Testimonials
Words That Matter About Back2Basics
When it comes to gratitude and rave reviews, don’t take our word for it. Read the words in the testimonials below from our former clients, parents and other professional colleagues to learn more about their experience with Back2Basics. These testimonials speak volumes, not just about our success, but about the success of our clients in continuing their life-long journey as sober adults, long after they’ve completed our Back2Basics and Beyond the Basics programs. When our clients are successful, then we are successful.
Clients’ Testimonials

A Client’s Journey From Addiction To Sobriety
My experience at Back2Basics was unlike anything I had ever known. Life prior to Back2Basics was filled with pain, despair, and doubt. However, when I left Back2Basics in early March of 2017, my life was radically different. I was born just outside of Boston, Massachusetts in May of 1993. Some of my earliest memories are of living with a crippling sense of social anxiety and feelings of social ostracism, but those memories are mixed with various moments of contentment and joy. I found my peace as a kid when I was playing sports, enjoying the outdoors, and reading. I always excelled in these venues, as well as academically.
Everything began to change during my sixth grade year in elementary school. My father and my grandmother died that year, and I also almost died due to complications from an appendectomy. At this point, all of my feelings of inferiority, anxiety, and isolation began to accelerate and did so until I found drugs and alcohol. Once I found liquor and drugs, I learned that all those feelings could be shut away and I spent the next eight years hunting that fleeting feeling of inner peace that intoxication provided. And it worked. For a long time I felt happy with myself, but bit-by-bit that began to deteriorate. The false bravado that I had created for myself started to fail as I began to receive social and legal consequences ranging from arrests to expulsion from my college of choice.
Eventually, I found myself using drugs just to function and liquor just to stay “sane”. Then, I broke. For me, that looked like an inability to work enough to support myself. It looked like a deep depression that made a bottle, my bed, and a television the only things I could appreciate. When I woke in the morning, it was nearly impossible to leave my bed, and I cursed a God I didn’t believe in for keeping me on this earth; and I couldn’t see any connection to drugs and alcohol.
Eventually, my roommates kicked me out and my parents offered me rehab as an alternative. I chose to go to a twenty-one day program in Connecticut because I felt trapped, but I had no intention and no desire to be sober. After beginning to sober up and discovering the bond that people searching to change their lives together experience, I began to come around to the concept of temporary sobriety.
At this point, my parents asked me to stay in rehab for 100 days, as they had read some article on neuroscience that supported this mark as the point at which the brain truly begins to heal. I left my life behind, recognizing the opportunity that starting fresh presented, and I traveled to Arizona to join Back2Basics. There began my actual immersion into sobriety.
Back2Basics combined almost everything that I wanted to incorporate into my life into their weekly schedule. Yoga, athletics, workout programs, a culinary program, and an immersive outdoor program; these were a part of my weekly and daily life, and they helped me to completely buy in to the Back2Basics process. It wasn’t ever easy. I constantly found myself challenged by my peers in communities and group therapies, and I had to confront my inner demons as I began to learn that these confrontations all came from a place of love. I learned how to trust the men that I went through program with as I listened to them unrelentingly question my motives and my actions with the hope of helping me grow. Slowly, I grew an internal confidence, something I have never had before, as I preserved through miles and miles of hiking, desperately waiting for the next water source. And that confidence only grew during the transitional living program, as I failed time and again in my attempts to live real life my way, but worked with the staff to learn from my mistakes with the hope simply to improve the next time life threw me a curveball.
By the end of my year in Back2Basics, I learned how to start loving myself and began to start loving other people. This is the greatest gift anyone can ever receive, and Back2Basics led me there. For this gift, I will always be grateful to Back2Basics. – Ian M. (March 2017)
Parent Testimonials

