Malibu,

Cliffside Malibu

A multi-house Malibu estate running conventional evidence-based addiction treatment at scale under group ownership.

Public evidence, LROAS 1.0.0, edition 2026-10-01

About Cliffside Malibu

Cliffside Malibu is a group of separate ocean-view residences on and around Point Dume rather than a single clinical building, and clients are placed across those houses by level of care. It opened as a licensed facility in the mid-2000s and was sold in June 2018 into a behavioural health group, where it now trades within that group's addiction services division. Three residences are recorded on the California state register as licensed and certified residential detoxification facilities with incidental medical services, each with a licensed capacity of six. The clinical model is cohort-based and conventional: CBT, DBT, cognitive processing therapy, motivational interviewing, family systems work and the Stages of Change model, delivered in tiered Premier and Classic programmes with fixed weekly session counts. It treats adults with substance use disorders, including co-occurring psychiatric conditions. Structurally it is a scaled, institutionally owned operation, not a boutique one, and a federal false-advertising finding against the business under its previous ownership stands on the record.

Clinic overview

Founded: Unresolved. One source gives 2005 as the year the facility opened under licence, and a business register records a business start date of 27 July 2004. The founding year was not re-sourced to a primary record in the current pass, so no year is stated.
Capacity: Eighteen licensed places, the sum of the licensed capacity of six on each of the three state register records held in the clinic's own name. The clinic itself publishes no bed count. Historical figures of more than 80 beds circulate from reporting on the 2018 sale and are not consistent with the licensed residential capacity on the register.
Languages: English is the only language recorded. The clinic publishes no language capability of its own, and the single source for English rests on a commercial directory listing rather than the clinic. Unverified
Licence: Licensed by the state health care services department as a residential non-medical alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facility, licensed per address. Three records in the clinic's own name are Licensed and Certified for residential detoxification with incidental medical services, capacity six each. A fourth licence number the clinic displays is held by a different legal entity.
Accreditations: A Joint Commission behavioral health care provider record exists for the clinic, with a site record for the Busch Drive residence covering clinically managed high-intensity and low-intensity residential services. The accreditor's own page returned an error and the record was only partially verified. A commercial certification seal is also displayed, which is neither a licence nor an accreditation. Unverified
Payment and insurance: Most commercial policies are accepted, in network or out of network depending on the carrier. Government insurance plans are not accepted. Payment is also taken by cash, debit card, credit card and bank transfer. Spa and wellness services are billed out of pocket.
Address: 29160 Heathercliff Road, Malibu, United States

Leadership

The clinic names three people with a clinical role at this site, plus non-clinical executives. There is no dedicated team page for the site, and the page naming the Medical Director is dated August 2018 although it was live at capture.

MD Dr. Craig Smith

Medical Director and addictionologist, leading the detox programme

leadership

LMFT Karen Rubenstein

Chief Clinical Officer

leadership

RN Natalie Shorten

Director of Nursing

nursing

Kelly Stephenson

Chief Executive Officer

leadership

MA, CADC-I Dane Fisher

Chief Operating Officer

leadership

MD Matthew Ruble

Chief Medical Officer of the parent group, with no stated role at this site

medicine

No professional registration or state licence number is published for any named clinician.

Videos

Cliffside Malibu Rehabilitation CenterSource: Cliffside MalibuWatch on YouTube

Treatments

Medical Detox

Typically 5 to 10 days, inside the residential setting

Medically supervised withdrawal management inside the residential setting, with licensed nursing around the clock, daily physician visits during detox and minimum weekly physician visits thereafter, and psychiatric care as needed, so the client is not transferred to a hospital unit mid-episode. The three state register records in the clinic's own name are certified for residential detoxification with incidental medical services.

Residential Rehabilitation, Premier Program

The higher-intensity residential tier: three individual therapy sessions a week, one family session a week as clinically indicated, up to 1.5 hours a week of individual counselling and case management by a certified addiction counsellor, two massages, one onsite group acupuncture session, three onsite yoga classes and two to three group personal training sessions, plus soundbath, breathworks and meditation. Publishing the tiers in session counts is unusually concrete for this market.

Residential Rehabilitation, Classic Program

The standard tier: two individual therapy sessions a week, one of which may be a family session as clinically indicated, half an hour to an hour a week of individual case management by a certified addiction counsellor, two to three group yoga classes, gym access and meditation.

