ABOUT CARUS RECOVERY
CARUS Recovery is one of the most sought after substance abuse and mental health facilities in the country. We have an well-established team of licensed professionals and clinicians dedicated to success in recovery. We believe recovery goes beyond the addiction, recovery is about getting your life back, with an emphasis on both mental health and substance abuse. Depression, anxiety, PTSD, and ADHD can be critical reasons for substance abuse and we believe that treating underlying mental health issues is important.
Medical Team
Craig Smith M.D.
Board certified in Addiction Medicine
Dr. Craig V. Smith, M.D. is a former organ transplant surgeon, who now dedicates his practice to addiction medicine. He received his M.D. degree from the UCLA School of Medicine. Dr. Smith then completed his general surgical residency at Harbor-UCLA medical center and his multi-organ transplant surgical fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh medical center. He returned to UCLA medical center to start his career in academic transplant surgery, performing transplants, teaching students and residents while also conducting research on transplantation for the treatment of diabetes.
Since alcohol and drug use are leading causes of organ damage, Dr. Smith learned about addiction by listening to his patients. More importantly, since a requirement to receive an organ transplant is abstinence from using alcohol and drugs, Dr. Smith learned about recovery from listening to his patients. In 2009 Dr. Smith decided to dedicate his career to addiction medicine.
Dr. Smith is board certified in Addiction Medicine by both the American Board of Preventive Medicine and the American Board of Addiction Medicine.
Lisa Benya D.O.
Internal Medicine
Dr. Lisa Benya is an internal medicine doctor servicing the Malibu community for many years. Her caring and compassionate approach has earned her a great reputation for being one of the area’s favorite doctors.
She is a board-certified physician who as an internist broadened her scope to include more serious and chronic conditions including addiction medicine.
Dr. Benya has been in practice for more than 20 years and affiliated with many hospitals. Her undergraduate work began at the Boston University School of Medicine and attended Medical School at Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Wiliam D. Stanley M.D.
Detox Medical Director
Dr. William D. Stanley received his Doctorate of Medicine degree from UMDNJ – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, NJ. He did his Residency training at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pa. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Morgan State University in Baltimore, Md. He did 1 year of a Master’s program in Anatomy at the University of Maryland Baltimore City campus prior to matriculating to medical school that next year.
He has worked in Internal Medicine for the majority of his professional life both inpatient and outpatient. He started Parkside Medical Assoc, PA in Trenton, NJ. He noticed he had an interest in substance abuse and started involvement with ASAM (American Society of Addiction Medicine) in 1998. He completed his Boards in ASAM in 2000 and by ABAM (American Board of Addiction Medicine) in 2010. Since 2013 he has concentrated his time to the treatment of Substance Abuse Disorders. Prior, he was Medical Director of both an inpatient detox unit and 2 outpatient treatment programs. He has an active license to practice medicine in both New Jersey and California.
Aneta Lotakov Prince, MD
Board Certified Psychiatrist
General Adult Psychiatry
Dr. Prince graduated with honors from the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) and completed medical school at the Sackler School of Medicine, NY American Program at Tel Aviv University. She went on to complete her residency training in General Adult Psychiatry at the Beth Israel Medical Center in NYC, where she also acted as Chief Resident for the adult inpatient and dual diagnosis units. Dr. Prince moved back to California shortly after completing her training, and has spent a significant part of her career working with underserved and dually-diagnosed populations.
Dr. Prince has expertise in areas of mood, psychosis, anxiety, addiction, and substance use disorders. She focuses on the whole person, weighing lifestyle variables into treatment planning and utilizing lifestyle modification approaches alongside medication. Dr. Prince feels that “Falling down is still forward motion” and strongly believes in the resiliency of the human mind, body, and spirit.
Darren Lipshitz M.D.
Addiction Medicine Specialist
Dr. Lipshitz attended the University of Nevada Las Vegas where he earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Biology. He then attended the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee for his degree in Medicine. After four cold winters in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin, he moved to the more appealing climate of Northern California where he continued his medical training and completed a Residency in Family Medicine at the UCSF-affiliated program in Salinas.
