Beyond Addiction, Future of Addiction Treatment Today!

Gulf Breeze Recovery
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BEYOND ADDICTION: Taking an Innovative look at addiction and Recovery. Our Primary Focus Is on Finding Peace And Contentment Through Recovery. “ BEYOND ADDICTION” is a podcast dedicated to exploring the vast implications that understanding the nature of the human experience has on Addiction and Recovery.

  1. Oct 15

    Ep 130 Beyond Addiction with Therapist Renee Harriman

    Renee Harriman didn't take the usual path into addiction treatment. She spent 22 years as vice president of a marketing firm, working on behavioral health campaigns like anti-smoking and opioid awareness, before going back to grad school during COVID to become a mental health therapist. When she looked for an internship, she wanted a program that was mindfulness-based and integrative. That search led her to Gulf Breeze Recovery, where she now works mainly with guests in individual sessions. Renee doesn't have addiction in her own family, but her background in trauma brought her to recovery work. She explains how the two are tied together. Substances often start as a way to cope with pain, and they work for a while. But they only treat the symptom, not the cause, so eventually everything starts to crash. She points out that trauma isn't only the big, obvious disasters. It's also the small hurts that build up over a lifetime and live in the body. One of the highlights of the conversation is Renee's plain-language explanation of EMDR. She describes a "trauma wall" in the brain that keeps healthy coping skills from reaching painful memories. EMDR helps break down that wall layer by layer, so people can process the past without having to relive it. Renee also walks listeners through what a stay at Gulf Breeze Recovery looks like. Detox is supported around the clock by nurses and a medical director. Once the fog lifts, guests follow a structured schedule that feels a bit like school mixed with playtime. There are two chefs and a nutritionist, plus yoga, beach and bridge walks, and quiet sunrises on the fishing dock. Many guests are surprised to find they can have fun sober. The conversation then turns to the inside-out approach and the Three Principles. We can't control our thoughts or the world around us, but we can choose how we respond. Renee describes this as a skill anyone can learn, like riding a bike. She closes with how families are brought back in through two family sessions, and how aftercare begins on day one. Each guest builds a personal "blueprint for success" and can step down into a 90-day intensive outpatient program, with ongoing support from a 3P educator. Her message to anyone on the fence: you're worth it. Key takeaways Addiction is often a way of coping with trauma, including the small, everyday hurts that build up over time.EMDR helps people process trauma without reliving it by breaking down the "wall" between painful memories and healthy coping skills.Recovery is an inside job: you can't control your thoughts, but you can learn to choose how you respond to them.Families and aftercare are part of the plan from the start, through family sessions, a discharge blueprint, IOP and 3P educators.Taking two months for treatment is worth it, and many guests leave having rediscovered who they are.https://www.gulfbreezerecovery.com/

  2. Jun 1

    Ep 121 Beyond Addiction Stevie Wolfe's Inspiring Story of Triumph in Recovery

    Stevie Wolfe entered Gulf Breeze Recovery on August 4, 2020 and graduated on October 21. Today she is nearly four years clean and sober and works at a sober living home, helping others in recovery. She came in for substance use, mainly alcohol, Adderall and marijuana, but quickly realized that deeper emotional patterns came first: anger, and a habit of tearing herself down that she calls "mentally self-destructive." Stevie is candid about hitting rock bottom, a moment of crisis she nearly didn't survive. Waking up afterward, she realized she was still here for a reason. She reached out for help, turned down the facility her insurance suggested, and went looking for a program with the trauma counseling, EMDR and neurofeedback she knew she needed. That search led to GBR. With humor and honesty, she describes being a high-functioning "great manipulator" who carefully managed her substances, and the "last hurrah" she had on the way to treatment. Detox was mostly a blur of sleep and candy. Settling into residential was awkward at first, but a supportive roommate, patient counselors, EMDR and an optional trauma class helped her open up. Being out of an abusive situation where she was always on high alert let her mind finally settle. Stevie shares key insights from her time at GBR. You can't heal in the place that made you sick, so she moved into an Oxford House sober living home in Pensacola. Letting go of resentment meant cleaning up her own side of the street. And a simple class diagram about thoughts, feelings and behavior is one she still uses with the people she helps today. She now fills her life with hiking, skydiving and friends who talk about ideas and goals instead of last night's party. Her advice: take everything the program offers. And recovery isn't all rainbows and unicorns. It takes consistent work, and self-discipline is the greatest form of self-love. Key takeaways Substance use often sits on top of deeper emotional patterns that need healing too.Choosing a program that matches your real needs, like trauma care, can make all the difference.Sometimes recovery means changing the people, places and things around you.Letting go of resentment frees you from living in your own mental prison.Recovery takes ongoing work, but the life on the other side is worth it.https://www.gulfbreezerecovery.com/

