Why This Program Exists

Weekly therapy is often essential and deeply meaningful.
 For many people, however, there are periods when additional structure and support allow that work to integrate more fully.
You might understand yourself well and still feel caught in the same emotional cycles. Stress brings everything back online. Old patterns return, and progress feels fragile. You may be able to talk clearly about what’s happening without seeing it change how life actually feels or functions. This usually isn’t a lack of effort or willingness. It points to blocks or capacity limits that insight alone doesn’t resolve.
This program exists to provide that support and to help move past the blocks that keep deeper healing out of reach.

What Makes This a Faster Path to Real Change

The Adult IOP meets three hours a day, three days a week. This consistent rhythm allows therapeutic work to remain active in your nervous system and daily life rather than resetting between weekly sessions.
Instead of chipping away slowly while managing repeated crises, this program creates a focused environment where the sole purpose is building emotional capacity, stability, and readiness for deeper work. Many people find that patterns that once took months or years to shift begin to soften more quickly when supported at this level.
The program blends group psychotherapy with individualized clinical support. You receive personal attention while also benefiting from the shared understanding, safety, and relational healing that happens in a thoughtfully facilitated group.
The intention is not to rush you, but to support your system so meaningful change can happen with less struggle and less time spent circling the same issues.

Who This Program Is Designed For

A Program Designed with Intention

This is not a generalized skills group or a typical IOP.
 Admission is thoughtful and intentional, with careful attention to safety, fit, and whether the program is truly appropriate for what you are seeking support for. Not everyone who inquires will be a match, and part of the intake process is making sure this program is the right level and type of care, rather than directing you toward something that may serve you better.
We often work with professionals and individuals who are highly capable in their lives, careers, and relationships, but who recognize that something deeper has remained unresolved. For many, this program feels less like a traditional IOP and more like an intensive therapeutic experience designed to create real movement rather than ongoing maintenance.
The group itself is treated as a meaningful therapeutic space. Participants are asked to engage respectfully, maintain confidentiality, and approach the work with care for themselves and for others. While people are encouraged to show up authentically, the group is held with a shared understanding of professionalism, mutual respect, and emotional safety.
This program is designed for individuals who want to be here and are motivated to engage in the work, even when it feels uncomfortable or challenging. We recognize that protective patterns and defenses are a natural part of healing, and we are experienced in working with them. At the same time, the group is not structured for ongoing conflict, opposition, or forced participation. The intention is to create a space where people can settle in, feel supported, and move forward together.

A Program That Works with the Whole System

Why This Approach Creates Real, Lasting Change
Lasting change does not happen through insight alone. Research in trauma and neuroscience consistently shows that therapeutic progress occurs when treatment works with the whole system including emotional, cognitive, relational, and nervous system processes rather than focusing on thoughts or behaviors in isolation.
This program was designed with that understanding at its core. Every element is intentional. Nothing is included for novelty, trend, or performance. Each modality is used because it has demonstrated relevance in helping people expand emotional capacity, regulate the nervous system, and engage more directly with difficult internal material in a way that is effective rather than destabilizing.

Group Psychotherapy as the Foundation

A structured space for real relational work
Group psychotherapy is the foundation of this program because many of the patterns that shape emotional life and relationships were learned in connection with others. While insight is important, those patterns often change most meaningfully when they can be experienced and worked with in a relational setting.
This is not a surface-level check-in group, a weekly share, or a place where people simply talk about their week. It is a true psychotherapy group, intentionally structured and facilitated to support depth, safety, and forward movement. The work unfolds over time and follows the well-established stages of group development described in group psychotherapy research, allowing trust, cohesion, and meaningful engagement to build gradually and organically.
As the group develops, relational patterns naturally begin to show themselves. This might include noticing tendencies such as taking on a caretaker role, staying quiet to avoid attention, comparing yourself internally, pulling back when emotional closeness increases, or feeling uncertain about how to express needs. These patterns are not treated as problems, but as important information about how you have learned to stay safe in relationships.
What makes this group uniquely therapeutic is that these patterns can be explored as they arise, within a stable and supported environment. Rather than reacting automatically or withdrawing, participants have the opportunity to slow down, notice what is happening internally, and learn different ways of staying connected.Because the group is carefully facilitated, it moves through the natural phases of group psychotherapy in a way that supports:
• Increasing emotional safety and trust
• Deeper connection without overwhelm
• Identification of attachment patterns and relational roles
• Processing fears or blocks that emerge around closeness
• Corrective emotional experiences that reshape expectations of connection
Many people want deeper, more meaningful relationships but have never had a place to practice how to build and sustain them. In everyday life, there is rarely space to pause, reflect, or repair when emotions are activated. This group provides that space.
Rather than simply talking about relationships, participants experience connection in real time. Over time, the nervous system learns that closeness can feel steady, that emotions can be shared without rupture, and that meaningful connection does not require self-abandonment or withdrawal.
These experiences form the foundation for lasting change, both within the group and in relationships beyond the program

