160. A Journey from Addiction to Recovery and Community: Shai Blakeney's Transformative Work

In this episode, Shai Blakeney shares his inspiring life story, from growing up with psychologist parents and exploring substances in his youth, to getting sober, marrying, and establishing his family. Now a husband, father, rabbi, and entrepreneur, Shai dedicates his life to helping others overcome addiction through Recover Integrity and Entidote. These organizations offer tools and community support for those struggling with mental health and substance abuse. The discussion covers the need for community-based programs, the importance of addressing malnourishment in addiction, and Shai's vision for future projects focusing on holistic approaches to health and recovery.

00:00 Introduction to Shai Blakeney
02:14 Early Life and Influences
05:30 First Encounters with Substances
06:36 Teenage Years and First Drug Deal
07:37 Discussing Antidote and Teen Struggles
13:07 The Role of Social Media and Family Dynamics
16:21 Inside Antidote: Mission and Activities
19:28 Exploring Authentic Connections
20:28 Introducing Antidote Lab
21:34 Recover Integrity: A New Approach
24:35 Entrepreneurial Ventures and Lessons
25:43 Future Visions and Goals
31:07 Family Workshops and Community Support
32:48 Final Thoughts and Reflections

Websites:

Recover Integrity: https://www.recoverintegrity.com/

Antedote Lab: https://www.antedotelab.com/

______________________________________

Connect with Colette:

Instagram: @wellnessbycolette

Website: love-colette.com

Thank you for listening to the Limitless Healing podcast with Colette Brown! It would mean the world if you would take one minute to follow, leave a 5 star review and share with those you love!

In Health,
Colette

Transcript

[00:00:00] Shai Blakeney: Our next guest has a wildly colorful background. His parents were psychologists.

[00:01:03] Colette Brown: And spiritual seekers of truth and understanding and journeyed with their children around the world. A free spirit. He began to dabble with substances and knew eventually that he had to make changes after becoming sober, getting married and starting a family. He felt compelled to help others with addiction, owner of recover integrity and antidote, where they provide tools to help others on their journey back home to healing themselves, husband, Father, Rabbi, entrepreneur, beautiful soul.

[00:01:35] Welcome my friend, Shai Blakeney. Welcome Shai. 

[00:01:39] Shai Blakeney: Oh my God. I have to say for whatever reason, you delivering that introduction, which was always uncomfortable. I felt so good. The way that you said it. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. 

[00:01:47] Colette Brown: I am so glad. Yeah. There's a lot and it was actually hard to even compress.

[00:01:54] that information because your story is so beautiful and you've lived many lifetimes and you not only inspire me, but so many other people and you've touched my life personally. And so I just want to thank you and I want to dive right into your story. So I want you to take us back to when you were young.

[00:02:18] And share with us something that might have been that moment, that pivotal moment that took you to making maybe the wrong choice or a moment that led you to making a good choice to where you're at today.

[00:02:32] Shai Blakeney: Good question. Yeah, I don't think it doesn't feel to me. Authentic to say that there was one moment that sort of led me down a path and of my descent, I guess I'd call it. I would say there was a relational aspect there. So there was a A dysfunction in my house that, that was, destructive patterns dad and trauma and stuff like that, that existed before I was born.

[00:02:55] And so I would say that there was the joining into that energy of, being somewhat self destructive and self sabotaging and like wild, so I wouldn't say it was a moment, but I would say it was a kind of a yeah, I grew up in that energy. So that I joined that energy field.

[00:03:09] Colette Brown: Which is really good to understand that because once you can understand, Oh, I picked this pattern, this behavior, I was born into this energy. Then you can start dissecting that and figuring out, okay, where do I go from here? So where did that take you when you started learning about your or trying to understand and cope with what you were given.

[00:03:32] Shai Blakeney: Yeah, I think that came much later. So

[00:03:35] I think one of the interesting things is, like the word wrong, when you said the word wrong, at least in this moment, stood out to me. Not because you said the word wrong, I know what you meant. But I guess my internal. Reflection on that was it's not exactly wrong. It was like a certain way of being in the world with a certain, set of value, not great.

[00:03:53] If it was a bunch of 15 year old knees running around, the world would be a, probably not a pleasant place, but there was an attraction to that energy. And I don't know if that's because I was born into it or because they're actually innate. qualities within that energy that I still appreciate probably both.

[00:04:07] But definitely fun, having fun was a big deal with that energy. Not being a tight ass, was valued in my house, music, dancing, alcohol, weed, some other drugs, eventually family relationship. Feeling inspiration, so there was a lot in those energies that I enjoyed and that were soothing and that were exciting and like they felt good.

[00:04:33] So it makes sense, like with attraction there. And I think that the language that I've been using around like addiction and trauma and stuff like that, behaviors and ways of being. That eventually do become destructive in some ways and disconnect you as opposed to connect you.