  3. Mar 15

    Ep 116 Beyond Addiction Steven and His Triumph Over Addiction

    Steven, known to friends as "Boats," is a 20-year Navy veteran, former teacher and recruiter, and a graduate of Gulf Breeze Recovery. His first beer came as a fourth grader, swapped in by an uncle as a joke. Drinking was woven into family life, construction crews and Navy culture, and over 40 years it took hold. He quit several times for years at a stretch, but always found a reason to go back. With humor and raw honesty, Boats tells the story of his last night drinking: alone in his RV, hands shaking too hard to hold a shot glass, afraid his heart device would go off and no one would find him for days. At 2:30 a.m. he searched for rehab near him, and GBR was the one that said "open 24 hours." The next day staff drove out to pick him up. He remembers a nurse named Blake walking him in, an unexpectedly gourmet first lunch, and almost nothing else from a week of detox. He ended up staying 142 days. Boats describes his "aha" moment not as a single flash but as fuses tripping on one by one, until the lights were on. He wanted someone to hand him a prescription, a list of steps. GBR showed him the answers were already inside him, which connected with his Buddhist beliefs. Camaraderie with fellow veterans, candy potlucks on movie night, and a patient art therapist who introduced him to EMDR helped him open up despite past distrust of therapy. Much of the conversation focuses on life after treatment. Coming home felt like being locked in a donut shop. Watching friends relapse within days of leaving taught him to prepare while still in treatment: delete old contacts, plan meals and routines, and build a sober support network. He shares the books he carried out, including Joe Bailey's The Serenity Principle, Eckhart Tolle's Stillness Speaks and The Four Agreements, plus his notebook of "nuggets" and daily sunrise meditation. His closing message: be honest with yourself above all, because how you do one thing is how you do everything. Key takeaways The answers aren't a prescription someone hands you. They're already inside you.Insight often comes gradually, one realization at a time.Prepare for life after treatment while you're still in it, including cutting ties with old contacts.A sober support network and aftercare are essential after discharge.Self-honesty is the foundation of lasting sobriety.https://www.gulfbreezerecovery.com/

  4. Jan 1

    Ep 111 Beyond Addiction Michael Neill at Gulf Breeze Recovery Part 1

    Bestselling author and coach Michael Neill, a leading teacher of the Three Principles, visits Gulf Breeze Recovery to speak with guests and staff. Rather than giving a canned talk, he starts with a short "train ride" of ideas and then becomes an "Uber," taking the room wherever it wants to go. Michael separates two conversations about life: how life works, which is the physics and is the same for everyone, and how we choose to live, which is the engineering and is personal. Most of our struggles come from trying to live well without understanding how our minds actually work. The good news is that the truth, like gravity, works the same whether we're having a great day or a terrible one, so we don't have to carry it on our minds. He tells the story of therapist George Pransky's first meeting with Sydney Banks, and shares his own history as a depressed, suicidal teen who later built a career on "more and more useful lies," ideas that only helped while he was thinking them. The shift came when he started looking for what's true instead of what's positive. Two discoveries changed everything: the difference between listening and thinking, and the difference between the "little s" self and a "big S" Self, a shared wisdom that works like an inner GPS that always recalculates. He offers a modern metaphor for the principles: Mind is Wi-Fi, always on; Thought is our apps; Consciousness is the device. And you can always press the home button. In conversation with guests and staff, Michael explains why this isn't a cult. It doesn't tell anyone how to live, it just helps people "take off the blindfold" so they can find their own way. He argues we're all in recovery from a misunderstanding about where our experience comes from, and shares four simple phrases that sum up the principles: Me too. Oh well. Next. No, really. He closes by answering a staff member's question about insecure feelings at work. When you truly see that it's your own thinking, you stop, the way a greyhound quits racing once it realizes the rabbit isn't real. Key takeaways How life works is constant. How we live is up to us, and understanding the first makes the second easier.Look for what's true, not just what's positive.We all have an inner guidance system that never gives up on us.Everyone is in recovery from a misunderstanding about where feelings come from.Me too. Oh well. Next. No, really.https://www.gulfbreezerecovery.com/

