly drift away from recovery.
Life gets loud, chaotic, and demanding. Before you know it, there’s no time, no energy, and no emotional bandwidth left for relapse prevention.
You earnestly try to look okay on the outside, but inside you’re freaking out.
Support groups that once felt grounding may now seem awkward, tedious, or just plain boring. But how do you say that out loud? Asking for help can feel like admitting defeat—especially when everyone else seems to be handling their recovery just fine.
It’s easy to slip into ambivalence or quiet hopelessness. After all the promises of miraculous transformation, the changes in your own life might feel . . . well . . . underwhelming. You start to wonder if all that effort, vulnerability, and time in treatment has really made any difference.
It’s infuriating to succeed in so many other ways just to keep losing this one battle.
Discouragement creeps in. Frustration builds. Searching for yet another addiction therapist near you becomes thoroughly unappealing.
Why does staying sober still feel like walking a tightrope over a fire pit?
As stress intensifies, your mental bandwidth shrinks. The long-term vision blurs, and your brain starts scanning for short-term relief. Exhausted and overwhelmed, it defaults to what it knows best—alcohol or drugs.
Good News: You Don't Have to Give Up!
Beat the Odds With a Relapse Prevention Group
I’m a Certified Group Psychotherapist and addiction therapist near you in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, with decades of clinical and real-world experience helping people recover from a wide range of addictions.
So no, I’m not sharing all this to scare you.
​
I’m here to challenge the myths so often preached in rehab facilities – and to offer a commonsense, effective, and far less exhausting strategy for achieving lasting sobriety.
Together, we’ll develop a personalized, realistic relapse prevention plan – one that frees you to focus on what really matters: finally building the meaningful, productive, and fulfilling life you deserve.
What Makes This Relapse Prevention Group So Powerful?
Evidence-Based. Neuroscience-Informed. Recovery-Focused.
The latest research is clear: to truly prevent relapse, addiction therapy must begin immediately after discharge—and continue consistently over time.
Practical and Customized.
Unlike public self-help meetings, this private group is tailored to your personal recovery needs. You’ll explore what’s getting in the way of your specific recovery progress—and get real-time support, feedback, and professional guidance.
Convenient and Designed for Real Life.
Evening hours mean you can attend after work. Weekly groups with the same supportive people help create cohesion, trust, and a real sense of community. And the ongoing structure helps sustain your motivation—even when life gets overwhelming again.
The Benefits of Group Therapy—Supercharged to Combat Relapse.
This isn’t just a support group—it’s a powerful, guided experience designed to help you stay sober, grow stronger, and reconnect with yourself. You’ll receive honest, objective feedback from people who truly get what you’re going through—it’s like having your own room full of recovery coaches.
Think Relapse Can’t Happen to You? Think Again!
“Just one more time” can end up being the last time.
Some people are lucky. They wake up the next morning with only a foggy memory, an ER wristband, and vague flashes from the back seat of a police cruiser. Others aren’t so lucky—relapse creeps in silently, slowly unraveling their health, careers, and relationships. And in the worst cases, it ends in overdose and death.
Think I’m being dramatic? Perhaps.
But is that a risk you’re willing to take?
Now imagine a different path—one where a small weekly investment in yourself not only helps you stay sober, but empowers you to build a life that feels more meaningful and connected every day, and absolutely worth protecting.
Are you ready to get the addiction counseling near you that you deserve?
3 Simple Steps to Safeguard Sobriety
1. Schedule a call
Claim a convenient time for a free phone consult to learn about the group's benefits.
2. Apply!
Start the screening process as soon as you're interested. Space is very limited.
3. Find a better you
The unique group therapy activities help you find ways to get unstuck and start enjoying the life you deserve.
Three Core Principles Guide My Relapse Prevention Group Approach
Core Principle #1 – Everyone's Addicted to Something
People struggling with addiction are no different from anyone else facing a mental health challenge. You’re not weak, broken, immoral, or insane—you’re human. Like anxiety or depression, addiction is a common mental health issue. So no, you don’t have to “admit” to being an addict or alcoholic in order to build a sober, happy, and healthy life.
​
Modern neuroscience backs this up.
​
Addictive behavior isn’t proof of a moral failing, a genetic flaw, or some cosmic mistake. It’s a sign that your nervous is doing its best – without the right tools – to protect you from overwhelming thoughts and emotions.
Core Principle #2 – Willpower Alone Doesn’t Prevent Relapse
Lasting recovery isn’t about just trying harder – remember the dismal failure of “Just Say No”? It’s about understanding how your nervous system, emotions, thoughts, and environment all interact to make relapse not just possible, but likely absent the right kind of support. Once you understand how these forces operate, you can stop blaming yourself and start working with your brain instead of against it.​
That’s when real change becomes possible.
Decades of research have confirmed that sustained recovery doesn’t come from willpower alone. Conventional approaches often focus solely on abstinence—telling you to just stop drinking or using—without addressing the underlying neuroscience driving the addictive behavior. That’s like handing someone duct tape to fix a busted water main. It might hold for a moment, but ….
Core Principle #3 – Group Therapy is the Most Powerful Tool for Preventing Relapse
Let’s be honest: most insurance companies quietly pull the plug on meaningful substance abuse treatment the moment people are discharged from rehab facilities—right when the risk of relapse is at its peak. At the very moment someone is most vulnerable and least equipped to manage everyday stressors, they’re handed a generic referral for 50-minute sessions with a “therapist near you”—often from a long list of providers with no availability, and many of whom aren’t even an addictions specialist.
I created this group to fill that critical gap. To step in where profit-driven insurance models fall painfully short—and to offer the kind of compassionate, consistent, and specialized support that actually gives people the freedom to stay sober and build a life they’re excited to live.
Want to Know More About the Benefits of Group Therapy?
Click Below!
Philip Douglas Lewis, MA, LMFT, CGP, PLGS
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (#150760)
Certified Group Psychotherapist
Pet Loss Grief Specialist
​
MyTherapistPhil@gmail.com - (323) 379-9097
MENU