My name is Tyler McReynolds, and I have a long history with this business, this location, and the…read morepeople who have been involved in running it - and, unlike many of the reviews, I actually went here. My brother also went here 2 years before me, he was there for 6 months. He was sober 15 years and I was in AA for 10 years consecutively. I know exactly what goes on at this place, regardless of how you guys want to dress it up over time, or slap on a new coat of paint, or LLC.
I am sad to see it, but I do find it very fitting, that you all still have Steel on Steel listed on the current website, in 2025. Mark Houston was really proud of that, which I think is a fact that is worth considering, if you guys who work there now were also subjected to it.
For others I will explain what Steel on Steel was. Let's say today, right now, there are 30 clients in treatment. All of those people are in a treatment cetner, because something has happened for them to be so down and out, or otherwise confused, that they have now ended up in a treatment center. Many are broken, shunned by their family, and quite simply embarrassed and unsure of how to proceed or even what is going on.
Steel on Steel is picking out one of those desparate, broken clients, and forcing them to sit in the center of the room, where everyone else sits around them in a circle. So 40 people sitting in a circle, with 1 person forced out alone at the center. You need a pretty big room for this, and by the way I have photos of the room this took place in. And, I use the word forced, because many of the clients were court ordered to this treatment center, and if staff reported them as being out of line or unfit for release, they could be sent to prison. Bottom line is, no one could refuse anything. You were forced to particiate in any activity, and that most definitely included Steel on Steel.
Someone says it's time for Steel on Steel, and once the stage is set - lights and all that as you guys like to say - the next step of the ritual is for the other 29 clients, and any staff members present, to come up with the most cutting remark that they can, about the person sitting in the middle of the circle, in order to completely break that person down, because that person is entitled and delusional - so say the staff. The idea of Steel on Steel is for 30 patients, who have just come off the street, to somehow fix each other with "constructive" criticism, in this way.
So: the one client is forced into the center of the room, is not allowed to speak, may not cross their arms, must sit upright, and may not respond for 24 hours afterwards - this client will sit in silence, and they will make eye contact with every client, and every staff member, as they are read these shaming remarks, one by one. And that's Steel on Steel. Mark Houston's proud legacy - a group attack on someone at rock bottom. The idea is to break you, as Mark said.
AA people like quotes:
"Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding."
And who did Mark love swinging that hammer with. But you still have it on the website, like it's some sort of refined art, to gang up and bully and shame people, who have functionally become your prisoners, are completely at your mercy. Really interesting stuff. That was the carrot Mark Houston and others loved to hold over every starving person's head: "Don't like what I say? You are here because you did XYZ, but you have the nerve to question my methods? I'm Big Time Sobriety. Better start taking notes, or you can have fun in prison when we give you a bad report" - and he used the same tactic, to convince families to keep their loved ones locked away for more time.
"They aren't ready. Need a 4th month." Here's another interesting thought: every single client is initially recommended 3 months in treatment. For these 3 months, staff plays like they are thinking about each individual the whole time - but then somehow, by some miracle, every. single. client. Is recommended a 4th month, and it's the same price as the others; EXCEPT, the clients who they already know will not be able to afford a 4th month, never seem to need one. Every. Time. It's just amazing. And as any reasonable person would imagine: no one will believe a client's word over Staff, especially a client who was court ordered, which very many are.
There will never be any winning for you, while in treatment, over the wise words, circular arguments, and many years of 'Sobriety' claimed by staff.
I started drinking as a child at 10, then as often as possible through 12 and 13, substances later, I spent 15 years around AA, eventually staying sober for 10. I also went here. How many of you people, who leave 5 star reviews for this place, because "you've been referring people a long time", can say any of that. Where are all the 20-year sobers. In a 90-year old program. Don't kid yourselves. I will not stand to be disrespected by anyone from this place again.