  5. 12/01/2025

    GBR Podcast Beyond Addiction Ep-8

    Gulf Breeze Recovery CEO Barnett Gilmer is joined by clinical director Danielle, who has been with GBR since it opened. She is a licensed mental health counselor, qualified supervisor and national certified counselor with training in trauma. Danielle has never struggled with addiction herself, but she lost her mother to it, which helped her see both what families go through and the innocence behind addiction. The topic is substitution: the common pattern of quitting one substance or behavior and replacing it with another, whether that's a different drug, alcohol, shopping, gambling, food, work or video games. Barnett explains why white-knuckling it with "I'm not going to use today" so often fails. Like being told not to think of a pink elephant, focusing on not using keeps it front and center. The real shift comes from understanding why someone started using in the first place. Danielle describes addiction as innocently looking outside ourselves to feel good. Many people have similar habits, from binge-watching to overeating to overspending. Those just come with different consequences and less stigma. Using GBR's weed analogy, Barnett explains that cutting off the visible behavior without addressing the roots, like insecurity, anxiety and depression, or the "soil" of believing happiness comes from outside, often leads the plant to grow back as a new addiction. They share examples, including people who develop alcohol problems after gastric bypass surgery. The antidote, they explain, is seeing that discomfort is a normal part of life that always passes, that we have the inner resources to handle it, and that peace and happiness come from the inside out. Like a toddler learning to walk, we grow by moving through discomfort rather than numbing it. When people truly see this, external fixes simply stop making sense. They close by emphasizing that addiction is devastating and deadly, but it is not who a person is. GBR's goal is to help each guest rediscover who they really are. Key takeaways Substitution is common: quitting one addiction often leads to another if the roots aren't addressed.Focusing only on not using is white-knuckling, and it rarely lasts.Many habits, not just drugs and alcohol, are innocent attempts to feel better from the outside in.Discomfort is part of life. It always passes, and moving through it is how we grow.Addiction is a symptom, not an identity.https://www.gulfbreezerecovery.com/

  6. 11/01/2025

    GBR Podcast Beyond Addiction Ep-6

    Gulf Breeze Recovery CEO Barnett Gilmer talks with Joe Bailey, a clinical psychologist with 40 years in the addiction field and a consultant to GBR since its earliest days, about one of the most overlooked parts of treatment: the health of the helper. Joe explains that guests don't listen so much to what staff say as to where they say it from. You can't teach what you don't know. To point guests toward resilience and a life without drugs and alcohol, staff have to model it by being present, grounded and comfortable in their own skin. That's why GBR puts staff well-being first, with ongoing training, coaching and education in the same principles guests learn. This applies to everyone, not just counselors: cooks, housekeeping, administration and leadership. Having taught addiction counselors and visited many treatment centers, Joe describes much of the field as "burnout factories." The average chemical dependency counselor lasts about five years, and many treatment settings feel negative or even toxic. GBR stands in sharp contrast. Staff say it's the best place they've ever worked, turnover is low, and visitors can feel the difference when they walk in. The effect passes on to guests. When staff are healthy, they listen better and treat guests with real compassion, and guests begin to have insights of their own. Those insights give hope to other guests who thought change was impossible. Joe describes GBR as a "health recovery model": instead of treating people mainly through fear of relapse, it strengthens their psychological immune system and draws them toward real well-being. He compares it to a restaurant. Great food isn't enough if the staff don't truly care. Barnett closes by thanking Joe for bringing this focus to GBR from the start, and previews the next episode on family. Key takeaways Guests respond to where staff are coming from, not just what they say.Every staff member's well-being matters, from leadership to the kitchen.Burnout is common in addiction treatment. A healthy workplace changes outcomes.Healthy staff create hope, and guests' insights inspire each other.GBR focuses on recovering health, not just stopping substance use.https://www.gulfbreezerecovery.com/

