Gina: Hi everyone, welcome to the Harmony Foundation Podcast Series, and it’s my pleasure today to be joined with Becca Edge, co-founder of Anchored Tides Recovery, and Kelsey Huberty, clinical director. It’s nice to have you both here.
Becca Edge: Thanks for having us, nice to be here.
Kelsey Huberty: Nice to be here, thank you.
Gina: Really excited to learn more about Anchor Tides. But before we do that, let’s learn a little bit more about you both. So let’s start with you first, Becca. You’re the co-founder of Anchored Tides. How did you find yourself working in the field of addiction treatment?
Becca Edge: Well, it started as a passion project. I was in a totally different career, and it just felt like I wasn’t fulfilling a purpose. So I decided to just open a little sober living on the side, and keep it very small with women only, and that would be my heart project. And as time went on, the community responded really positively to it, there was definitely a need to it. And I found myself getting pulled away from my “career,” and just spending more time with the women. So that’s kind of how it started, and then it just kind of grew organically from there and turned into something really cool.
Gina: And you’re in southern California, Huntington Beach area, correct?
Becca Edge: Yeah, Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa, yeah.
Gina: Oh, very nice. And so how about you, Kelsey?
Kelsey Huberty: Yeah, so without knowing it, addiction has been part of my life from as long as I can remember, and honestly I had no intention of working in this field. I kind of knew it existed, growing up next door, basically, to Hazelden, but in college I took an elective course in, they called it chemical dependency counseling at the time. And I just had that feeling of “This is what I’m supposed to be doing.” And then during college I got into my own recovery process, and it really helped me to get kind of a different understanding, obviously, of the field and recovery and being a woman, the issues that women tend to face. So is it accident, is it divine intervention? I don’t really know.
Gina: I think it’s a lot of both, yeah.
Kelsey Huberty: But that’s where I ended up, and I absolutely love it.
Gina: Great. Well, yeah, and I agree with you, it’s like nobody wakes up and says “I really want to work in the field of addiction treatment.” I think a lot of us found ourselves being called to it, which is what I found as well.
Kelsey Huberty: Yes.
Becca Edge: Yes.
Gina: So Anchored Tides is a women’s only treatment program. It’s in Huntington Beach. Becca, take a couple minutes and describe for us some of the specific programming that you offer for women that often are more tailored to women, because we know that treatment isn’t just across the board something that you can do for everybody. It really has to be unique, and sometimes gender plays a part in that. So what does that look like for your folks?
Becca Edge: So a lot of the times women come in and they identify just as an addict or an alcoholic, and then the more time they get sober, they realize “Oh, I have all of these other issues that played into my addiction.” So that’s really what we want to focus on treating, ’cause if that goes untreated, that’s when they tend to go back out and relapse, and they have trouble achieving long-term sobriety. So a lot of issues for women come up around co-dependency and relationships, whether that’s romantic relationship, friend relationships, family relationships. You know, all the relationships tend to be really sick when one of the people in it is sick. We also focus on disordered eating. And that can be someone who has a history of an eating disorder or someone that just has never really grocery shopped, doesn’t know what nutrition looks like and doesn’t know how to eat like an adult.
I know for me, I thought cupcakes were an appropriate dinner for the first few months/years of my recovery. And so yeah, so disordered eating, relationships and codependency, and then we focus on a lot of trauma as well. And we always say that can be a little T, big T. But trauma is trauma, and that affects us in how we live our life and perceive the world around us. So we really like to focus on that. We provide, we try to integrate 12-step with a lot of holistic approaches as well. So we do breath works, meditation, reiki, yoga, art therapy, music therapy, in addition to a lot of process groups, she resilience, etc. So we try to just give our clients all of the tools they need to have a long-term successful recovery.
Gina: Yeah, that’s great.
Kelsey Huberty:And then I think another important piece of what we do is really helping women to define or meet an authentic sense of self in recovery. Because both men and women and everybody in between, we get socialized that we “should” be a certain type of way. If you’re a woman, you should do X, Y, Z. If you’re a man, you should do X, Y, and Z. And so we really take a look at the socialization process, what people are raised with individually, what we’re raised with collectively, and kind of unpack what fits for you, what doesn’t fit for you. And who do you really want to be, versus who have you been told to be or not to be?
Gina: A lot of times when you’re coming out of addiction, you have that arrested development, so especially if you started really young, you’ve never really had that ability to self-actualize.
Kelsey Huberty: Right.
Gina: And so it’s great that you all are creating that space for that, which is good. So we always like to learn about the people behind the program. So we can talk all day long about your services, but if I were to ask you, Kelsey, in the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life, what would you say?