He ran a solo, private practice in Sausalito CA in the early part of his career where he was the "town doc" for many families. Eventually, Dr. Darren relocated to Southern California to be closer to family. Looking for new challenges, he became Board Certified and started working in the field of Addiction Medicine. He continues to see patients through primary care eyes and has a "town doc" heart which lends itself well to the specialized field of Addiction Medicine and the complex physical and social issues often encountered.
Clinical Team
Lynn Marie Saso, MFT, LMFT, ATR
Lynn Marie began her career as a mental health intern at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Afterward, she moved on to an acute county mental health facility working with severe mental health disorders. In 2014 she began work as a primary therapist at a Partial Hospitalization and Intensive Outpatient dual diagnosis program. Lynn Marie has worked as a primary therapist, case manager, and Clinical Director. These experiences solidified her passion for providing patient-centered care in the mental health and addiction treatment fields.
Lynn Marie obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Chapman University and Master of Psychology (MFT) from Phillips University. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy and Registered Art Therapist.
Amanda Di Guilio, MA LMFT
Nurse
Jahala Wilcox - PN
Nurse
Anne Brand – RN
Case Manager
Natasha Noghli - CADC-1
Admissions and Outreach
Edrick Banks
Management
Kathleen Bigsby, PhD, LCSW
Chief Executive Officer - BeWell Network
Kathleen has healthcare industry expertise with building mission-focused organizations through innovative strategy, expert recruitment, high-performance culture, and outcome focus. She has over 15 years of experience as CEO at The Canyon Treatment Services. In her role as a Regional Group Director with Foundations Recovery Network, she led premier programs with her drive toward operational and service excellence. As an administrator, academic, and clinician, Kathleen has focused on advancing best practices.
Kathleen was a professor at Syracuse University and Director of Women and Children Services at Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare before being recruited to California. Kathleen earned her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Science as well as master’s degrees in clinical social work and family systems from Syracuse University.
Scott Ward
Chief Operating Officer - BeWell Network
Scott brings 25 years of well-rounded and diverse executive management experience. He is passionate about helping individuals and families achieve a myriad of personal goals, no matter the scale. He has worked with many senior executives with Miramax Films, DreamWorks Pictures, Universal Pictures, and television network associates. His dedicated work with Sunspire Health and his years with Foundations Recovery Network has ideally positioned him for BeWell’s role as Chief Operating Officer.
He graduated from the Pittsburgh Institute of Art and holds a degree in business. Scott is a Certified Anger Management Facilitator and is a Certified Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Recovery Specialist.
Bruce Berman
Vice President - BeWell Network
Bruce is a recognized expert in substance abuse treatment marketing and call center management. With his 30 years’ experience in substance abuse recovery, his knowledge regarding how the treatment process works cannot be overstated. Bruce has assisted thousands of people who were seeking treatment for alcohol, substance abuse, and dual diagnosis. He has maintained continuous recovery from various addictions since September 1989. Besides himself, he has placed his own children, employees, family members, friends and other loved ones into various treatment programs.
Bruce was the Assistant Vice President of Admissions for American Addiction Centers “AAC”, a nationwide dual diagnosis treatment center with over 1,000 beds. Since 2014, he has built and operated many call centers in Nevada and Texas. Prior, Bruce built over 20 years of Direct Response Marketing “DRM” experience, marketing products on the internet, radio, TV, and print. Bruce is considered a pioneer of “direct to web only” marketing. He is also an early pioneer of using numbers in web URLs on those mediums.
Michael Parsons
Head of Admissions - BeWell Network
Michael started in the healthcare field as a resident advisor in an industry leading substance use program eventually working his way into admissions. He later served as Director of Admissions for a Los Angeles based outpatient center. Michael is driven by a passion for assisting families and individuals in their efforts to obtain quality treatment with an eye on positive long-term results. Michael brings a unique background to admissions having worked in middle market healthcare investment banking where he was staffed on numerous behavioral health care deal flows and brings a wealth of knowledge in appropriately leveraging data to inform client care and proper admissions processes.
Michael earned his Bachelors in Business Administration with an emphasis in finance with honors from California Lutheran University. In his free time Michael is an avid PC builder and guitar/gear enthusiast.
