How The Archangel Centers Was Built

Addiction is a chronic, treatable medical disease of brain circuits, defined by the American Society of Addiction Medicine as a complex interaction among brain function, genetics, environment, and life experience [1]. Mike Sorrentino, the Founder of The Archangel Centers, lived inside that definition for years before he reached sustained sobriety in 2015 [2]. The version of recovery that worked for him was a multi-month engagement with a structured program, integrated dual-diagnosis care, real family involvement, and a long rebuild of the life addiction had taken apart. In the years that followed, he spent a lot of time looking closely at what the field gets right and what it still gets wrong [2].

Lauren Sorrentino, the Co-Founder, lived the family side of the same disease. Her brother, Christopher Pesce, died of addiction, and her years alongside Mike's recovery taught her the family side of the work in a way no clinical training could have [2]. Together, Mike and Lauren named the specific clinical gaps they had seen across multiple programs, recruited Dr. Ian Treacy as Medical Director and Justin Skolnick as Clinical Director, and built The Archangel Centers as a licensed outpatient treatment business between 2024 and 2026, with the first location in Tinton Falls, New Jersey and a second in Charlotte, North Carolina [2]. This article is the arc, the team, and the boundary of what the centers do.

Why this center exists

Most addiction treatment in the United States, even at expensive private centers, falls short on a specific set of clinical fundamentals. The clinical day is inconsistent across programs that advertise the same level of care. Family work is treated as an add-on. Substance use and mental health are delivered by separate teams on separate timelines. Aftercare is thin. Patients are sometimes treated as people who cannot handle hard clinical work [2]. Mike experienced all of that as a patient in more than one program before sustained engagement worked, and he carried the observations forward.

Lauren brought a parallel set of observations from the family side. The bargaining, the secrecy, the family member trying to manage what could not be managed alone, the moment a sibling or a partner or a parent finds out they were the last to know how bad it had gotten. Her brother's story did not end the way the family wanted it to end. Those two perspectives, the patient side and the family side, named the same gaps and pointed at the same model: a full outpatient continuum, integrated dual-diagnosis care, family programming built into the curriculum, and a clinical team that respects the patient and the family as adults doing hard work [2].

The Archangel Centers is the operational answer to those observations. It is a licensed outpatient treatment business, not a podcast, not a foundation, not an awareness campaign. It accepts insurance, runs validated assessments, and operates under state licensure and federal confidentiality protection through 42 CFR Part 2, which gives substance use disorder treatment records stricter privacy protection than ordinary medical records [3].

The clinical team

Founder vision is necessary but not sufficient. A treatment center is a medical operation, and the clinical team has to be excellent. Neither Mike nor Lauren is a clinician [2]. The clinical operation is led by Medical Director Dr. Ian Treacy and Clinical Director Justin Skolnick, with licensed therapists, psychiatric staff, case managers, and admissions clinicians delivering care across Partial Care, Intensive Outpatient, Outpatient, and Virtual Treatment [2].

Dr. Treacy oversees the medical side of every patient's care. That includes the medication-assisted treatment formulary, which uses Suboxone (buprenorphine plus naloxone) as the primary option, with Vivitrol (naltrexone) and Sublocade also available [2]. Methadone is not used at our centers, and any patient whose clinical picture calls for methadone is referred to an appropriate provider. Dr. Treacy also handles medical red flags during admissions and signs off on the medical side of each treatment plan.

Justin Skolnick runs clinical operations and the licensed therapy team. He owns the assessment workflow, including the ASAM criteria for substance use disorder, the LOCUS instrument for mental health, the PHQ-9 for depression, the GAD-7 for anxiety, and the Columbia suicide screening at intake [2]. He signs off on the clinical side of every treatment plan and is accountable for the consistency of clinical work across both locations.

Mike's role is on the founding, cultural, and visibility side. Lauren leads family programming and the alumni focus as Co-Founder. The therapy on the family-services team is delivered by licensed clinicians; Lauren shapes the curriculum and the alumni program. Lived experience opens the door. Licensed clinicians carry the work.

The clinical model in one paragraph

The model is outpatient, evidence-based, and integrated. Partial Care runs a full clinical day from 9:00 AM to 3:15 PM, Monday through Friday, with a 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM Saturday group in New Jersey for six days of programming a week [2]. Intensive Outpatient runs three or five days a week, three clinical hours per session. Outpatient is lighter-touch continuing care. Virtual Treatment delivers the same programming remotely for New Jersey residents. Co-occurring conditions are treated together from intake, on one plan, by one team, using ASAM for substance use disorder and LOCUS for mental health alongside PHQ-9, GAD-7, and Columbia suicide screening [2]. The modalities are cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, narrative therapy, EMDR availability for trauma processing, and medication-assisted treatment for opioid and alcohol use disorder. Family programming and alumni focus run alongside the clinical curriculum under Lauren's leadership. Aftercare planning is part of the work, not a brochure handed out at discharge [2].

The two locations

The Tinton Falls, New Jersey clinic was the first to open, in March 2026, at 44 Apple Street, Suite 3, in Monmouth County [2]. The choice of Tinton Falls reflected both the family's New Jersey roots and the clinical reality that the Jersey Shore had unmet need for accessible, high-quality outpatient addiction treatment. The New Jersey center runs a six-day program, the full Partial Care schedule, the Saturday morning group, and a wellness space with anti-gravity massage chairs, yoga, somatic and sound-healing areas, and breathwork as supplemental support to the clinical day [2].

The Charlotte, North Carolina location followed, in Mecklenburg County, with the same clinical curriculum, the same family programming, the same admissions process, and the same dual-diagnosis assessment workflow [2]. The North Carolina population served includes Charlotte and the surrounding cities of Matthews, Huntersville, Pineville, Concord, Gastonia, Mint Hill, Cornelius, and Indian Trail [2]. The decision to open in Charlotte was not about scale for its own sake. It was about extending the same model into a Southeast market where adult outpatient treatment matters and access is uneven.

Both sites operate under the same clinical leadership and the same compliance posture. State licensure requirements for outpatient substance use treatment are set by the New Jersey Department of Health for the NJ site and by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services for the NC site [4][5]. The Charlotte center accepts patients from across the Charlotte metropolitan area; the Tinton Falls center serves the Jersey Shore and central New Jersey.

What we offer and what we do not

The clinical boundary is part of the story, and we publish it plainly. On-site, both locations offer Partial Care, Intensive Outpatient, Outpatient, and Virtual Treatment, integrated dual-diagnosis care, the medication-assisted treatment formulary of Suboxone, Vivitrol, and Sublocade, trauma-informed care with EMDR availability, family programming, and alumni support [2]. The Archangel Centers does not provide medical detox or inpatient or residential rehabilitation directly. When detox or inpatient care is clinically indicated, our team coordinates fast placement at an accredited partner facility and then receives the client back into our outpatient continuum for the step-down work [2].

That boundary is not a marketing position; it is a clinical and regulatory one. Misrepresenting offered services in addiction treatment carries real consequences, including LegitScript decertification and state advertising-compliance exposure [2]. We do not list detox or inpatient as offered services in our schema or in any insurance-facing copy. We do not claim JCAHO accreditation. We do not market ourselves as a specialty trauma program; we deliver trauma-informed care with EMDR available, which is the accurate description [2]. Methadone is not part of our MAT formulary, and patients whose clinical picture calls for methadone are referred to an appropriate provider.

How we measure success

Outcomes in outpatient addiction treatment are not a single number, and we are skeptical of programs that publish a single number. The instruments we use to track patient progress are the same ones we use at intake, applied throughout treatment: ASAM and LOCUS to reassess level of care, PHQ-9 and GAD-7 to track depression and anxiety, and Columbia screening for suicide risk where indicated [2]. We track attendance, completion of the recommended level of care, step-down to the next level on a clinically appropriate timeline, and engagement in the alumni program. Family-side measures include participation in the family programming Lauren leads and engagement with progress updates from the clinical team, delivered with patient releases on file under 42 CFR Part 2 [3].

The honest version of success in addiction treatment is closer to the ASAM definition of the disease: chronic, treatable, and managed across years and across episodes [1]. The patient who completes Partial Care, steps down through IOP and OP and Virtual, and stays in touch through the alumni program is the patient whose work was met by the clinical team. The patient who returns after a recurrence is met the same way. We do not present a number we cannot defend, and we do not present a story we did not earn [2].