Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep. # 88 Community-Based Recovery: Rebuilding Lives in Bergen County
When a college football injury led to an opioid prescription that spiraled into addiction, Brian Cellary never imagined it would eventually lead him to founding Valley Spring Recovery Center. After finding sobriety over 14 years ago, he identified a critical gap in substance use and mental health treatment in Northern New Jersey.
The Good Neighbor Podcast sits down with Sellery to explore how Valley Spring has revolutionized addiction treatment in Bergen County through their community-based approach. "Addiction is like cancer," Cellary explains. "If it's not treated the right way, it can spiral into episodes which could lead to death." This stark reality drives Valley Spring's comprehensive treatment model that addresses not just substance use but the underlying mental health conditions that frequently accompany addiction.
What sets Valley Spring apart is their commitment to individualized care. With psychiatrists spending substantial time on-site, low therapist caseloads, and treatment plans collaboratively developed with patients, even those initially resistant to treatment often experience transformative breakthroughs. The center offers multiple levels of care—from intensive daily programs to flexible outpatient options—complemented by holistic approaches like yoga and sound therapy. Family involvement forms another crucial component, healing relationships damaged by addiction and strengthening support systems.
Cellary also discusses the evolving landscape of addiction awareness, from the early prescription practices that fueled the opioid epidemic to current community education efforts that have helped reduce overdose deaths in Bergen County. As mental health needs continue growing, Valley Spring is expanding to include specialized programs for adolescents.
Ready to take that difficult first step toward recovery? Valley Spring Recovery Center accepts most major insurance
Valley Spring Recovery Center
Brian Cellary
830 Broadway, Norwood, NJ. 07648
201-781-8812
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, Welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast coming to you from Bergen County and the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. I am your host, Doug Drohan. Today we are joined by Brian Cellary, who's the founder and one of the key principals of Valley Spring Recovery Center, based in Norwood, New Jersey. Brian, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Doug, I appreciate the opportunity and thanks for inviting us.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I always mention this because I speak to a lot of different business owners and different types of businesses. One of the first I had was somebody from Bergen, casa, and Casa is an amazing nonprofit volunteer service where somebody volunteers a good portion of their life to help a child who's been in foster care or taken out of a unsafe living arrangement and they kind of walk them through the whole foster care process and stay with them until they're 18 years old. So it's amazing some of the services that are out there, but also when you understand that there's a lot of things that go on around us in our community. People are affected by different things that we may not be aware of and then, secondary to that is not only people go through some hardships, but what services are available to them. So that's kind of my segue into talking about Valley Spring Recovery and you know we can get into the mission statement and what you guys do. But you know, how did how did this come about? Like, what's your journey and story behind this?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and and once again appreciate you being you inviting us here. And you know you talk about Bergen County CASA and we talk you just mentioned mission and our mission is to be a true community-based outpatient provider in the substance use and mental health field. And we actually do a toy drive every single year for Bergen County CASA and it's amazing hearing the stories of the people who are involved in that, in the beneficiaries of those toys, and that's one small thing that we do for our local community. We do for our local community. But Valley Spring recovery started from an idea. When I was working in this field I looked at providers back in Northern New Jersey.
Speaker 3:I'm born and raised in Bergen County, grew up in Allendale, came from a great family, I was a pretty good athlete, pretty good student and addiction caught me. I had a bad college football injury. It broke my ankle. I was prescribed a ton of different opiates and it just kind of spiraled out of control for four years and at the age of 22, I found recovery. I'm happy to say I've been sober over 14 years and I had. No, I had no idea I was going to end up in this field. I always loved healthcare. I always loved bringing solutions to populations that need it and thinking constructively about that and really looking at the gaps in care, and I think that's what we do really well at Valley Spring. But you know I always wanted to found and create a program in Bergen County to offer services. So you know that's kind of the backstory on how Valley Spring was created. You know I had my own addiction and there was definitely a need for drug and alcohol treatment in the northern New Jersey area.
Speaker 2:So are there a lot of drug and alcohol treatment facilities available in Bergen County? Like why, what's what's different about Valley Spring? Like what, what was kind of the impetus for you to say you know, I've been through this process and I think we can offer something different or better or a different experience, different or better or a different experience.
Speaker 2:We've seen ads. I'm sure if I Google it there are going to be a couple of places that pop up. But what was it? That kind of your aha moment said. I think I can reinvent or make a better mousetrap.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I think first and foremost I had great mentors throughout my career which gave me the confidence to be able to do it. At the end of the day, when you're dealing with drug and alcohol treatment as well as mental health, you know that first call people are making which is definitely the toughest part of the process is just making that first call and reaching out. You know they're they're trusting you with their life. You know addiction is like cancer, right, if it's not treated the right way it can spiral into someone having episodes which could lead to death. But as far as the market, when we looked at it, there was nothing really in the Northern Valley area. You had a few facilities in the Paramus. So there was definitely a need for the population in the Northern Valley area where we operate in Norwood, and a lot of the providers were attached to hospitals and there was no at the time really privatized treatment where you would have low caseloads with your therapist. You know you would truly have an individualized treatment plan.
