Question 1

Transcript

Accepted Answer

Trey Laird: [00:00:00] I needed to see successful guys in meetings. I needed to know that like, you know, you know, going into, into, into AA was not, did not mean that I was going to give up my career and, you know, I'm never going to have fun anymore. And so guys who come to the lighthouse and look around is they get to know each other and realize that, you know, there's a lot of pretty successful men and women coming through treatment here that have had this.
You know, an alcohol use disorder, by the way, they've also been running fortune 500 companies in the meantime. So right, you know, it's, it's healthy for them to see that you know, recovery doesn't necessarily mean that you know, I'm, I'm lowering my goals or my expectations or, you know, or, or changing sort of where I want to get to But me and both used to be my family, my, my my, my profession and my passions.
Right.[00:01:00] 
Graham Doerge: Good morning. My name is Graham Durgie and I'm the founder and CEO of new orders recovery in Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome to our weekly podcast. Finding new waters. Our goal in creating, finding new waters is to provide a resource for families to help navigate the complexities of supporting a loved one, struggling with substance use or mental health.
When we find ourselves in crisis due to one of these issues, most people have no idea where to turn. We hope to shed some light onto what is often the darkest family, darkest hour for many families. I'm joined today by our executive director, Justin McClendon, and Trey Laird, who's the founder of Lighthouse Recovery in New Canaan, Connecticut.
Trey Laird is CEO and founder of the Lighthouse Sober Living and Lighthouse Recovery Coaching 365 program. Before founding Lighthouse, Mr. Laird was a Wall Street equities trader for 22 years, starting his career with Bankers Trust [00:02:00] and exiting with Lazard. Mr. Laird attended the Trinity School in Manhattan and Dartmouth College.
Mr. Laird has five children and lives in New Canaan, Connecticut with his wife. He's an avid golfer, marathoner, regularly travels to share his expertise on recovery and treatment, best practices, and makes regular media appearances to speak on addiction issues. Mr. Laird feels that his choice to recover out loud has had an extraordinary impact on his life and recovery.
Trey, thank you for joining us today. Always a pleasure to, to get to connect with you and hear a little bit about what you're doing. Thank you for being here. 
Trey Laird: Graham, thanks for having me, man. Good to catch up. 
Graham Doerge: Yeah, absolutely. So, I always like to start off with a little bit, obviously, introductory information about you.
Now, can you tell us just a little bit about, you know, your story, how you got into this field? I just find it always really interesting to see how people got into this work because it's not very common, right? 
Trey Laird: Yeah, it was definitely not on my [00:03:00] radar or roadmap. When I was growing up you know, I was in the middle of a, what ended up being a 22 year career on wall street.
15 years in, I developed a substance use disorder. And I ended up going to treatment in 2008. And while I was in treatment Okay. My wife invited me not to move home afterwards, there had been a lot of damage done in marriage, and she needed more time, and we had two kids at home, and so I went to my counselor at Silver Hill where I was in treatment, and I said, you know, I need to figure out where I'm going to live next, and she suggested that I go to a sober house, I'd never heard of a sober house, I didn't know what she was talking about.
But she described it as a you know, a next step after treatment where guys live together, but they went back to work and live their lives, but they had the community and accountability of, of the other guys in the house. And I said, that sounds like a pretty good idea. Give me the phone number.
I'll go. And she said, well, Trey, you should probably go to Florida or California. And I was in New Canaan, Connecticut, and I said, why would I go to Florida or California? And she said, [00:04:00] well, frankly, because there's nothing around here for you. And It didn't make sense to me to go to Florida or California, so I didn't.
I rented a house right in New Canaan. I went back to work. You know, I went to a lot of 12 step meetings and navigated early recovery with the help of those guys that I met there. And so, you know, six, seven years later there still was no significant, no, no good options for, you know, continuing care and sober living in the Northeast.
And so, that's when we. Got together and decided to open the lighthouse in Darien originally and now in New Canaan. So I, even then I thought it would be like a side project for me. I was not going to give up my Wall Street career, but it quickly became obvious that there was a lot to do and this was not a side project.
And so, and so I left and that was we're coming up on eight years in January that we've been That's great. Wow. Yeah. So you never know where you're going and and here we 
Graham Doerge: are. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. And obviously it's it's such an important [00:05:00] piece to the process, to the continuum of care, you know, that kind of step down component transitioning back into life after treatment or, or whatever you've done prior to that.
And in my mind, I feel like it's probably the most pivotal Decision that you make in that process, right? You know, because that's where the rubber hits, hits the road. That's where things get tough. That's where life starts happening. And, and do you have those tools? Are you going to implement those tools?
So, you know, it's definitely such a needed resource, certainly up in your area. So happy that you did that. But specifically to like, you guys cater to kind of a, a niche demographic and, and a, an executive demographic. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah, 
Trey Laird: Graham. So, I mean, the lighthouse, I, I, I, you know, I, I started it because it was the program that didn't exist when I needed it.
I was 38 years old again, you know, midway through a, you know, a Wall Street career and with a wife and kids and everything that comes with that. So our clientele, the average [00:06:00] age is going to be, you know, mid forties. Up to 50. You know, the average client is is working employed, usually in a very high senior level position.
