The Poncho Program^TM is our revolutionary life realignment program developed to equip our clients for success.

It was designed specifically for women to address the many aspects of life affected by their emotional challenges in mental health, substance abuse or addictive behaviors. Recognizing a life lived in crisis is not neat and tidy, the Poncho Program begins in treatment and piece by piece, life begins to take on meaning, reason and stability once again.

Serving as a map to recovery, the Poncho Program progressively builds life skills and empowers are clients to prioritize their own living needs and how to meet those needs in a healthy and successful manner. This program enables you to take back your own life and have a successful recovery while building a future you can be proud of.

Upon entering Brookhaven Retreat, women may need detoxification from drugs and/or alcohol, as well as time to gain emotional stability. Close-care quarters in the detoxification center allow our medical staff to monitor clients, insuring their medical needs are being addressed. We have RNs available around the clock, supervised by a nursing director and three physicians.

The detoxification process can be painful and debilitating. At Brookhaven Retreat we have a medical detox unit that is able to expertly address the extreme risks for certain client groups. Our number one priority is to keep our clients physically and mentally safe and absolutely as comfortable as they possibly can be through one-on-one care.

Focusing on the comfort of our clients, during detoxification is a key difference for Brookhaven Retreat. We find that addressing the important medical complications of detoxification while managing the pain and discomfort of withdrawal allows or the journey of self discovery and healing to begin in the most positive light possible.

Throughout the entire addiction industry, there is a widespread belief that addiction and alcoholism are diseases in and of themselves, isolated from outside or more complicating causes. This belief results in the treatment of the effects of addiction and alcoholism rather than in the treatment of their root causes.

At Brookhaven Retreat we believe that addiction and substance abuse are not diseases in themselves but are often symptoms of a larger illness. In order to stop the feelings of emptiness and worthlessness, some women turn to addictive activities to make the pain go away. Addictive behaviors may include shopping, working , gambling, alcohol abuse, prescription drugs, recreational drugs, chat rooms, video games, eating or sexual activity.

None of these can fill the void and, instead, act to destroy mental, physical and emotional health even further. Unfortunately, women rarely ask for help with addictions because of the pervasive feelings of shame and a mistaken belief that they should be able to do it all and stop on their own.

The shadow of addiction and substance abuse is dark and threatening, but when faced with care and compassion, we can discover and heal these ailments. As a dual-diagnosis treatment center, our clinical and medical staff can address the addiction and the underlying causes that lead women to feel empty and alone.

Believing healing comes from loving one’s self, Brookhaven Retreat is a loving and non-punitive environment. While other addiction facilities often demand clients to engage in demeaning chores like scrubbing floors or washing toilets under the guise of therapy, we at Brookhaven Retreat choose to treat our clients with the utmost respect and dignity. A woman seeking treatment has a self image that is already tarnished and our task it to rebuild a healthy self image. Demeaning a client with such chores only serves to reinforce the wrong belief that she has done something “bad” for which punishment is required.

So often, stigma and more stigma stops women from addressing mental health problems. The fear that we are less than a woman, a mother, and a daughter because we are depressed, traumatized, anxious or unable to concentrate is a huge road block to discussing and seeking help.

Emotional distress can be reflected in ways that are difficult to understand and that may be difficult to manage safely. A troubled woman may hide the intensity of her emotional pain or sadness until the problem becomes so severe that she is unable to function in her daily life or so overwhelming that she tries to harm herself or others. Some “red flag” behaviors that may signal severe emotional distress and the need for professional help include:

• Self-injury behaviors such as superficial or non-superficial cutting
• Persistent picking at skin
• “Accidental” physical injuries
• Thinking or talking about suicide
• Thinking or talking about intent or plans to hurt others
• Thinking or talking about self or others being “better off dead”
• Not being able to sleep well or sleeping too much
• Not being able to eat well or eating too much
• Spending excessive amounts of money
• Hearing voices or seeing things that are not real
• Having persistent nightmares
• Withdrawal from family and friends/social isolation
• Excessive weight loss or gain
• Excessive absence from work
• Inability to take care of self or others in activities of daily living
• Disorganized thinking or loss of memory

The source of her emotional distress may not be clear to the woman who is experiencing it or to those who care about her, but the need to find a safe environment for recovery is clear. If you or someone you love is experiencing severe emotional distress or demonstrates any of the above behaviors, please contact us at Brookhaven Retreat to start the process of getting help.