[00:04:47] I started using the word parasitic recently, like they're these looping parasitic patterns. I stole it. I took various pieces of that from other people, but I liked that idea. Oh, that energy was like, actually it was good, man, and it like mimics and has elements.

[00:05:03] in it of love and relationship and growth, there are certain patterns that start to take things away from you and disconnect you. And so I think there was that attraction to those energies, which makes sense that we're soothing and it felt good and we're inspiring. 

[00:05:17] Colette Brown: Yeah. 

[00:05:17] Shai Blakeney: But then they started to take things away from me, disconnect me, maybe make me less conscious, less, less empathetic.

[00:05:23] They became challenged part and parcel and the challenges to my growth. 

[00:05:27] Colette Brown: You know what I 

[00:05:28] Shai Blakeney: mean? So I think that was what happened. 

[00:05:30] Colette Brown: And when was the first time that you remember actually? 

[00:05:33] Shai Blakeney: Oh, there's a story. I think I have a memory if it's the, if it's the memory of the story of the memory of the thing that happened.

[00:05:46] Then when I was three, I took diamond tap. I haven't even thought about this in 10 years, but I took diamond tap, which is like the old great cough medicine 

[00:05:54] Colette Brown: and 

[00:05:54] Shai Blakeney: whatever that orange, the sweet orange medicine cough syrup was. I can't remember the name of it anymore. And some medicated Vaseline and some cherry chapstick into a closet and started eating medicated Vaseline and cherry chapstick and drinking that right.

[00:06:07] So The diamond tab, like the cough medicine, the cherry chapstick makes sense because they're sweet. 

[00:06:11] Colette Brown: Yeah. 

[00:06:12] Shai Blakeney: But the medicated Vaseline, that one made me was a leaning towards alcoholism. So three was like the first, when I was four and five, my mom used to be like, take this beer to your dad. And I would sometimes go hide behind the curtain and drink the beer or it was like four or five and then give him an old one and this kind of stuff.

[00:06:27] Colette Brown: Wow. 

[00:06:28] Shai Blakeney: Okay. I'm going to get loaded. 11. 

[00:06:31] Colette Brown: Wow. 

[00:06:32] Shai Blakeney: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Okay. I'm getting down. I'm getting busy, man. 

[00:06:36] Colette Brown: And then your first drug deal, I remember you told me about too. You were how old? 

[00:06:41] Shai Blakeney: Oh, I was seventh grade seventh grade and I I was very generous. 

[00:06:45] Colette Brown: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:06:46] Shai Blakeney: But this is life. Life is, exchange and, friends and curiosity and experimenting and, like this is human life.

[00:06:55] Colette Brown: Yeah. Yeah. This is, it's really fascinating. And coming from, A home where there were no substances, no alcohol, no drugs. It just seems so bizarre to me to even sounds boring to 

[00:07:08] Shai Blakeney: me when you say that, right? Sounds stale and rigid, something, 

[00:07:11] Colette Brown: Yeah. No, nothing. No. So it just sounds like we're like the complete opposite.

[00:07:15] Opposite background folks have 

[00:07:17] Shai Blakeney: used a drink. That's the real question. Could they have used a drink or a joint or something? Oh, sure. Oh, sure. 

[00:07:22] Colette Brown: Yes. Yes. Some dime a tap. Something. But it's really interesting. I just, I want to say that just because it's, in the home is not meaning that kids are going to be using it.

[00:07:31] And I think the catalyst a lot of times is also what's going on in the home. And I want to just to talk briefly about antidote, which I visited recently where your sister Faith and I we couldn't go into the ocean because it was too dangerous. Dirty. It was on a, it was on the scale where it's toxic.

[00:07:53] And so we came into your facility at Antidote, where this is a place where kids that are on the path to maybe getting into something more serious can go to be around really good. adult influences and to be with other kids and get out of trouble and have something to do. So tell me what you think. And what, do you have any statistics on what is a percentage of kids, teens that get into this?

[00:08:23] And is that, people that are going in because they're bored, they don't have anything else to do. Is it chemical? Is it a combination of the two? And what is your hope and goal with antidote to help these teens to stay on the good path? 

[00:08:38] Shai Blakeney: God, I'm going to reflect back to make sure I understand your question.

[00:08:40] You're asking what percentage of kids in the general public are struggling with these things? Yeah. The kids that are coming into antidote, 

[00:08:47] Colette Brown: if like what is like a national percentage of kids that are. Struggling. Like mental health and substance 

[00:08:51] Shai Blakeney: abuse or just substance abuse? Both? 

[00:08:53] Colette Brown: Yeah.

[00:08:54] Both. 

[00:08:54] Shai Blakeney: 100%. 100 percent of kids are struggling with their mental health and some of them are experiencing substances and vaping too. So easily 100%, maybe 110%. 

[00:09:04] Colette Brown: Wow. 