Kelsey Huberty: You know, I think for me it’s really been getting into the practice of meditation, which has then opened a lot of doors for me. And I am not a tattoo person, but I always say if I ever got a tattoo, I would probably get something like “Let your faith be bigger than your fear.” I know for a lot of my life I lived in fear and let that run my life, and so now to be able to have faith even during uncomfortable times, it’s really reassuring. And for me that looks different than what it might look like for you or for Becca. And so just getting really in touch with that and that practice. And also stopping to appreciate the beauty in life.
Gina: Mm-hmm (affirmative), really being present. I can completely relate with what you’re talking about. I’ve started my meditation practice in the last year as well, and it’s definitely been like a whole new world opening up for you when you have the opportunity to do that, which is really great. How about you, Becca?
Becca Edge: Well, mine’s kind of along the same similar lines. I am in a 12-step program, and that is the basis for my spirituality. But that, like I said, that kind of keeps me maintaining. So in the past few years I’ve really looked at how I can grow that. And it is meditation, yoga, reiki, just getting in touch with myself and my spirit and honoring that and figuring out who I am. Again, I think that’s an ever-changing process. So we teach our clients, you know, figure out who you are and who you want to be, and that’s gonna be different today than it is tomorrow and the next day. So it’s just kind of constantly figuring out who you want to be and being true to your authentic self.
Gina: That’s so true.
Becca Edge: Yeah.
Gina: So true, especially since we always think that once we feel like we get there, we don’t have to do any more work.
Becca Edge: Right.
Gina: And we know that it’s like surf school, we’re always working.
Becca Edge: Right. It’d be nice if it was that way.
Gina: [crosstalk 00:07:21].
Kelsey Huberty: I’m done.
Becca Edge: I’m done, check.
Gina: Yes, we’re finally here. So Kelsey, playing off the idea of the word harmony, what do you think it means to live a life in harmony?
Kelsey Huberty: So I don’t know if this makes sense to other people, but it’s like that feeling of being in the flow. So for me, my heart feels warm, my spirit feels warm, and for me, when I’m in harmony, it feels like the universe is conspiring for me. I think a lot of people tend to look at the negatives in life, “This isn’t happening for me, this isn’t happening for me,” but every day there’s so much happening for us. And so looking for that evidence of the good and the ways in which the universe or your higher power or whatever that looks like for you is really helping to carry you along the journey. And I think it is, it’s this ever-growing process of, I have to keep doing my work, I have to keep being a good student of the craft, for me in this field and just in life, and contributing positively to society. And then I get this feeling that life is great, life’s beautiful. And that’s what it feels like when things are in harmony for me.
Gina: I love that. That’s a great response.
Kelsey Huberty: Thank you.
Gina: How about you, Becca?
Becca Edge: Yeah, for harmony, I feel like it’s, you know when you’re in harmony, it’s the feeling inside yourself. And it’s when you’re not fighting, I feel like. When you stop fighting, you’re in acceptance. And it’s kind of this reprogramming of your brain so that, you know, life happens. There’s always gonna be issues and things that come up, but it’s how you perceive it and how you can learn from it. And so instead of being like “Oh, this terrible thing happened,” kind of like you touched on, this is an obstacle, but it’s a chance for growth and self-improvement, because the reality is we don’t usually grow from happy, good times. We usually sit in them. So pain is a chance for growth and betterment, and I feel like when you’re in the mindset to do that, it doesn’t really matter what’s going on in the world around you, because the inside’s harmonious and you’re at peace with the world around you and your environment and the people around you, and that’s harmony.
Kelsey Huberty: I heard it, or read it that somebody said everything in life is either a blessing or a lesson. And for me …
Becca Edge: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Gina: That’s true, yeah. I like that.
Kelsey Huberty: Because I think … and part of this has come from meditation, but it’s really easy to grab onto negative things in life and to attach our identity to them. But when you look at it as “Okay, what can I learn from this,” you don’t get so attached to an event and you just see it all as part of your process.
Gina: Right, yeah. I think we all need to do a better job of that. It’s hard when we’re focused in on it and pain, the struggle is so hard.
Kelsey Huberty: Yes.
Gina: But you’re right, when you can look at the silver lining and see what the value is from it, there’s always something to be learned.
Kelsey Huberty: Yes.
Gina: So Becca, if someone wanted to get in touch with Anchored Tides Recovery, how could they get in touch with you?
Becca Edge: Well, you can go to our website, which is www.anchoredtidesrecovery.com, or you can call our admissions line, which is area code 714-377-7706, or just email at admissions@anchoredtidesrecovery.com as well.
Gina: Wonderful.
Becca Edge: Lots of information there.
Gina: That’s all right, that’s great.
Kelsey Huberty: It’s a long name.
Gina: No, it’s good, thank you both so much for taking the time to come out and visit with us. We really enjoyed getting to know you, and we look forward to working with you.
Becca Edge: thank you, yeah, it was great hearing you.
Kelsey Huberty: Thanks for sharing this impressive program and this beautiful location with us.
Gina: Thank you.