Welcome to Carter Gordon Clinics

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We specialise in treatment for individuals with addiction or alcoholism problems. We offer high quality professional care, in a stunning environment, at a fraction of the costs of comparable UK treatment centres, without compromise.

In this website you can find out why you should choose Carter Gordon Clinics to get well. You can meet our team, have a look at our facilities, watch videos on our clinic's operation, the medical side of our care program, and understand more about addiction, how it can be arrested and how to get yourself or a loved one into treatment.

We want to keep things as simple and clear as possible for you. If at any time you feel like you want to speak with somebody, get more information by email, request a brochure or check bed availability; press one of our contact buttons.

We have a trained team of UK based professional staff, who are understanding of what you are going through, are on hand (24/7) to answer any questions that you may have and are there to offer the much needed care and support necessary to get you or a loved one into treatment and well again.

About Us

Carter Gordon Clinics has been a dream of Brian Gordon’s for over 20 years. Together with his wife Janet they set about planning for the clinic some five years ago.

When they approached Gareth Carter, a good friend for many years, to take up the position of Chief Executive, he was very excited about the opportunity to build a rehabilitation centre in Plettenberg Bay and source the best addiction counsellors from both South Africa and the UK.

The clinic is now in its third year of operations and has already helped hundreds of clients to get well. They are currently inundated with patients from abroad for three primary reasons: the quality of care, the climate, and the costs.

Carter Gordon is in the business of helping chemically dependent individuals regain their sobriety, reclaim their lives and participate in their own on-going recovery so that they can successfully engage in meaningful relationships with family, friends and employers and make a positive contribution to the community.

Our mission is to set the standard for quality treatment of alcohol and drug addictions in Africa by ensuring that through training and hiring practices our staff has achieved the highest level of certification and professionalism and that they remain focused on patient recovery and delivery of our services in a dignified and mutually respectful manner.

Approach to Treatment

The main thrust of the Carter Gordon addiction rehabilitation program is to assist the alcoholic or addicted patient in recognizing that addiction is a primary, progressive chronic illness, not a secondary sign or symptom of some underlying mental or emotional disorder, nor a manifestation of a moral consequence, character weakness, or psychological dysfunction.

"We teach alcoholics and addicts to approach their disease as a treatable condition with a high potential for lasting recovery."

Since 1956, the American Medical Association has recognized and defined alcohol dependence as a disease. Since then, this definition has been extended to other dependencies including addiction to drugs.

Alcoholism and other drug addictions are typically attended by impaired emotional, interpersonal, psychological, economic and legal adjustments, and by some degree of physical damage. The Carter Gordon alcoholism and addiction treatment orientation addresses these factors, thereby treating the whole person.

Such an illness may be successfully diagnosed, arrested and treated. Successful treatment for chemical dependency, asthma, hypertension and diabetes all involve lifestyle and changing of behavioural habits. Adherence to treatment and rates of relapse with all four of these illnesses are similar.

We certainly wouldn't browbeat a recently diagnosed diabetic relative who was struggling to make lifestyle changes with regard to diet and exercise, would we? The alcoholic or drug addict is like a person with cancer or diabetes, a disease sufferer who deserves dignified treatment.

Treatment Philosophy

The programme is based on current research that chemically dependent persons¹ need to remain abstinent from mood altering drugs and/or and that the ability to achieve individual potential, as well as forming meaningful relationships are vital in the recovery from their condition.

The aim of the Carter Gordon addiction rehabilitation programme is to help the addicted person achieve two long-term goals:

1. Abstinence from mood altering drugs
2. An improved life style

The pursuit of these goals is lifelong; therefore the treatment programme is looked upon as only the beginning of a lifestyle which is conducive to sobriety and good recovery.

However, movement towards these goals can be demonstrated in the “here and now”, during a person’s participation in the day to day recovery activities of the rehab programme.

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Achievement of the following short-term goals is an indication of progress toward long term recovery.

1. The first short-range goal is to help the addicted person recognise their condition and its implications. A primary problem is the system of denial² along with other defence mechanisms which, to a greater or lesser extent, renders the person unaware of the condition’s implications and consequences³. The initial treatment approach is to help the person gain a realistic awareness of their dependence on chemicals and most importantly the type of person they have become.
2. The second goal is to understand that he/she needs help and then realise that they can cope with the condition. Recognition of the problem by itself is insufficient to motivate⁴ the individual to make the necessary changes.
   