[00:09:05] Shai Blakeney: Yeah. Yeah. That's, I think 

[00:09:06] Colette Brown: You see it all like you, you've, you have conversations, you have parents call you 

[00:09:10] Shai Blakeney: teenagers struggling with, like right now I think every generation based on how society structures itself and whatever other forces are at work in this terrestrial plane, I'm not sure.

[00:09:22] Yeah, every generation has its particular constellation of struggle. A hundred percent of teenagers and young people are struggling in significant ways, for sure. I think that's always been the case with their mental health. 

[00:09:36] Colette Brown: And then when it comes to substance abuse, I think 

[00:09:39] Shai Blakeney: definitions is a struggle with your mental health.

[00:09:42] Yeah, absolutely. I would agree with that 

[00:09:44] Colette Brown: because you're, everyone's struggling with the hormones and the. family life and that growing pain of. Dude, it's just liminal 

[00:09:51] Shai Blakeney: space, dude. Yeah. But to be like more okay whatever. But so that's the truth in my opinion. But like nowadays it shows up as [00:10:00] kids really being in their head.

[00:10:01] I'll give you the statistic that I found the most concerning. Teenagers are having less sex. I found that to be the most concerning statistic out of anything. It's not the most tragic, right? There are more tragic statistics in terms of suicide ideation and, drug use and stuff like that.

[00:10:16] But the most concerning for me, It's teenagers having less sex. 

[00:10:20] Colette Brown: So you think that's because they're disconnecting emotionally? Totally disconnected 

[00:10:24] Shai Blakeney: from their bodies and relationships, man. It's like kids are sexual, man. I hate to say that, but it's true. Like teenagers, like they fall in love and romance and sex.

[00:10:34] And they're having less sex. Like that for me, it's like kids in this generation are stuck in their head. 

[00:10:38] Colette Brown: Yeah, 

[00:10:39] Shai Blakeney: all of them. I was watching these two girls at Starbucks. I was getting my coffee at Starbucks yesterday and I was just watching how they moved and how they, I was like, dang now I don't want to judge.

[00:10:49] That's just where teenagers are at with technology and whatever's going on in the world. So I don't like. I'm not them. So I'm judging it from, my generation, but it's definitely different. And so I think, what we're working on is okay, kids are stuck in their heads. How can we cultivate conditions to be with that reality in a loving way with these young people, where they can feel their feelings, they can feel anger, they can feel grief.

[00:11:13] They can feel love, they can feel compassion, they can drop into their bodies, they can drop into relationships, they can get out of their head and get a little more present in the world. The relational, get off social 

[00:11:25] Colette Brown: media. So you're not comparing yourself. So you're feeling, I think that's a good part of it.

[00:11:30] Ideally, I think 

[00:11:31] Shai Blakeney: some of this stuff's going to have to play itself out. I don't think it's like, Oh, let's just get off social media. Like these kids have a really it's interesting to think. My wife said this to me and I don't know, I don't know, like I don't know the answers, but there were many moments in my house where I wanted to rip the TV.

[00:11:47] When I, as a parent, I went to go pull the TV off the wall and this is poisoning our kids. This is 15 years ago. And my wife would stop me and I would get upset with her. Like, why are you like, this is not good. Like this screen thing. And she had a point, though, too. That's this TV kind of plays a role.

[00:12:03] It's a soothing mechanism that allows us to zone out and numb out for a minute when stuff feels too intense. So on the one hand, okay, let's look at social media. And I agree with you. I'm not on social media. You know what I mean? I don't think it's the best thing in the world. But there's an interesting question of what role is that playing You know, in terms of human society as a salve, as something that is like nicotine, like cigarettes are, they're going to kill you, dude.

[00:12:31] I love cigarettes though. But it was also clear as a smoker when I was a smoker. That it was like the mortar in between the bricks of my life and the stresses felt like too much. And so for me, we got to look at the whole gestalt, right? You have to look at the whole picture. It's easy to like, if we got rid of social media immediately, would the world be a better place?

[00:12:47] For me, yes, is an easy answer, but I don't know. 

[00:12:50] Colette Brown: I'll correct what I said, I think, 10, 12 hours, it's the first thing you look at the last thing you see when you go to bed and especially girls, teen girls that are just trying to compare. So let's get back to what agreement 

[00:13:03] Shai Blakeney: we're in agreement about that.

[00:13:04] I'm just, I'm also interested in like it does play a 

[00:13:07] Colette Brown: part. And I think during COVID for example, that it kept kids alive. Because it gave them that social aspect and the gaming kept them alive because it put them in with their friends playing fortnight or whatever it is. So I think I guess I hear, I 

[00:13:24] Shai Blakeney: guess here's what I would ask you and we can move on from this.

[00:13:26] I'm sorry to be like, okay, this is good.

[00:13:28] What a family system need to make in order for the, for social media to get to be removed, they're extremely limited, within that family system where the kids friends are still there on social media, the kids feel a loss and grief there, something else happens to the family dynamic. Cause you don't have these, these other, this other relationship with technology in the same way, what would need to happen in order to create good from that, like it wouldn't be nothing.