Individualized Clinical Support

Refining the work without pulling it out of the group
While group psychotherapy is the core of the program, participants also receive individualized clinical support designed to clarify, focus, and strengthen their experience in the group.
This support is not separate individual therapy and is not intended to replace ongoing individual treatment. Instead, it functions as a way to understand each person’s unique presentation, identify barriers to progress, and ensure the work unfolding in the group is landing effectively.
This individualized component is used to:
• Develop a clear understanding of each participant’s emotional patterns, nervous system responses, and current challenges
• Identify blocks, protective strategies, or capacity limits that may interfere with deeper engagement
• Assess readiness for more emotionally demanding work as the program progresses
• Offer targeted interventions that support integration and movement within the group process
These moments of individual support allow the clinical team to track how each participant is responding to the program and to adjust pacing or focus as needed. In some cases, brief experiential or EMDR-informed interventions may be used to gently test capacity, clarify stuck points, or support regulation, always with the goal of strengthening the participant’s ability to remain present and engaged in the group.
Rather than pulling the work into a one-on-one setting, this individualized support is meant to sharpen and amplify the group experience. It ensures that each participant is seen as a whole person and that the program remains responsive, effective, and appropriately paced.

A Titrated, Capacity-Based Approach

Expanding the window of tolerance safely
The program follows a titration model grounded in trauma science and polyvagal theory. Emotional material is introduced gradually, with close attention to nervous system response. Rather than pushing through distress or avoiding it entirely, participants learn to stay present with increasing levels of emotional activation.
This approach helps individuals:
• Recognize and track nervous system states
• Increase tolerance for emotional intensity
• Reduce cycles of flooding, shutdown, or avoidance
• Build confidence in their ability to face painful material without becoming destabilized
By working within the nervous system’s capacity, change often occurs more efficiently because the system is not forced into survival responses that slow or block progress

Trauma-Informed Cognitive and Behavioral Approaches

Supporting deeper work, not replacing it
Cognitive and behavioral approaches are woven throughout this program to support emotional and experiential work. They are not used as stand-alone skills training, but as tools to help us understand how your system responds under stress and where deeper intervention may be needed.
There are times when emotional distress is driven by patterns that are accessible to conscious awareness and regulation. In these moments, skills can be highly effective. When the frontal regions of the brain are online, people are often able to reflect, pause, reframe, and choose different responses. In these cases, learning and practicing skills can create change.
At other times, however, emotional reactions are driven by trauma-related neural networks that operate outside of conscious control. When a trigger activates implicit memory systems, the brain shifts into survival mode. Access to the frontal lobe decreases, and the ability to recall or apply skills can temporarily go offline. This can feel confusing or shame-inducing, especially when someone knows what they “should” do but cannot seem to do it in the moment.
The program uses cognitive and behavioral approaches to help distinguish between these two processes and guide treatment accordingly.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT helps identify thought patterns and cognitive loops that amplify distress and interfere with regulation. As these patterns are explored, we can see which responses shift with awareness and skill use, and which remain rigid or automatic despite insight. When cognitive strategies consistently fail to interrupt a response, this often points to deeper learning that is stored in trauma-related memory networks rather than in conscious belief systems. This information becomes clinically useful in identifying targets for trauma-focused work within the Adaptive Information Processing model