   The model used is one of acceptance of a chronic condition that does not simply ‘go away’ or is somehow ‘grown out of’. Instead of struggling to change or avoid this, the approach concentrates on learning to live life with it in a constructive and fulfilling manner.
   
   Identification with others who share the condition and who are accomplishing this task is a key component of treatment.
3. The third goal is to help the chemically dependent person to identify specifically what needs to be changed and how such change might be implemented.
   
   The person is encouraged to examine feelings, attitudes, behaviours and relationships, to determine in what respects they are self-defeating and to what extent they are likely to interfere with recovery. In addition to an examination of the negative liabilities of the condition, self-assessment is also an inventory of personal assets, which can be utilised in taking positive steps towards recovery.
4. The fourth goal is to help the chemically dependent person translate new understanding into action⁵; that is, to promote change that improves the individuals functioning and life style. This requires strong commitments to modify self defeating behaviour⁶, to act responsibly, to strive for openness and honesty, to improve relationships with others, to handle negative feelings constructively and to make realistic plans and carry them out.
   
   Efforts to make such changes, both in the here and now and in the future, are important in the prevention of the relapse⁷. These efforts are also conducive to personal growth in the widest sense of the term.

In summary, it is our philosophy that addiction is a condition which is primary, chronic, destructive and progressive in nature.

It effects every part of the individual’s experience. Therefore, the underpinning theory of our programme is one that is co-educational, incorporates the combined skills and expertise of a wide variety of disciplines and implemented through a confidential and caring attitude.

In order to achieve the goals mentioned previously Carter Gordon Clinics utilises the following applications.

In September of 2003 an international conference arranged to agree a consensus on a core framework for the Minnesota Model. Treatment representatives from 27 countries were represented e.g. Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, France, Belgium, Eire, USA, Australia. Below is a shortened version of the outcome which agreed five pillars to the approach:

The Five Pillars of a Minnesota Model treatment programme

1. Addiction is a Chronic Relapsing but treatable condition
2. The 12 Steps (AA-NA etc) are integrated into the group treatment program
3. Interdisciplinary Team are involved (medical, psychotherapeutic based cognitive behavioural therapy, social work, spiritual needs)
4. Family members and others important to the patient are involved in the treatment process (family meetings, education, support groups, employer, therapy if needed)
5. Aftercare as continuation of rehabilitation (‘In house’ support groups, AA – NA - Al-Anon support groups, family groups, relapse support groups etc as needed)

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In 1996 Professor George E Vaillant (chair of psychiatry at Harvard) identified four life experiences present in 50% of stable recoveries from addiction⁸. These naturalistic healing processes are found most reliably in cognitive behavioural treatment programmes and in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Carter Gordon Clinics integrates these natural healing experiences as a core framework.

Each of these four naturalistic healing experiences is described in general below:

1. The first experience is finding a reinforcing behaviour that competes with drug use, (e.g. meditation, compulsive gambling, overeating, in patient treatment etc.) It is no accident that the coffee-drinking, cigarette-smoking and self-esteem-building AA meetings are scheduled to occur during peak drinking hours.
2. Second, being offered compulsory supervision or experiencing a consistent behavioural modification programme (e.g. comprehensive aftercare programme, use of disulfiram {Antabuse}, a painful ulcer or a cognitive-behavioural relapse preven¬tion programme) seems valuable (Miller, 1993). This is because although willpower is important in seeking treatment and for brief cessation of drug use, willpower is not associated with successful relapse prevention. Successful relapse prevention, like liberty, depends upon eternal vigilance. Thus, relapse prevention is best achieved by obtaining external reminders (e.g. parole, support groups or behaviour modification). For example, a first step in smoking cessation is to tell all your friends you are stopping - to make your decision public.
3. Third, inspirational group membership (e.g. discovering a sustained source of hope, inspiration and self-esteem in fundamentalist religion or AA), seems important to maintaining behaviour change and stable reaction formations. (By reaction formation it is meant the cognitive and affective reversal that occurs when a once-pleasurable instinctual goal (e.g. cigarette smoking) becomes disgusting.)
4. Fourth, during recovery it is valuable for addicts to form bonds with people they have not hurt in the past. The formation of a new stable relationship with a non-blood relative is often associated with stable abstinence. In this regard an AA sponsor, a support group or a new spouse may be more useful than the dyadic relationship with a long-suffering family member, which must repeatedly reawaken old guilt’s and old angers - conditioned reinforces of alcohol use.