Brookhaven Retreat is a fully licensed dual-diagnosis treatment center for emotional and mental health conditions as well as addiction. Being fully licensed and staffed to treat both mental health and addiction issues is an important distinction to look for because it provides women seeking help with the greatest amount of resources to address all aspects of addiction and mental disorder.

Many women have a combination of substance abuse and other diagnosable issues. For treatment to be effective, the two must be defined then treated and managed appropriately and in symphony with each other. Our integrated approach brings together clinical and medical staff who are skilled at dealing with both mental health and addiction issues to formulate a path to recovery that is tailored specifically to you and takes into account your unique life experiences and medical history. This treatment actively combines a variety of modalities to address substance abuse and mental disorders in order to treat the whole woman more effectively.

Our mental health and substance abuse treatment programs work with most mood disorders, some personality disorders, and addictions to alcohol and drugs. Many of our clients have a combination of these and often have a history of transferring their emotional escape tool. Many of our clients have no substance dependency at all.

Substance Abuse Recovery Programs

• Alcohol addiction
• Prescription drug addiction
• Under/Over medicating
• Addictive behaviors
  • Shopping addiction
  • Emotional eating
  • Co-dependence
  • Exercise addiction
  • Isolation
  • Internet and Texting

Brookhaven Retreat offers treatment for many mood disorders, mental health conditions and emotional breakages.

Mental Health Recovery Programs

• Depression
• Post partum depression
• Bipolar disorder
• Anxiety
• Panic disorder
• Trauma
• Grief and loss
• Self injury
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Self Esteem

Hello,

My story began ‘across the pond’ in England where I was a successful developer of assisted living facilities. I was married and had two beautiful children, a son and a daughter. I had it all. Then one horrible day my daughter went to a nightclub and my whole world crashed. We lost her the next day to an ecstasy reaction. One year later, my husband left and I began to unravel as well. But I came back. I found a new beginning here in the States and Brookhaven Retreat is a powerful testimony to the good that can come out of pain, the strength that comes from having been broken.

I’m Jacqueline Dawes, founder of Brookhaven Retreat, a unique residential treatment center for women with emotional and addictive issues. Brookhaven Retreat was created to be a sanctuary for women to heal the emotional breakage suffered.

I know what the women who come to Brookhaven Retreat are going through and I know the road to emotional, spiritual and physical recovery is possible. I’m living proof and, if I can do it, others can too. It is my mission to share with women who have been bereaved, experienced loss or abandonment, suffered trauma, or have been abused that there is nothing more valuable than the gift of life, itself. Each person needs to be the best they can be and my program is designed to achieve that in an environment free from judgment, shame or insecurity.

We’re here to help and to provide an environment that delivers much needed safety, love and camaraderie to women. If you would like more information on Brookhaven Retreat and our outstanding clinical and professional staff or our comprehensive contemporary and holistic approach please contact me.

When somebody we love, whether a wife, a daughter, a mother, or a sister, is so emotionally broken and distressed, we have to ask ourselves whether we are in fact the enabler. Some family members and/or close friends do not understand that in the name of love they have actually become the ones that allow the person in difficulty to stay sick and become even sicker. Others are frozen in fear, not knowing what to do as they watch the condition deteriorate. The behaviors can be unexpected, unpredictable, and impulsive. The whole family becomes affected, and the quality of life for all just slips away. Others just ignore the problem, thinking it is somehow going to go away on its own, sometimes pretending this is just not really happening.

