On the Road to Recovery in Santa Barbara with Good Heart Recovery

Launched on July 4 near the corner of West Mission and De la Vina streets, Good Heart Recovery is an addiction treatment center headquartered in a quaint wooden house with homey furnishings. Inside, there’s a feeling of family and togetherness. “[Our clients can] feel truly at home when they might have never felt at home before,” said cofounder and CEO Courtney Tracy, who has an advanced degree in social work and formerly worked at a drug and alcohol treatment center in Malibu. Together, the founding team has more than 30 years of experience in the field of addiction recovery.

Tracy and her husband, Max Tracy — the company’s COO ​— ​said they both have family members who have struggled with addiction, adding that they were motivated to open a recovery program in Santa Barbara to help fill a need. The purpose of the program is to “provide space for people ready to be their authentic self,” said Clinical Director Lacee Dilmore, with an emphasis on addicts who have not found success in strict and sterile treatment centers. So far, Dilmore added, a majority of the clients at Good Heart have been young adults.

Good Heart’s biggest challenge, according to Spiritual Director Jaymee Carpenter, is reaching all who need help, adding that the clinical team sometimes feels torn between taking in more clients and focusing more privately on fewer. When asked what sets them apart from other recovery programs, Carpenter said, “We don’t play roles ​— ​we are more interested in being souls.”

By the time clients finish the program, the clinical team hopes they are able to find the root of their suffering and tap into their true purpose in life. “We give people permission to be themselves for the first time in their lives,” said Carpenter, optimistic that they will continue to embody their true selves after they become sober.

In addition to Good Heart, the team has opened Recovery Santa Barbara, an all-inclusive, coed sober-living home on the Mesa.