Speaker 3:And what sets us apart at Valley Spring is we've kind of made the concession that we don't see many patients with just substance abuse issues anymore. It's substance use and mental health and we've really staffed accordingly. We have specialty therapists and medical professionals from our medical director, dr Michael, who's a psychiatrist. He's at the facility 20 hours a week, meeting with patients on an individual basis. Our therapists are meeting with their patients at least once a week. We provide incredible family care and I think you know our goal is to heal the patients while they're in treatment but really set them up for success. You know when they get back them up for success. You know when they get back so they can be, you know, healthy, productive members of society and into their family. So it's it's one thing just to treat the system, the symptoms. It's another thing to treat the whole patient, which includes the family, their professional career, being a great father or mother again being active in their local community. So that's what we really pride ourselves on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it reminds me of the saying you can, you know, feed a man a fish and feed him for a day, or you could teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime. And you know, you can teach somebody or treat them and say, ok, we've helped you, go on your way. But giving them the life skills to be able to function and deal with everything for the rest of their life is a lot different than you know. In a lot of the medical you know here's a pill, I heard here's a pill, take it and you're on your way. And you're on your way.
Speaker 2:There's obviously a lot in the news about the opioid epidemic. What happened, I guess going back almost 20 years now, right when it first started getting prescribed in major doses. And now a lot of the news is about fentanyl. Have you seen, based on anecdotal evidence, that I see obviously there more an acceptance, do you think, and are people more willing to recognize it in themselves and seek help, versus when it happened to you, maybe before it became as widespread and also as widely recognized that this is a problem that has to be addressed in the right way, like, have you seen kind of a sea change the way people approach it and accept it in some ways as being something that is not something to be ashamed of, but something that is just an illness like anything else that you need to be treated.
Speaker 3:Sure, and I'll try not to be too long winded on this one.
Speaker 2:But my question was really long.
Speaker 3:No, no, no. And I just want to give it some context right of where we kind of come as a society. From where I was first reaching out for help, I had no idea where to go.
Speaker 3:There was no education in the school systems. We had the DARE program, we had a couple other good programs with our local police forces. But now you see organizations like Alumni Recovery, who brings people like myself back to our local school districts and shares our stories. Right, we tell them about the Good Samaritan Law, we tell them about the options that are available for them in treatment and we're just very honest with these students. Right, and we do that alongside the DEA, we do it alongside local law enforcement or the County Sheriff and it's really a team effort. And we had our 10-year anniversary for alumni and recovery I'm also a board member there and the Bergen County prosecutor, who is absolutely incredible and is always available to the local community.
Speaker 3:He said from 22 to 23,. It was the first time that overdoses went down in Bergen County. I think there was something like 177 overdose deaths versus 11 murders, which just shows how prevalent it still is. But you know they deployed Narcan in every single police department in Bergen County and that's community education at its finest right. And you know now these students know about these coping skills, they know breath work, they know meditation, they have healthy mindfulness techniques and also, if they need help, they know to go to their student SAC and I think there's a lot more community awareness and we're just a small piece in it. This is an entire community in work and we're very lucky in Bergen County to have the funding to be able to get that type of community awareness out to our schools and reach the students when they're young, because once again I didn't know where to turn when I was first there and going through this process.
Speaker 2:You know you mentioned alumni and recovery. We actually featured Nancy on the cover of one of my magazines back in 2019.
Speaker 3:She's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which kind of set me on a road to then meeting the CEO of Bergen New Bridge, which at the time at Bergen Pines, and then meeting the head chef of a local restaurant who is one number of Food Network you know cooking, whether it's chopped or top chef or whatever.
Speaker 2:They are A guy from Bergen County who was treated there. That led us to that article and that story and there was all these and I think it eventually led me to you, because obviously you knowancy and and um, you know, and she's in ultapan and one of my magazines is for, you know, northern valley area, so, and we've also done something in another magazine called the black poster project. We've uh, they are based in hallworth, which is where I have another magazine, and that did a story about the black poster project, which we don't have to get into, but obviously that's a little bit. Those are people that didn't recover, unfortunately. But yeah, no, it's something that, with a lot of, obviously a lot of things in the news, is about a bunch of Netflix documentaries and docudramas about the abuse that happened on the business side of things and how it decimated communities and especially young people and you had an injury and they prescribed you with something and it's just, I think it really did, you know, put things in the light.
