Alta Mira is an expensive rehab facility. Scratch the surface, and you will find negative aspects. I spent 30 days in treatment, and am completely sober, obviously a positive, but I'm not sure how much Alta Mira had to do with my successful recovery.
This is really a 90 Day program, and I found out there I was only doing a third of it. Alta Mira is ultimately out for two things. Your money and good statistics, meaning how many of their "clients" don't relapse. They will almost always recommend that you extend your visit for the 90 days. Not hard to guess why.
After 30 days, you will discover that this facility, once a fancy hotel, (built probably around 100 years ago, as you can see from the photos at the entrance), is structurally unsound. A Sausalito fire truck had to be summoned because some old machinery in the detox ward caught on fire. Plus constant electrical problems. The old hotel looks opulent, but has been superficially refurbished over shoddy construction.
Therapy is mixed. My therapist was superb, but you can judge the other therapist on how good they are, because they do the sessions. If you miss sessions staff will be knocking on your door and drag you out, even if you just want some peace and quiet. Alta Mira has the atmosphere of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, with constant surveillance, reporting what people are saying and your "behavior." There are long lists of bizarre rules. Be prepared to only have your cell phone use for half an hour a day, unless you have good connections to the staff or are able to make up fantastical reasons why you need your phone or computer for a longer period. This particular rule is very unevenly administered.
I had some bizarre experiences of people reporting things that I never said to the front desk, or true things that got twisted. For example, I write reports for various intelligence services in DC. I'm not undercover, so not against the rules to reveal what I do. It was reported I was possibly delusional.
Expect a long list of other inexplicable rules, such as no snacks in the rooms. The Food Inspector does random searches and removes food. The rule is based on "choking hazard. Almost always choking hazards apply to children in the real world. If you don't make your own bed and keep your room tidy, the Food Police, after inspecting your room, will send a report, which gets directed to your therapist. At $3000 a night, Alta Mira can make my darn bed!
I had to choose which sessions were valuable or not. I was constantly harassed about not attending all the sessions, because some were useful, some not. When you pay $105,000 for a private room, you should not be harangued about this. The sessions I found valuable had to do with brain science. The other sessions were often people blabbering about their "feelings." They need more science and less psychobabble.
The program is based on so-called Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). As a professor, I know a lot about the Dialectic, a complicated German concept. The author of the "GBT Skills Training Manual," M. L. Linehan, has no clue what the term means. Her book is based on a simplified mishmash of Western behavioral psychology and eastern Buddhism and Zen practices. It's basically pretentious, pseudo-scientific nonsense. DBT is also influenced heavily by the writings of Carl Jung (1875-1961), who was a mystical, antisemitic and, in the 1930s, a pro-Nazi Swiss psychiatrist. You will come by a lot of this flabby, "spiritual" and non-scientific ways of thinking and practices.
You live in the equivalent of an aquarium with 21 other patients, so the interpersonal dynamics get weird. I became friendly with a nice young man. Near the end of my stay, he cut off all communication, based on nothing but unfounded innuendo. People living in close proximity can develop distorted views of reality.
The food, massages and outings are excellent. The man in charge of the outings is very knowledgeable and nice, and they do a lot of good outdoor excursions.
So a mixed experience. The facility boasts a superior reputation. A big part of my two stars definitely belongs to my superb therapist, but I think I got lucky. The doctors are very knowledgeable, but you get very little time with them. I spent one hour in total at their office. The nurses are friendly and excellent.
You will find yourself among a lot of rich people, or spoiled kids whose parents paid for their treatment, or wives of rich men. For the price, I don't think the facility is worth it. But if you don't care about the cost, and you can put up with constant surveillance of your activities, be on your best behavior, then you might be successfully treated. But I felt very relieved the day I left that luxurious penal colony.
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