You know, most of our clients are married and trying to stay married there. They have kids. They have families. They have a lot going on. They have a lot to lose. And they're, they're, you know, they're invested in, in what they're doing in their lives. And frankly, a lot of the parts of their lives are working and substances have worked in their life and specifically in their professional career for a long time.
So what they get it with us, to your point is like, you know, after treatment. Going back into your life with these new tools that you've obtained in treatment and utilizing them is it's difficult and you gotta, you know, you have to practice and you gotta you gotta get reps and you have to you know, learn what it's like to go to that board meeting and sit there and not be drinking.
And so that's what our clients get to do on a regular basis. I mean, we'll have a client come to us and you know, say, you know, Trey, I have to go [00:07:00] to work in the city on Monday and we say, great, how can we support you doing that? Whereas a lot of the, a lot of others, you know, extended care programs, sober livings that I'm familiar with, they, they say, Hey, you know, for the first month, you're not going to really do anything.
And then we'll talk about it in the second month and. You know, that's not us. We want to support client. We want to be able to support clients and wherever they're at. And a lot of times our clients are you know, going back into life pretty, pretty quickly. Yeah, I think that's my design. So, so 
Graham Doerge: yeah.
Yeah, no, a hundred percent. And I think, you know, we, you know, we had a client here a couple of months ago that was, you know, definitely in that, that fit that category. And it's just, you know, with gentlemen like that, it's just, they can't take. Two, three, four months off, you know, that's just not the reality.
It's not a realistic thing. So yeah, having that, that kind of piece that you have there to meet them where they're at, I think is, is such an important part of the puzzle. 
Justin Mclendon: Trey, can you tell us a little bit about, you know, it sounds like. Like you're saying, you're, you're supporting them, trying to [00:08:00] help them learn how to navigate, you know, career and life and things like that in the early stages of recovery.
Can you tell us a little bit more about what the programming, what the structure of Lighthouse 
Trey Laird: looks like? Our program is called Recovery 365. And so everybody that's living in the homes is in that program. But important to note that we also offer that program to clients that aren't living in the home as well.
And it's a coaching programs. Every client has their own recovery coach. We have a team of about 10 coaches. We pair each client up with the best coach. When they arrive, they meet with that coach twice a week. They, they decide the client decide sort of where and when those meetings are going to happen again, because they have busy lives.
So they might want to meet early in the morning before work. They might want to, you know, go at for a walk or hike on the weekend, they might want to hit golf balls, you know, it's sort of, we want to make it less therapy and more interactive with the client and fit into their life. So. Two meetings a week, and then the coach proactively [00:09:00] checks in with the client every day.
I think that's an important piece, and our clients agree, because, you know, a lot of them go to 12 step. A lot of them have sponsors, but the sponsors say, well, you can call me. But a lot of new people in early recovery, you know, go to meetings, don't. Feel like calling their sponsor until they get it. They don't get into that rhythm and the sponsor won't reach out to them.
So we have our coaches reach out to the clients every day. And then in addition to that, so we got groups every day at our men's and our women's house. So, use those groups are usually late afternoon, early evening, even at dinner. To accommodate again, the people that are working all day. And then we do alcohol monitoring and drug testing in the homes.
We, we, we do have an absence policy. Having said that, if you're in our recovery 365 program and not living in the lighthouse, you're not required to be abstinent. And we do have clients here and there that say that they would like to, you know, moderate, they would like to curtail. They would like to, they're not [00:10:00] interested in a hundred percent abstinence at the time.
And our coaches meet them where they're at too. Are you, 
Graham Doerge: are you seeing a lot of people? Cause obviously, you know, this like sober curious movement has really taken shape, right? So are you seeing folks in that category that are utilizing recovery 360? 
Trey Laird: Yes. I would say. Definitely not the majority.
It's more kind of like Yeah. You know, 10, 10, 15%. Yeah. And so far what we've seen is that after a period of exploration the client has generally come around to the idea that their life is better without any alcohol. And that, you know, having that glass of wine on Saturday night with their wife as their only drink of the week you know, isn't, isn't.
Not that it's not attainable, but what, why would I want to have a glass of wine with my wife? And, and do I really just want to have seven glasses of wine? So, yeah, we've had some clients that start down that road, but we've also [00:11:00] had clients that start down that road and then say, Hey, you know what?
Why do I need one? So I think more, more. What we've seen is that, you know, say somebody comes in with an opiate use disorder and they say, well, you know, I'm still, I still want to reserve the right to, you know, smoke THC or drink and and we've seen that happen a couple of times where you know, again, they say they're, they say it's successful.
We need, we need a larger length of study to understand if it really is successful, right? Yeah, 
Graham Doerge: 100%. And you guys are also doing interventions and, you know, doing some work on the front end as well. You've got some folks on your team. Are you seeing, and one of the kind of, you know, I'd love to hear your opinion on this, right?