Co-occurring Mental Health Treatment

Concurrent with the residential stay

Included in the residential programme

Psychiatric care alongside addiction treatment for depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD and personality disorders presenting with substance use, with medication management and trauma-focused work. It is positioned as dual-diagnosis capability rather than as a standalone psychiatric admission, and no defined programme for any complex psychiatric presentation is published.

Sober Living

Supported transitional accommodation in dedicated homes whose locations are deliberately unpublished, bridging residential discharge and independent living. Sober living is not a licensed category in California, so these homes sit outside the state licence that covers the residential service.

Aftercare and Continuing Engagement

One year of engagement after discharge

Included in the residential programme

An aftercare plan built with the therapist during treatment, then a year of app-based engagement after discharge, with unlimited free access to the app, online and in-person support groups, alumni social events and educational content through the alumni app. Whether the same treating clinicians continue, and who runs the support groups, is not stated.

Prices

No public price found.

Our assessment

The volume is large and the provenance is the problem. Two commercial treatment directories carry more than 200 reviews each at around 4.0, and a consumer platform carries 55. Against that, Trustpilot holds three reviews at a TrustScore of 2.8, with no recent history of the clinic asking for reviews and a visible negative reviewer questioning the authenticity of the positive ones. A business bureau lists the operation as not accredited and carrying no rating at all, for want of sufficient information. No Google rating could be independently captured; the figure shown on the clinic's own page is its own reproduction. The caution is specific and documented. Reporting in November 2017 established that the then owner financially controlled the company behind two leading rehab review sites, and that the relationship was not disclosed to readers. Much of the 200-plus review base accumulated during the period that reporting covers. All of it predates the June 2018 change of ownership, and the current owner has publicly stated that the former owner is no longer affiliated. That mitigates the concern rather than erasing it. No inspection history or grade could be retrieved from the state regulator, and no first-hand bylined reporting from inside the facility within the last five years was found.

No first-hand bylined reporting from inside the facility within the last five years was found. Bylined business reporting of May 2024 covers the 2018 sale and states the operation had grown to more than 80 beds before it. Legal commentary and court records cover the federal false-advertising case described under track record.

The operator republishes a news magazine's ranking of residential addiction treatment centres in California. That is a ranking rather than an accreditation, and its methodology was not independently reviewed. No other award was found.

Facility

Several separate ocean-view residences on and around Point Dume rather than one building. The locations page names Horizon Hills, Cliffside Malibu II on Busch Drive, Access Malibu on Horizon, and Point Dume. The state register records three of the residences in the clinic's own name at Birdview Avenue, Busch Drive and Horizon Drive, each licensed for six places. Published amenities across the houses include a private room option whose availability varies by location, pool and sun deck, indoor-outdoor living space, gym, tennis and basketball, hiking, in-room entertainment, laundry service and massage therapy. Horizon Hills is the most recent addition and includes a private casita with its own living room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, laundry and 180-degree ocean views. Two things limit verification. The clinic withholds the exact addresses of its residential and sober living homes on privacy grounds, which is defensible practice. And the site's own photography libraries carry sets for properties the current locations page does not list, so the published estate and the photographed estate do not reconcile, with no explanation published. Part of the estate is also rebuilt or replacement stock: the November 2018 Woolsey Fire destroyed five of the operator's properties, with reopening running through 2019.

Food

What the clinic currently publishes about food is thin: gourmet meals are listed as a residence amenity, nutrition support is listed as an inclusion in every programme, and a blog post states that healthy eating is incorporated into individualised treatment plans as a relapse prevention strategy. No nutrition assessment, no method for building a plan, no kitchen protocol, no monitoring during the stay and no named nutrition professional is published. An earlier accommodations page described chefs trained in classical French cuisine and at Le Cordon Bleu under an executive chef with more than twelve years of experience, alongside a dedicated team of nutritionists and a Nutrition in Recovery counselling component. That page now redirects to the operator's about page, which carries none of it, and the claims could not be re-sourced. They are recorded here as historical rather than current.