This program may be a good fit if you experience:
• Emotional overwhelm or rapid shifts in emotion
• Anxiety, trauma-related symptoms, or mood concerns
• Difficulty staying regulated during stress
• Avoidance, emotional numbing, or shutdown
• A sense that therapy never quite reaches the deeper work you want to do
• Low self-esteem, unhelpful patterns, or simply feeling lost or at the end of your rope
The focus is on supporting emotional tolerance and nervous system stability so deeper therapy can finally become accessible

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

DBT supports distress tolerance and emotional regulation, helping strengthen a sense of internal control when stress rises. As skills are practiced, we observe which situations remain within your capacity to regulate and which lead to rapid escalation, shutdown, or loss of access to reasoning. When emotional responses overwhelm the ability to apply skills, it often signals that implicit memory systems are driving the reaction. These moments help us identify where trauma-related material may be shaping behavior beyond conscious control.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT supports psychological flexibility and reduces avoidance of internal experience. By increasing the ability to stay present with thoughts and emotions, ACT helps clarify whether discomfort can be tolerated and moved through, or whether the system is being pulled into protective survival responses. This distinction further informs how and where deeper trauma-focused interventions may be needed.
Together, these approaches provide what is often referred to as top-down support. They help stabilize the system, strengthen awareness, and build capacity where possible. At the same time, they give the clinical team valuable information about which responses are skill-responsive and which reflect trauma-based neural patterns that require a different level of intervention.
Rather than asking you to “try harder” with skills, this program uses skills thoughtfully to map the nervous system, reduce shame, and guide deeper work in a way that is aligned with how the brain actually functions

Experiential Therapies That Reach Beyond Words

Engaging the brain and body directly
Many aspects of trauma are stored nonverbally. Experiential therapies allow access to emotional material that may not be reachable through language alone.

Therapeutic Art

The art-based work in this program is not about creativity, talent, or self-expression for its own sake. It consists of specific, guided interventions that use carefully selected materials based on how they engage the brain and body. Participants are not asked to walk into the studio and “come up with something.” Each exercise is structured and introduced with a clear therapeutic purpose.
Different mediums are chosen intentionally for their tactile, sensory, and regulatory properties. Working with the hands and senses helps engage integrative brain networks while reducing overreliance on verbal processing. This allows internal experiences to take form through image, texture, and symbol rather than explanation alone.
Art also supports projection, which can bring underlying patterns, emotional themes, or internal conflicts into clearer focus. Once externalized, these experiences can be observed, reflected on, and worked with directly. Time is then spent processing the work together, helping translate what emerged into language and insight.
By moving between structured, sensory-based creation and thoughtful reflection, this approach supports regulation, integration, and a clearer understanding of internal experience. The goal is not artistic expression, but using specific interventions to engage the brain and nervous system in ways that support meaningful therapeutic change

Movement and Yoga

Movement and yoga are used in this program as structured, body-based interventions that support nervous system regulation and emotional processing. Research shows that prolonged stress and painful experiences can lead the body to remain in patterns of heightened activation or shutdown, even when the immediate threat is no longer present. Over time, the nervous system can lose flexibility in how it moves between states of activation and rest.
Gentle, intentional movement helps interrupt these patterns by engaging the body directly and restoring a sense of control over physiological responses. Practices that emphasize breath, slow movement, and mindful attention support parasympathetic activation, allowing the nervous system to shift out of chronic stress responses and into states associated with safety and recovery.
Through repeated practice, participants learn how different movements and breathing patterns influence their internal state. This builds practical tools for regulating arousal, recognizing early signs of dysregulation, and intentionally supporting nervous system settling. Increased interoceptive awareness helps individuals notice internal signals sooner, making regulation more accessible before overwhelm takes hold.
Different movement approaches are used for different therapeutic purposes. Some practices focus on downregulation and restoration, while others gently mobilize areas of chronic tension to increase flexibility and resilience. All movement is introduced gradually and with clear guidance to support safety, integration, and choice.
Rather than forcing release or catharsis, movement in this program helps retrain the nervous system’s capacity to move between states with greater ease. The goal is increased regulation, adaptability, and confidence in one’s ability to influence physiological responses, creating a more stable foundation for deeper therapeutic work.

