The unique bio-psycho-spiritual program at Honey Lake Clinic will help anyone who is motivated to grow. So no, you do not have to be a Christian to be admitted to our Christian mental health facility and receive our intensive treatment services. We help people from all religious backgrounds move forward, grow spiritually and psychologically, and improve their brain chemistry.

We are strong believers that the truth will set you free, the ultimate truth is Jesus Christ, and that the Bible is the only source of absolute truths to guide our decisions and life management. All of our treatment is delivered from a Christian worldview, openly and thoroughly infusing Jesus Christ and the triune God of the Bible into all aspects of therapy.

To maximize your treatment experience as well as the experience for all our patients, if you do not share our Christian beliefs and worldview:

• We ask that you are not argumentative about spiritual concepts when they are being taught during the group and educational sessions. If you have questions or concerns, we are certainly willing to discuss them in your individual sessions and outside of group time so that it doesn’t disrupt the treatment process for those who have chosen Honey Lake Clinic specifically for our Christian environment and content.
• Your healing and well-being are very important to us. We want you to have a treatment experience that allows you to put all your energy toward your healing. We don’t want our Christian philosophy, content, and practices to be uncomfortable or interfere with your healing process. To find your best match, we request that you let our team know what your faith is when you call so that we can determine if Honey Lake Clinic is the best fit for you. If not, we do work with other treatment facilities that might be more comfortable for you.

Your dignity and privacy are key to us at Honey Lake Clinic. Several principles guide us in this area:

• Confidentiality is our obligation. As licensed behavioral health care professionals, we are mandated by HIPAA laws to comply with the highest standards of confidentiality to ensure the privacy of each of our patients. We run the risk of incurring significant fines if we breach confidentiality without proper cause.
• Beyond the laws of our land, our Christian faith compels us to maintain relational integrity and uphold the covenants that we enter into with you as we strive to honor God and others in our non-12-step rehab.
• As healthcare professionals, we have many years of experience in dealing with very sensitive, private, and delicate information. We take oaths, such as the Hippocratic Oath, to ethically maintain confidentiality unless acute safety is at risk.

We exist to provide behavioral health healing that is grounded and sustained by a Christian faith. Our program is designed to help our patients experience God’s power, love, forgiveness, grace, and peace themselves and to share their light with others. In short, we help others reclaim their stories.

No, we are a Bible-believing, Christ-centered, and non-denominational ministry.

This is our doctrinal statement:

• We believe the Bible to be inspired and the only infallible and authoritative Word of God.
• We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His vicarious and atoning death through the shedding of His blood, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His personal return in power and glory.
• We believe that the salvation of the lost and sinful man is by God’s grace through one’s faith in Christ alone and Christ’s atoning death for our sins. Only this can reconcile us to God the Father.
• We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
• We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; those who are saved unto eternal reconciliation with God and those that are lost unto eternal damnation.
• We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in Christ.
• We believe that the testimony of the inspired Holy Scriptures is that the marriage covenant shall be reserved only for one man with one woman.

All meals and snacks are provided. A balanced diet is a critical component of a healthy mind, body, and spirit. Caffeine, bleached flour, and sugary soda will be severely restricted. We provide gluten-free, vegetarian, and protein-intensive diets.

Patients are responsible for removing their bedding and making their beds twice a week, on Sundays and Thursdays. Your room will be cleaned by housekeeping staff weekly. However, patients are responsible for keeping their rooms tidy and organized.

During the detoxification and residential levels of care, you will not be able to leave the facility. The goal at these levels of care is to provide intensive therapy with medical supervision to help you overcome struggles that hinder your functioning. 

A vehicle will not be necessary on our resort. If you do drive here, you can park the car on the resort and will be asked to provide staff with your keys for safekeeping. Once you discharge from the residential level of care, you will be given access to your vehicle and can utilize it while in the partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient levels of care.

During the pre-admission process, a detailed list of items to bring and items to leave at home will be provided to you and reviewed by the admissions coordinator. But here is an overview of what to expect:

• Florida is warm most of the year as days in the winter are at least 50°F and, usually, over 60°F. Casual, comfortable clothing such as jeans, shorts, and T-shirts should be perfect. You might also want to bring a light hoodie or jacket in the late fall and early spring months. In the winter, the nights can get around 40°F, so a heavier jacket might be required.
• Honey Lake Clinic is a scenic lakeside resort, so walking to various activities will be common. Bring good walking shoes, sneakers for the gym, and sandals. No high heels, please.
• We will go to a small church on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings, where attire is casual. You can wear whatever you are comfortable with or used to.
• We do have a pool, sauna, hot tub, and gym, so workout/exercise clothes and a bathing suit are important.
• As Christian men and women, we want to honor God and each other in how we present ourselves, including with our clothes. Please avoid wearing clothes that are too short, revealing, or tight, that have vulgar or disrespectful language or graphics, or that glorify alcohol or drugs.

Honey Lake Clinic has a complete state-of-the-art fitness center that includes the latest aerobic and anaerobic equipment.

No, you don’t need to bring cash with you. However, if you do, it will be kept in the safe. You may need a credit or debit card if you are planning to schedule your return trip home from Honey Lake Clinic or are a self-payer who needs to be able to purchase medication.

We know that the cost of accessing professional treatment from licensed clinicians is significant, and some cannot afford these life-impacting services. At times, depending on our donors and availability, we are able to provide some scholarships to reduce an individual’s out-of-pocket expense. Please do inquire when you make your initial call to Honey Lake Clinic.

Also, if you are a part of a local church community, they might be able to provide some scholarship money to help lessen your cost. You can ask them to call us and we will explain our program and how their support could be a powerful blessing in your spiritual and psychological growth.