[00:13:53] Colette Brown: That's a good question. I think that number one, my, my girls are both in sports and I think if they have some kind of, whether it's drama club or a sport or some kind of social activity, they're volunteering, they're working at the animal hospital, they're, whatever they're doing, but there has to be community around them so that they can get that social engagement.

[00:14:17] And I think that is more realistic and they would get that feedback, right? That approval from, Hey, I'm helping animals. I'm part of a team and I'm doing good. That is beautiful validation to a child, But when you're in a town like Los Angeles, where we're at, it's really hard to get your kids around and get involved in things like that.

[00:14:42] You really have to be committed. And it has to be an agreement in the family that like, this is what we're doing. If the kids don't want to do it, you really have to work hard to try to find what is their thing that I can get them in. So I think that would, that's a great question. And I think that would be my answer to that.

[00:15:00] To a family that might be struggling with it as where's your community. So 

[00:15:05] Shai Blakeney: yeah, and I'm sorry we're going down this road, but I'm just here. 

[00:15:08] Colette Brown: That's good. 

[00:15:08] Shai Blakeney: In our realities in Los Angeles, as parents, my reality, your reality, we're addicted to work and hustle so that we can pay the rent. And we're always afraid we're going to run out of money.

[00:15:17] And that we're not going to be able to provide for our families. And I'm sure this exists. This is just LA. This is capitalism. This is whatever. 

[00:15:24] Colette Brown: Yeah. And 

[00:15:24] Shai Blakeney: so our, so much of our energy is going there and there's not that same energy and space in the family home. And I think a lot of that space just gets filled in, so it's important to recognize work addiction.

[00:15:36] Colette Brown: Yep. 

[00:15:36] Shai Blakeney: It's important to recognize that scarcity, the feeling of scarcity and needing to survive. I think it's projected onto money and then, and then you're tired. And so your energy at the end of the day to be with your family is limited. Yeah. You feel stressed as a parent. You know what I mean?

[00:15:50] And you're like, dang am I really supposed to like, six or seven when I get home, I gotta be like, I'm already done. So it's deep. We've got to look at the whole thing. You know what I mean? It's deep. I don't. It is. Anyways. Okay. That's it. I agree with you. If you gave me a choice. And you said shy.

[00:16:05] You have a remote control. Get rid of social media button. I would do it. I'm just saying that out loud. I would take the risk to do it. So that's where I stand. If I was forced to make a choice, 

[00:16:15] Colette Brown: but I just think 

[00:16:15] Shai Blakeney: it's also complex. 

[00:16:16] Colette Brown: Yeah, it is complex. It is. But hey, we survived before it, so we know that it's possible.

[00:16:21] So tell me more about antidote. So let's say we have these kids that instead of scrolling and getting into trouble, they can go to antidote. And they can get into a community. So tell us what you will see when you walk in. What is the theme behind and maybe the mission statement of antidote?

[00:16:43] Shai Blakeney: Yeah. I've been messing with a mission statement for months. I don't have it. We do circle from 

[00:16:46] Colette Brown: your heart. What is your mission? Yeah. 

[00:16:48] Shai Blakeney: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So here's the one I like the best so far. I don't have it. I don't have it totally memorized. It's new. It's it's four or five months old.

[00:16:54] Um, so we do circle work. There's no therapy offices. It's in like a clubhouse rec facility it's not, I don't like the word wellness, whatever there's wellness aspects, but we do circle work. And so I liked to practice being more fully human in the circle.

[00:17:08] And to take what we practice out of the circle. I like that. I think that's the best mission statement I could have. But to talk about antidote, it's new. So that's probably what's on my mind. It's and it feels new, like it feels like, oh, this is different. This is what is. Like they're the two most asked questions when people come here, or what is this?

[00:17:26] Is this number one? And I'm like, I'm not sure. And you're in the office 

[00:17:29] Colette Brown: of antidote right now. I just want to say that. I am 

[00:17:31] Shai Blakeney: dude. Yeah. I can't really, it's a bad angle, but there's like a cool, Oh, see that little. That little triangle, that's the the coal plunge I've been there 

[00:17:39] Colette Brown: is basically for those not watching shy is giving us a little tour from the office window of antidote where they have a gym, a basketball hoop, a climbing rope, a coal plunge, a sauna.

[00:17:51] Shai Blakeney: We do boxing. We do hoop. We do circle work. Yeah, we have a couple of wellness things. The sign. For those of you that are watching, it says freedom is freedom. Stop playing with us. Most important things about antidote. The kids young people, young men, first of all, it's a male identifying clients.

[00:18:06] They like it. So I come from a treatment background, kids don't like school. Understandably, kids don't like church. Kids actually like school more than they like church, 

[00:18:15] So the kids like antidote. That's the most important thing. And they're young men adolescent and young adult up to 26. I say that because I come from a treatment background and generally young people do not like going To treatment like rehab generally young people don't like school.

