Our Approach

Adolescence is one of the hardest stages in the life cycle, fraught with hormones, entitlement, self-doubt, confusion, and curiosity. Add drug and alcohol use into the mix, and it's a perfect breeding ground for high-risk behaviors and addiction. There are hundreds of teens in the Houston area right now who need support and treatment services. There are hundreds of parents searching for guidance. These families are looking for solutions, and we are here to offer them hope.

Alternative peer groups have been around for 40 years in the Houston area. Our research and outcome data show why this model is so successful. We work because we recognize the importance of clinical and social services for teens and their parents. An alternative peer group is exactly what it says: a new group of friends that provide alternative attitudes, values, judgments, processes, and behaviors to support the necessary change to get well from this disease.

When I interview kids during assessments, I always ask them how many close friends they have, and out of those friends, how many use. If clients say four or five close friends and they all use, that's when I think first of the APG model. When adolescents first come into an APG or first make contact with the staff at an APG, they've been submerged in the drug-using culture, usually for some time, and don't have many relationships with kids—or really anybody—that's not part of that culture. So they're usually pretty defensive and pretty armored up.

The goal is to remove a child from a very pressured peer group situation to use and put them into an alternative peer group where there's positive peer pressure. The peer pressure is so staggering and so important that if we can get them around kids that are their age, that are trying to live their life by a set of spiritual principles, that are trying to be sober, that are trying to be better than what they've been in the past, then they can see, 'Well, if they can do it, if they can live happy, joyous, and free from the bonds of their addiction or from their ailment, then maybe I can do it too.' And it gives them a sense of hope.

If I had to boil it down to one thing, it's that it's attractive. It's a program of attraction. Kids have fun. They come in and are able to talk about things that they would feel weird talking to their peers about in other situations. I've observed how it works, and I understand. For example, if I go out to one of my satellite offices and I see one of our 22 young employees sitting down at their Wii station—or whatever that technology is called—or they're playing a video game, and another kid's there, and they're doing all the, 'Oh, I'm going to get you,' you know, some kind of imagery here. But within that, it's like, 'Hey, man, uh, my dad said that I could move back again as long as I was clean.' 'Okay, cool. Oh, I got you. I've got three red points.' You know, and they're really getting into the game and they're enjoying it. And at the same time, it's like, 'You know, that's your integrity. Your dad's giving you a chance. So what do you think about it? Do you mean it?'

The APG model offers 12-step meetings for teens and parents, individual counseling, family counseling, intensive outpatient groups, after-school hangouts, weekend social activities, and collaboration with referring clinicians. It's still based off the 12-step model, so there's a lot of similarities, but there's a lot more intense accountability in an alternative peer group.

The problem we have is everybody thinks that the 30, 60 days—go to a hospital, come out, and go to AA—just because we've suggested it, is the best line of defense. It's not. It's an incomplete defense. It may be a good start, but it needs the alternative peer group to really create the accountability necessary to assure the best possible chances of recovery to the individual and the best possible chances of limiting dangerous moments to the individuals and others.

I first got involved with alternative peer groups because my daughter, at the age of 13, got involved with drugs, and we needed a support group. But it was the best thing that we ever did for our family. It was a real savior to us. You know how they say it takes a village to raise a child? Well, this group became part of our village because we didn't have a whole lot of family in the area. They helped us learn—you know, boundaries as parents—and they also gave our daughter a group of friends that she liked, she enjoyed being around, and helped her learn how to enjoy being an adolescent without using drugs.

One of the things that an APG model does for parents is it normalizes what's going on for them. It helps give them a vent for all those emotions through parent groups and parent activities, but it also gives them a new place to fit in as well. So it's obviously incredibly important that we educate the family. We find out what kind of mechanisms are happening within the family that are exacerbating the problem, and then we make suggestions, support behaviors which will lead the family to leave those self-destructive or destructive behaviors and patterns behind, adopt new interactional behaviors and patterns, and support each other in recovery.

I expected to go to a group and for them to tell me how to fix my kid. I didn't expect to really be handed an opportunity to learn some tools that were going to help me live the rest of my life. One of the things that we have found so effective is working with professionals in the community and collaborating with them and offering our program as an adjunct to their work.

Because we've had the current version of APG in place for some time, we've been able to kind of keep track of kids who have come through the program and moved on into their 20s and 30s. Adolescents come to us all over the spectrum as far as their harmful involvement with substance abuse. Some of them are clearly chemically dependent; others, substance-abusing; and some just beginning to be harmfully involved with drugs and alcohol. So we've looked at being able to measure what success looks like. Some kids will probably need to stay involved and plugged into the adult 12-step community ongoingly. Others have been able to sort of mature out of the problem and go on and be successful—particularly watching these kids transition into college and being able to be successful academically as well as socially—and watch them become productive members of society.

I get it. I'm a recovered alcoholic and drug addict myself, so I've been in their shoes. I've been where they're at. And I think the thing is, unfortunately, drugs work. They follow through on every promise that they make. You want to feel good? They'll help you do that. You want to be numb? You want to escape? I mean, they do what they say that they will. The restlessness, the irritability, and discontent that is talked about when an alcoholic or an addict isn't using—it completely goes away.

I've watched kids graduate from these programs with a really healthy self-esteem and acceptance of themselves and a value and worth that they weren't able to achieve even in healthy families. The APG model has allowed them a home where they really fit in and feel accepted and have been able to arrest any arrested development and grow their brains to their full potential, move on to go to college, get married, have families, and create healthy, sober lifestyles.