The Rehab Playbook: Hope Has a Game Plan
A clear, compassionate guide for individuals struggling with addiction—and the family, friends, therapists, and physicians who care about them.
Release Date: 9/9/2025
About the Book
We are in the midst of a mental health crisis: addiction, overdoses, depression, and suicide are all on the rise. Yet, according to the American Association of Addiction Medicine, only 1 in 10 people with addiction ever receive treatment.
Why? Fear of the unknown, stigma, financial concerns, confusion around insurance, and lack of clear guidance keep many from getting help.
The Rehab Playbook pulls back the curtain on the treatment process and gives readers practical tools to overcome these barriers and take the first step toward recovery.
Whether you are seeking help for yourself or supporting someone you love, this book provides a step-by-step plan for treatment and hope for lasting change.
Inside, you’ll discover:
- What really happens in treatment
- How to choose the right program
- What loved ones need to know
- How to navigate fear, finances, and stigma
- Tools to thrive in recovery and beyond
Why This Book Now
Treatment centers have existed since the 1930s, yet the process remains a mystery to many. The Rehab Playbook is the first guide of its kind—part personal story, part practical roadmap—written by Jaime Welsh Vinck, MC, LPC, a trusted leader and clinician in premier rehab centers across the U.S.
About the Author
Jaime Welsh Vinck, MC, LPC, NCC is a nationally recognized behavioral health leader, clinician, and advocate. As President of Meadows Behavioral Healthcare, she oversees one of the nation’s most trusted networks of treatment programs.
With over 20 years of experience as both a therapist and executive, Jaime has been named one of Arizona’s Most Influential Women by AZ Business Magazine and regularly speaks on addiction, mental health, and leadership at national and international conferences.
Drawing from her decades of clinical expertise and her family’s own experience with addiction and depression, Jaime wrote The Rehab Playbook to empower individuals and families with the knowledge, tools, and hope they need to take the first step toward lasting recovery.
Praise for The Rehab Playbook
“Jaime Vinck’s depth and scope of experience makes her the perfect person to write a book demystifying addiction treatment. Her style of writing immediately invites the reader in as she offers a vivid description of what to ask and expect as one reaches out for help. Understanding the many fears, doubts, and hopelessness experienced, she knows the power of good treatment. It can be frightening to let go of one’s addiction and put faith in a process that most have only seen portrayed via the media culture and hearsay. The Rehab Playbook quickly empowers the often skeptical and scared reader to gain confidence in their decision to live life differently, realizing they can enter treatment, stay in treatment and embrace a recovery process.”
Claudia Black, Ph. D., addiction and trauma specialist
Author of Undaunted Hope: Healing from Trauma, Depression and Addiction
”When reading this book, I thought of course this needed to be done! This book is a gift we have needed for a long time. People who face treatment and their loved ones are filled with uncertainties, and now they have a guide to ask the questions they did not even know they had.”
Patrick J. Carnes, Ph. D., world-renowned expert on sex addiction and treatment.
Author of The Betrayal Bond: Breaking Free of Exploitive Relationships and Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sexual Addiction
Why I Wrote The Rehab Playbook
A note from the author.
“There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you.”
Zora Neale Hurston
Only 1 in 10 people who need addiction treatment actually get it. I wrote The Rehab Playbook for the other nine – and the people who love them.
In my decades in behavioral health, I’ve often asked myself why recovery feels so out of reach. Would seeing treatment from the inside out make a difference? Maybe, maybe not. Access is complicated. Money, culture, stigma, and fear keep people away. Fear of the unknown. Fear of facing inner demons. Fear of the treatment process itself. Though treatment centers have existed since the 1930s, what happens behind those doors can still feel mysterious. Who really works there? What makes a program a good fit? Until we start answering these questions and breaking down barriers, too many will continue to suffer in silence.
When someone finally agrees to treatment – and overcomes those barriers to access – it may be the only chance we get. Time is critical, and getting it right matters. That’s why referrals in our field are built on trust. I send people only to programs where I know safe, high-quality care will be delivered, because treatment is only as good as the people who provide it.
Much of the joy in my work comes from standing alongside those people. Colleagues who show up every day, who “stand in the fire,” and who often carry their own scars. Many of us are wounded healers, identifying more with the patients than the rest of the world, and seeking to repay some of the grace the world has shown us. The Rehab Playbook also honors three remarkable individuals who embody that commitment. Through honest conversations or “team meetings” with them, I hope to further humanize the treatment experience. To truly know what makes a program strong, you must understand not only the components of quality treatment but also the human beings who bring it to life.
Finally, I wrote this book as an invitation. Across the country, staffing shortages are so severe that some treatment centers have been forced to close programs. If this work speaks to you, I hope you’ll consider joining us in the field. It may be exactly where you were meant to be.
Jaime Vinck, MC, LPC, NCC
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