Sound and Music

Sound and music are used in this program as structured therapeutic tools rather than background or relaxation techniques. Auditory input has a direct pathway to emotional and physiological processing, allowing sound to influence internal states quickly and often without conscious effort. Because of this, sound can reach aspects of experience that are difficult to access through thinking or talking alone.
Sound-based experiences, including intentional use of music, sound baths, and guided listening, are used to support nervous system regulation, emotional awareness, and integration. Research shows that rhythm, tempo, and vibration influence autonomic nervous system activity. Slower rhythms and sustained tones are associated with parasympathetic activation, while predictable auditory patterns can help stabilize physiological responses. When used intentionally, sound can support shifts out of heightened stress states and into states associated with safety, rest, and recovery.
Music is also used as a reflective tool. Songs and lyrics can mirror emotional experiences, offering language and structure to feelings that may otherwise feel diffuse or difficult to name. This reflective quality allows emotional material to be accessed at a manageable distance, supporting titration rather than overwhelm.
Sound baths and instrumental experiences further support regulation by combining auditory input with vibration and sustained frequency. These elements can increase interoceptive awareness, helping individuals notice internal sensations and shifts in state with greater clarity. This awareness supports emotional integration by allowing changes in activation to be felt and tracked in real time.
In this program, sound is not used for catharsis or passive relaxation alone. It is introduced with intention, pacing, and clinical guidance. The goal is to help participants develop a clearer relationship with their internal experience, understand how sound influences regulation, and build capacity to remain present while emotional material is engaged gently and safely.

Meditation and Mindfulness

Meditation practices in this program are used as structured interventions to strengthen the ability to notice internal experience without becoming overwhelmed by it. Rather than aiming to “clear the mind” or bypass discomfort, these practices train attention and awareness so emotional and physiological responses can be observed with greater stability.
From a neurobiological perspective, meditation supports increased tolerance for internal sensation by strengthening pathways involved in attention, self-regulation, and emotional processing. As awareness improves, participants often become better able to notice early shifts in emotion or arousal before those states escalate into overwhelm or shutdown.
These practices also help reduce automatic avoidance. By learning how to stay present with mild to moderate discomfort, individuals build confidence in their ability to remain engaged when difficult material arises. Over time, this increases emotional range and reduces the need for dissociation or numbing as protective strategies.
Meditation is introduced gradually and with clear guidance, using brief, targeted practices rather than prolonged or unstructured sitting. The emphasis is on building capacity, not endurance. When used this way, mindfulness becomes a practical tool for increasing regulation, insight, and readiness for deeper therapeutic work

Sand Tray and Psychodrama

Sand tray and psychodrama are used as structured experiential interventions that make internal dynamics visible and workable. By externalizing thoughts, emotions, and relational patterns, these approaches allow complex internal experiences to be explored without requiring immediate verbal explanation.
Sand tray offers a contained, symbolic way to represent inner experience. The use of physical objects and spatial arrangement helps translate internal states into something concrete, which can reduce cognitive load and increase clarity. Once externalized, emotional material can be observed, reflected on, and adjusted with a greater sense of distance and control.
Psychodrama builds on this process by allowing emotional and relational themes to be explored through guided enactment. Rather than recreating events or forcing emotional expression, psychodrama in this program is used to examine patterns, roles, and responses in a carefully paced way. This allows participants to engage emotionally while remaining grounded and regulated.
Both approaches support insight and emotional engagement through titration. Material is introduced gradually, with close attention to nervous system response, so participants can stay present without becoming overwhelmed. The emphasis is on awareness, integration, and choice rather than catharsis.
Used in this way, sand tray and psychodrama help bridge internal experience and conscious understanding, supporting meaningful therapeutic movement while maintaining safety and stability.