[00:18:30] Generally young people don't like church or temple. kids like school more than they like church and temple, which I think says something about how terrible church and temple are as a rabbi. I can say that. But people like being here. Yeah.

[00:18:42] And so for me, that's a big deal. Oh, people want to be here, to, some degree. There's a lot of theory behind it. So it's not Hey, we just open this place, spent seven years designing it, like the theory, 

[00:18:53] Colette Brown: yeah. 

[00:18:54] Shai Blakeney: And we're just at the space right now where we're going enough that we're able to throw a lot of the theory away, which is really great.

[00:19:00] Cause we spent seven years drawing on attachment theory, IFS developmental theory, what we liked in treatment, what we didn't like in treatment, what we know about the nervous system, what we know about the body, what we know about our social environments. Like we designed all these modules and all this curriculum.

[00:19:15] And right now we're in the beautiful process of throwing all of that in the trash because it's all integrated. It's all it's there, but we don't need to be theorizing so that we can be with each other. 

[00:19:27] Colette Brown: That's 

[00:19:28] Shai Blakeney: really it. Like, how do we be with each other? How do we move towards aliveness?

[00:19:31] How do we cultivate spaces and find the rituals and practices where we're able to be authentic with each other? You know what I mean? The facilitators are trained. There's clinical supervision. So all the stuff to parents are like, Oh, it's is it going to be sophisticated enough?

[00:19:46] Like I can give you the sophisticated rap, but all of that for me is just to learn how to be which I know is like almost corny, but it's like the same thing about being a parent. You read 50 parent books to try to [00:20:00] figure out how to be loving, authentic, spontaneous, and consistent with your child.

[00:20:06] You know what I mean? Like it takes 50 books for you to like, throw that away and be a human with another human. 

[00:20:13] Colette Brown: Yeah. You know 

[00:20:13] Shai Blakeney: what I mean? That's how antidote is. And it's beautiful. So I would say the young people like it and it's beautiful. Like the work is beautiful. Like I cry, like the work is beautiful here.

[00:20:23] And it's small and it's new and hopefully it makes it, those are the realities, but it's Yeah. So 

[00:20:28] Colette Brown: if you're in Los Angeles, I just want to say, and you have a child that identifies as male, as you said, check it out. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. And why don't you drop that link where they can find it.

[00:20:39] We'll also put it in the show notes. 

[00:20:40] Shai Blakeney: Yeah. It's antidote lab.com. I should do my job. It's like when therapy's not enough and rehab is too much and it doesn't quite feel right for your kid and you're looking for something alternative or adjunctive to those things. This is a new category of care that we've invented coming out of the treatment industry and frankly coming out of a strong critique.

[00:20:59] So that's that antidote lab. com. 

[00:21:02] Colette Brown: And I have to say for those listening that shy is probably one of the most. real people that you will ever meet. Like you are so present and you listen and you really care about these kids. It just oozes out of your body. And so if you do have that child that is veering and you don't know what to do, and you've read your 50 parenting books and you don't know where to go, try antidote, send them over there and let shy.

[00:21:32] Have a go with them as I would say, yeah. And then you also have recover integrity. And so tell us how that started and the work that you do there. 

[00:21:43] Shai Blakeney: Recover integrity is a dual diagnosis men's treatment program in West Los Angeles. It started because I got a recovery when I was 21 years old. And I was a musician and in I needed to make a living though.

[00:21:55] Musicians don't make a living. So I started working as a counselor at the student program I went through. I worked there for 12 years. I won't go through that whole history, but I was there for a long time and learned a lot and then decided I was going to start my own thing with a friend of mine.

[00:22:09] And naturally I understood how treatment worked. I worked in treatment for 12 years and I had my critiques of the treatment program I went through and I had what I loved about the treatment program I went through and you took those ideas and you you formed something new.

[00:22:19] And recover integrity is dealing with high acuity. So we're dealing with schizophrenia, bipolar, significant drug addiction, significant dual diagnosis, adult man clinically resistant depression, it's it's not a psych ward, but we deal with the spectrum of somebody's life is off the track.

[00:22:35] People are lost in a very significant way. That's been entrenched at least for a few years. Average age there is about 28 years old. It's relational in terms of how the milieu works, emotionally focused relational work. It's psycho spiritual. So we draw on Western spirituality, spiritual psychology.

[00:22:51] We draw on Eastern spirituality meditation practices, mindfulness practices, a little bit of shamanic. Influence there as well. And then, we've drawn every psychological modalities IFS EMTR brain spotting and all the buzzwords. And then also we're a community, we're also a loving authentic community.

[00:23:09] I think what I like a lot about recover integrity. Has to do and I'm saying weird things. If you don't understand treatment, like I'm not mark. I'm not marketing. If I was marketing, I would go, we do all of, we do TMS. We do ketamine cyst therapy, and that's going to cure you here. It's not like that to me.