A Parent’s Journey Of Love For His Son
As a parent who was close to every stage of my son’s decline into and continuing climb out of addiction I write this testimony with the mind set of, I wish I knew then what I know now. You are reading this most likely because you are facing the same crises that all parents face when the reality of addiction becomes impossible to ignore. All the denying, bargaining and depression that our loved one can somehow will his way out of this nightmare becomes painfully impossible. This was the time that as a parent I tried to become an expert in the recovery of addiction. I read online reviews with recovery rate statistics, with philosophies on how best to obtain relapse prevention, etc. My son’s experience was, many rehabs with good, well meaning, caring individuals lead to the same result, relapse.
Along this journey I became aware of the difference between relief and recovery. By the time B2B came to my attention, by the way of God’s blessing, I knew the first step in recovery was a willingness to change, this is only accomplished internally by the addict. The first thing that I discovered about B2B in the intake interview was they are experts in accessing this crucial first step and picked up over the phone interview some of my son’s blind spots that had led to relapses in past treatment centers, thankfully, with some concern they agreed to admit him. You need to be confident that the recovery of the addict, not the relief of the parent or profit incentive of B2B, is the first priority of B2B. Once in treatment my son started to do what he had done in previous rehabs, he started to “do his time” in order to get through another program and move on.
The difference this time was B2B, due to their level of experience, their professionalism, their genuine care for my son, they would have none of it. As my son has said on several occasions, they cared enough to hold him accountable to allow himself to observe, both his positive and negative attributes. This “loving confrontation” combine with the outdoor activities challenged my son to face weaknesses and develop strengths to overcome some very negative perceptions that come with addiction. In my opinion this experience at B2B became not only a time of great growth and maturity in my son but also a time that showed him life can be fun again. The hopefulness restored during his stay was a great joy to observe as a parent.
That said, I believe the strongest asset of B2B in my opinion, is their commitment to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Through some of the staff’s personal journeys, B2B has the ability to walk the client through the steps that lead to a program of recovery. B2B mirrors the service to others as examples that I am convinced is the model for long term sobriety. – Tom Z.

A Journey From Addict To Leader Through A Passion For Outdoor Adventures.
Read the heartfelt story from a father regarding his son’s 14-year journey through drug addiction that led him to recovery success and serving as a leader now helping troubled teens through at a wilderness treatment program. Read Full Story
Professionals Testimonials
More Testimonials and Reviews…
Parent Testimonial – Celebrating 2 Years of Sobriety
My sister’s best friend just buried her son who was struggling with addiction. He was 35 years old and had struggled for years after being prescribed an opioid after an accident when he was in his early 20’s. I heard her struggles with her son and it was...
We Highly Recommend B2B Program Our 19-Year Old Son Attended
We highly recommend the B2B program that our 19 year-old son attended. We feel like it’s been effective for several reasons. First, the length of the program gave our son a chance to live clean and without electronics for a six-month period. He made connections with...
I Love How I Am Getting Stronger!
Fear was the main obstacle that kept me from coming to Back2Basics because I was still getting high and not ready for a 6 month commitment. All of that changed once I made the commitment to get sober. B2B is a 6 month program teaching you how to enjoy life and live...
From Homeless and Hopeless to Someone with Ambitions and Goals
A lot of things prevented me from getting sober such as total addiction and unwilling to change. I didn’t want to go through withdrawals until I was forced into a psychiatric ward. Accepting recovery and coming to Back2Basics has helped me to create change. I think it...
Therapy Has Been The Unexpected Positive Aspect of B2B
Most people will tell you that they are not afraid of anything, but for me, fear was the main thing standing in my way. I was afraid that a program, or B2B, wouldn’t help my problems and that they were unsolvable. I’ve found these fears to be present no matter where I...
If You’re On The Fence Back2Basics Can Help
When you are addicted there are many obstacles that can prevent you from getting into recovery and getting sober. For me it was my willingness to see the point in getting sober in the first place. Once I accepted the fact and I was willing I began my journey on the...
Sobriety Is A Journey Not A Destination
With Back2Basics, everything is integrated with the program as a whole. All of the staff and the clients are involved and connected. The program is centered on learning how to enjoy life and is based on outdoor adventure therapy. Spending time in the outdoors and the...
Review – Back2Basics Making A Difference
Back2Basics is an amazing and powerful program that truly makes a difference. The program is multifaceted utilizing a variety of effective methods and approaches to help the young men in the program move toward growth, self esteem, awareness, self discovery, and...
Parent Testimonial – Mother Helping Her Son Through Back2Basics
Part 2 of A Mother's Journey READ THE FIRST TESTIMONIAL HERE So when our older son ended up in the hospital again, we immediately thought about sending him to B2B. He has struggled with his addiction for a decade. He’d been to an i.o.p, and several in patient...
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We Can Help
Back2Basics Outdoor Adventure Recovery offers mental health and/or substance abuse residential treatment for men and accepts insurance or “private pay”. Back2Basics Outdoors Adventures uniquely combines Intensive Therapeutic Counseling, Outdoor Adventures and Residential Individual & Group Treatment to provide the best possible route to achieve long-term results.
Contact Us Directly
WHERE WE ARE
Flagstaff, Arizona
P: (928) 814-2220
F: (928) 774-4126
Office Hours: Open 24-Hours
POSTAL ADDRESS
Center for Treatment Services :
1600 W University Ave Suite 205, Flagstaff AZ 86001
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Meeting the highest standards for Addiction Treatment
