Guardian Intensive Outpatient Program
Demographic Specific Tracks

Addiction is insidious and far-reaching, and does not discriminate and deeply impacts all demographics. While men and women of all ages, races and walks of life are susceptible to developing a substance abuse disorder, individuals within different demographics might have differing patterns of substance use, and are liable to face a unique set of challenges when it comes to maintaining sobriety long-term.

At Guardian IOP we are dedicated to providing our clients with the most comprehensive and individualized clinical care available. In order to provide the most focused treatment experience possible, we break down our therapeutic program into demographic-specific tracks. This focused approach helps personalize each client’s individual recovery journey, while helping clients develop the unique set of life skills and coping mechanisms they need to maintain sobriety for years to come. We have found that breaking our group therapy sessions down by gender and age is extremely effective. Men and women tend to have different experiences with substance abuse – and with life in general. Along the same vein, adolescents, adults and older adults might have a difficult time relating to one another in a group setting. We break our program down by gender and by age, and we offer a Professionals Program that was specifically designed for men and women with high-powered careers.

Gender Specific Programs

At Guardian IOP we believe that gender-specific treatment programs are essential to comprehensive healing and to a more focused approach to addiction treatment. Men and women tend to have different experiences with active addiction (and with life in general), and because of this they require a different set of services when it comes to addiction recovery. Our gender-specific programs allow for group therapy sessions that focus on issues that pertain exclusively to one sex or another. For example, a group therapy session that caters exclusively to men might focus on topics like the societal standards of masculinity, expressing emotional vulnerability and asking for help when necessary. Group therapy sessions that cater exclusively to women might focus on topics like fulfilling the expected role of mother and homemaker, past emotional, psychological, physical or sexual abuse and disordered eating patterns/poor self-image. Of course, there is some crossover – but men and women tend to face a unique set of issues and barriers when it comes to obtaining long-term sobriety.

Gender-specific treatment programs have repeatedly proven effective in optimizing and personalizing the recovery journey of each individual client. At Guardian IOP, we focus on providing each client with the most individualized, comprehensive and focused clinical care available. We always treat men and women separately, allowing them the opportunity to thoroughly heal in a safe and supportive environment. Gender-specific intensive outpatient treatment allows for a higher level of openness and emotional vulnerability, which must be consistently exercised in order for long-term sobriety to be achieved. In a gender-specific setting, men and women also tend to feel more comfortable offering and accepting peer support and constructive criticism, which facilitates the development of healthy and lasting bonds, which often unfold into lifelong friendships.

• Women’s Rehab

Guardian IOP offers a female-specific program of intensive outpatient treatment that focus on issues, challenges and recovery-related setbacks that are unique to women. Women are liable to develop substance abuse disorders more quickly than men – and they are also significantly less likely to seek professional treatment. This is partly because they often feel responsible for the well-being of their dependents, and they feel as if they commit to a long-term program of clinical care they will be less able to take care of their “duties” as wife and homemaker. Our flexible female-specific program allows for women to return home every night, should they be caring for dependents. Our group therapy sessions focus heavily on the societal and cultural pressures that women face, helping them work towards independence while teaching them to prioritize their own sobriety and mental and emotional health. Some of the many benefits of our female-specific intensive outpatient program include helping women develop and foster healthy and supportive relationships with members of the same sex, confronting issues that are unique to women, facilitating more honest, open and ultimately productive group discussions and eliminating distractions that could serve as a barrier to healing.

• Men’s Rehab

When it comes to addiction recovery, men face a unique set of challenges. Men are often taught from a young age that emotional vulnerability equates to weakness, therefore they are more inclined to stifle unpleasant emotions and turn to self-medication as a means of coping. At Guardian IOP, we believe that the more specialized a treatment program is, the more positive the outcome will be. Our male-specific intensive outpatient program focuses on a wide range of topics, issues and challenges that are unique to men, including the perceived meaning of masculinity, career-related pressures, fostering emotional vulnerability, learning healthy and effective communication skills and developing healthy and lasting relationships with other men. There are many benefits that go hand-in-hand with our male-specific treatment program, including addressing issues that exclusively affect men, eliminating expectations of “strength” and damaging perceptions of masculinity (as they equate to a lack of emotional vulnerability), reducing potential distractions and fostering healthy communication and peer support among members of the same sex.

Age Specific Programs

At Guardian IOP, our age-specific programs cater to older adults, adults and younger adults who have been suffering at the hands of substance abuse and dependency. The age of an individual, as well as his or her stage in life, has quite a lot to do with the ways in which active addiction impacts him or her. Experiences will vary significantly based on age, as will necessary treatment options. For example, adolescents and young adults are more likely to begin abusing chemical substances recreationally and in social settings. Peer pressure often plays a major role in the continuation of substance use. They often have a difficult time identifying the ways in which substance use is negatively impacting their lives, and they are far less likely to seek professional treatment on their own accord. Older adults, on the other hand, grapple with their own unique set of adverse experiences, and tend to self-medicate more frequently as a result. They might be undergoing a painful interpersonal experience, such as the loss of a loved one or the end of a long-term marriage. Regardless of your personal circumstances, Guardian IOP is available to help. Our highly individualized program of clinical care was carefully developed to cater to men and women of different ages, thoroughly exploring all of their unique, treatment-related needs and ultimately equipping them with the tools and skills they need in order to maintain fulfilling sobriety for years to come.

