Holistic Approach to Recovery

A New Approach for Addiction Treatment: 
Astara Holistic Addiction Recovery Program


Addiction is neither a moral issue nor an indication of weakness, lack of will-power or even a disease.  It is instead a symptom of larger and deeper unaddressed issues.

Based at Insight Learning & Wellness Center, the Astara approach for treating addiction with an individualized, yet holistic team approach, has been very successful in not only helping people free themselves from addiction, but also helps them move on to actualize their dreams and goals for the future. It is so gratifying to see the way our amazing clients use the program to free themselves from the prison of addiction.

In Astara's years of helping people battle addiction, we have learned that our newer, alternative approaches are working much better in treating addictions than the older, standard paradigm.

Usually, traditional outpatient models only include group work and typically focus on keeping the addiction in check through the twelve steps.  Astara, on the other hand, offers an individualized addiction therapy program - designed collaboratively with the client - and is dependent on the level and type of addiction.

Having an expert, compassionate team of professionals to treat the whole person, not just the addiction, has been a primary reason for our clients' success. Astara's holistic treatment offers a blend of cutting-edge individual and group counseling, which can also include family and partners.  Twelve-step programs are still encouraged as a treatment option, but not as the only way, since our findings indicate that different approaches work for different people.

Marilyn Wise, MEd,  LPC, LICDC-S conducts the crucial motivational interviewing, in which the client is met with respect, patience and empowerment and delivers hope, support, skills and encouragement. "We do not require abstinence to treat people and find that, for many, recovery is a gradual process of readiness, which we support," says Wise.Marilyn Wise

Marilyn is also certified in the highly effective clinical heart-centered hypnotherapy, offered by the Wellness Institute through the Cleveland Clinic. "I find it so very effective in healing the roots of addiction and other self-defeating behaviors which are often coping mechanisms to ward off painful feelings and false beliefs," says Wise.

Additionally, she has studied at the Harvard Medical School's Mind Body Institute as well as having extensive training in neurolinguistic programming, cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness training and evidence-based practices that work for the long term.

Astara's exceptional team includes Sara Stein, MD and author, who has been helping clients curb their cravings, and physically strengthen their bodies through functional medicine, holistic psychiatry and nutritional counseling. She is especially effective with food addictions.

Jared West, Licensed Acupuncturist, is an integral part of the Astara approach by helping to calm and balance the nervous system through the age-old practice of acupuncture. Fred Snowden, RCST, BCPP, LMT, CR and Vicky Bodner, LMT offer Cranialsacral therapy - so helpful for those in the stress of recovery - as well as massage therapy.

In addition, we offer specialized group programming including: Yoga for Recovery classes, Mindfulness Meditation group, and the enlightening 'Living the Light' group, based on positive psychology and the laws of attraction.  

Blonde_arms_out These unique programs, as well as our extraordinary staff, are all part of how and why we are able to achieve such remarkable results. Together, our team's therapies work on multiple levels for each individual's treatment: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Evidence shows that recovery is stronger when the whole person is treated, not just the addiction. Free consultations are available to see if Astara Holistic Addiction Recovery Program is right for you or your loved one.

"I have been so honored to be an addiction counselor all these years, now more than ever before. The more I learn, through training, education and, most of all, from my clients, the more I believe in the power of the human spirit to heal and transform," says Wise.