He Fell into Addiction as a Teen, and Then Found a Novel Way to Helps Thousands of Other People Recover (Exclusive)

“I don’t really believe in the idea that you have to hit rock bottom to change," says Scott Strode, founder of The Phoenix

• Scott Strode says he had his first beer at 11, and things got worse from there

• Strode, now sober for nearly 30 years, is the founder of The Phoenix, a national nonprofit community of more than 500,000 members

• He says he was inspired after finding refuge in outdoor activities and community connection

Can rock climbing, hiking and even gardening help addicts stay away from drugs and alcohol?

Scott Strode has built a therapy program, based on his own experiences, to show that they can.

“I don’t really believe in the idea that you have to hit rock bottom to change,” Strode, 51, tells PEOPLE. “I think you need a moment of perspective where you're clear-headed enough to see a change that seems obtainable.”

That clear-headedness comes from surrounding addicts in a community of support, ideally engaged in activities that have them interacting with sober people on a regular basis, Strode says.

“When you have a group of hurt people struggling without a nurturing structure built around them, there’s a risk we pull each other down,” he says. “What became my life’s work was to create a space where we are trying to lift each other up.”

In 2006, Strode started The Phoenix, a national nonprofit sober community now 500,000 strong that offers no-cost programs including CrossFit, outdoor experiences, book clubs and meditation. The only requirement is that the person has to be sober 48 hours prior to joining.

“I realized there’s something powerful you find on the top of a mountain or a climb, or when you cross a finish line,” Strode says. “I saw folks struggling and thought — if I can bring you to that place with me, you’re going to see something in yourself.”

He has recounted his personal journey in a memoir, Rise. Recover. Thrive.: How I Got Strong, Got Sober, and Built a Movement of Hope, set for release on Jan. 7.

Strobe says his parents split when he was young, and he and his siblings shared time with both parents in two completely different environments.

His father, Jack, sometimes struggled with an unstable lifestyle — including with a home that only had three walls because of an unfinished renovation project — and had untreated mental illness, probably bipolar disorder, Strobe says.

His mom, Marilyn, was CEO of a public water company and also served as an ambassador to Finland in President George W. Bush's administration and spent most of her time working. Strode’s step-dad was an alcoholic, he says.

Strode says his own path to addiction started when he had his first beer at 11.

At 15, he says, he admitted himself to a psychiatric hospital — but found less treatment and more enabling. There, he met a drug dealer and Strode escalated his alcohol intake and drug use.  He started shedding people in his life who didn't participate in his addiction.

“There was this moment when I felt like I was hanging out with the wrong crowd and realized I was the wrong crowd,” Strode says. “And that’s a kind of intense moment. Quietly, your dreams of who you thought you were are stripped away.”

He enrolled in a vocational program for dyslexic students held on a boat and began seeing the power of the outdoors on his mental health. That led to going to a gym to learn how to climb and eventually completing marathons.

He marks April 8, 1998, as the date he became sober.

Strode realized that fitness, the outdoors, nutrition, wellness, positivity and community all offered another way to be sober and could, for some people, have a more meaningful and lasting recovery rather than traditional counseling and in-patient treatment.

Strode now lives in Boston with his wife, Kaitlin, who is also in recovery, and their two kids, Magnus, 3 and 1-year-old Alice. He says his kids will grow up with a totally different life than he and his wife did — that the cycle of substance abuse will have ended with him and his wife.

“I started to realize that I wasn't just healing from my substance use, that substance use was actually a symptom of underlying pain, “ he says. “It wasn't like I got sober and all of a sudden I was really in tune to my emotions and could manage my old emotional material really well.”

The Phoenix, he says, helped him let go of the shame of addiction, to forgive his father and come to terms with the dynamics in his childhood.

“I realize they had their stories and that forgiveness is when real healing began,” Strode says. “I think unfortunately, the more institutional structures that are addressing addiction are focused more on managing the symptoms, not the underlying why.”

Like Strode, Gavin Young says he struggled with alcohol in his youth — since he was about 14.

Now at 41, he is a married, sober father of two who also is a testicular cancer survivor. He credits The Phoenix’s unique approach for much of his progress.

“People's perspectives around recovery have shifted so much in the time I've been in recovery,” Young says. “You never know what might work for someone and what might not work for someone. If there’s just one option — and it might not work — it might signal them to continue drinking or using.”

For many, the idea of spending time doing different activities  with people who understand their sobriety journey, is appealing. And paying nothing for activities like gym climbing and CrossFit is a strong enticement, too.

“I can climb for free and also do it with a bunch of sober people,” says Kevin Muenzer, 41. “It takes a village, as corny and overwrought as that statement is.”

A musician and cinematographer, Muenzer started his flirtation with alcohol to impress a girl when he was just a teenager, he says. He moved up from booze to heroin before finding sobriety through rehab, meditation and a community of support.

In March 2013, he landed in a medical detox with no job, no money and only one option: go to rehab. He used a community of people in recovery and meditation to stay sober. When he moved from North Carolina to New York City, he says, The Phoenix, which he joined in 2022, helped him maintain his sobriety. He now leads a rope climbing group for the organization.

“Climbing is chock full of metaphors: You need somebody to be there with you, and they need to be safe to get to the top,” Muenzer says.

Strode says the idea for his nonprofit sprung from a group of people in recovery who were sharing cycling, climbing and other activities.

“It was also people impacted by substance abuse, and it started to grow,” Strode says. “We got focused on how to grow Phoenix and fortunately found philanthropists who wanted to be part of the solution and help the country solve this issue.”

Ashley Rath, 36, says she always loved drinking, even from an early age. Her career as a successful New York City chef just helped facilitate that love — which ended up almost killing her.

“I drank around the clock, 24/7, just to stay upright. I lived in complete denial,” Rath tells PEOPLE. “When I went to that [first] rehab, I really was just thinking about saving my career and not saving myself.”

Rath, who has been sober for two years this month, says The Phoenix offered something different for her. She attended a class from a well-known tattoo artist, which she says helped reignite her love of painting and drawing. The former college and high school athlete also began running through the group.

“I've met some of my best friends in my life right now through The Phoenix,” Rath says. “I didn't realize how much my life was craving authentic connection with people.”

Connection. Activity. Interaction. It all adds up to a support system that allows addicts to cope with their behavior and explore why they came to this place in their lives, Strode says.

He says he wants people struggling with addiction to know they are not alone.

“People who feel like they are in a dark place and hope is hard to find, I’m telling you it’s out there,” he says. “There was a time in my life I didn’t think recovery and healing was possible, and I am so far from who I was because of the people who helped me on my journey.”