[00:23:22] And that what I actually appreciate about Recover Integrity is is the space. We walk a very fine line between being a community program, but affording enough privacy. And enough choice and enough respect for you as an individual, for you to be able to choose. And so there's like they're more coercive programs, which I'm not always against, by the way, interestingly

[00:23:45] Colette Brown: personality, probably.

[00:23:46] Shai Blakeney: Yeah. And the situation and 

[00:23:48] Colette Brown: the 

[00:23:48] Shai Blakeney: constraints, all this stuff. And then there are programs that in my opinion are incredibly expensive therapy clinics that might never touch the problem because they sort Over accommodate. And I like the space we hold in between and recover integrity. It's we're going to address the problem, but we are going to give you choice and agency around that.

[00:24:05] And we are going to confront behaviors and we're going to do it in behaviors and ways of being in patterns that are keeping you stuck, but we're going to do it really respectfully. You know what I mean? And we're going to do it as thoughtfully as possible. And so I really appreciate that space that recovered integrity.

[00:24:19] That's like the fundamentals of treatment. I think we do really well. 

[00:24:22] Colette Brown: Yeah. No, it's beautiful. And I know your wife is very instrumental and she was getting this going. Emily is a powerhouse. Shout out to Emily. 

[00:24:32] Shai Blakeney: Yeah. 

[00:24:34] Colette Brown: She's amazing. And I just have to throw in there that you're also this amazing entrepreneur and you've got also a shoe store.

[00:24:42] Shai Blakeney: Oh, yeah. 

[00:24:43] Colette Brown: On Melrose. Like just randomly. 

[00:24:46] Shai Blakeney: Yeah. Yeah. Don't be disappointed when I say this. I had a shoe store on Melrose. 

[00:24:50] Colette Brown: Oh, okay. So I 

[00:24:51] Shai Blakeney: say, oh, good. That wasn't too disappointing. Thank you. 

[00:24:53] Colette Brown: I didn't know that went away, but this is who you are. Like you, you have a sneaker 

[00:24:58] Shai Blakeney: store. We had a social justice oriented sneaker store for people getting out of.

[00:25:01] Sneaker 

[00:25:02] Colette Brown: store. See, 

[00:25:04] Shai Blakeney: You want to know my truth about it? Here's my truth about it. My truth about it is for a variety of reasons. We did not focus enough on the social justice mission and it took us too long and it took too much focus to figure out how to make the thing profitable. So that was my, that's my reverse take on it.

[00:25:21] It was like, We focus too much on sneakers and money and not enough on people getting out of prison, even though the co founder had gotten out of prison and that's why we started it. 

[00:25:29] Colette Brown: Okay. 

[00:25:30] Shai Blakeney: But an entrepreneurial journey with a mission in mind of helping to make a change in the world. So I love how your brain is working. And I'd like to know what are, Any next steps that you have or what's in the pipeline. 

[00:25:43] Um, right now I'm very focused. I'm like moving away from more traditional treatment.

[00:25:47] I have I guess I'm interested in community. I'm interested in how people constellate themselves. I would say that the vision that I have is in the immediate. I'm really focused on creating this new category. I would love if this would be a category that gets covered by, that gets covered by insurance, which comes with a set of problems, but also it means anybody could afford it.

[00:26:06] So that would be like a five year goal for antidote would be like, it's cheaper than treatment. Young people can come here. Another five year goal at Antidote would be that we have Antidote facilitators of all the high schools, we have Antidote after school programs, we have community organizing events, and that this goes all over California.

[00:26:22] So that's like the big vision of Antidote, really focused there. Mike Martin, my co founder, is the key person here. So I'm like supporting him. I'm here a couple days a week and getting it off the ground. So I'm doing that for the next couple years. That is the kind of short term. I am in the middle of opening a treatment program with a group of my friends called the practice which will be incorporating psychedelic medicine specifically psilocybin legally in a practice based treatment program.

[00:26:48] So it will be focused trauma work, but it's 20 hours of practice. It'll be like this really nutrition focused really nature focused, really exercise focused, meditation focused, meaning developing a practice. For yourself of recovery, what that means for you, but biopsych social and then focus trauma work and then psychedelics all in one 60 day program.

[00:27:08] So I've been designing that for quite a few years and hoping to finish the raise to launch that really like the next 30 days. And then hoping to launch that by January, something like that. With the eventual goal of, that growing and antidote growing and that being like the adolescent community and the adult community.

[00:27:24] Yeah. And then I have a vision of stepping back from the business piece. I really don't love business to be honest with you. The entrepreneurial stuff for me is. 

[00:27:34] Colette Brown: You're the visionary. 

[00:27:35] Shai Blakeney: It's just wanting to build things in the world. Yeah. Where people can gather and stuff like that.

