New year, new direction — Costa Mesa rehab for women helps mother reclaim life, son
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Just a few months ago, Lindsay Litt was in a bad place.
A victim of intimate partner abuse, the 32-year-old had survived a February 2025 police standoff initiated by her ex-husband and fled from him, soon after giving birth to a son, Gabriel. She would eventually be forced to cede him to the foster care system while she was still breastfeeding.
Those incidents were just a part of a yearslong personal struggle that saw Litt either sleeping in her car or with an earlier abusive partner who kept her under lock and key. Living with an abuser, she occasionally turned to marijuana and Adderall to cope.
“I wanted to silence my voice, so we wouldn’t argue, because in those types of relationships, if you have a voice you kind of get in trouble,” she recalled.
Adding to the ongoing drama, Litt had previously lost custody of her first two children, daughter Mary, now 11, and 8-year-old son AJ. When Gabriel was taken, she was afraid all three of her kids would be forced to grow up in foster care like she had.
But hope was on the horizon. When Litt was at her lowest, the woman who’d become Gabriel’s foster mother gave her the number of social worker Veronica Candelario, who eventually connected her to the lifeline she’d been searching for.
New Directions for Women, a residential and outpatient rehabilitation facility in Costa Mesa since 1977, provides programs for women on a gated 3.5-acre parcel tucked away on a quiet residential street. Serving female clients, and offering childcare facilities for their children, the nonprofit operates under the clinical motto “Love, kindness and compassion in all things.”
During a recent visit to the facility, Candelario recalled making contact with Litt while she was in the hospital being treated for anxiety.
“She was inside the hospital and alone,” the social worker said. “I could hear in her voice that she really needed support and didn’t have anybody in her corner. I advocated for her to come here and, by the grace of God, she was able to come under our care.”
Litt arrived at New Directions late at night on Nov. 7 and was immediately placed in a bedroom in the campus’ main Founder’s House. It was the first time in a long time she felt comfortable and safe.
“I had a room upstairs. It was so beautiful, with flowers next to the bed,” she said. “It just felt like a place I could actually rest my head and take a breather for once.”
The next morning, as she acclimated to her new surroundings and the program’s regimented schedule, classes and rules (clients, for example, must give up their cellphones), staff began helping her resume custody of Gabriel.
Heather Black-Coyne, New Directions’ executive director, says one important feature of the organization is not only offering woman-centric care, but allowing clients to interact with clinicians and care team members who are also women.
“There’s this really beautiful synergy with having women who have achieved and are at a certain place in their life, who want to work here, show up and model that for a lady who needs to see that another woman can do that,” said Black-Coyne, herself celebrating 20 years of sobriety.
“Whether they’re in recovery or not, we need mirrors — we need women who help us learn and grow into being women.”
Last year, New Directions welcomed more than 300 individuals. The average client’s stay is about 30 days, which was the case for Litt. During that time, she says she learned a lot about herself while enjoying honest friendships with other women in a non-judgmental setting.
After leaving in early December, Litt was reunited with Gabriel just two days before Christmas — the best present imaginable, she says — and the pair are now living at Collette Children’s Home in Huntington Beach as she works to retain custody of Mary and AJ. She stays in a room with Gabriel and two empty beds waiting to be filled.
Litt works at a doctor’s office and is saving up her paychecks to eventually find a place where she and her children can live permanently. But each Thursday after work, she makes the drive to Costa Mesa for alumni nights at New Directions.
There, former clients catch up with one another over dinner and enjoy an informal group session where they share more about their progress and challenges. For Litt, it’s an important way to stay connected to the program and the women who’ve become like a family to her.
“I just feel forever grateful for this place — I feel like I found myself here,” she said, bouncing a smiling baby Gabriel on her knee. “Without this place, and the women here, I don’t know where I’d be.”