Parts-Based Work

This program includes a parts-based approach to help people make sense of internal reactions that often feel confusing, contradictory, or out of proportion to the situation at hand. Many individuals notice moments where they feel taken over by emotion, flooded with fear, or pulled into patterns that don’t align with their values or intentions. Rather than viewing this as weakness or lack of control, parts-based work understands these experiences as meaningful responses shaped by earlier experiences.
This approach is informed by ego state therapy and related models that recognize the mind as made up of different internal states, or “parts,” each with a specific role. Some parts are focused on keeping things together, avoiding pain, or staying in control. Others may carry strong emotional responses, urgency, or fear. During times of stress, these parts can take over quickly, creating a sense of internal noise or instability that feels difficult to manage.
From a trauma-informed perspective, these takeovers are often protective. They develop in response to experiences where emotions, needs, or safety were not adequately supported. Even when these responses no longer fit the present moment, they persist because they once served an important function. Understanding this can significantly reduce shame and self-blame.
By mapping the internal system and exploring how different parts interact, people begin to understand why certain reactions show up and what they are trying to prevent. This process often reduces internal conflict and softens defenses. As fear of internal experience decreases, emotional responses become more predictable and less overwhelming.
Parts-based work is especially helpful as preparation for deeper therapeutic work. Fear of strong emotions, avoidance, or shutdown often reflects protective parts that are trying to prevent loss of control or emotional flooding. Working with these parts directly helps build trust in one’s ability to stay present, tolerate emotion, and remain aligned with personal values even when difficult material arises. Sometimes organization and collaboration within the internal experience has the greatest impact on readiness to do the deeper work and reach emotional stability.
Within this program, parts-based work supports greater internal coordination and stability. As reactions become better understood and less polarized, many people experience a stronger sense of grounding, clarity, and readiness to move into deeper work with confidence rather than fear

EMDR-Informed Interventions

Building readiness through the Adaptive Information Processing model
While this program does not center on full trauma reprocessing, it incorporates EMDR-informed interventions grounded in the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model to support readiness, stability, and capacity for deeper work.
From an AIP perspective, symptoms and patterns persist when experiences are stored in maladaptively organized neural networks that remain easily activated under stress. Before those networks can be processed effectively, the nervous system must be able to tolerate activation, remain present, and return to regulation without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down.
The EMDR-informed work in this program is used to strengthen those conditions.
Interventions are selected and paced intentionally to support stabilization and grounding, helping participants develop a greater sense of internal safety and control. Resource Development and Installation exercises are used to strengthen adaptive networks and increase access to states associated with calm, confidence, and resilience. State change exercises support flexibility in nervous system response, allowing participants to move out of stuck or rigid patterns more reliably.
In some cases, limited and carefully contained target work may be introduced to assess how the system responds to activation. This is not done to push processing, but to observe capacity, identify blocks, and ensure that deeper work is approached thoughtfully and responsibly. These moments help clarify readiness and guide future treatment planning, whether within the program or in subsequent trauma-focused therapy.
The emphasis throughout is on preparation rather than exposure. By strengthening adaptive networks and increasing tolerance for emotional activation, EMDR-informed interventions help create the conditions in which future trauma processing can be more efficient, effective, and less destabilizing.
Rather than rushing toward insight or resolution, this approach respects the nervous system’s timing. The goal is to leave participants better equipped to engage in deeper work with stability, clarity, and confidence when the time is right.

