Adults 18+ · All identities · Encino, Los Angeles
Our LGBTQIA+ Program provides identity-affirming, trauma-informed addiction and mental health treatment for adults anywhere on the spectrum of orientation or gender identity. Affirming care, without the performance.
“New Spirit Recovery helped me when I was detoxing hard for about a week. The staff were kind to me the whole time. When I thought about leaving early, they helped me slow down and choose recovery instead. By discharge I was grateful I stayed — they even set up appointments for my leg issues, and I’m doing better now.”
“New Spirit Recovery has changed my whole life drastically — they gave me a second chance to rewire my life and live a new one. The staff is caring and genuine, and the director and operations director guided me through the program and gave me every opportunity to be a better person. They set me up for success and I can’t thank them enough for saving my life.”
“New Spirit Recovery was beneficial to my recovery. Here I learned tools to help me manage my emotions safely — journaling and breathing have been amazing tools I picked up while here. All the staff were incredible and patient. I am grateful to have come here and actually use the tools suggested.”
“This program teaches you how to set realistic goals and become a better version of yourself, with all the tools to start building a new foundation. The therapist and case manager give each client an individualized, tailor-made treatment plan. Serene surroundings, a private chef, daily groups, and weekend outings. If you’re looking for a way out of addiction, give New Spirit Recovery a call.”
“The staff is amazing. I was completely unable to detox on my own and find the right path. The food and facilities were amazing — and I found my way again. My mom and I go to church together again now. Thank you all so much.”
Free from discrimination · and from performative inclusion
Affirming, in specifics
Affirming, trauma-informed care that treats minority stress as a clinical factor rather than background noise. The modalities themselves are the standard evidence-based ones. What changes is who is holding them and what they understand about your life.
You are asked how you want to be addressed, and that is what appears on the board and in the room. Nobody has to correct staff twice, and nobody has to come out repeatedly to different shifts as a condition of being treated properly.
Whether you are out, partly out, or out to nobody is your information. Treatment does not require disclosure to anyone beyond your clinical team, and it does not require you to educate the room.
Minority stress is the chronic strain of living with stigma, rejection and vigilance, and it is a well-documented driver of substance use and mental health conditions in LGBTQ people. Treating the drinking without touching that is how people end up back where they started.
Assessment covers it directly: family rejection, workplace or housing discrimination, religious trauma, transition-related stress, losses. Our team has written about minority stress and LGBTQ addiction and LGBTQ trauma and substance use in more depth.
There is no separate queer version of cognitive behavioural therapy. The work is CBT, DBT, ACT, trauma-focused therapy with EMDR referral where indicated, and somatic work, six hours a day, seven days a week. What affirming means is that your identity is treated as context, never as the pathology.
That distinction matters because the opposite still exists. Any approach that frames orientation or gender identity as something to be changed is not therapy, and it is not practised here. More on what LGBTQ-affirming therapy involves.
This is an integrated programme. You will be living in a six to twelve bed home alongside clients who are not LGBTQ, not in a separate queer cohort. Some people want that and some people specifically do not, so it is better said plainly here than discovered on arrival.
What the environment is structured for is therapeutic safety. Discrimination is a clinical issue in a residential setting, not an HR matter, and it is handled by the clinical team as one.
Our Medical Director and Nurse Practitioner review everything you arrive taking, with physician consultations at a weekly minimum and 24-hour nursing. Stopping a long-standing prescription by default is not how this works, and any change is a clinical decision made with you.
Where substance use and compulsive sexual behaviour have become entangled, both are treatable here where a substance use component is present, and methamphetamine is one of the substances we treat. That pattern is common enough in this community that pretending otherwise would be useless.
Discharge planning starts at intake and includes the honest question of who you are going home to. Where a family of origin is unsafe, the plan builds around chosen family instead, and family services means whoever you name. Alumni support continues free with no end date, alongside the step-down care we coordinate.
What you can actually expect
Depression, anxiety, PTSD and trauma are treated alongside the substance use by the same team, which matters disproportionately for a population carrying elevated rates of all four. Not a referral out, not a second facility.
Six to twelve beds. In a house that size, whether someone is being treated badly is visible to staff within a day, which is not true at forty beds however good the policy document is.
Some Los Angeles programmes are staffed and run by LGBTQ people for LGBTQ people, in dedicated cohorts. We are not that. If that is what you need, it exists here in the city and we would rather tell you than have you find out in week one.
Free Insurance Verification
Check your coverage in about 60 seconds. No obligation, no cost.
Your information is confidential and used to check your benefits and contact you about treatment. It is never sold.