Because I think with interventions in particular, you know, people have this kind of preconceived notion that you've got a hip bottom, right? And you know, what's your opinion on that, you know, for families who are. You know, potentially wanting to intervene. We're now coming up on the holidays, which is always a.[00:12:00] 
A tough time of year families getting together. You see your loved one for the first time. Maybe they're not doing as well as you thought they were. There's some sort of an incident. So yeah. What do we say to those families who are, you know, thinking in that direction, but just not quite sure if, if the timing's right.
Trey Laird: Yeah. So. I would say we do interventions. We like to call them structured family conversations as opposed to interventions. It's not a, it's not a main part of our business, but we also, we also want to support the family when they call. I would say that, you know, for us, we started a whole new line of business just in the last six months of family recovery coaching.
And what that looks like is family member calls and says, you know, my husband needs help, or my son needs help, or my, or my wife needs help. And if that person you know, the identified patient is not interested in getting help, well, we can work with the family and coach them, which may ultimately turn into An intervention or a [00:13:00] family conversation, you know, a structured conversation with that, with that loved one, but it might not either.
And so we've had clients that have successfully you know, come into our family coaching program and gotten some relief for themselves. And even if their loved one is still drinking we've also had situations where that you know, going down that path with the family has led. To the family themselves, speaking with their loved one and and, and affecting change.
And so I think we all agree that you don't have to hit a bottom. Uh mm-Hmm. . I think that the reason that families and people in general are so hesitant to reach out for help is because their view of what is out there, what's provided for help is not appealing. Right? I don't want to go away from.
30 days. I don't want to give up my phone. I don't wanna leave my house. I, and so, you know, the question then becomes, well, how do we give them what they want? Literally meet them where they're at. And so we also have [00:14:00] times when you know, we'll, we'll do a conversation with a, with a family. And instead of like having the car outside bags packed on the way to rehab, they may be going for, you know, a a psychiatric evaluation and then we're going to make a decision after that or go to a place like, like, like yours where, you know, you can get five to seven days of just some, you know, rest and care and it's, it's a good timeframe to be able to figure out next steps and next steps may not be a.
60 day treatment center. It might be back at home with a strong clinical team in your house, right? Yeah. So it's all about giving them, giving people options and ideas as opposed to cookie cuttering it and saying, this is what you have to do. Period. End of story. Right. 
Graham Doerge: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's been, that's been this cycle for so long.
Right. This cookie cutter treatment, you know, fits, fits everybody. Right. And and that's just not the case. Every client that comes in has different complexities, has, you know, different acuity and, and is, you know, we need to meet them [00:15:00] differently, you know, with every client. Right. So, yeah, I think that we're starting to see that that traditional kind of re treatment model is just, right.
Okay. Not really working anymore. So, 
Trey Laird: and 
Justin Mclendon: I would say, I think that's true, right? And I think that there's certain people that still do need that, right? You really do need that, you know, 30, 45, 60 day kind of primary treatment to jumpstart things and, and But it's true and I think it's refreshing that we are seeing a big change in the, in the field that that's not always the case with everybody and that we really do need to take the time to understand what that person's specific needs are and what the family system needs and to really try and get creative and come up with something that's going to be most helpful for everybody.
Right. 
Trey Laird: Yeah. Yeah. 
Graham Doerge: Yes. So, now tell me a little bit about like the, some of the recovery stuff that you guys, now you guys are all 12 step based, correct? You're, you're, you know, obviously a huge advocate of 12 step recovery. And, and, you know, go to meetings in your own life. I know. So how does some of that [00:16:00] programming look with your guys and getting them integrated with that?
Trey Laird: Yeah, no, let me, so let me. Slight correction. I'm not sure I would say that we're 12 step based. I would say that I'm a 12 step guy. And you know, I got, I got sober and treatment and then AA and still, you know, go to meetings, have a sponsor, have sponsees actively involved in, in 12 step. Having said that we don't have any requirements for our clients to go to meetings.
We believe in attraction, not promotion. I would say that our staff is primarily drawn from the 12 step community. And so, you know, if you're living at 1 of our houses or working with 1 of our coaches, you're likely going to hear about their 12 step experience. But again, we're not forcing anybody to go to meetings and what I tell people that call and ask questions about the lighthouses and they say, do I have to go to meetings?
I say, no, you don't have to go to meetings. [00:17:00] Having said that, if you don't go to meetings, you'll be minority and you'll likely have somebody, one of the other clients ask you why you aren't going to meetings. Because, and again, not, not to be you know, mean about it, but just to understand like why somebody wouldn't.
So we're very blessed and fortunate here. In Fairfield County, New Canaan, Westport, Greenwich has a really strong 12 step community. You know, there's over a hundred meetings a week, breakfast, you know, morning, lunch, evening, and so there's literally thousands of people doing the deal here in Fairfield County.
