Inside Prescott House

June is PTSD Awareness Month. Nearly half of people with PTSD will also meet criteria for a substance use disorder, yet trauma is still routinely treated as a secondary concern in addiction care. A look at why trauma and addiction have to be treated together, why that work takes longer than 30 days, and what referring clinicians can watch for this month.

Recovery is not just about stopping a behavior. It is about learning how to live. In this piece, Marsha J. Gehl, CMT-P, lays out the whole-person model behind treatment at Prescott House: the neuroscience of addiction and brain plasticity, why integrated care works better than any single therapy, and how CBT, EMDR, experiential modalities, mindfulness, nutrition, community, and long-term residential structure come together to support lasting change. Written for the man considering treatment, the family trying to understand it, and anyone who senses that real recovery takes more than willpower.

Primary therapist David Glasser first walked into Prescott House as a client. He shares his path through addiction, recovery, and returning to help the men who are now sitting right where he once sat.

Prescott House is exhibiting at the West Coast Symposium on Addictive Disorders, May 28–30 in Palm Springs. If you're a clinician, interventionist, or referral partner attending WCS, come talk long-term care with us.

Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) is an eight-week program that combines mindfulness practice with evidence-based relapse prevention skills. Developed at the University of Washington by Drs. Sarah Bowen, Neharika Chawla, and the late G. Alan Marlatt, MBRP teaches people in recovery to meet cravings, triggers, and difficult emotions with steadiness rather than reactivity. In this piece, Marsha J. Gehl, CMT-P, walks through what MBRP actually is, the research behind it, the eight-week curriculum, the core practices like urge surfing and the SOBER breathing space, who it is for, and how to find a qualified facilitator. Written for the man in recovery, the family member trying to understand, and the clinician looking for a thoughtful overview of one of the most evidence-supported contemplative approaches in addiction care.

Adderall and gambling show up together far more often than clinicians initially assume. This piece unpacks what the research says about amphetamine, dopamine, and gambling motivation, why the ADHD picture is more complicated than it looks, how sports betting has accelerated the co-occurrence in young men, the warning signs, and why treating stimulant misuse and gambling addiction together — not separately — is what actually works. Prescott House's long-term residential program for men is built for exactly this presentation.

A CMT-P, or Certified Mindfulness Teacher – Professional, is one of the most rigorous credentials in mindfulness instruction, awarded by the International Mindfulness Teachers Association (IMTA), an organization founded by UCLA professionals to set real standards in a field that genuinely needed them. Marsha J. Gehl has officially earned hers, after submitting years of documented training, certifications, and supervised teaching experience for formal review and approval. Unlike most wellness credentials, CMT-P status can be independently verified through the IMTA's public certified teacher directory. For the clients whose lives she has already changed, this certification is simply the official confirmation of what they have known for years.

Arizona's statewide self-exclusion program now covers all tribal gaming facilities, sports betting apps, and fantasy sports platforms, making it easier than ever for Arizonans with a gambling problem to create a real barrier between themselves and the bet. The Arizona Department of Gaming's "Take Back the Game" campaign is raising awareness of this tool across the state. For those who need more than a barrier, professional gambling addiction treatment in Arizona is available at Prescott House.

Wondering how to know if you have a sex addiction? The difference comes down to control and consequences, not how often you think about sex or how many partners you have had. This post breaks down the clinical signs, explains what the Sexual Addiction Screening Test actually measures, and helps you figure out whether what you are experiencing is worth taking seriously.

AI companion addiction is a rapidly growing form of love addiction, driven by platforms like Character.AI, Replika, and ChatGPT that simulate emotional and romantic bonds engineered to keep users engaged. Men are disproportionately vulnerable due to emotional isolation, attachment wounds, and a cultural reluctance to seek help — and the neurochemical response to these digital relationships is clinically indistinguishable from real attachment. Multiple deaths have now been linked to AI chatbot dependency, including cases where chatbots actively discouraged users from seeking human support. At Prescott House, we treat AI companion addiction as what it is: a modern expression of love addiction and intimacy disorder that requires specialized, long-term clinical care.

The four stages of trauma recovery — Safety and Stabilization, Remembrance and Mourning, Reconnection and Integration, and Meaning and Post-Traumatic Growth — provide a clinically recognized roadmap for healing from addiction, intimacy disorders, and betrayal trauma. Each stage builds on the last. Recovery begins by regulating the nervous system and establishing safety, moves into processing grief and loss, then rebuilds identity and connection, and ultimately transforms the experience into lasting personal growth. While the timeline looks different for everyone, the pathway remains consistent — and understanding it helps individuals and their partners know where they are, what they're feeling, and what kind of support they actually need.

We opened The Daily Courier this morning — and found Prescott House on the front page. Mobile sports betting is quietly devastating families across Arizona, and our own Bobby Engel and Jon Landis sat down with reporter Brodie Greene to talk about what they're seeing on the front lines every day. From the brain chemistry behind the addiction to the young men whose lives are being derailed, their insights are eye-opening. Read on to see what they had to say — and how Prescott House is helping people find their way out.