Darren Lockie

Darren came to addiction treatment in 2008, after a senior career at Microsoft Asia, when a close friend asked him for help finding a rehab. He has been sober himself since 2011. Jintara is his third Thai rehab venture, after co-founding Lanna Rehab in 2015 and leading the Lanna and DARA merger in 2018. He opened Jintara in January 2022 to do a smaller, calmer version of the work he had spent more than 17 years building.

Darren has been quoted in the NZ Herald, Bloomberg, CGTN, Recovery.com, and the Jakarta Post on residential addiction treatment in Asia, and in 2023 he hosted psychology students from Loyola University Maryland on placement at the centre. He is candid about the limits of any single rehab. In his own words, "it is very possible you will use this advice and not choose my rehab, and that is ok." If a client would be a better fit elsewhere, he says so.

Today, Darren keeps the group small, around 10 adults at a time, and screens every admission himself. He covers the cost of the Day 2 hospital workup, bloods, EKG, chest X-ray, and liver and kidney panel, at his own expense, because no one should start treatment without one. He works closely with the small Chiang Mai team on safe detox, strong medical links with Bangkok Hospital, and the kind of straight-talking care that makes Jintara feel different from a larger centre.