Why This Approach Works

Depth through design, not excess
It is reasonable to wonder how a single program can responsibly include this range of therapeutic approaches. Many standard programs attempt to address complexity by offering a wide mix of therapies at once, often without clear sequencing or integration, either in hopes that something will work or to meet expectations of offering certain popular modalities. This program was designed differently. Rather than throwing multiple approaches at the problem, it follows a clear structure and clinical logic. Each modality is chosen for a specific purpose and introduced at the right time to support regulation, capacity, and integration.
The curriculum is organized around weekly themes that guide the focus of group psychotherapy, experiential interventions, and individualized clinical support. This structure allows the different components of the program to reinforce one another rather than compete for attention. Nothing is included arbitrarily, and nothing is used without a clear therapeutic reason informed by nervous system and brain science.
The program was developed by Dr. Lauren Kiser, whose career has included extensive work across multiple levels of care and deep specialization in trauma-focused treatment. Over many years, she has worked closely with a wide range of therapeutic approaches in real clinical settings, developing a clear understanding of when specific interventions are effective, when they are not, and how poor timing or lack of preparation can stall progress.
The curriculum was further refined through collaboration with her clinical team, whose members bring broad experience in trauma therapy and intensive outpatient treatment. Their collective input helped shape a program that is both clinically sound and grounded in the realities of group-based, intensive care.
The result is a cohesive, intentionally designed program rather than a “kitchen sink” approach. Group psychotherapy provides the relational foundation. Individualized clinical support helps track progress and adjust pacing. Experiential and body-based interventions are selected to match the focus of the week and the capacity of the group. EMDR-informed interventions are used strategically to build readiness rather than push processing prematurely.
Because participants are immersed in the work for a sustained period of time, new patterns have the opportunity to form and stabilize. Instead of briefly touching difficult material and then stepping away from it for days or weeks, the program provides enough continuity for insight, regulation, and relational learning to integrate more fully.
The result is not speed for its own sake, but efficiency with intention. Many participants experience greater clarity, confidence, and momentum, allowing them to move into deeper therapeutic work with less fear, fewer barriers, and a stronger sense of internal stability

Program Schedule

Days: Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays
Time: 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Program Length:
A minimum commitment of eight weeks, with many participants choosing to continue up to twelve weeks depending on goals and progress.
The structure provides consistency while allowing the clinical team to remain responsive to individual needs.

Supporting Deeper Trauma Work

For many participants, this program serves as a bridge into trauma-focused therapies such as EMDR. It is designed to support and enhance individual therapy, not replace it.
Participants are encouraged to continue working with their current therapist while enrolled. If someone does not have an individual therapist, we can connect them with a clinician on our team who specializes in deeper trauma-focused work.

How Progress Is Tracked

Progress in this program is monitored through observable clinical markers rather than relying on insight alone. Rather than using a single score or checklist, we pay attention to consistent patterns that reflect real change in how the system is functioning.
Throughout the program, the clinical team tracks changes in stability, emotional regulation, and capacity. This includes noting how participants respond as emotional depth increases, how quickly they are able to return to regulation after activation, and whether previously overwhelming experiences become more tolerable over time.
We also pay close attention to behavioral and relational indicators. These may include reduced crisis-driven patterns, increased ability to stay present during difficult conversations, greater emotional range without shutdown or escalation, and improved consistency between insight and real-world behavior.
As skills and interventions are introduced, they serve a dual purpose. They support regulation while also helping us understand where capacity is sufficient and where deeper blocks may exist. When skills are accessible under stress, this suggests frontal-lobe mediated regulation is available. When skills consistently drop offline during activation, this often points to implicit or trauma-linked patterns that require a different therapeutic approach. This distinction helps guide pacing and clinical focus.

Your Investment

We accept many major insurance plans and are happy to help you explore your specific coverage, including in-network benefits, out-of-network reimbursement, and private pay options. Coverage and out-of-pocket costs vary based on your individual insurance plan, and our team can assist with benefit verification so you have clear information before deciding.
For those who choose private pay, the rate for the Intensive Outpatient Program is $375 per day, with programming held three days per week. For the standard 8-week commitment, this totals $9,000 (24 program days).
We recommend that participants engage in individual therapy alongside the IOP, either with one of our clinicians or with an outside therapist. Individual therapy supports integration of the work done in group and allows for deeper, individualized focus. The cost of individual therapy is not included here, as fees vary depending on the provider, session frequency, and insurance coverage.
Our goal is transparency and clarity, so you can make an informed decision that feels aligned with both your therapeutic needs and practical considerations.

