From the moment a client enters treatment and grants permission for family communication, our Family Program Director reaches out directly. This first call is the beginning of the family's own process. Micha Matherne, LCSW, our Family Program Director, introduces the program, explains what is available, answers initial questions, and makes sure every family member knows exactly how to get connected to the support that is waiting for them.

Families also receive follow-up information by email, including access to virtual support groups, educational materials, and guidance on starting their own recovery process.

The centerpiece of our Family Program is a series of progressive monthly workshops that move families through their own arc of healing alongside their loved one's recovery.

The first workshop is a three-day experience held Friday through Sunday, bringing together the client and their selected family members or support system. Families learn about addiction as a family disease, not simply the disease of one person, and begin to examine the roles and dynamics that have formed around their loved one's substance use. They start developing the communication tools and boundaries that support recovery rather than inadvertently undermine it. Families often describe this workshop as the moment they first began to genuinely understand what they have all been living through.

Just as we believe sobriety is a long-term journey, the same holds true for our families. As your loved one progresses through treatment, you will be invited into a second, more advanced workshop offered every two to three months. This is where the focus shifts from disconnection to connection. Workshop Two moves away from psychoeducation and into group therapy, creating space for families to do the deeper relational work of healing: processing trauma, examining shame, and beginning to rebuild the bonds that addiction has strained or severed. The work you do through our progressive workshops and weekly support will move the focus from how to fix the addiction to how to heal the family.

Our Family Program includes two weekly virtual groups open to all participating families.

On Tuesdays, our Family Support Group provides a consistent, welcoming space to process ongoing experiences, ask questions, and receive support from others navigating similar circumstances. On Thursdays, our Families Helping Familes Group deepens families' understanding of addiction, mental health, codependency, and the recovery process.

Both groups are virtual, making them accessible to families across Louisiana and beyond who cannot travel to Baton Rouge regularly.

Once families complete the initial workshops and become regular group participants, they are invited into our monthly Family Alumni Group. This is a long-term community space where healing continues after a client's formal treatment ends, where new challenges can be explored, progress can be celebrated, and the habits and insights built during treatment can be reinforced over time.

Recovery is a long game for families as much as it is for the men in treatment. The Alumni Group is built around that reality.

Micha and her team also offer individual clinical support to families who need more personalized attention alongside the group programming. Whether a family is navigating a particularly complex situation, processing something that feels too private for a group setting, or simply needs a one-on-one conversation to get started, individualized sessions are available by Zoom or phone. These sessions are tailored to each family's specific circumstances and provide the clinical depth that group programming alone cannot always deliver.

Staying connected during long-term treatment matters, and we work to make that possible as each client is ready. Visitation and passes are incorporated into treatment as a client progresses, increasing in duration and frequency as their clinical team determines they are prepared. For families who live out of state or cannot travel, virtual communication options are available.