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Clinical treatment · no meeting requirementAlcohol treatment that is not a 12-step program
Plenty of people stop looking for help the moment they assume the only door is a church basement and a round of introductions. Clinical outpatient treatment is a different thing, and a fellowship is not a condition of it here.
A clinical program, run by licensed clinicians.
Shift is a clinical outpatient program. The work is cognitive behavioural therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, motivational enhancement and interviewing, and trauma-informed care, delivered as individual and group sessions by California-licensed clinicians, with psychiatry on the team. Treatment starts from an ASAM-aligned assessment and runs on a plan a clinician signs.
Attending Alcoholics Anonymous or any other mutual aid fellowship is not a requirement of treatment here. If you already go, keep going: the two sit alongside each other, and plenty of our patients run both. If you have no interest in it, that does not disqualify you from clinical care, and it is not a conversation we will keep reopening.
Other things exist outside this program too. SMART Recovery, LifeRing and Women for Sobriety are secular mutual aid organisations, and they are not treatment any more than AA is. What a clinical program adds is assessment, a treatment plan, licensed clinicians, medication where it is indicated, and documentation.
What the program is, and is not, built on.
CBT, DBT, motivational enhancement and interviewing, and trauma-informed care, delivered by California-licensed clinicians.
Not a condition of treatment. Not reported on. Not a measure of progress here.
Keep attending. The two run alongside each other without competing.
You are not asked to adopt a label to be treated. The assessment uses clinical criteria, not a self-description.
Set in the clinical plan with your clinician at the assessment, and reviewed as you go.
Medication for alcohol use disorder is a conversation with the prescriber on the team, where it is clinically indicated.
Three to five a day on weekdays, morning, afternoon or evening cohort, all by secure video.
Clinician-led therapy groups, which is a different thing from a peer meeting.
Family programming and a couples track when the clinical plan calls for them.
SMART Recovery, LifeRing and Women for Sobriety exist. None of them is treatment, and we do not run any of them.
Medical detox in a bed when withdrawal is not low risk. We assess that first and say so.
We read your plan before you commit to anything.
Covered by many PPO plans. We check your benefits first.
Shift bills most major commercial plans on an out-of-network basis, and in-network credentialing is in process. We read your plan, tell you what it pays toward intensive outpatient care, and give you that number in writing before your first appointment.
Medi-Cal. We cannot bill Medi-Cal today, because we hold no county contract yet. If Medi-Cal is your coverage, tell us and we will point you to a county provider who can help now.
More on coverage: what it costs, what out-of-network means, your carrier.
The ones people ask first.
What are the alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous?
Two different categories get mixed together here. Clinical treatment, which is what this program is, means assessment, a signed treatment plan, licensed clinicians and medication where indicated. Secular mutual aid organisations such as SMART Recovery, LifeRing and Women for Sobriety are peer support rather than treatment, the same way AA is.
Do I have to call myself an alcoholic?
No. The assessment works from clinical criteria and from what is actually happening in your week, not from a label you are asked to accept first.
Do I have to go to meetings during the program?
No. Fellowship attendance is not a requirement of treatment here, and it is not how progress is measured.
Is medication part of it?
It can be. Psychiatry is on the team, and medication for alcohol use disorder is a clinical conversation with the prescriber rather than a fixed part of every plan.
What if I want to cut back rather than stop?
Bring that to the assessment. Where the plan lands is a clinical decision made with you and documented, and a clinician will be straight with you about what your own presentation supports.
Start with the assessment, not a label.
A benefit check and a short clinical screen. You will know the level of care, the schedule and the cost before you agree to anything.
If you or someone you are with is in immediate danger, call or text 988 (the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) or call 911. Shift Support Network is an outpatient program and is not an emergency service. Related: Alcohol use treatment · High-functioning signs · What we do · Do I qualify.