Sherry Gaba LCSW, Psychotherapist, Life, Love & Recovery Coach is featured Celebrity Rehab on VH1. Sherry is the author of “The Law of Sobriety” which uses the law of attraction to recover from any addiction. Please download your free E book “Filling The Empty Heart” and your “Are You a Love Addict Quiz?” at www.sherrygaba.com Contact Sherry for webinars, teleseminars, coaching packages and speaking engagements. Listen to Sherry on “A Moment of Change with Sherry Gaba” on CBS Radio Take Sherry’s quiz for a free eBook Filling the Empty Heart: 5 Keys to Transforming Love Addiction.

 Sherry is available for psychotherapy and life coaching by phone and  in the following cities  Malibu, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Simi Valley, Newbury Park, Agoura Hills, Agoura, Westlake Village, Westlake, Calabasas, Camarillo

By Whitney Ashton

Sofia Coppola’s film Bling Ring chronicles the real life story of a gang of fame-obsessed teens who allegedly burglarized multiple stars of young Hollywood including Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Orlando Bloom.

Five teenagers composed the infamous burglar bunch: Rachel Lee, Nick Prugo, Diana Tamayo, Courtney Ames and Alexis Neiers. Between October 2008 and August 2009, the ring had allegedly stolen close to $3 million in clothes, cash, jewelry and more.

The kids resided in and around Calabasas, Calif., an affluent city in L.A. County. The group’s obsession with wealth, fame and celebrities materialized into targeting stars whose pricy wardrobes they coveted, and going “shopping” in that celeb’s home. The gang’s twisted activity fueled by celebrity worship quickly grew into an organized criminal enterprise and soon spiraled out of control. After a ten-month period, the coterie’s pursuit of fame landed them all in the big house.

Some members of the Bling Ring have admitted to having alcohol and drug dependency issues at the time the burglaries were committed. In fact, Neiers perhaps the most infamous member of the bunch is now a volunteer at Acadia Malibu, her husband’s sober living facility.

So, why did these affluent teens commit an A-list crime spree? Their obsession with celebrity caused them to crave that luxurious lifestyle – something that they felt entitled to or just an example of the self-destructive behavior addicts and alcoholics engage in when their disease is left untreated?

As a psychotherapist and life coach for clients like the ones in the Bling Ring, my passion is to help them to discover purpose in their lives so they can replace their addictions with something meaningful.  My book, The Law of Sobriety was partially inspired by The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, and concepts from the law of attraction by applying it to addiction recovery.  The idea is that your thoughts create your realities. Positive thoughts create a positive reality; negative thoughts create a negative reality.  The Secret, however, failed to provide the action steps that it takes to achieve the goals one sets out to achieve.

The media has had a field day saying that Neirs and her family were followers of The Secret when in truth she stated in an interview with Vice that her family studied the teachings of Ernest Holmes and was raised on his book The Science of Mind.  These teachings are over seventy-five years old; only to be re-introduced in the media as of recent in the movie The Secret.

In my book I state that in order to recover one must find purpose with intention. “To live your life on purpose, you need to surround yourself with people who align with your purpose.” For the kids involved in the Bling Ring, the past cannot be changed, but they always have the opportunity to change the way they interpret it and understand it [the past]. Certainly Neiers is an excellent example of living on purpose and the principals of the law of attraction by taking action steps to change her life by being sober, working a recovery program and helping others in their recovery process.

Further Reading

For more on the Bling Ring check out the Vanity Fair article “The Suspects Wore Louboutins” by Nancy Jo Sales that inspired Coppola’s film and Sales’ book The Bling Ring.