• Young Adult Program

At Guardian IOP, our Younger Adult Program focuses on the unique set of challenges faced by adolescents, teenagers and young adults. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that while addiction can take hold at any age, it typically begins when an individual is young. The signs of substance abuse among younger adults also vary, and tend to include repeatedly getting in trouble at school, spending time with a different group of friends, skipping classes and experiencing a sudden decline in grades, fighting more with close friends and family members and experiencing obvious changes to physical appearance (like a lack of attention paid to personal hygiene). At Guardian IOP, the therapeutic group sessions we offer as part of our Younger Adult Program focus on age-specific issues, like overcoming peer pressure and learning to set and maintain personal boundaries, working on repairing broken relationships with parents and siblings, learning how to have fun in recovery and replacing negative and self-destructive behavioral patterns with healthy and effective coping mechanisms.

• Adult Rehab Program

Our adult program caters to men and women between the ages of 18 and 65 – however, our therapeutic group sessions are broken down even further, seeing as individuals who are in similar stages of life have an easier time relating to one another, making for a more focused and effective treatment experience overall. Because it can be difficult for individuals who are at different stages of life to thoroughly relate to one another, separating group therapy sessions by age helps clients relate to one another and offer peer support and encouragement without any inhibition, while facilitating the development of healthy bonds and making the overall treatment process feel more safe and comfortable. Men and women who are middle-aged or who already have some life experience under their belts tend to relate to one another more than they relate to teenagers who are still in school, or members of the elderly community who have already undergone a range of major life events. At Guardian IOP, our age-specific intensive outpatient program for adults focuses on topics like career development, marriage and other interpersonal relationships, relapse prevention training (identifying and working through personal relapse triggers) and effectively dealing with the typical day-to-day stress of work, finances and life in general. We offer all of the same therapeutic services a traditional IOP would offer – the only major difference is that groups are broken down by age, allowing for a more focused treatment experience.

• Older Adult Program

Older adults face a unique set of challenges when it comes to maintaining long-term sobriety. Men and women who are over the age of 65 also have their own unique set of considerations when it comes to the initial development of substance abuse or dependency. As a person ages, he or she begins to face a range of significant changes, which could include feelings of depression or anxiety that surround the loss of a spouse (or another loved one), changes to income or other stressors that surround retirement or newly emerging medical issues that go hand-in-hand with aging. Metabolism changes with age, which could make an older individual more susceptible to the effects of a medication, and a combination of medications being taken for a variety of health concerns could interact adversely. Most treatment programs were designed specifically with younger and middle-aged demographics in mind. The unique needs of older adults are rarely addressed in traditional treatment settings. At Guardian IOP, our Older Adult Program allows for more focused care, and our experienced and professional treatment team is extremely well-versed in treating men and women who have a set of issues and experiences particular to individuals who are over the age of 65. We thoroughly understand how medical needs vary, seeing as older adults often battle ongoing medical issues or suffer from some degree of cognitive impairment. Our focused group therapy sessions cover topics that concern older adults, like grieving loss, facing age-specific experiences like retirement and effectively managing all medications.

Professionals Program

At Guardian IOP our Professionals Program caters to men and women who have high-profile careers or celebrity status, and who cannot easily step away from their busy lives in order to complete a long-term program of inpatient treatment. At Guardian IOP, we understand that different individuals have different needs, and we work to cater to all of these unique requirements by offering a highly comprehensive and individualized program of intensive outpatient treatment that is both flexible and intensive. In many cases, an individual who has been suffering at the hands of a mild or moderate substance abuse disorder will have a wide range of executive functions and work-related responsibilities that cannot simply be ignored for months at a time. Rather than putting off treatment altogether, it is important that those in positions of power understand there are effective treatment options available to them – options that will work around their busy schedules while treating substance abuse at its root.

At Guardian IOP, we thoroughly understand the unique set of challenges that professionals face, including high stress levels, long hours spent at the office and away from loved ones, the pressure to consistently produce quality work and constantly make important deadlines. We offer a variety of features geared towards helping professionals overcome substance abuse and work through all underlying issues while still taking care of business. Some of the resources we provide as part of our flexible Professionals Program include:

• Around-the-clock access to necessary resources, like high-speed internet, computers and private rooms in which to conduct conference calls, etc. if need be.
• Case management services that focus on individualized aftercare planning – we understand that returning to work full-time is often high on the list of priorities, and we customize aftercare plans to fit all unique needs.
• Focused group therapy sessions specifically for working professionals, that focus on pertinent topics like balancing home and work life, managing stress and how to manage relapse triggers and refuse chemical substances at work functions.

Our Professionals Program was developed by an experienced team of medical and clinical professionals who understand the demands that working professionals face because of their extensive firsthand experience. For more information on our intensive outpatient program for working professionals, give us a call today.

At Guardian IOP we have carefully developed an individualized outpatient program that provides our clients with the most focused therapeutic treatment available. We understand that men and women of different ages and personal backgrounds have different needs when it comes to addiction recovery. Upon admission to our outpatient treatment program, each new client undergoes an in-depth clinical assessment. This helps our team determine which demographic-specific track will best serve each unique case. If you have recently completed a higher level of clinical care and you are looking to transfer to an outpatient treatment center, or if you have been experiencing symptoms of a mild substance use disorder and are looking for clinical support and intensive therapy, give us a call today at (888) 693-1894, we are available to help you 24/7. Our Treatment Advisors will conduct a brief pre-assessment during the initial phone call that will help us determine which level of clinical care is right for you.