[00:27:39] But God, I would love it if four or five years from now, I could step away to build nonprofit psilocybin centers. In the hood like they have these they're like methadone clinics and suboxone clinics where they distribute opiate replacements, which are, it's a complex conversation about how I feel about that and my perspective on that.

[00:27:57] But I just really thought God, it'd be really cool if there's community centers next to the methadone clinic where they were doing micro dosing, psilocybin. Meditation an ecology of practices of connection. And instead of getting in line for the methadone, you got online to connect with psilocybin with the plant intelligence and with other people in your community in positive ways.

[00:28:16] So there's infrastructure there for that. That would be a beautiful dream coming out of the practice to start doing stuff in the hood, which is important to me and then back to the rabbi stuff. That's the ultimate vision.

[00:28:27] And then getting to, some kind of interesting form of rabbinics and community building around around the divine and around what it means to be a human and around what it means to be embodied and, be in this, whatever's going on here, man. So that's my, my, my true deepest calling is probably back to rabbinics, but I'm taking a meandering route.

[00:28:44] It's scary. And I have to make sure I'm very spiritually aligned. I don't mean it as a cross, but a Jewish star, 

[00:28:50] Colette Brown: that's a little bouncing around alignment. Yeah. really compelled to help youth and they wanted to donate to you. Tell us how they can get ahold of you. Because I felt that when I walked into antidote, I just thought, I see this.

[00:29:04] This is amazing. And I said, shy, we've got to do a podcast because this can help so many people. And I know that one of the things is there is a financial need because it costs to have kids come in. So if somebody wants to donate Say what that would help with in with children and where to do that.

[00:29:22] Shai Blakeney: Great. So right now we're literally in the midst of a raise for housing. So Antidote is outpatient, it's in this rec center, but we've definitely seen the need already that we want to have a life skills house. There are people that just need the housing components, which we've designed.

[00:29:34] So we're halfway through a raise of that. I'm interested in relationship, money's great, but I'm interested in meeting people and just like widening the connections and energy. So feel free to, to reach out to me both about donating if that's what you want or investing, by the way, there's also an opportunity to invest or to meet and come through.

[00:29:51] And so it's yeshia, Y E S H A I A. at antidote lab. com and antidote is spelled with an E meaning [00:30:00] before the crisis. So we changed the spelling of antidote just so people get that 

[00:30:04] Colette Brown: before the crisis. I love that. 

[00:30:06] Shai Blakeney: Yeah. 

[00:30:06] Colette Brown: And if it's possible, could you just give us three things? If you know that your child or your loved one is.

[00:30:16] Indeed. Because I know a lot of times if you're in it, it's really hard to see through to get the help. And so if you notice that as a loved one, what are three things that you could give them to help support them in getting into a treatment center or maybe going to antidote before anything bad happens?

[00:30:37] Shai Blakeney: I want to make sure I understand your question. How do you, how would you approach it? If you think your kid needs help, how would you approach it? Or what would be my advice on approaching that? 

[00:30:45] Colette Brown: Yes. Cause I know that every child is different, right? Because some you can go direct and some are get away from me.

[00:30:52] I don't want to hear it. So what would be three kind of things that. Somebody could use to open a conversation and just giving them the opportunity to maybe even seeing the facility to say yes or no. 

[00:31:06] Shai Blakeney: Yeah. Yeah. So I think, one thing I didn't talk about with the antidote is that we do these family workshops, which I think are the most powerful thing we do.

[00:31:12] Which is like the exact same thing we're doing with the young people. It's all experiential therapies, that we're doing in the circle, but it's with the whole family. And for me, that's been like the, Oh my God, I just been thinking like, how do I get my kids to do? Who's going to run this so I can get my kids to do it.

[00:31:24] Cause I co run the family 

[00:31:26] Colette Brown: workshop. I want to be in 

[00:31:27] Shai Blakeney: it with my kids, which I, three is a really good sign. So what I would say is come with your kids. And so it's one thing to be like, you've got to go to rehab or you've got to go to this thing because you're messed up. And obviously the parents, come on, let's be real parents.

[00:31:38] You know what I mean? But come to a family workshop. So we offer community family workshops. 

[00:31:43] Colette Brown: Is this for both? It's for anybody. Anybody. Okay. 

[00:31:46] Shai Blakeney: Anybody in the community. And 

[00:31:47] Colette Brown: when are those family workshops? 

[00:31:48] Shai Blakeney: Every three weeks. 

[00:31:49] Colette Brown: Okay. 

[00:31:50] Shai Blakeney: Every three weeks we do family workshops. We're doing them for free and it's a way for people to be able to experience the work and come in.

[00:31:55] And then it's not you like telling your kid to do something you're not willing to do. So you come and you experience it and it also gives you a chance to be like, do I like this place? What does it feel like? What the hell is this? Are we ready for this? Is this too much? Is it not enough?

[00:32:05] And so that for me is the easy one. If you can commit to the family workshop, then you probably feel more comfortable telling your kid he's got to come. I'm going to, you got to come and I would, I'm coming, you're coming, what's up. 