which is unlike some other, you know, geographies in the country, as I understand it. You know, if you live in Rochester, New York, and we've had a client from there, he'll say, Trey, I have one meet one group that meets three times a week near me. And so, you know, if I, and there's six guys that go, and so that's not a robust recovery community.
And so he doesn't use a 12 step recovery at, at his home. He comes back and visits with us regularly [00:18:00] and, and loves it here. But we we are open to any pathway. We've seen guys and women get, you know, you know, their recovery path would include you know, a robust new exercise regime plus church community plus, you know, an outdoor adventure pathway you know.
We, we encourage them to check out meetings, but we're not, we're certainly not gonna mandate them there. And, and again, AA is not created equal everywhere. I feel like there's geographies where it's strong and geographies where it's weak. And so, we're blessed to have a really strong community around us, but it doesn't exist everywhere.
Graham Doerge: Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, I think that that's that's obviously like with that clientele, that's where you've got to be right. You've got to meet them where they're at, but, but it's, it goes back to the foundations of AA and 12 step programming is, as you said, attraction rather than promotion.
Right. And that's just such a, I think that's such a pivotal part to the success of AA. So implementing that into your program and really yeah. [00:19:00] You know, using those strategies is, is going to be a really, really smart thing for you. Obviously it's worked really well for you. 
Trey Laird: I would say, you know, like if there's one thing about, you know, our core beliefs at the lighthouse is that we believe that a connection to a recovery community is the.
Is the essential part and one of the essential, if not the essential part of someone's recovery. And so we believe in the idea that, you know, a client can connect with other you know, other Lighthouse clients, other Lighthouse alum, other Lighthouse staff and start to see what recovery can look like for that for them because they're looking at what it's what, how it's, you know, how it's worked for people that have gone before them.
They're all smart enough to make their own decisions about, you Do I want what Graham has? Do I want what Justin has? Do I want what Trey has? And or maybe a little piece of what Graham does or a little piece of what Justin does. And so, you know, we believe in throwing a lot of different examples of recovery in front of [00:20:00] our clients while they're in residence or with us, and they can choose for themselves what works for them.
And it's worked really well, right? Like we have guys that go on ski trips. We have guys that go to, you know, and women that go to church together where they have. They form yoga groups. They do, you know, alumni zoom calls and, and you know, they like to be with each other. I mean, for me, for me, like what, what I loved to do was you know, things like playing golf and, and skiing and surfing.
And and, and so how was I going to do those things without a drink or a drug in my hand? And well, the answer for me was that I found other guys that like to do those things without drinking. And so, you know, my, my first time back at Yankee stadium, you know, which had become, you know, I was always a huge Yankee fan.
I went to a lot of games as a kid and growing up. And then at some point, you know, Yankee stadium just became a big bar for me and I couldn't get out of there, you know, without being blacked out. And so I was concerned about how I was going to go back to Yankee stadium, or even if I [00:21:00] could go back to Yankee stadium and not drink.
And the first few times I went, I went with three other guys, you know, who I met in recovery who didn't drink. And that gave me sober reference that showed me how to do that kind of thing. And and that's what we do with our clients, right? Like, you know, you want to go, you want to go play golf at your club.
Great. I understand that might be nervous for you because you always drink with those guys. How about you play with. Some of the other guys that don't drink and and, and build up your sober reference over time of doing those things you love to do. Because by the way, if you don't find things that you love to do without a drink in your hand, you're not likely to continue to have not have a drink in your hand.
You're going to, you're going to start 
Graham Doerge: drinking again. So, yeah, I mean, that's always been like the most. Pertinent thing to me was finding fun stuff to do. Right. And, and I was super fortunate and I've said this before on the podcast that I, I made that connection and treatment that I can sit here and say my life is over, or I can just start doing awesome stuff, you know, and start.
Doing things that I've always wanted to [00:22:00] do, but just haven't because I've been drinking myself to death in a basement in Boston, right? So, yeah, I mean, that's, that rings so true to me. I think that's such an important piece to this, this puzzle is just making that connection for these folks showing them how incredible life can be sober and the community aspect, right?
I mean, we all need and crave that community and when we're in our disease. You know, we're isolated, right. And, and, you know, I know at the end for me, the last six months were, you know, as I said, just solo in a basement with no heat, so it wasn't glorious at all. And, and now coming into recovery and having this community and this fellowship and you know, the support and camaraderie and, I mean, it was, it was.
Definitely alien for a while but it was, it was exactly what I needed. Right. Those guys holding me up when I, on those days that I was down and keeping me accountable. And so, yeah, I think 
Justin Mclendon: that's, and I go ahead and try to 
Trey Laird: elaborate [00:23:00] on that point is. I needed to see early on, I needed to see successful guys in meetings.
I needed to know that like, you know, you know, going into, into, into AA was not me, did not mean that I was going to give up my career and, you know, I'm never going to have fun anymore. And so guys who come to the lighthouse and look around as they get to know each other and realize that, you know, there's a lot of pretty successful men and women coming through treatment here that have had this, you know, an alcohol use disorder.