  7. 10/15/2025

    GBR Podcast Beyond Addiction Ep-5

    In the fifth episode of the series, Gulf Breeze Recovery CEO Barnett Gilmer and admissions director Kat Carly walk listeners through the full GBR program, step by step, and explain how each phase connects to the ideas discussed in earlier episodes. It starts with detox. GBR's private, five-bed detox wing has 24/7 nursing, private rooms and a medical director who designs each guest's protocol. With no more than five patients per nurse, care is personal. The goal is comfort, because guests who feel cared for in detox tend to do better throughout the program. Next comes neurofeedback. Kat explains how addiction trains the brain's reward system to associate discomfort with using. Neurofeedback rewards the opposite: calm, peaceful brain activity, measured in real time through EEG while guests watch images and listen to music. She cites a 2005 UCLA study showing a reduction in relapse of more than 30% for people who added neurofeedback to treatment. Guests do 12 sessions in their first week and two a week after that, often reporting better sleep, less anxiety and fewer using dreams. Weeks two and three focus on physical health recovery: exercise, medically monitored sauna, nutritious meals and nutrition education, and restoring natural sleep. As Kat puts it, it's hard to appreciate a sunset with a rock in your shoe. Then comes the heart of the program, mental health recovery. Barnett explains that he built GBR to be insight-based, because the people he saw recover had "aha" moments that were real, lasting and portable. Morning classes on the inside-out nature of experience, plus yoga, meditation and reflection time, help guests quiet the "hamster wheel" and get comfortable being with themselves. Kat, who went through GBR herself, notes that what feels like boredom is often discomfort with oneself, and that guests often rediscover who they are. The program ends with aftercare: a personal blueprint, an aftercare counselor, weekly Zoom and local meetings, a meditation group and a private online community. Barnett also highlights continuous improvement, including adding EMDR for trauma and earning The Joint Commission's Gold Seal. Key takeaways Comfortable, caring detox sets the stage for the rest of treatment.Neurofeedback helps retrain the brain toward calm and is linked to lower relapse rates.Physical health is part of recovery. A healthy body makes it easier to be open and present.Lasting change comes from personal insight, not just advice or instructions.Ongoing aftercare helps guests stay connected and catch a "relapse in thinking" early.https://www.gulfbreezerecovery.com/

  8. 10/01/2025

    GBR Podcast Beyond Addiction Ep-4

    In the fourth episode of the series, Gulf Breeze Recovery CEO Barnett Gilmer and admissions director Kat Carly explore the idea at the center of GBR's approach: innate health. Everyone already has what they need to be happy, whole, content and healthy. It's not something we add or earn. It's our nature, and we naturally return to it when thought isn't pulling us away. What does that have to do with addiction? Everything, they say. Kat explains that this is an "understandingness," not a "doingness." In a culture that wants a pill for every ill, and especially in addiction, where every feeling demands an action, the idea that you don't have to do anything can feel strange. She compares it to turning over while lying face down in a gutter. Your circumstances haven't changed yet, but now you can see the sky, and your options change with it. Barnett illustrates how we feel our thinking. Two friends of the same person react completely differently when that friend breaks into their homes. The circumstance is the same, but the thinking is different, so the feelings are different. Kat explains that relapse often happens at emotional extremes, when life is going very well or very badly. Seeing that feelings come from thought, and that we always return to a baseline of health, lets us "put a period at the end of the feeling sentence." Instead of "I'm upset, so I have to use," it becomes "I'm upset," and the feeling passes. They caution that healthy activities like walking, reading or meditating aren't magic. Barnett describes realizing that reading didn't fix him. It was simply a chance for his mind to quiet down. Trying to think your way out of a thought-created feeling just adds more thought. Kat acknowledges that addiction measurably changes the brain's reward system, but understanding changes our relationship to cravings, so they lose their power. Returning to the weed analogy, they explain that innate health doesn't erase trauma or anxiety overnight. It makes the soil infertile for addiction. Their takeaway: what if you could be happier without changing your circumstances? Key takeaways Innate health means well-being is our natural state. It's within us, not outside.Recovery comes from understanding, not just from adding more things to do.We feel our thinking, so the same situation can feel completely different to different people.Highs and lows pass on their own. Avoid major decisions at the extremes.Cravings are thought. When you see that, they lose much of their power.https://www.gulfbreezerecovery.com/

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BEYOND ADDICTION: Taking an Innovative look at addiction and Recovery. Our Primary Focus Is on Finding Peace And Contentment Through Recovery. “ BEYOND ADDICTION” is a podcast dedicated to exploring the vast implications that understanding the nature of the human experience has on Addiction and Recovery.

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