Privacy

one to one therapy

This is not a discretion product. Daily groups are published as a way of creating community during the stay, and both programme tiers publish group acupuncture, group yoga and group personal training, with a monthly family programme run in a group atmosphere. The private room option varies by residence, so a private bedroom is not the standard offer everywhere. What applies is one-to-one therapy, in the weak sense that a fixed number of individual sessions is scheduled each week. The real positives are structural. The clinic withholds the exact addresses of its residential and sober living homes and distributes clients across several unmarked houses rather than concentrating them in one identifiable building, and it publishes a privacy practices notice. That notice rests on statute rather than on any clinic measure, and no NDA policy, arrival separation, electronics policy or media-enquiry protocol is published. Stays by public figures at the facility have been reported in the press. No source shows the clinic itself disclosing a client, and stays in this area are routinely reported from outside a facility, so this is not established as a leak by the clinic. It is a track record of public identifiability rather than a breach. The federal false-advertising finding recorded under track record is an integrity matter, not a confidentiality one.

Assessed 2026-10-01

Rank #53Public score 39Tied

Public evidence, LROAS 1.0.0, edition 2026-10-01

Public evidence · 39

Headline basis: Public evidenceThe headline number is the public score, not the extended score., LROAS 1.0.0, edition 2026-10-01

Public-evidence total: 39

The sum of the ten criterion scores, from 10 to 100, using evidence anyone can check, including the clinic's own pages as self-declared statements. For the licence element of C2 only, it can also use an authority ruling held in our sealed evidence room. It is the only number used for the rank.

Confidence: medium. Provisional: C10.

C1 Client separation and occupancy · 2

The clinic's locations page lists a private room as an option whose availability varies by location, so a private bedroom is not the standard offer at every residence and shared bedrooms are offered at some tier. Daily groups are published as a way of creating community, and the tiers add group acupuncture, group yoga and group personal training, so group work is core to the programme. No whole-residence or sole-occupancy option is published, which is what the higher bands would require. The only privacy measure beyond the statutory privacy notice is that the clinic withholds the exact locations of its homes; no capacity-contradiction deduction applies because the occupancy model is scored, not a bed count.

Confidence: low

Known gaps:

No client count or occupancy figure per residence is published by the clinic.

Sources (6 cited items):

Cliffside Malibu: Amenities include a private room option whose availability varies by location, plus pool, gym and yoga.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: Daily groups are published as a way of creating community during the stay.
Cliffside Malibu: The Premier tier includes one onsite group acupuncture session, three onsite yoga classes and two to three group personal training sessions a week; the Classic tier includes two to three group yoga classes a week.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: A monthly family programme is delivered in a group atmosphere with addictionologists, doctors, psychiatrists, therapists and certified addiction specialists.
Cliffside Malibu: The clinic names its residences and states that it does not provide the exact location of its residential and sober living homes, to protect privacy.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: The privacy notice is issued under federal health privacy law and federal substance use confidentiality rules, both statutory.

C2 Clinical governance and medical cover · 6

The state register of substance use disorder facilities holds three records in the clinic's own name, Licensed and Certified for residential detoxification with incidental medical services, expiring between September 2027 and June 2028, and the Joint Commission lists the clinic as Accredited in Behavioral Health Care and Human Services, decision effective 8 November 2025. A physician Medical Director and addictionologist is named as leading detox, and the clinic describes on-site medically supervised withdrawal with daily physician visits and licensed nursing around the clock. That meets the licence and medical-lead elements plus two further elements (on-site detox and accreditation); band 7 needs three further elements. No physician or psychiatrist night or on-call cover, no named escalation hospital and no complex psychiatry programme are published, and around-the-clock nursing does not count as physician cover.

Confidence: high

Known gaps:

The Medical Director page is dated 24 August 2018 and archived team pages name the parent group's Chief Medical Officer, so whether the named Medical Director is current is not confirmed.

Sources (5 cited items):

services7.arcgis.com: The state register of substance use disorder recovery and treatment facilities holds three records in the clinic's own name, Licensed and Certified for residential detoxification with incidental medical services, expiring between September 2027 and June 2028.
jointcommission.org: The Joint Commission's accredited-organisations list records the clinic as Accredited in Behavioral Health Care and Human Services, decision effective 8 November 2025, with four sites on Birdview Avenue, Busch Drive and Horizon Drive.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: A Medical Director and addictionologist is named for the clinic and stated to lead the detox programme and to evaluate each client individually. The page is dated 24 August 2018 and was live at capture; archived team pages name the parent group's Chief Medical Officer, so the Medical Director's current role is not confirmed.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: Detox with daily physician visits, minimum weekly physician visits thereafter, licensed nursing around the clock and psychiatric care as needed.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: Medical detoxification with daily physician sessions and psychiatrist and addictionologist oversight.