And And, and by the way, they've also been running fortune 500 companies in the meantime. So you know it's, it's healthy for them to see that you know, recovery doesn't necessarily mean that you know, I'm, I'm lowering my goals or my expectations or, you know, I, or, or changing sort of where I want to get to put me in both vis a vis my family, my, my my, my profession and my passions.
Right. So. Yeah. Yeah, 
Justin Mclendon: and I completely, what's coming up for me as we're talking about this is you know, not to say anything negative [00:24:00] about primary residential treatment, which we talked about a little while ago, but I agree. I think, you know, there's a place for residential treatment. It's a good place for people to learn.
It's almost like I think about it as like emotional graduate school, right? Like you can go there. Get a ton of information, further stabilization, things like that. But, you know, in my opinion, exactly what we're talking about, I think the most important part of the early phases of recovery is exactly this, right?
The community learning how to live in sobriety, learning how to find your way and have fun. And, you know, just like we're saying, I mean, the idea of learning the lesson that like, this doesn't have to be horrible. This doesn't have to be deprivation, right? I can find a way to. Be successful and like live a happy and healthy life is the biggest part in my opinion.
Graham Doerge: Yeah. And these are all high functioning people, right? So, and they're, and look at what they're accomplishing while they're using. Imagine what you can accomplish if you're sober. Yeah. I mean, gosh, you could light the world on fire. So, yeah, it's pretty amazing seeing that light turn on. Right. And, [00:25:00] and, you know, see those people make that connection and start to have some success and then, you know, just light the world on fire.
I mean, there's nothing better than that. And that's why we do this work. Right. Yes, 
Trey Laird: absolutely. You know, the other thing I would, I just wanted to mention is this idea to of practicing your recovery. And so you'll always ask me, well, Trey, what happens if a client you know, has a drink you know, while they're living with you?
And I say Well, if someone has, it's really good information and really good data for all of us to have, right? So if you went to work and then, you know, you got invited to a happy hour because you haven't told your coworkers yet that you're not drinking and you went to that happy hour to appease, you know, your boss or a colleague and you got there and the next thing you know, someone ordered you a drink and you drank it.
then, you know, that's good information for us all to have. It's not the end of the world. You don't need to go back to another 90 days of treatment. You know, we can work with that.[00:26:00] I understand, you know, the, the family's likely concerned and other stakeholders may be very worried about it, but it happens, right?
Like normal recovery you know, typical recovery is not, maybe not linear, right? There might be you know, periods of, of of reuse again. And so, you know, The importance of family work and the importance of a coach who and the importance of not being punitive like we would never punish a client for for taking a drink or having a recurrence like that's that happens, you know, what what's not okay is to put our head in the sand and pretend it didn't happen.
And we all would also is not okay is to punish somebody for that recurrence. And so, you know, I think we're sort of moving in this direction where, where people who are working in the field understand that, like, you know, you got to walk with your client and you got to the ups and the downs. And I think that that's what we do really well.
And by the way, it's also why I get a lot of people that don't want to go to treatment or don't want to start the journey because they, they think that like, you know, that if they have one drink or one [00:27:00] recurrence, like, you know, the world's going to end or they're going to. You know, be punished for that, right?
And so we have no, our coaches and our team are really good at being like, listen, this happens now. What are we going to do? Right? What are we going to learn from this? What are, what are our takeaways and how are we going to monitor or sort of, you know, adjust what, what you're doing or not doing to to get the better, to get a better goal.
Graham Doerge: Yeah. Yeah. And I think in many ways it can be an asset to you, right? Moving forward. I mean, I had a relapse about five years in, you know, when I originally from when I originally got sober and you know, my sponsor at that point said, listen, this is part of your story now and you can now help another man who's struggling with the same thing.
Right. And you have that experience now to go through this and, and it doesn't have to be punitive. What, like you said, it's, it's like, all right, let's dust ourselves off and. Keep moving forward and we know what to do. And we had a little slip there and let's, let's keep on moving forward. Right. So, I love that, that kind of notion and You know, I think that's a great way to [00:28:00] end it today to so much good information, Trey, and really appreciate you coming on here.
Now where can everybody find you? What's, can you, can you give us your website and, and maybe social media? 
Trey Laird: Yeah, the lighthouse, the lighthouse ct. com is our website. We're on, we're on Instagram and LinkedIn at the lighthouse. We're in New Canaan, Connecticut. So, fortunately we don't have a ton of competitors up this way.
So if you just Google the lighthouse, Connecticut, you probably find us quickly. And there's phone numbers on there. Anybody wants to give me a shout happy to talk further. And yeah, thanks for having me on guys. It's been great. I, I need to get down to Raleigh and and see your guys' place and keep doing the good 
Graham Doerge: work.
Yeah, anytime, man. Yeah, I'd love, love to have you down and, and we're gonna do something this spring, so we'll we'll let you know and we'll get you down here. Awesome, awesome. All right guys. Well thanks. Fantastic having you on, and we will see you guys next week.[00:29:00] 
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Question 2