[00:32:15] Colette Brown: Yeah. That's nice. And if somebody has remote, do you have people come in remote to this or is it just, we 

[00:32:21] Shai Blakeney: don't, and it's pretty low tech, there's like a video game lounge and stuff like that and a couple of TVs around, but really I'm not a big zoom guy.

[00:32:28] I gotta be honest. But there's lots of zoom resources out there. There are lots of zoom family programs and stuff that are out there. Google zoom family support and every rehab uses that as a marketing tool. So there's tons of free, but non zoom, like in your body, you're going to, you have to shoot some basketball.

[00:32:43] You know what I mean? You have to jump in that's antidote. You know what I mean? 

[00:32:46] Colette Brown: Yeah. Okay. I love it. And. One thing that I didn't mention is that you were once called the rapping rabbi. Oh, yeah. Do you have anything at the tip of your tongue that you could do for us today? 

[00:32:57] Shai Blakeney: Oh, you want me to wrap something?

[00:32:58] Colette Brown: Something, yeah. 

[00:32:59] Shai Blakeney: Oh my God. Let me, 

[00:33:00] Colette Brown: I'm putting you on the spot, Shai. 

[00:33:02] Shai Blakeney: That's really cool. I'll do this one. There's songs like me in many ways. Many days spent just thinking thoughts away. And we can't walk away. It's like he forced our hand. Sometimes I've got to wonder. I wonder where I am sometimes. But it's like they all used to say I'm humbled by that possibility. But all that rap and killing this gonna end up just killing me.

[00:33:18] End up just really deep. Lost in the misery, forgot about our history. You see us standing in the podium, it's ing Magnolia. Get fallen from the sky. But I was too high to roll another one. But if God is my number one, then I know where I'm coming from. But I don't know where I'm going to. But I stay in love with the mystery.

[00:33:31] Yeah. I stay in love with the mystery 'cause God don't never miss a beat, but y'all gonna end up missing me. Peace God. 

[00:33:36] Colette Brown: I love it. Yay. Thank you . Thank 

[00:33:38] Shai Blakeney: you. Okay. I have a request of you though. 

[00:33:39] Colette Brown: Yeah. 

[00:33:40] Shai Blakeney: My friend and Co-founder Michael Martin antidote is we gotta get some of your granola in here.

[00:33:44] Colette Brown: Yes. 

[00:33:45] Shai Blakeney: We'll pay for it. We got it. We need it. 

[00:33:47] Colette Brown: Appreciate that. What one of the key components of wellness and in, in my nutrition, everything that I've learned is that a lot of times these addictions come out of poor diet, lack of exercise. And when you can think right. And you're eating healthy, then you can get yourself on a better foot.

[00:34:07] So absolutely million percent love collects coming your way. 

[00:34:10] Shai Blakeney: Can I add something to that? 

[00:34:11] Colette Brown: Yes. 

[00:34:12] Shai Blakeney: Addiction in general grows out of malnourishment or 

[00:34:15] Colette Brown: the 

[00:34:16] Shai Blakeney: spiritual nourishment, right? Deprivation, spiritual nourishment. Whether that's nourishment from love and relationship, whether that's nourishment from, what your body needs, not enough. You know what I mean? That's where addiction grows. It grows in the cracks where the light's not coming in, you know what I'm saying? So it's beautiful. Totally beautiful. Thank you for highlighting that. 

[00:34:36] Colette Brown: Yeah. Thank you. One question that I ask my guests at the end is if this was the last message.

[00:34:43] That you had to broadcast out to the world. What would it be?

[00:34:46] Shai Blakeney: Do not be afraid. Step into the light.

[00:34:49] Colette Brown: Beautiful. Said. Shy. You're just a gift. I really appreciate you and all that you're doing. The loving support that you have around you through your friends and family and you being an open conduit to. Helping transform the lives of others. Can you tell everyone how we can reach you again?

[00:35:07] Just give us a couple of links. And I want people to reach out to you and experience what you're sharing with the world. 

[00:35:14] Shai Blakeney: First I love you and thank you, Colette. 

[00:35:16] Colette Brown: Thank you for 

[00:35:17] Shai Blakeney: having me. Yeah, we can be reached at antidote lab. com. Again, it's antidote with an E. I'm also at recover integrity.

[00:35:24] Dot com. We're mom and pops. So like you could pick up the phone and call it, but can I talk to shy? You know what I mean? And I'm available at both places. Like I'm active. 

[00:35:33] Thank you so much. I, is there anything else that you wanted to add today? 

[00:35:36] Just thanks. Yeah, it was cool. Thank you. Yeah. Right on. Good to see you. 

[00:35:39] Colette Brown: Thank you. And everyone, thank you for listening. And if this meant something to you, please share it with your friends and family. And until next time, be well.

[00:35:49] Shai Blakeney: