Finding a program that treats substance use disorders for an adolescent or teen near you can be challenging. Our Adolescent Program serves teens from 13-to-17 and their families at both an intensive outpatient (IOP) and outpatient (OP) level of care. This program provides a well-rounded treatment experience for adolescents to work towards the continued development of healthy independence and self-awareness while fostering healthy communication and healing within the family. IOP and OP programming for this age group occurs in the afternoons and evenings to ensure clients who are still in middle or high school can maintain their educational and extracurricular commitments. We work closely with parents, school staff, outside providers, and others to ensure effective coordination towards the adolescents’ goals.
Psychiatry
Our Addiction and Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists specialize in working with adolescents with substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health problems. We provide comprehensive and coordinated psychiatric treatment, including medication management and medications for addiction treatment (MAT), when indicated.
Individual Therapy
Individual therapy is an important modality, providing our clients with a reflective space to address substance use and co-occurring issues with an eye towards long-term growth and healing. Our team of trained and experienced therapists build strong alliances with our clients to support recovery while exploring the past and current challenges that have contributed to their presenting issues.
Group Therapy
Group psychotherapy is a vital aspect of substance use recovery and mental health treatment more broadly. Our groups are focused on the development and utilization of coping skills to support adolescents in early recovery, and building recovery skills to avoid relapse and face the challenges of a life without substance use. Our curriculum draws from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Psychodynamic, Psychoeducation, and 12-Step Recovery approaches to address our clients’ challenges and support their strengths.
Family Therapy
Substance use disorders affect the whole family system, not just the teen struggling with addiction. As such, we bring all members of the family system into treatment, with the goal of strengthening relationships, supporting effective parenting, and promoting healing and harmony.
Peer Services
Peer recovery is an essential part of providing support to adolescents for a recovery-based lifestyle. Using their unique skillset and lived experience, our Certified Recovery Peer Advocates (CRPAs) help co-create short-term, achievable goals together with the client and the clinical team. Whether at an intensive outpatient (IOP) or outpatient (OP) level of care, our recovery peers facilitate linkages to recovery support networks, help to enable educational and/or career goals, enhance motivation for practicing self-care, and provide power of example to achieve a recovery-based lifestyle. Our team is available for adolescents throughout the week and can include up to twice weekly 60-minute sessions with one of our experienced OASAS certified peer recovery advocates.
Co-occurring Disorders and Other Behaviors
NYCFL treats adolescents with primary substance use disorder diagnoses. We also know that substance use disorders do not exist in a vacuum and are often associated with other mental health conditions and associated behaviors. Both in our intensive outpatient (IOP) and outpatient (OP) program, our team can help effectively manage mood disorders like depression and bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders like generalized anxiety disorder, personality disorders like borderline personality disorder, trauma, attachment issues, self-injurious behaviors, and codependency.
Nicotine Cessation
Additionally, NYCFL seeks to critically address the use of nicotine products by adolescents. Our psychiatrists can prescribe nicotine cessation products, including patches and lozenges, with the goal of eliminating nicotine use or, as we like to say, nip it in the bud!
Drug Testing
New York Center for Living provides urine drug screening and utilizes labs for confirmatory testing to provide an objective measure of substance use and ensure adolescents in both intensive outpatient (IOP) and outpatient (OP) treatment are working towards the goal of sobriety and recovery.