Our Story
A Sequoia Hospital partnership that opened in 2015 to bring evidence-based addiction treatment to the Peninsula — without asking San Mateo County families to leave home, hide their story, or perform recovery for anyone.
From Hospital ED to Treatment Campus
In 2013, Sequoia Hospital's emergency department in Redwood City began tracking a pattern its clinicians could not ignore — the same Peninsula residents cycling through the ED for overdoses, withdrawal seizures, and detox attempts that had nowhere to go next. The closest residential treatment beds were in Marin County or Sacramento, and most San Mateo County families could not afford the time, distance, or the time off work to commute.
A coalition of Sequoia ED physicians, county public health officials, and three San Carlos families who had lost an adult child to opioid overdose spent two years building the case for a Peninsula treatment campus. WMT Rehab opened on Woodside Road in 2015 as that campus — structured from day one to integrate with Sequoia's emergency-medicine protocols, accept Medi-Cal alongside private insurance, and admit residents regardless of immigration status.
Eleven years and 7,600+ alumni later, the founding clinical relationship with Sequoia Hospital remains in place. Two of our original founders still serve on the clinical advisory board, and the protocols that opened the doors in 2015 continue to be updated annually against current addiction medicine research.
Our Mission
To make stigma stop at our front door. Addiction is a medical condition, not a moral failing, and Peninsula residents should not have to leave their support network, hide who they are, or qualify their story to begin recovery. We accept Medi-Cal alongside private insurance, admit residents regardless of immigration status, and measure ourselves by sustained sobriety and restored family relationships — not by referral volume.
Treatment Philosophy
Three commitments shape every treatment plan. A family-systems foundation, because addiction reshapes whole households — parents, partners, and adult children are folded into care from day one. Cultural humility, because the Peninsula is multilingual and multifaith and treatment plans cannot be delivered from a single corporate script. And peer accountability, because the data shows recovery mentors from the alumni community dramatically improve outcomes after discharge.
Our Team
Dr. Sequoia Velasco, MD, FASAM
Medical Director
Board-certified in addiction medicine and emergency medicine, Dr. Velasco was a Sequoia Hospital ED attending physician during the years leading up to WMT's founding and helped author the original detox-to-residential handoff protocol. She oversees medication-assisted treatment, withdrawal management, and the joint clinical pathway that still connects our campus to Sequoia's emergency department.
Tomas Beltran, LMFT, CADC-II
Executive Director
A licensed marriage and family therapist and certified addiction counselor, Tomas is the son of one of the three San Carlos families who joined Sequoia Hospital in chartering WMT. He leads day-to-day operations, the alumni mentor program, and our outreach into Spanish- and Tagalog-speaking Peninsula communities.
Dr. Aanya Patel, PsyD
Clinical Director
A clinical psychologist trained at the Wright Institute and Stanford's adolescent substance use clinic, Dr. Patel built WMT's family-systems curriculum and supervises the trauma-focused CBT and somatic experiencing programs. She speaks Gujarati and Hindi alongside English and Spanish.
Dr. Joaquin Hernandez, MD
Director of Addiction Medicine
A Sequoia Hospital ED veteran turned addiction medicine physician, Dr. Hernandez leads the medical team responsible for WMT's withdrawal protocols and serves as the formal liaison to San Mateo County Public Health on overdose response and harm reduction strategy across the Peninsula.
What Our Alumni Say
"I came to WMT during my sophomore year at College of San Mateo because my parents would not let me stay in school until I dealt with the drinking. I was furious for the first two weeks. Then the family sessions with my mom started, and I realized how much I had been hiding from her. I went back to CSM the next semester, transferred to SJSU last fall, and I sponsor a younger student from the alumni group now."
"Our daughter's drinking nearly cost us her life. What I did not expect from WMT was how much they treated me — the parent — as part of the recovery, not as a witness to it. The family-systems sessions helped me understand my own role, and the alumni community we found has been our biggest support. Watching our girl walk across the stage at her wedding last May is something I never thought we would see."
Tour the Campus, Meet the Team
Campus tours run weekday afternoons by appointment. A counselor walks you through the admission process — no commitment, no sales pitch.