No Matter What Recovery’s Anthony Arranaga-Grayson and Paulo Arranaga-Grayson on love, sobriety and family
BY MARK ARIEL | PHOTO BY ZIV SADE
Paulo Arranaga-Grayson and Anthony Arranaga-Grayson, the founders of No Matter What Recovery, met in Los Angeles, while in recovery themselves, in 2015.
“We would see each other at 12 Step meetings—and over the years we became Facebook friends,” reveals Anthony.
In 2019 they started dating. “I knew after our first date that Anthony was different than anyone else that I had dated. After a few dates, I knew that he was ‘the one,’ confides Paulo.
“We officially got engaged in October of 2021 at Disneyland, shortly after my mom had passed. The amazing thing is that she knew Tony was planning on proposing and he had her ‘stamp of approval.’’’
“We had talked about getting married for many months,” says Anthony. “We both had the same priorities: sobriety, family, friends who are like family, creating an even better version of ourselves, and working to foster a bond of love and companionship with each other.”
The creation of No Matter What Recovery came about, says Paulo, because “the stars aligned for us… I was laid off of my job in the luxury beauty space during the pandemic. To make ends meet, I was working as a sober companion and assisting in interventions. I saw how challenging it was to find affirming substance use disorder and mental health treatment for queer individuals. I would come home and tell Anthony about these challenges. Lo and behold, an opportunity presented itself and we took it.”
“I spent a decade working for city government and two different openly-gay elected officials,” reveals Anthony. “I was arriving at a point in my life where I felt my next role needed to be something even more meaningful—where I could harness my past experience—both professionally and as a sober person—to continue the work to positively impact lives in the LGBTQ+ community. I didn’t know what that would entail—but I knew that special role would present itself when I was ready. After years of asking myself the questions ‘What’s next for me? What am I supposed to be doing with my life?’—there was an opportunity presented to us to open a treatment center. I knew it was the sign I was waiting for, and it checked off all the boxes that were important to me personally.”
“In an over saturated treatment space, our team, Anthony, and myself have created a program that offers LGBTQ+ affirming care,” states Paulo, when asked what makes their facility unique.
“We see this as much different than ‘LGBTQ+ friendly’ which is what most places offer. No Matter What Recovery has a unique approach to treating LGBTQ+ individuals with wrap around case management, a specialized lens for trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming folks, and a robust chemsex curriculum that helps individuals navigate their relationship with sex and substances. In addition to our established in-person programming, we also noticed there was a need for a virtual evening outpatient program which allows people to attend groups throughout the state of California without disrupting their ability to attend work or school.”
“The No Matter What community is a bubble of like minded individuals who lift each other up throughout the treatment process,” says Paulo.
“Community is essential in early sobriety and our clients are able to find their tribe with other LGBTQ+ individuals who share similar experiences. We find that this makes sharing in a group setting more comfortable for them as they don’t feel threatened or judged. Our clinicians are all masters level, doctorate level, or credentialed in their specialized groups that they facilitate. Our holistic approach to treatment allows for healing the mind, body, and spirit through evidence-based groups, somatic experiencing, and experiential practices. We offer groups, such as, accupunture, breathwork, internal family systems (IFS), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), reike, soundbath, meditation, seeking safety (trauma), and relapse prevention, to name a few. Our approach also allows clients to have an individualized experience with a therapist who they can meet several times weekly. Our therapists are also trained in eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), internal family systems (IFS), and trauma. At No Matter What Recovery, we feel that healing is not just for the individual in treatment, but also their family. We work closely with the client’s family and offer therapy to them as well.”
In the coming months No Matter What Recovery will be opening a detox/residential facility.
“We saw that there was the need for LGBTQ+ individuals to have a complete continuum of care throughout their treatment process from detox to residential treatment, outpatient and sober living, then long-term transitional housing,” reveals Anthony.
“We are so proud to be opening this program which will provide many of the amazing services that we offer and more. Our new detox/residential home is located in mid-city Los Angeles, and is a small, intimate space which will allow for the very fragile first few weeks of treatment to be specialized, safe, and affirming. For anyone who wants to get sober, address underlying mental health challenges, and change their life we are here. You do not have to do this alone.”
For more info visit www.NoMatterWhatRecovery.com Or Call: 323-797-5464.