It is an act of real love to assist someone we love or care for to receive the type of care they need. The reality is that everyone in the close family and circle of friends will be affected by the actions and behaviors of the emotionally broken woman. It is also true that everyone in this group of family members and friends who participates in this program will benefit and grow through the program.

While knowing what to do may be very difficult, while you are waiting and considering what to do, your loved one will become progressively worse. Your love one's getting well allows the family to reunite, have greater understanding, and learn how to move forward. All benefit from the client getting well.

We recognize that women are different than men; we have different emotional thresholds; we must meet different societal demands; and we have different physical needs than men. Our programs are specifically tailored and take into consideration the roles each client has within family and society to achieve a long-term plan of maintained wellness.

The safety and security a community of women fosters allows clients to disclose things that are very difficult or impossible to disclose within a co-ed arrangement. Issues of a sexual, violent, abusive or abandonment nature can be more fully explored and better resolutions achieved in an environment free of judgment or shame.

Along with the camaraderie, honesty and safety that each woman helps to foster at Brookhaven Retreat, as women we also bring a personal understanding and empathy for each of our struggles. An environment of women cuts through or eliminates many distractions and allows each client to focus on what is most important, her wellness.

Many client families also value the security that an all female environment creates.

If you or your loved one is struggling with emotional breakage and mood disorders and is trying to cope with them by using one of the emotional escape tools such as alcohol dependancy, substance abuse, shopping, co-dependent relationships, isolation, anger, or any of the other methods used to try to survive, Brookhaven Retreat can help. Simply stated, we succeed where others fail.

Brookhaven Retreat is a unique voluntary residential treatment facility specially designed to help women overcome and manage alcohol and medication challenges, depression, emotional trauma, bi-polar disorder, anxiety and mood disorders that leave a woman feeling trapped with no means to escape or move forward successfully. For some women it feels like "walking dead', alive but not really living and not knowing how to emotionally connect to self as the inner emptiness is so profound.

These types of emotional, mood and mental health disorders leads to distorted thinking and allow poor choices to govern their lives. Living with the emotions, choices and experiences becomes overwhelmingly impossible. Some feel that they just do not know how to live, creating a totally hopeless feeling and the woman emotionally paralyzed but not knowing that is what has happened.

Women do not choose to be like this, it gradually evolves and engulfs. Some call Brookhaven Retreat an Emotional Finishing School for women where through a multi-modality approach the real truths about you, your life, and how your relationships have evolved can help you understand why this has happened and what needs to take place for you to work through this and develop coping and living skills that can work for you.

Some women do not know why they are escaping or closing down, some are afraid to know. This type of woman needs a very safe environment that allows a therapeutic journey of true self discovery. A women has to own to possess and own to give away. A woman has to own herself. Most have to learn how.

The fact of the matter is that you have to want more for yourself. Being willing to take a sabbatical from life accelerates the damage control process so you can think plan and strategize what it is going to take to manage change. Some have to retreat from the noise of day to day life to hear their inner voice so they can understand what has happened and embrace what needs to happen for their lives to move forward.

Fear, secrets, lies and having been emotionally unprotected at some point are the biggest blocks for a woman seeking the higher level of care she might need.

A learning and resolving process has to take place so you know what resolution, coping and living skills are necessary for you. If you don't manage emotional and mental health issues they will manage you.

• Fully accredited dual diagnosis program for women.
• Highly successful Treatment Program.
• Full alcohol and substance detoxification and suicide stabilization certifications.
• Features The Lily Program™ - Emotional self regulation program.
• Features Poncho™- Brookhaven's proprietary life realignment program.
• Residential tracts for both substance abuse and mental health.>
• Full concierge and travel assistance available.
• Brookhaven Retreat offers contemporary, modern, holistic care with compassion and respect from our highly trained staff, managed by our full time medical director psychiatrist.