Love-Based Addiction Recovery: Redefining Rehab
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/06/25
Richard Taite, founder and executive chairman of Carrara Treatment Wellness & Spa, who reframes addiction recovery as a “love call” rather than shame-based intervention. Taite discusses his own recovery, Carrara’s whole-body approach, and innovations like in-the-moment clinical support. He critiques misconceptions about therapy, highlights podcast success, and underscores the need for compassion and tailored care—especially for high-profile clients. The conversation emphasizes authentic, holistic models in mental health, especially amid a rising mental health crisis.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You’ve often described addiction recovery as “love first.” Does this reshape the traditional rehab model?
Richard Taite: It’s not “love first” rather a “love call” and yes, it does reshape the traditional rehab model.
People come in broken and full of shame. I’m not kicking a horse when they’re down, that makes no sense to me.
You love them, nurture them and cheerleader for them and move them gently through the process of becoming their best selves.
Jacobsen: Is this essential as a reframe in today’s mental health crisis?
Taite: It should be. This is one of the innovations I brought to treatment and I am so committed to it. For example, I developed a client care team of clinicians to walk around Carrara, look for the person with their head in their hands and do a session right there, in the moment. This helps us to contain situations before they snowball and provides immediate relief.
Jacobsen: Your podcast is We’re Out of Time. It is #3 on Apple’s Mental Health charts. What resonates with audiences about conversations on addiction and recovery?
Taite: I think it’s helped that I’ve never listened or watched a podcast prior to starting mine. I’ve been a guest on multiple podcasts, but it’s different when you’re a guest as opposed to when you’re hosting. Because I’ve never listened to another podcast there’s no influence on me whatsoever so maybe it’s what separates me in a competitive space.
But I will tell you that my podcast is completely authentic and honest and even uncomfortable at times… I’m not here to judge but to listen to these stories, understand my guests’ trauma and offer them a new perspective. The way I tackle this tough subject (addiction) must resonate with my audience deeply. I have a hard time believing after only 7 1/2 months that we’re the number three mental health Podcast in the country… I’m still getting my head around it.
Jacobsen: Mental Health Awareness Month brings attention to systemic issues. What misconceptions sit amongst public commentariat about addiction and mental illness?
Taite: Anyone who has a negative outlook on treatment or therapy just doesn’t know better. It’s a negative talking point that simply does not exist much anymore.
Therapy isn’t something you have to do. It’s something you GET to do. It is the ultimate luxury, and it is how elegant men and women, who want the best for themselves, deal with their stressors in life so they don’t create unnecessary wreckage.
Jacobsen: How has your journey informed leadership at Carrara Treatment?
Taite: I lost a quarter of a century to drug addiction and have been sober for 22 years now… That’s not anecdotal, that’s field research. I don’t think I know. I know, I know. It was important that we had the most effective treatment model in the most comfortable setting to do some uncomfortable work.
But with respect to leadership, our CEO Candy Henderson is our leader. I may be the executive chairman and founder, but I serve at her pleasure and that’s the way I’ve always done it…. She’s the best CEO I’ve ever had, by miles!
Jacobsen: Is recovery a long-term thing, a short-term deal, or somehow an admixture but in different ways?
Taite: What an excellent question.
So there’s a framework called The Transtheoretical Model, it is the step-by-step process in which behavioral change occurs. This model shows you exactly where you are in your arc of recovery.
So for example, someone who is coming in to get the heat off, a husband who is in trouble with his employer or his wife is sick and tired of his behavior, but he doesn’t believe he’s got a problem, he’s gonna need 90 days.
But the guy coming in who has had enough and he’s just tired of living a life of substance abuse, or alcoholism, that guy needs 30 days.
This is oversimplified, but you get the idea.
Jacobsen: You emphasize a whole body approach. What does that mean to treatment?
Taite: It means we don’t just treat the addiction. We treat the whole person.
The goal for most treatment centers is simply to get you sober, but all the pain that was keeping you sick is still there… That’s a tortured life.
At Carrara, we look at everything. Emotional trauma, nervous system regulation, gut health, sleep patterns, hormonal imbalances, spiritual emptiness, relationships, and much more. Every system in the body and brain is connected.
Our entire team works together to restore the entire person. It’s holistic, meaning the whole body is treated because addiction doesn’t live in just one part of a person.
Jacobsen: You’ve worked with high-profile clients and public figures. How does public prominence impact these issues? Any particular cases of recovery for public people that show a positive path in your experience.
Taite: High profile clients and public figures are not going to the average run of the mill rehab or even a high-end rehab. They want the best of everything. Carrara is one of one, it was built that way. For an ultra high net worth individual Carrara is their only choice. But the public at large looks down on this and they think if you’re not willing to humble yourself and go through the grind that you don’t deserve to be sober.
I’ve been told… ‘But Rich, you never went to a fancy rehab, you went to an all men’s sober living’. And that’s true. But I was at a different place in my life, I wasn’t the same guy I am today and today I would never have gone to that sober living. Does that mean I have to die or end up in jail just because I’m not willing to humble myself and go to some substandard facility? That only sounds stupid when you say it out loud right?
As far as cases of recovery for public people that show positive results, it happens every day.
But guarding our clients privacy is of paramount importance so you’re never getting an example out of me.
Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Richard.
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Start your Recovery
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