By Tom Horvath, PhD
It was getting time to refresh the appearance of Practical Recovery’s website. A new one launched 2/18/26. Thank you to our digital marketing manager, Cheri Harkleroad! It may take some time to completely migrate all the content.
In another effort to learn about AI, I inquired about how big the website is. One AI said:
a comprehensive website featuring a substantial blog archive, with at least 52* pages of blog posts alone…it contains numerous articles, resource pages, and information on non-12-step recovery programs… because the site is a dynamic, frequently updated blog and resource center, the exact number of pages is not a fixed number and is quite high.
In case you had any doubt, I often consult AI as I am gathering information for a blog, but blog content is not written by AI. Once or twice, as an experiment, I asked it to write on a specific subject. What I got back was interesting in its way, but so filled with “traditional” approaches to addressing addictive problems that it was useless for one of our blogs. In checking AI’s work this time, the website’s backend shows an actual total of 524 blogs (including this one), and 140 published articles on our Learn About Addiction section – quite a bit more than was reported by AI.
Although the website is refreshed, Practical Recovery continues to offer our value-based services. We have some similarities with traditional addiction treatment, but substantial differences.
We collaboratively create treatment plans, rather than tell you what to do. Sometimes family members get scared by that idea. They assume that their loved one has no judgment at all. Although your judgment about acting on craving has not always been the best, we assume you are a successful and motivated individual in many aspects of your life. We want to build on those qualities, knowing that ultimately you are the best judge of what will work for you. Nevertheless, we will have many suggestions. That’s what you’re paying us for!
Our self-empowering approach strongly contrasts with the powerlessness approach of AA. In that approach, it is very common to tell people what to do. In our approach, we focus on helping you make decisions that makes sense for you.
We have no contracts. We want you to stay here as long as it is helpful and not feel constrained by having paid money you cannot get back.
Our team consists of five psychologists and one meditation guide. You are not required to work with any specific individual. You get to choose your own therapist or therapy team. You will always be working with high level professionals (often not the case in other facilities).
We do not require attending any groups: not our groups (we have a few), not AA, not SMART Recovery (although we are most closely affiliated with it), not any other group. Most of our clients do not attend a group. However, attend any group you want, including 12-step groups.
We support you getting the services you need, even if we need to refer out for them (and coordinate care as needed). There are so many options I won’t even try to list them.
We do not think that the essential way to begin treatment is “primary treatment” at a residential facility. Most clients will do better without residential treatment, because their lives are not disrupted by it, and ultimately they need to learn how to change at home, not tucked away in a rehab.
We hope that the new website helps you realize that we are an important treatment alternative to consider. Even if you elect not to continue with us, we encourage an initial evaluation session, so that you understand fully the options we provide.