Speaker 2:And there was this connotation back, if you think about the show Wired, that it was an inner city problem. That you know if you were addicted to opioids or heroin, it was an inner city problem that you know if you were addicted to opioids or heroin, it was an inner city thing. You know you're a junkie and that kind of I think I'll just say reputation, if you will has been turned on its head because it, you know, for right or wrong, it hit the suburbs and it hit all points of life in America and I think it's great that you guys offer that, you know that support. But you know, moving on from that, it's not just. You know, like you said, you guys have a number of different types of programs. So what are the levels of care that you offer?
Speaker 3:Sure, great question, great question. Just to back up Dee Gillen from Black Poster Project, she's another great community leader. And when you're talking about the Netflix documentaries, what's interesting is when I received my prescriptions for my ankle, it was a 30-day supply at a time which led to an addiction. Now I believe the prescribing is you can't prescribe more than a week of that type of controlled substance, and what happened was they put one fire up and then another fire popped up and that's where these you know international cartels started manufacturing these pills, putting fentanyl in it because it's so cheap. And now you mentioned fentanyl before and that's where you've really seen the overdose increase.
Speaker 3:So, but as far as that Valley Spring, our levels of care. We offer partial care, intensive, outpatient and outpatient services as well as psychiatric services. So partial care is Monday through Friday, nine o'clock in the morning till three o'clock in the afternoon. That's really for someone who is stepping down from an inpatient program meaning a detox or residential, and needs that added accountability and stability in their life, or someone who doesn't quite qualify for a residential program and is appropriate to go into our program. And then intensive outpatient can either be 9 to 12, monday through friday, or we offer evening services monday, tuesday and thursday either in person or hybrid.
Speaker 3:We don't do completely telehealth. There are some sessions that you do need to come in and that's really for your working professional or someone who is going to work, has a full-time job, or a mother who's taking care of the kids, or a father, and they need to come in at a person. That's for someone who's lower acuity, and then they'll gradually step down to outpatient services, which is once a week, which you can stay an outpatient for up to six months and you still have all the psychiatric services as well as any individual therapy that you need throughout that. So, all in all, most of our patients stay anywhere from four to six months with. We've had some patients who want to stay in the program for over a year, and one of the reasons I think we've been very successful at valley spring is we are putting an emphasis on setting them up for success afterwards and really putting out groups that are specified to the individual as well as the group.
Speaker 2:So so there's different levels, I guess you could say. I mean, there's the. They come into your Norwood location and maybe there's support groups, your Norwood location, and maybe there's support groups. There are one-on-one, you know, I guess, psychologists or sociologists that meet with them. There's also the telehealth right. You guys offer that as an outpatient service, and then so I want to like walk me through so say I recognize I need, I need help. Well, how does it? How does the process work? I call you guys. I mean here's a big question. Do you take insurance? You do? Oh, great, okay, so I have insurance. I recognize I need help for one reason or another. How does it work? Do I call you? Somebody picks up the phone and then how does the process?
Speaker 3:where does it go from there? So we try to streamline the process as much as possible. At Valley Spring Recovery we are a network provider with most of the major insurance carriers, which makes it affordable and easier access for everyone. But the hardest part, once again, is picking up the phone and calling, and one of the biggest things I tell all the prospective patients to do is read our reviews, talk to family members or local people who you know, who have been through this recovery journey, and sometimes people don't even know the right questions to ask. We want to be able to answer all of your questions so you know it's a good fit for you.
Speaker 3:Our initial assessment is over the phone. It's about 20 minutes. It's a basic understanding of your needs. So when you get to the facility we know who's going to be the best for your intake and we schedule intakes within 24 hours. When you come in for your intake, there's basic consents that you fill out, consents for treatment. Then you sit with a therapist and they do a full workup which takes about an hour and a half.
Speaker 3:It's called a biopsych social and that encompasses pretty much your entire life and all of your needs that you would have from treatment. From there, they'll put a customized treatment plan together which we share with the patients. We always think it's important that the patient has some say in their treatment. That way, both sides are bought in, and then within 24 hours you'll meet our psychiatrist, dr Ola, and he'll do a full psych workup on you, and if any medications need to be prescribed, he'll prescribe them and then we'll put you on a schedule. You'll either be entering our program at partial care, intensive, outpatient or outpatient, but it's a very quick, seamless process. We're here to hold every single patient's hand, as well as their families through it, and make it as easy as possible.
Speaker 2:So are there some patients who are coming sort of against their will, their families saying you've got to do this, or you know, maybe there's been some intervention and and they're they're not really coming, you know, with with open arms, so to speak. They're very, I'm sure, everybody's a little apprehensive, but do you ever find people that are coming kind of because they're forced to?