Show Notes

Accepted Answer

In this insightful episode of "Finding New Waters," we are joined by Trey Laird, CEO and founder of The Lighthouse Recovery Services. With a rich history as a Wall Street equities trader and a personal journey through substance use disorder, Trey offers a unique perspective on addiction and recovery. He shares his story of transitioning from a high-pressure career to founding The Lighthouse, a sanctuary that helps individuals in the Northeast U.S. navigate the challenging path of recovery.

**Key Points Discussed:**
- Trey's personal experience with substance use disorder during his Wall Street career and his path to recovery.
- The inception of The Lighthouse Recovery Services as a response to the lack of suitable sober living options in the Northeast.
- The unique approach of The Lighthouse in catering to a high-functioning clientele, including executives and professionals.
- Insights into the Recovery 365 program, which includes personalized coaching and daily proactive engagement.
- The importance of community, connection, and finding joy in sober activities in the recovery process.
- Trey's philosophy on relapse as a learning opportunity and the non-punitive approach to recovery.

**Episode Highlights:**
- Trey's candid storytelling about his struggles and triumphs offers hope and practical advice to those facing similar challenges.
- A deep dive into how The Lighthouse blends structured recovery with the flexibility needed by high-functioning professionals.
- Discussions on changing perceptions of recovery, the role of family in the healing process, and how to maintain a fulfilling, sober life.

**About the Guest:**
Trey Laird, with a background as a Wall Street equities trader and a Dartmouth College alumnus, brings a unique blend of professional acumen and personal recovery experience. His work at The Lighthouse is not just a mission but a testament to the positive impacts of living a sober life.

**Closing Thoughts:**
This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking understanding and inspiration in the journey of recovery, especially for those balancing demanding careers and personal challenges.

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For more information about The Lighthouse Recovery Services, visit their website https://thelighthousect.com

Navigating the Waters of High-Functioning Addiction with Trey Laird

Navigating the Waters of High-Functioning Addiction with
Trey Laird