C3 Diagnostic depth on admission · 4

Two elements are met: an admission assessment within the first 24 hours sets up the individual treatment team, and the Medical Director and addictionologist evaluates each client on medical history, addiction severity and withdrawal risk and manages withdrawal medication. The admission assessment does not state which clinician performs it. No clinical screening before commitment, no structured psychiatric assessment, no laboratory or specialist diagnostics and no written case formulation are published, so the higher bands are not reached. Psychiatric care is described only as available as needed.

Confidence: medium

Known gaps:

The physician evaluation rests on the 2018 Medical Director page, whose currency is not confirmed.

Sources (3 cited items):

discoveryaddictionservices.com: An admission assessment within the first 24 hours establishes an individualised treatment team of primary therapist, care coordinator and case manager.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: The Medical Director and addictionologist evaluates each client individually on medical history, addiction severity and withdrawal risk, and manages withdrawal with named medications.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: Daily physician visits during detox, with psychiatric care as needed.

C4 Clinical intensity · 3

Individual therapy is published as two to four sessions a week; the Classic tier states two sessions and the Premier tier three. Counted at the lower end, two sessions a week is about 0.24 hours a day, which places the clinic in band 3. Session length, team dedication, the group share of clinical hours and a minimum stay are not published, so nothing lifts the band. Licensed nursing around the clock is nursing, not a therapist or clinician present at all hours.

Confidence: low

Known gaps:

Session length is not published, so hours per day are estimated from session counts.

Sources (3 cited items):

discoveryaddictionservices.com: Premier: three individual therapy sessions a week, one family session a week as clinically indicated, up to 1.5 hours a week of counselling and case management. Classic: two individual therapy sessions a week and 0.5 to 1 hour a week of case management.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: Individual therapy is described as two to four sessions weekly, alongside daily groups to help create community during the stay.
Cliffside Malibu: Licensed nursing around the clock is listed as an inclusion.

C5 Continuity and aftercare · 7

Six aftercare elements are met: an aftercare plan built with the therapist during treatment, one year of app-based engagement after discharge, access that is free and unlimited, delivery inside the operator's own programme, sober living homes as a step-down, and online support groups. This reaches band 7. Psychiatric review after discharge, coordination with outside doctors and the other remaining elements are not published, and who runs the support groups is not stated, so the band above is not reached.

Confidence: medium

Sources (4 cited items):

discoveryaddictionservices.com: An aftercare plan is collaborated on with the therapist throughout treatment.
Cliffside Malibu: All programmes include aftercare planning, ongoing app-based engagement for one year after discharge and alumni support.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: The operator's continuing programme gives unlimited free access to its aftercare app, online and in-person support groups, alumni social events and educational content.
Cliffside Malibu: The operator runs sober living homes alongside its residences, and withholds the locations of both.

C6 Admission integrity and commercial conduct · 4

The sweep found no self-ranking page, no AI-directed content (llms.txt returns HTTP 404 on the clinic and operator domains) and no recognition shown to be paid for; the operator republishes a news magazine's rankings, presented as a ranking and not as accreditation. No positive signal is published: no treatment price (payment methods and insurers only), no referral-fee position, no statement that unsuitable admissions are declined or referred elsewhere, and no voluntary-admission policy. A clean sweep with no positive signal sets band 4. The group's admissions guidelines are an eligibility list, not a declining policy.

Confidence: low

Sources (6 cited items):

discoveryaddictionservices.com: No specific prices are listed; payment methods and insurance carriers are.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: The operator page republishes a news magazine's ranking placements for California. Recorded as a ranking presented as a ranking, not as accreditation.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: The referring-professionals page contains no statement on referral fees, commissions, brokering, or declining unsuitable admissions.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: No llms.txt or AI-instruction content exists on the operator's addiction services domain (HTTP 404).
Cliffside Malibu: No llms.txt or AI-instruction content exists on the clinic's own domain (HTTP 404).
clinic and group domains, web search: Search of clinic and group domains, web search. Scope: domains checked cliffsidemalibu.com (301 to discoveryaddictionservices.com), discoveryaddictionservices.com (Cliffside location pages, group team page, professionals page, llms.txt), discoverybehavioralhealth.com (welcome page, llms.txt); searches run "Cliffside Malibu" with best, top, sponsored.... Result: sweep recorded; outcome per the C6 V elements.