The framework underneath
SAMHSA defines recovery as a process of change through which people improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and reach their full potential, supported by four dimensions: health, home, purpose and community. Ten guiding principles sit alongside them.
| Dimension | What SAMHSA means by it | Why it lands differently for LGBTQ clients |
|---|---|---|
| Health | Managing your condition and making informed choices for physical and emotional wellbeing | Often complicated by past experiences of dismissive or unsafe healthcare |
| Home | A stable and safe place to live | Housing instability after family rejection is a documented risk factor |
| Purpose | Meaningful daily activity, and the independence and resources to take part in society | Workplace discrimination affects the income and independence half of this |
| Community | Relationships and networks that provide support, friendship, love and hope | Where the sober scene and the queer scene barely overlap, this needs building |
Two of SAMHSA’s ten guiding principles are Culture and Addresses Trauma. Affirming care is not a preference bolted onto the clinical model. It is in the model.
An honest answer to a fair question
Plenty of people do, with outpatient care, medication, mutual-aid groups and a changed environment. But withdrawal from alcohol or sedatives can kill you, and that one is not a matter of willpower or preference. Those need medical supervision.
One thing worth naming. A lot of LGBTQ people avoid treatment because of what happened last time they were in a clinical setting, or what they expect will happen. That is a reason to find a programme that will treat you properly, and medically supervised detox is a safer answer than doing it alone in a bad room.
If you are thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 any time, or call 911 if you are in immediate danger.
Where you’ll actually be
Three licensed residences in Tarzana, Northridge and Encino. Private and double occupancy rooms, a chef, on-site laundry, 24-hour nursing. See it before you commit to it.
Worth asking on the tour: how the house handles a client who says something bigoted, and who decides what happens next. The answer to that question tells you more about a programme than any page on its website, including this one.
Meet the clinical teamSmall enough to know your name
Co-Founder
Certified Addiction Counselor and author. Created the Rewired curriculum, eight pillars that run here and nowhere else.
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Clinical Director
Licensed since 2018, dual mental-health and substance-use background. Oversees clinical programming across all properties. Twenty-four years in recovery himself.
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Director of Nursing
A Licensed Vocational Nurse since 2020 with extensive behavioral health and substance use experience across detox and residential settings
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Clinical Psychologist
Clinical supervisor and a professor at California Lutheran University. Works across sites on crisis management and treatment planning.
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Program Director
Directs day-to-day operations and client care. Seven-plus years in the industry, five in management.
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Operations Director
Handles the logistics that make admission possible, including travel and transport from LAX or Burbank.
Read full bio4.8 average on Google
Reviews published by clients and families on Google, where our average is 4.8 out of 5.
These are unpaid reviews posted publicly on Google by individual clients and families. They describe those people’s own experiences, which vary; they are not a promise of any particular outcome, and no one was compensated for them.
Looking for LGBTQ rehab near you?
Our homes are in the Valley, off the 101 at Balboa, a short drive from West Hollywood, Silver Lake and the wider metro. We admit from across the city and nationwide, with transport arranged from LAX or Burbank. Affirming care is the standard across every programme at our drug rehab in Los Angeles, not a separate track bolted on.
Common questions
Affirming, trauma-informed care that treats minority stress as a clinical factor. The modalities are the standard evidence-based ones, CBT, DBT, ACT, trauma-focused therapy and somatic work. What changes is that your identity is treated as context rather than as the problem to be solved.
SAMHSA defines recovery as a process of change through which people improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life and reach their full potential, supported by four dimensions: health, home, purpose and community. Ten guiding principles accompany it, including Culture and Addresses Trauma.
Many people do, through outpatient care, prescribed medication, mutual-aid groups and changing their environment. The exception is alcohol and sedative withdrawal, which can be fatal and needs medical supervision. If you are withdrawing from either, do not attempt it alone. In a crisis, call or text 988.
Do not go straight back to the same environment with no plan, do not stop clinical contact because you feel well, and do not quietly stop a prescribed medication. Relapse risk concentrates in the weeks after structure disappears, which is what step-down care exists to cover.
Most major PPO plans cover treatment for substance use and co-occurring conditions when medically necessary, and affirming care is not billed as an extra. We verify your benefits free before you travel. We do not accept Medicaid, Medi-Cal or Medicare; cash pay is available.
No. You are asked how you want to be addressed at intake and that is what is used. What you disclose beyond your clinical team is your decision, and being out is not a condition of receiving affirming care.
No. It is an integrated programme in a six to twelve bed home, so you will be living alongside clients who are not LGBTQ. Some people want a dedicated queer cohort, and those programmes exist in Los Angeles. We would rather you know that now than discover it after admission.
Our Medical Director and Nurse Practitioner review every medication you arrive on, with weekly minimum physician consultations. Nothing long-standing is stopped by default, and any change is a clinical decision made with you. Bring your prescriber’s details.
Both are treated here where a substance use component is present. Methamphetamine is one of the substances we treat, and compulsive sexual behaviour is addressed alongside it rather than as a separate referral. That combination is common enough that it should be asked about directly.
It is treated as a clinical and safety matter by the clinical team, not left to work itself out between residents. In a house of six to twelve people with roughly one staff member per client, this is visible quickly, which is the practical argument for small settings.
Ask us the hard questions on the first call. That is what it is for. Someone picks up at any hour, including this one.