Mental health issues are prevalent in one of every five adults in America and are given adequate amount of importance as mental health awareness is deemed as an important aspect in the health of individuals. Addiction too has been recognized as a serious disease that requires treatment.
When it comes to mental illness, they are categorized under Any Mental Illness (AMI) and Serious Mental Illness (SMI). AMI deals with all types of mental illnesses and SMI deals with more specified, serious mental disabilities.
Rehabilitation Centers are where people with mental health and addiction problems are helped to heal and reinvent themselves. Provision of adequate treatment with respect to whichever mental health or addiction issue a patient faces, is what rehab centers strive for, and thus creating an environment which is in accordance with the requirement of the treatment.
While intensively taking on the topic for our edition titled, 10 Most Promising Rehabilitation Centers to Watch in 2021, we interviewed Seasons in Malibu, a serene residential treatment organization licensed for both primary substance use and mental health treatment.
In the following interview, Dr. Reuben Vaisman, the Primary Therapist at Seasons, shares with us in detail about the organization’s journey in the mental and drug rehabilitation niches and his opinions about the discipline, along with the services they provide.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Please brief our audience about your organization, its values, and the key aspects of its stronghold within the rehabilitation space.
Seasons in Malibu is a luxury residential treatment organization licensed for both primary substance use and mental health. Since its incorporation in 2008, Seasons believes in a central client approach which takes into consideration all of the unique and specific concerns which individuals might face prior to, and during treatment. We find that the boutique environment and surroundings provide for an optimal experience in healing.
Tell us more about the services that make your organization stand out from the competition?
The clinical expertise, personal attention to customer service, the unmatched number of private sessions and sophistication of the credentialed staff is what differentiates us. We only use licensed Doctoral level psychologists for treatment and case managers have nothing less than a Masters. We incorporate up to 65 one-to-one sessions per month, which is unmatched by any other treatment organization.
What is your opinion on the impact of the current pandemic on the global healthcare sector, and what were the challenges you came across during the initial phase of the pandemic?
The pandemic response from a healthcare standpoint only further stressed the collective mental health needs of the world. The pandemic has proven to have a collective pressure point in which the demand for client needs started to exceed the services available.
As a result, the industry has shifted and is now permitting greater allowances for access to resources that were not originally available (tele-sessions, counselling across state lines, etc). During the initial phases we were met with similar challenges as hospitals and other direct care facilities, which were largely dependent around safety, made adjustments of treatment practices and assurances for a systemic response.
In your opinion, what could be the future of the rehabilitation services niche post the pandemic?
The virtual industry is going to have the most significant impact, largely due to its accessibility and ability to prove effective during this time. Acute patients will still require an in-person care environment like Seasons provides, but outside of that, most practitioners have decided to maintain their virtual practices.
As an established leader, what would be your advice to the budding entrepreneurs and enthusiasts aspiring to venture into rehabilitation services sector?
The focus on quality of work must always supersede all interests for an organization. If you invest in a quality product, it will not take long for clients to see and experience the difference.
How do you envision on scaling your company’s operations in 2021?
We will continue to address performance assessments in order to have economy of scale while still integrating a high-quality treatment.
About the leader
Dr. Reuben Vaisman-Tzachor obtained his doctorate in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles. He is a Fellow at the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute in Clinical and Forensic Psychology, a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychology Specialties, a Fellow at the American Psychotherapy Association, and he is certified in Homeland Security Specialty at Level-3 (CHS-III).
He is an adjunct professor of clinical and forensic psychology at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles, and an adjunct professor at Antioch University in Culver City, California. He is a former adjunct professor of clinical psychology at Alliant International University, California School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles, a former adjunct professor of clinical psychology at Argosy University and at National University in Los Angeles.
Dr. Vaisman is the owner and director of the Counseling Center of Santa Monica – A Psychological Corporation based in Santa Monica, California and he is also an attending psychologist and psychology proctor at Cedars Sinai Medical Center Department of Psychiatry in Los Angeles, California.
He has conducted research and published numerous articles on the psychology of terrorists and terrorism prevention and lead a research project for the development of a national terrorism prevention strategy at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He presented his proposal for a national terrorism prevention strategy to the George W. Bush administration and his work was subsequently adopted into the official curriculum of the US FBI Academy. His book “The Book of Terrorism” was published by Cambridge Brick House in Boston, MA in 2012.
Dr. Vaisman initiated the study of previously uncharted domain of psychological assessments for immigration courts and published seminal articles on psychological evaluations for federal immigration courts.
His work has been widely accepted as the measurement standard for such evaluations and his expert opinions have been well received in federal courts and in federal appellate courts. His other areas of research-based knowledge and service-delivery expertise include drug and alcohol addiction rehabilitation; human-animal interactions; the psychology of aging; chronic mental illness, and multicultural psychology.
Dr. Vaisman was born in Israel and served in the Israeli military as a Navy captain, a weapons systems officer, and as a gunship commanding officer. He has had extensive anti-terrorism warfare experience and direct involvement in many combat military operations against terrorists in the Middle East. He later served as a supervisor in the Israeli government terrorism prevention agency based in the Western United States. In his role as a supervisor he authored, field-tested, and implemented numerous terrorism prevention protocols for various theaters in the region.