C7 Transparency toward the client · 3

Two transparency elements are met: inclusions are itemised per tier with spa services stated as billed out of pocket, and four state licence numbers with expiry dates are published on the clinic's page. No refund, early-departure or return terms, no legal entity name with registration number, no shareholder disclosure beyond a brand listing by the parent, no external complaints body (complaints go only to the Privacy Officer), no data retention period and no inspection results are published, so band 3 holds. One licence (190857BP) is registered to Access Malibu, which the clinic names as one of its residences; this is not treated as a contradicted ownership statement, so no deduction applies.

Confidence: medium

Known gaps:

Two licence expiry dates displayed on the clinic page had already passed at capture, while the register shows current licences; the page display is stale.

Sources (5 cited items):

Cliffside Malibu: All programmes include daily physician visits in detox, psychiatric care, nursing around the clock, family programming, nutrition services, experiential outings, aftercare planning and one year of app-based engagement, with tier inclusions itemised.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: Massage, acupuncture, one-to-one yoga, soundbath and personal training are stated as billed out of pocket.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: Four state licence numbers with expiry dates are published under the required disclosure: 190073AP, 190857BP, 191229AP and 190068AP. Two displayed expiry dates had already passed at the capture date.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: The privacy notice names the clinic and its affiliates and a Privacy Officer address, routes complaints to that officer only, names no external body and states no retention period.
discoverybehavioralhealth.com: The parent lists the clinic among its brands with a headquarters address, and publishes no investor or shareholder disclosure.

C8 Track record and regulator standing · 4

One scored finding: a final federal Lanham Act false-advertising outcome against the operating entity (C.D. Cal. 2:18-cv-00923), with jury liability and a permanent injunction confirmed by the Ninth Circuit memorandum of 20 August 2021 and a remand order of 16 December 2021 awarding disgorgement of USD 60,000 and costs. Dated at that remand order the deceptive-marketing finding falls within five years, and with no later statutory inspection result published that sets band 4. The plaintiff was a competitor and no client is named. The conduct predates the 2018 sale to the current parent; the federal provider register shows active organisations under the clinic's name. Review platform data (three Trustpilot reviews) is recorded but does not change the band.

Confidence: high

Known gaps:

The 16 December 2021 remand order is read only on a commercial docket mirror; dated at the appeal ruling of 20 August 2021 the finding would be just over five years old and the band placement would need review.
No state inspection data is published or reachable, so inspection-based elements stay absent.
The element reading for this criterion is not published as a list; the band is explained in the reasoning.

Sources (13 cited items):

cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov: Appeal court memorandum, 20 August 2021: jury liability for federal false advertising; permanent injunction; exclusion of the damages expert and cancellation of the damages phase affirmed; denial of disgorgement and attorney fees vacated and remanded; denial of costs reversed; the defendants did not challenge the rejection of their counterclaim.
pacermonitor.com: Court award, not a price. Grasshopper House LLC v. Clean and Sober Media LLC, United States District Court for the Central District of California, docket entry 487, minute order of 16 December 2021: on remand the plaintiff was held entitled to disgorgement of USD 60,000 and costs of USD 126,837.09. The finding is dated to this order, read on a public docket archive and on this commercial docket mirror, because the court's own docket is paywalled.
npiregistry.cms.hhs.gov: Federal provider register: an active organisation with the clinic's legal business name, enumerated 9 June 2009 before the sale, last updated 16 October 2025, with the parent group's headquarters as mailing address, a Malibu location, substance abuse rehabilitation facility, and state licence 190068AP.
npiregistry.cms.hhs.gov: Federal provider register: a second active organisation, enumerated 20 October 2010, at the Busch Drive site, with the parent group's headquarters as mailing address and state licence 190073AP.
trustpilot.com: Trustpilot: 3 reviews, TrustScore 2.8, one visible one-star review from 2021 questioning the authenticity of the positive reviews, no owner reply and no reviews in the last 12 months.
CourtListener API search type=r: Search of CourtListener API search type=r. Scope: "Cliffside Malibu". Result: record found: Final federal outcome in Grasshopper House, LLC v. Clean and Sober Media, LLC et al. (C.D. Cal. 2:18-cv-00923; competitor plaintiff): a jury found the defendants, including Cliffside Malibu, a....
CourtListener API search type=o: Search of CourtListener API search type=o. Scope: "Cliffside Malibu". Result: record found: Final federal outcome in Grasshopper House, LLC v. Clean and Sober Media, LLC et al. (C.D. Cal. 2:18-cv-00923; competitor plaintiff): a jury found the defendants, including Cliffside Malibu, a....
CourtListener API search type=r court=cacd: Search of CourtListener API search type=r court=cacd. Scope: "Cliffside Malibu". Result: record found: Final federal outcome in Grasshopper House, LLC v. Clean and Sober Media, LLC et al. (C.D. Cal. 2:18-cv-00923; competitor plaintiff): a jury found the defendants, including Cliffside Malibu, a....
general web search: Search of a general web search engine. Scope: "Cliffside Malibu" lawsuit OR settlement OR verdict OR fine. Result: record found: Final federal outcome in Grasshopper House, LLC v. Clean and Sober Media, LLC et al. (C.D. Cal. 2:18-cv-00923; competitor plaintiff): a jury found the defendants, including Cliffside Malibu, a....
general web search: Search of a general web search engine. Scope: "Cliffside Malibu" "Grasshopper House" disgorgement remand judgment 2021 OR 2022. Result: record found: Final federal outcome in Grasshopper House, LLC v. Clean and Sober Media, LLC et al. (C.D. Cal. 2:18-cv-00923; competitor plaintiff): a jury found the defendants, including Cliffside Malibu, a....
Direct page fetch/pdftotext: Search of Direct page fetch/pdftotext. Scope: cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov memoranda 2021/08/20/19-56008.pdf. Result: record found: Final federal outcome in Grasshopper House, LLC v. Clean and Sober Media, LLC et al. (C.D. Cal. 2:18-cv-00923; competitor plaintiff): a jury found the defendants, including Cliffside Malibu, a....
press and news search: Search of press and news search. Scope: first-hand bylined reporting from inside the facility, last 5 years. Result: no record found.
statutory regulator records: Search of statutory regulator records. Scope: inspection history and grades of this site. Result: no record found.

C9 Environment, safety and nutrition · 3

Environment and safety scores 4 on three elements: pool, gym, yoga and outdoor space as residence amenities, published family programming, and residence addresses corroborated on the state register and in the accreditor's site list. No therapy room description, published emergency route within 30 minutes or medication policy is published. Nutrition scores 2: meals and nutrition support are stated, but no named nutrition professional or nutritional assessment is published. The criterion score is the mean of 4 and 2, which is 3.

Confidence: high

Known gaps:

No emergency route is published by the clinic, and a drive time from a residence to the nearest 24-hour emergency department is not established within 30 minutes.

Sources (6 cited items):

Cliffside Malibu: Amenities: private room option whose availability varies by location, pool, gym, yoga, outdoor activities, gourmet meals, laundry and massage therapy.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: All programmes feature family programming and nutrition support, and the Premier tier includes one family session a week as clinically indicated.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: The clinic states it creates individualised treatment plans and incorporates healthy eating as a relapse prevention strategy, with no assessment or method described. Page updated 29 April 2025.
jointcommission.org: Accreditor site record for the Busch Drive residence in Malibu, matching the residence named on the clinic's own pages. Partially verified through a search index.
jointcommission.org: The Joint Commission's accredited-organisations list records the clinic as Accredited in Behavioral Health Care and Human Services, decision effective 8 November 2025, with four sites on Birdview Avenue, Busch Drive and Horizon Drive.
services7.arcgis.com: Facility licence: the state register of substance use disorder recovery and treatment facilities holds three records in the clinic's own name, 190068AP on Birdview Avenue, 190073AP on Busch Drive and 191229AP at Horizon Hills on Horizon Drive, all Licensed and Certified for residential detoxification with incidental medical services.

