About Us
Home » About Us
The Rose House Mission
We believe that by engaging in high quality, gender specific, extended care addiction and mental health treatment, women can experience sustained sobriety and emotional healing. Our mission is to provide evidence-based, integrative treatment, delivered by a compassionate staff within a dynamic community of recovery.
We focus on the whole person:
- Psychological
- Emotional
- Physical
- Spiritual
- Nutritional
- Cognitive
- Social
Our approach is holistic and multi-faceted, recognizing that attention and care is needed in many different areas of one’s life including physical, spiritual, mental and emotional. When all parts of a woman are attended to, integrated and made whole, the result is a beautiful and centered life experience, where any challenge, trigger or obstacle can be faced with courage and overcome.
The Rose House Vision
Empowering women living with trauma, substance use and mental health disorders to reclaim their emotional and mental well-being, break free from addiction, and create the lives they deserve and desire.
We strive to cultivate a community where each woman is seen, heard, and valued, creating an environment that allows each individual to engage in the challenging and meaningful work of recovery. Through the transformative process at The Rose House, clients emerge from treatment equipped with robust and sustainable coping skills, laying the foundation for a life of resilience.
The Rose House Story
The following is The Rose House story told from the point-of-view of our founder, Marcie Chambers, PhD:
I have been asked to tell the story of how The Rose House came to be. Here is a brief history of the path that led me to opening the first extended care program for women in Colorado.
I am a recovered alcoholic. I started college at age 30 as a high school drop out and single mom when my children were 2 and 3 years old. I earned Bachelors and Masters degrees and completed my PhD in Psychology when I was 41. I went into private practice, working primarily with adolescents and families.
In 2001, my daughter, Brittney Rose, tragically died after taking an Ecstasy pill she was given as a gift at her 16th birthday party. She died from drinking too much water in a short period of time, which led to brain swelling.
As you can imagine, the grief was devastating. I pretty much quit working for a while. When I got back on my feet, I began teaching at the university level and my private practice shifted from focusing on adolescents to more general psychology. I had many women show up in my office who clearly needed residential treatment for alcohol/drug addiction. Knowing that a 30 day treatment program was a great start, but not nearly enough to be able to sustain long term sobriety in most cases, I referred them to a 30 day addiction treatment program and then an extended care treatment facility in California, where I saw these women get better, going on to repair relationships, start families of their own and complete higher educational pursuits.
Opening an Extended Care Facility
I started imagining the possibility of opening an extended care treatment facility here in Colorado, because while there is a great program for men, The Jaywalker Lodge in Carbondale, there wasnʼt anything for women. Women need treatment specific to them that includes trauma treatment, love addiction treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy and other evidence based interventions. The treatment for women needs to focus not only on addiction, but also on the co-occurring disorders and underlying issues that contribute to addiction and mental health.
With the support of Bobby Ferguson – the founder of Jaywalker, and other members of the treatment community, I opened The Rose House in 2007. I named the program after my daughter, thinking that even though I couldnʼt save her, I might have a hand in helping save the lives of other women. Addiction is a deadly disease. It is a matter of life and death. And along the way, heartache is experienced by family and friends of alcoholics/addicts.
The original Rose House was a 6 bed facility and I was the chief cook and bottle washer. I lived on site and other than a part time addiction counselor, I was the only “employee.” I designed the program, facilitated the groups, conducted individual therapy, took the women to outside 12 step meetings nightly and health club daily, shopped, cooked, you name it.
The Rose House Today
Today, The Rose House is a 16 bed facility, housed in a beautiful “prairie mansion”, out in the country in Boulder County, Colorado. The Rose House treats mental health primary diagnoses as well as substance use disorders. We have a staff of over 20 dedicated individuals making up a passionate clinical and support team.
I am blessed daily with the gift of watching women heal. It is such an amazing thing to watch the transformation as they move from depressed, shameful, scared and often angry women to strong, confident, productive, loving daughters, mothers, sisters, and wives.
We also have a step down program and sober living homes that women can move to after The Rose House. They provide a safe and supportive living environment with weekly groups, individual therapy, random drug and alcohol testing, accountability and community.
When I opened The Rose House I had a vision of being able to help women. I had no idea or thought of the fulfilling, joyful and challenging life The Rose House has given me. Who knew that out of the tragedy of losing my daughter, such a blessing could be born.