Robert Mo, CADC II, ICADC, is a certified substance use disorder counselor and the Clinical Program Director at Tree House Recovery’s flagship campus in Costa Mesa, California. He has worked at Tree House since 2014 and has led the Costa Mesa program since early 2020. He earned his CADC II in 2019. He provides one-on-one counseling and helps lead the program’s addiction psychoeducation groups.
Robert was also Tree House Recovery’s first client, enrolling in April 2013. As Clinical Program Director he builds and manages a multidisciplinary team that includes licensed therapists and medical staff, oversees day-to-day operations, and supervises the center’s substance use disorder counseling staff.
Robert teaches from lived practice. Every tool he gives a client is one he uses himself: cognitive behavioral therapy, DBT, breath work, affirmations, and plain writing. “I got a busy brain,” he says. “I sleep next to a notebook.” He has no patience for exercises that only fill time: “Everything I give these guys — I’m not here to waste people’s time. There’s a reason behind all of it. And I use these tools daily.”
He works within Tree House Recovery’s four-dimensional model of health — biological, social, psychological, and spiritual — and keeps all four connected in his own life, training alongside the men in treatment. “I like cognitive behavioral therapy. I like lifting weights. I like being around people. And I like trying to leave my mark on the world.” On the idea that recovery can be negotiated, he is blunt: the thought of “controlled drinking … it’s laughable. I keep myself healthy so I can enjoy my life.”
Some of his most important work happens in the hardest moments, when a client in acute stress wants to leave treatment against clinical advice. It starts with his own composure: “If you get activated, it’s going to activate them, and we need them calm.” The stakes are real to him: “I feel like I have to save this guy’s life in the moment … and I’m pretty much going to do whatever it takes.”
Robert runs the same four-dimensional model on himself that Tree House builds into treatment. Lifting weights is his anchor — a few times a week, at the office, in the gym he built in his garage, and often alongside the clients in treatment. Once a week he takes his staff to the gym for what he calls a clinical meeting that is not really a meeting. He cooks at home with his family, uses breath work to settle his nervous system, and keeps a notebook by the bed for a busy brain. The tools he teaches are the ones he uses daily.
Robert’s recovery began at Tree House Recovery. When the program opened in 2013, he was its first client, arriving after a hard relapse. He has been in recovery since 2013. In 2014 he joined the staff of the program that helped him get sober, and he has been there since. Lived experience contributes to Robert’s perspective on recovery and is distinct from the clinical credentials listed below.
Robert was Tree House Recovery’s first client when it opened in 2013. After graduating, he worked for about a year before returning to Tree House as a house manager. He became the center’s addiction-education counselor, trained and mentored on the job by a senior Tree House clinician, and built out the addiction-education curriculum he still teaches. He moved into one-on-one counseling, helped stand up the center’s second and third treatment teams, earned his CADC II in May 2019, and stepped into leadership of the Costa Mesa program in early 2020. He now supervises the counseling team and provides training and consultation across the twelve core functions of substance use disorder counseling.
See Robert teaching
“My counselor Rob is extremely knowledgeable and personable. He still checks in on me to see how things are going. We went through my life experience and he taught me how to grow from it.”
Read client and family reviews of Tree House Recovery’s Costa Mesa program on Google.
Reviews reflect individual experiences and are not a guarantee of treatment outcomes; results vary.
Yes. Robert holds a CADC II credential from CCAPP, number A054300519, issued May 2, 2019 and valid through May 2, 2027, plus the Internationally Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor (ICADC) designation. His NPI is 1427918358. His certification can be verified in the CCAPP public registry.
Yes. Robert is a certified substance use disorder counselor (CADC II) who provides one-on-one counseling and helps lead the addiction psychoeducation groups at Tree House Recovery in Costa Mesa, California, alongside his role as Clinical Program Director.
Robert leads the Costa Mesa program: he builds and manages a multidisciplinary team of licensed therapists and medical staff, oversees day-to-day operations and staff development, supervises the substance use disorder counseling team, and provides direct counseling to clients.
Yes. Robert has been in recovery since 2013 — he was Tree House Recovery’s first client — and he draws on that lived experience in his work. It is distinct from his clinical credentials.
Tree House Recovery’s flagship campus in Costa Mesa, California.