Speaker 3:I mean, I'll take it from my own story. I was 22 years old, graduating my quote unquote third rehab and my friends were all applying for law school and graduate school. You know, graduating their colleges to be there, and the ones who are very resistant treatment resistant at the beginning, those are some of our favorite patients to work with because eventually you see that light bulb go off, they get it. Something clicks doesn't always happen. The first week could take a week, two weeks, three weeks, but eventually, if they keep showing up and they keep doing their therapy, eventually they're learning something about themselves and they're having a positive experience with us and they're learning how to live a healthier life. And patients start to buy in. And you know seeing those patients from where they come in their parents are forcing them in there, a loved one's forcing them in there, and then where they are when they graduate our program. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:That's great and you know talking about holistic and kind of a, you know, integrative approach. You also offer some, you know, I guess we could say mindfulness and yoga and different things like that, like different, we'll call them therapy, but different types of therapies that approach things from more of you know the well. Again, we'll say the mindfulness side or the yoga side, and is that one of the kind of experiences that you offer at Valley?
Speaker 3:Spring. Yeah, yes, and it's funny. Yesterday I heard this loud noise coming from upstairs and they were doing a sound bath.
Speaker 3:um through yoga, which is a meditative yoga, and our yoga instructor was up there and just getting that stretching out, getting the endorphins going. We show patients, you know, the process group after a holistic group. We always start with processing. Whatever the holistic approach that we took the hour before was, and we asked the patients how they feel and they say I feel great, I feel at ease, I don't have as much anxiety as much. You know. Uh, my, my mind isn't, isn't racing as much.
Speaker 3:And you know we challenge them like, hey, when you get out of here, can you commit to doing this once a? You know we challenge them like, hey, when you get out of here, can you commit to doing this once a week? You know, and then they start doing it once a week. Then we challenge them to do it twice a week and continue to move, to build in the right direction. And we definitely do take a holistic approach. From our psychiatrists all the way down to our therapists, we were not afraid to use medication but at the same time, if medication can be avoided, we try a holistic approach at the beginning Right, nice Now.
Speaker 2:Are families welcome at any point to come in, say for your group counseling sessions? Are there any types of you know times throughout the program, somebody's treatment program where the families are invited in?
Speaker 3:They families are always welcome, especially on intake. We want you to meet our clinical and medical heads. We want you to understand our program. But also we don't do our first family session for the first two weeks of treatment because we need to understand who the patient is and what the family dynamic is before we start bringing the family in. But families can have a family session up to once a week. Most elect to do about every other week because it's tough to coordinate a lot of schedules. But we've had family sessions with seven, eight people in there, you know, and they bring it's a larger family and they bring all the brothers and sisters in, or maybe extended family could be grandparents. And it's really cool to see the the what addiction does to a family, how it breaks it apart and how quickly. It's a healing tool for everyone and we find families are a lot stronger after a patient does go through treatment and gets better.
Speaker 2:Families are a lot stronger after a patient does go through treatment and gets better. Yeah, that's amazing, is there? I want to go through how people would contact you and we'll go through that in a second. But is there anything else you'd like our audience to know or you know? Know about Valley Spring, or just know about you know, if they're going through something like this, any parting words that you'd like to leave with them?
Speaker 3:well we we see the increased need for mental health services in new jersey and that's why we've taken the initiative. We're going to be starting a primary mental health program for adults and adolescents which is a new demographic for us in the adolescence because right now we only treat adults and that should be launching this summer. We're super excited for that. And just instead of talking about Valley Spring, I just want to once again double down on that first call. That is the hardest part Do your research on the facilities, make sure it's a good facility for you and for your needs, and definitely tap in some family members. It's okay to reach out for help. It's okay to talk to people. You know what you project, that they're going to think versus what they think are two completely different things. Everyone's going to be supportive of your decision and willing to help. So I just encourage anyone who's struggling or knows someone that's struggling reach out, let's talk about it, let's keep having communications and coming together as a community to solve the primary problem.
Speaker 2:And when you say reach out, what's the best phone number to call you at?
Speaker 3:to call Valley Spring at the best phone number to call us at is 201-781-8812, and once again that's 201-781-8812, and that goes to our admissions department, which is available pretty much 24 7.
Speaker 2:that's great. And then your location is in norwood. What's the address?
Speaker 3:location is in Norwood.
Speaker 2:What's the address? Our location is 830 Broadway in Norwood, new Jersey. So for anyone who knows that area, it's basically right on the border of Harrington Park, it's near the train tracks, it's right on basically Broad Street and Broadway and it is the one building that stands alone when you come to the top of the hill on Broad Street, if you're going to Mario's Pizza or getting a donut, it's right at the end of the street, right there. So, brian, this was amazing. I want to thank you for joining and sharing with us, and we're going to have Chuck. Just take us out and you and I will be right back. Thanks, doug, appreciate the time.