Intensive Outpatient Program
Three sessions a week, six to eight weeks, built around a real schedule. Structured enough to move you forward. Flexible enough to let you keep working, parenting, and practicing what you're learning as you live it.
Real structure, around a real life.
Our intensive outpatient program is a blend of group counseling, individual work, and psychoeducation built to help clients move toward long-term recovery. Sessions are led by licensed, experienced substance abuse counselors. The whole thing runs six to eight weeks.
We often describe IOP as the summer-school version of recovery work. Instead of stretching out a semester, you get a concentrated stretch of education and support over a short enough span that real momentum builds. For people transitioning out of a residential stay, IOP keeps the support high while life comes back. For people who never went to residential, IOP is often the right first door.
Families are invited into one group session a week, so the work happens across the whole household, not just inside one person's head.
What a typical IOP week looks like.
The rhythm is consistent on purpose. Progress comes from showing up three times a week for a stretch of weeks, not from sporadic heroic efforts.
- Three group sessions a week, 2.5 hours each. Small, trust-built groups where you work through triggers, coping strategies, trauma, relationships, and the practical mechanics of sober life.
- Individual counseling throughout the program. Private time with your counselor to go deeper on what's specifically going on for you.
- One family group each week. Loved ones learn what addiction actually does to a family system, what codependency looks like in their home, and how to help without enabling.
- Six to eight weeks total. Long enough for real change, short enough to stay focused. You'll feel the pace.
- A strengths-based approach. Our work draws from the PERMA framework (positivity, engagement, relationships, meaning, achievement) so the goal isn't just "stop using." It's building a life that's worth staying sober for.
- A clear step-down plan. After IOP, most clients step down into Standard Outpatient (SOP), an aftercare group, or individual counseling, so treatment doesn't stop all at once when IOP ends.
When weekly counseling isn't moving the needle fast enough.
IOP is the right level of care for people who have tried to handle things on their own and need something more concentrated. It's also the natural step down from residential care or PHP for people rebuilding life in real time.
- You've tried to cut back or quit and keep ending up back in the same patterns
- You've just finished residential rehab or PHP and need ongoing high-support care
- You've been doing individual therapy but the problem has outgrown a weekly session
- You need structure, but work, kids, or life won't let you step away for inpatient care
- You want to do this alongside other people who get it, not in isolation
- You're open to family being part of the work, even if that part feels hard
Related levels of care.
IOP is part of a longer plan, whether it's your starting point or a step down from something more intensive.
Partial Hospitalization (PHP)
One step up from IOP. Five days a week, five hours a day. The most intensive outpatient care we offer.
Learn about PHPAftercare Group
Ongoing group for PHP and IOP graduates. Keeps the community and the work going long after the program ends.
See group optionsStandard Outpatient (SOP)
One session a week, built around your real life. The long, steady work that holds the gains made earlier in care.
Learn about SOPWhat people ask before starting IOP.
Our intensive outpatient program runs six to eight weeks. Clients meet three times a week for 2.5-hour group sessions, plus individual counseling throughout the program.
Yes. IOP is built for exactly that. The schedule is designed so you can keep working, parenting, and handling real-life responsibilities while doing real recovery work. That's the whole point of outpatient care.
PHP is more intensive: five-hour sessions, five days a week. IOP is three 2.5-hour sessions a week. PHP is often a first step or a bridge from residential care. IOP is the natural step down from PHP, or a good starting point for people who need structure but not full-day treatment.
People who have tried to get a handle on drinking or drug use on their own and want something more structured than weekly counseling. People stepping down from PHP or residential rehab. And people who know their use has crossed a line but cannot step away for inpatient treatment.
Yes. Families are invited to a weekly group session to learn about how addiction affects the whole household, work through codependency patterns, and figure out how to support their loved one without losing themselves in the process.
Many clients continue with Standard Outpatient (SOP), our aftercare group, or individual counseling to keep momentum. We don't believe in ending care cold. The goal is a gradual drop in structure and a gradual rise in your own confidence and resources.
Call for a free 15-minute consult.
Tell us what's going on. We'll help you figure out whether IOP is the right next step, or whether something else fits better right now.