Use of Insurance and Diagnostic Considerations

When using insurance, participation in this program requires that a mental health diagnosis be present and that medical necessity criteria for an Intensive Outpatient Program are met, as defined by the individual’s insurance plan. Diagnosis and level of care are determined through a clinical assessment and documented in accordance with insurance requirements.
Some individuals prefer not to use their insurance for personal or professional reasons, including concerns about having a mental health diagnosis attached to their medical record. Others may experience distress, impairment, or feeling “stuck” in their lives without identifying with a specific diagnosis, or without meeting criteria for insurance-based coverage, despite benefiting from a structured, therapeutic program.
In private pay situations, we may be able to accommodate individuals whose needs align with the focus and structure of the program, even when insurance criteria are not being used to determine eligibility. All participants, regardless of payment method, must still be clinically appropriate for the program and able to engage safely at this level of care.
Admission decisions are made thoughtfully and conservatively to ensure that the program is a good fit and that participation is clinically justified

Next Steps

The first step is a conversation.
1. Contact our office to schedule a brief screening call. This allows us to learn more about your needs and help determine whether the program is a good fit.
2. If the program appears appropriate, we will schedule an initial intake and orientation to gather additional information and prepare you for the group experience.
3. Once intake is complete, you will be scheduled to join the next available cohort.
To get started, contact us at:
Email: info@lkinstitute.com
Phone: 623.432.8066

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I be doing trauma processing in the group?
The program focuses on preparation, stability, and capacity building. Some limited, carefully supported trauma work may occur to assess readiness, but the primary goal is to help you reach a place where deeper trauma-focused therapy can be done safely and effectively, rather than prematurely or destabilizingly. 
What if I’m nervous about group therapy?
That’s common. Group therapy here is carefully structured and facilitated. Many participants find that the group becomes one of the most supportive and clarifying parts of the experience, helping them feel less alone while learning new ways of relating safely and authentically.
Do I need a referral to join?
Referrals are welcome but not required. You may self-refer or be referred by a therapist, physician, or other provider.
Is the program in person or virtual?
The program is currently offered in person only. The experiential and relational components of the work are best supported in a shared physical space.
What happens after the program ends?
Before completion, we work with you to ensure you have a clear next step, whether that is continuing trauma-focused therapy, returning to your existing therapist with greater readiness, or adjusting your treatment plan based on what you have gained.
Is this program appropriate if I am stepping down from a higher level of care (PHP, RTC, or inpatient)?
This program can be an excellent step-down option for individuals transitioning from a higher level of care who are no longer in acute crisis but still benefit from structured, consistent therapeutic support.
The Adult IOP is designed to support integration, capacity-building, and preparation for deeper therapeutic work. It is not a crisis stabilization program and does not provide medication management, 24-hour support, or on-site psychiatric services. Participants should have a baseline level of stability and the ability to remain safe outside of program hours.
For individuals completing PHP, residential, or inpatient treatment who want a next phase that continues momentum without returning immediately to once-weekly therapy, this program can offer meaningful continuity. The structure allows time and space for emotional regulation, relational work, and addressing blocks that often emerge after acute symptoms have stabilized.
As part of the screening process, we carefully assess whether this program is an appropriate fit based on current stability, supports, and treatment needs. If a different level of care would better support safety or recovery at this time, we will help guide you toward that option.

Who This Program Is Not For

This program is intentionally designed and will not be the right fit for everyone. In some situations, a different type or level of care is more appropriate.
This program may not be a good fit for individuals who:
• Are currently in acute crisis or require immediate stabilization
• Need inpatient care, residential treatment, or partial hospitalization
• Require medication management or close psychiatric monitoring within the program
• Are experiencing active suicidal intent that cannot be managed with outpatient-level support
• Are unable to maintain basic safety outside of program hours
• Are being mandated to attend treatment and are not willing or able to engage voluntarily
• Are experiencing active psychosis or thought disorders such as Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, etc.
• Are seeking treatment primarily for substance use or an eating disorder and would benefit from a program specifically designed to address those needs.
• Present with OCD as the primary condition, with symptom severity indicating the need for specialized OCD-focused treatment, including ERP.
While defenses, avoidance, fear of emotion, and ambivalence are common and expected in trauma-related work, this program is designed for individuals who have some degree of readiness to engage and who are open to exploring internal experiences with support.
Our goal is not to place someone in a program that is mismatched to their needs. During the screening process, we take time to understand your current situation and help determine whether this program is likely to support your healing or whether another service would be a better fit right now.