Woody Giessmann (LADC-1) Right Turn: A Creative Place for Recovery

After a brief (and fascinating) biography, Woody shares a list of possible music-related therapies and treatments, and provides his macro hypothesis:

The self-medication hypothesis that Woody Giessmann is discussing today

More about Right Turn, an addiction treatment center that uses arts therapies. [JB comment – note that this is an example of a non-profit organization that attracts real health insurance dollars, and designs and evaluates its treatments based on clinical evidence and data. This is a model of funded mental health/addiction therapy that we don’t see in the UK in quite the same way, and indeed may only be possible because of the way US health insurance works – there is a particular cost incentive to investing in preventative treatments of this type].

We now see a chronology of treatment, from the negative initial responses for those in early recovery, through to the gradual emergence through treatment, described at the six-month stage.

Woody shares more of his personal story, including his experience in the music industry where his label, Warner Bros, was buying his drugs [!], and leading us up to the time two years ago, 28 years into his own recovery, when he experienced a brain aneurysm, and his neurosurgery and medication thereafter. Given his work in experiential therapy, the clinicians used his contacts to turn his hospital room into an arts therapy treatment – they brought in piano and drums!