C10 Clinical seniority and academic standing · 3

The published clinical core is three people: a Medical Director claiming addiction medicine board certification, a Chief Clinical Officer with LMFT letters and a Director of Nursing with RN letters. The facility licence is proven on the state register, but the individual credentials stand as provisionally verified because the medical, behavioural sciences and nursing board lookups have not been completed, and no reputation marker is verified. The parent group's Chief Medical Officer appears only on archived captures of former team pages, which is not a current role statement, so that person is not counted. A small, provisionally verified core sets band 3.

Provisional: Clinician register lookups for this criterion were still open at the edition cut-off (see known_gaps). The points count as assessed on the evidence available; the band may change when the lookups are completed, which is resolved in a later edition.

Confidence: medium

Known gaps:

Whether the Medical Director named on the 2018 page is still in post is not confirmed.
All three individual credentials await register confirmation.

Sources (6 cited items):

discoveryaddictionservices.com: The Medical Director is named as a board-certified addictionologist at the clinic since 2016, leading the detox programme, with claimed addiction medicine and surgery board certifications, an MD and 45 or more peer-reviewed publications. Page dated 24 August 2018, live at capture.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: The Chief Clinical Officer is named with LMFT letters as a content reviewer on a clinic article updated 12 September 2023.
discoveryaddictionservices.com: The clinic's location page names a Director of Nursing with RN letters, a Chief Executive Officer and a Chief Operating Officer.
services7.arcgis.com: Facility licence: the state register of substance use disorder recovery and treatment facilities holds three records in the clinic's own name, 190068AP on Birdview Avenue, 190073AP on Busch Drive and 191229AP at Horizon Hills on Horizon Drive, all Licensed and Certified for residential detoxification with incidental medical services.
search.dca.ca.gov: Register lookups for the Medical Director on the state medical board search and the addiction medicine board lookup both need a person: the board search submits behind a bot check and the board lookup redirects to a login-only portal. The credential stands as provisionally verified.
search.dca.ca.gov: Register lookups for the Chief Clinical Officer on the behavioural sciences board and for the Director of Nursing on the nursing board are both still open on the browser route. Both credentials stand as provisionally verified.

Frequently asked questions

What does treatment at Cliffside Malibu cost?

No price appears on any of the clinic's own pages, and no figure is recorded here. Inclusions are published per tier and for all programmes, and spa and wellness services are stated as billed out of pocket. Most commercial insurance is accepted, in network or out of network depending on the carrier, and government insurance plans are not accepted. Payment is also taken by cash, card and bank transfer. No deposit, refund, cancellation, extension or early-departure terms are published.

Where is Cliffside Malibu?

In Malibu, California, across several separate ocean-view residences on and around Point Dume rather than in a single building. The named houses are Horizon Hills, Cliffside Malibu II on Busch Drive, Access Malibu on Horizon, and Point Dume, and the administrative address is 29160 Heathercliff Road, Suite 100. The state register records three residences in the clinic's own name on Birdview Avenue, Busch Drive and Horizon Drive. The clinic states plainly that it withholds the exact addresses of its residential and sober living homes to protect client privacy.

Who is Cliffside Malibu designed for?

Adults with substance use disorders, including those with co-occurring conditions such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and PTSD. The model is cohort-based rather than one-to-one: both published programme tiers combine a fixed number of individual sessions with daily groups, group yoga, group acupuncture and group training, using CBT, DBT, cognitive processing therapy, motivational interviewing and family systems work. It suits people who are comfortable in a structured programme alongside peers rather than in isolation.

How does admission work?

Admissions is staffed around the clock, with insurance verification available at intake. An admission assessment within the first 24 hours establishes the treatment team of primary therapist, care coordinator and case manager, although no clinician type is stated for that assessment. During detox the addictionologist evaluates each client individually on medical history, addiction severity and withdrawal risk. No clinical screening before the client commits, no psychiatric assessment by a psychiatrist, no laboratory panel and no waiting time is published.

What happens after discharge?

An aftercare plan is built with the therapist during treatment, and aftercare planning is listed in every programme. After discharge the operator's own continuing programme gives a year of app-based engagement, unlimited access to that app, online and in-person support groups, alumni social events and educational content. Sober living homes run alongside the residences as step-down accommodation within the operator. Whether the same treating clinicians continue, and who runs the support groups, is not stated. No psychiatric review or medication management after discharge and no outcome data is published.

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