There are washers/dryers available to do personal laundry, and detergent is provided. So you will only need to bring clothes for a week.

Please bring everything that you will need for a 30-day stay, just as if you were going on vacation. However, please note that we won’t allow you any products in aerosol cans or any that contain alcohol.

Our treatment program is a minimum of 30 days, however, our average length of stay is 41 days. 80% of our patients stay longer than initially planned. We believe this is due to improvement and understanding that they are receiving appropriate treatment.

One of the practices that we perform in compliance with benchmark industry standards is a search of all patients and their belongings upon arrival. Honey Lake Clinic seeks to be a best-in-class facility, and as such, we need to have a full awareness of all items that are brought onto the resort by our patients.

We will perform the searches during the intake process. Your luggage will be searched in one room by a technician while you will be accompanied into the restroom by a nurse to be searched. You will be asked to disrobe. The nurse will not touch you but will need to observe you to ensure that you are not bringing in anything that is potentially harmful to you or to others. If you have no contraband under your clothes, this will last only a couple of seconds.

We apologize for this inconvenience and intrusion but hope that you understand our need to be good stewards and protect those who are coming here for healing in a secure, safe, and trusting environment.

No one will know of your stay and treatment at Honey Lake Clinic except for the following possibilities:

• People you tell.
• People you give us written permission to talk to.
• Your insurance company if you want us to pursue their support in financing the costs of your treatment. We retain an outside utilization review team who presents components of your treatment to your insurance company to show them that your treatment is needed so that they will be more likely to pay according to your policy.
• In the event of a medical or psychiatric emergency rendering you unconscious, confused, and unable to give clear information, we might need to contact people who know you for information or other emergency personnel to urgently help and treat you.
• Each state has laws designed for your safety and the safety of others. They mandate us to inform emergency personnel under the following circumstances:
  • If you are at acute physical risk of seriously harming yourself
  • If you are at acute physical risk of seriously harming others
  • If an acute psychiatric condition has caused you to be unable to provide your own food, clothing, shelter, and physical safety
  • If you are endangering the health and welfare of a minor
  • If you are endangering the health and welfare of an older or disabled adult in your care

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and for the continued safety of our staff and patients, all visitation has been suspended until further notice.

Yes, Honey Lake Clinic allows our patients to bring their electronic devices with them to the clinic to be able to keep in touch with family and friends and handle any work-related items.

As most electronics have cameras or recording devices, it is our responsibility at Honey Lake Clinic to uphold the HIPAA laws and guarantee each individual complete privacy and safety while at our facility. Patients may only use their electronic devices during free time and in their room.

Prior to admission, each patient will sign a contract acknowledging and agreeing to this electronics policy.

Yes, we can share our insights, experience, and expertise to evaluate and facilitate the next stages of your ministerial journey with those whom God has put in your life to spearhead that process with you.

Towards the end of your stay here, we will help facilitate your re-engagement process with your family, church, and therapist.

This will be customized for each individual but could include a therapist, psychiatric specialist, marriage therapist, pastoral coach, recovery meeting, home church, or any other support that is needed or recommended by your treatment team.

After you leave, you can continue to read and be blessed by the Stepping Stones Daily Devotional written by our co-founder, chancellor, and Director of Excellence in Christian Psychiatry at Honey Lake Clinic, Dr. Karl Benzio, as well as other life-growth resources on our website.

Yes, psychiatry is a very important component at Honey Lake Clinic in addressing all three spheres of spirit, mind, and body. You will receive a psychiatric evaluation and then have psychiatric sessions three times a week (or even daily if detoxing from a substance). These sessions will not only address the medication and psychiatric aspects of your care but also infuse psychological and spiritual equipping and support as well. You will see credentialed licensed psychiatric nurse practitioners who are supervised and guided by our board-certified psychiatric specialists. Also, our co-founder and chancellor, Dr. Karl Benzio, who is also the Director of Excellence in Christian Psychiatry at Honey Lake Clinic, is a board-certified psychiatrist. From the beginning, we have valued the need for psychiatry to be an integral part of the healing process in combination with the psychological and certainly the spiritual depth of our program.

Yes, with your written permission, we will communicate information to help facilitate the next steps of your transformational care.

Unlike most programs that have 10 to 12 patients in a group, with each patient receiving one individual session per week, Honey Lake Clinic has a maximum of six to seven patients in a group, with each patient receiving three individual sessions per week.

Honey Lake Clinic’s desire and philosophy is to bring God’s grace, comfort, and healing into all we do. So depending on what you are withdrawing or detoxing from, we will provide basic over-the-counter remedies to help with the various uncomfortable withdrawal or detox symptoms. This could be antihistamines to help sleep, decongestants for a runny nose, laxatives for constipation, pain meds for headaches or other aches, as well as meds for nausea, diarrhea, tremors, and chills. Taking the next step, we also can provide prescription medications as necessary for restless legs, more severe insomnia, agitation, anxiety, irrational thinking, nightmares, tremors, or psychoses. For opioid, alcohol, or benzodiazepine withdrawal/detox, we use even a higher level of medication to help reduce the pain and suffering you have while also trying to avoid you becoming dependent on something else. We use two assessment tools to gauge your level of withdrawal and then add in the medications that help you get through the next three to 10 days of discomfort some experience when transitioning from bondage to a substance to physical freedom. Then we will help you work on the psychological and spiritual freedom to equip you to be a conqueror and live a victorious life.

Honey Lake Clinic therapists are licensed, accredited, and experienced Christian therapists. They all possess either a master’s degree or a doctorate degree in their field and have been qualified and certified by their state’s professional board after successfully completing the necessary education, exams, training, and practice.