Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Pellinger.
Paul, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
After battling addiction in 1980s, I entered recovery and began working in the treatment field in 1989 as a therapist. I realized early on what I was being taught wasn’t the most effective way in handling addiction. I knew there had to be a better way and started trying to identify and address the improvable areas.
The main problem, as I saw it, was there was too much focus on relapse triggers, confrontation, and warning clients about the consequences if they didn’t follow suggestions. Recovery Unplugged was born out of the frustration of experiencing poor post-treatment outcomes.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
As a clinician, I became extremely frustrated with poor treatment, because I knew it just didn’t have to be that way. I would see a lot of fear-based and punishment-focused methodology that I knew wasn’t paving the way for a healthy and positive life in recovery. There was too much focus on relapse triggers, causal factors, warning people about consequences, and playing defense.
Please tell us about Recovery Unplugged.
Although I am not a musician, and 90% of our clients are not musicians, I realized early on that music possessed every asset I needed as a clinician/provider to effectively engage with patients and guide them toward recovery. This includes the ability to establish rapport, lower anxiety, increase energy, change moods, reinforce unity, and help clients retain the necessary skill sets and coping tools needed for long-term recovery.
Recovery Unplugged is a national addiction treatment organization offering all levels of care throughout multiple facilities across the country. We use music as a means to help our clients more readily embrace the treatment process. Combining proven, evidence-based treatment practices, such as medical detox and withdrawal management, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and comprehensive behavioral rehab with different types of active and passive musical engagement, we are the first and only addiction treatment organization to fully integrate music into every aspect of our care. We have locations all over the country, including Fort Lauderdale, Texas, Virginia, and Tennessee.
In my 30-plus years of helping clients battle addiction and mental health issues, there are multiple distinctions of which I’m proud. Individually, it was gratifying to develop, refine and implement the Recovery Unplugged care philosophy of Music-Assisted Treatment and helping to establish the Broward Drug Court Program and Mental Health Court.
Collectively, I have to say that I’m most proud of our company’s success rates. We’ve seen long-term recovery outcomes 4x higher than the national average, clients that leave against-medical-advice (AMA) discharges 5x lower than the national average, which directly correlates to better prognoses, and client approval ratings of 95%.
Who else deserves credit – have you had mentors, supporters, cheerleaders, advocates, clients or teammates that have played a big role in your success or the success of the business? If so – who are they and what role did they plan / how did they help.
Depending on who you ask, you would probably get a different response. Most would probably say I was a good kid raised in a good family. Music was always a big part of my life from my earliest memories at age 4, dancing on my parents’ restaurant table for the customers or hanging out in my teenage years at the original Woodstock site. I was always Respectful of my elders and even though I got into more trouble than I’d like to admit, growing up in Upstate New York it was a very close-knit community. The Catskill mountains will always be my home at heart.
I always had a sense that there was something greater going on here than I was able to comprehend and humbly I knew one day I would be part of helping people. I was one of the leaders amongst my friends and always felt bad if people were being bullied or picked on. I often, even if it meant getting into arguments with my friends, stood up for those who were less fortunate or considered weak.
I always gravitated toward the elderly population and would often ask them what it was like living in World War Two days. I was taught by them and others that we are not victims, and if ever there are any problems, it’s OK to talk about them as long as you have at least one solution.
This philosophy has never left me and has been the impetus for starting and growing Recovery Unplugged and Face the Music Foundation. These organizations were born out of a desire to not only improve outcomes for addicts needing recovery, but providing them the necessary prevention, education and free treatment regardless of their socioeconomic background.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.recoveryunplugged.com/
- Phone: 888-895-5066
- Email: [email protected]
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