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Teen programs ยท Ages 13 to 17

Teen & Adolescent Treatment in Colorado

Teenagers do not open with a history. They open with one flat sentence and then wait to see what the adult does with it. Our programs are built for ages 13 to 17, around a life your teen is still living.

Get help for your teen Call (303) 219-0973
A father and his teenage son standing and talking in their driveway, a basketball under the son's arm.

Outpatient care for teens

Treatment that fits around a life your teen is still living.

Most teenagers cannot step out of their lives for treatment, and most families would not want them to. School is in session, there are siblings and shifts and a season that ends in April. Our teen programs are built around that. Your teen sleeps at home, keeps the routine and the people they already have, and treatment fits into the week rather than replacing it.

We run two levels of outpatient care for ages 13 to 17. Both draw on the same clinical team and the same methods, and what separates them is how much of the week treatment takes. Teen PHP is a full clinical day. Teen IOP runs three afternoons a week, after the school day ends. Which one fits is a clinical question, and it is what the assessment is for.

Family therapy is scheduled work here rather than an optional evening, and that is a clinical decision rather than a courtesy. One of our primary aims is to bring a teen and the people around them back into the same room, working from one set of expectations rather than four. Your teen is the client, and you are not a bystander to the plan.

If you are weighing whether to call now or wait for something more definite, the guidance points one way. NIMH puts it plainly: for a young person with symptoms of a mental disorder, the earlier treatment is started, the more effective it can be, and starting early can help prevent more severe and lasting problems later.

  • Ages 13 to 17
  • Group, individual, and family therapy
  • Teen programs in Boulder and Thornton
The two programs

Two levels of care

Both outpatient. The difference is how much of the week.

A teenager sitting on the front steps of a house with a skateboard beside her.
Full day

Teen PHP

A full clinical day, for when a few afternoons a week are not enough. A bigger commitment for the family calendar, and sometimes the right one.

See the program
Two teenagers walking home along a tree-lined sidewalk with backpacks, foothills in the distance.
Three afternoons

Teen IOP

Three afternoons a week, 4 to 7pm, after the school day. Group and individual work while classes, practice, and shifts stay where they are. Most families start here.

See the program

What we treat

The reasons families call.

Teen Mental Health

The broad picture: what adolescent mental health treatment involves here, and how a plan gets built.

Learn more

Teen Substance Use

Alcohol, cannabis, and other substances, treated as an adolescent problem rather than a smaller adult one.

Learn more

Teen Anxiety

When worry stops being about anything in particular and starts shrinking the week.

Learn more

Teen Depression

More than moodiness, and more treatable than most families have been led to believe.

Learn more

Teen Dual Diagnosis

Mental health and substance use arriving together, which is common enough to be the norm rather than the complication.

Learn more

How the programs are built

What we actually do with the hours.

A schedule built per family

Full day and afternoon groups, with availability varying by location. Each teen gets a plan that uses their own strengths to shape the individual, group, and family work rather than a fixed template.

Family, as scheduled work

Mental health and substance use affect everyone in the house. One of our primary aims is to bring a teen and their support system back into the same room, working from one set of expectations rather than four.

Skills, taught explicitly

We teach dialectical behavior therapy skills directly: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. Named, practiced, and taken home.

Room to grow up

Alongside traditional therapy, coaching and mentorship aimed at the things adolescence is actually for: responsibility, balance, time management, and some sense of what comes next.

A group of people the same age

Teens meet peers working through versions of the same thing. At an age built for comparison, that is often what makes a teen stop feeling like the only one.

Recovery is not the end of a social life

It is the fear most teens arrive with and rarely say out loud. Much of the work is showing that the opposite is true.

For parents

Is this just a stage?

It is the question every family asks first, and it has a real answer. The National Institute of Mental Health names the changes worth an evaluation in an older child or teenager, and gives the threshold plainly: behavior or emotions that last weeks or longer, cause distress, or interfere with school, home, or friendships. Any one of these can be nothing. Several of them, holding for weeks, is worth a phone call.

Losing interest in things they used to enjoy

Having low energy

Sleeping too much or too little, or seeming sleepy through the day

Spending more and more time alone, avoiding friends and family

Dieting or exercising excessively, or a fear of gaining weight

Self-harming behaviors such as cutting or burning the skin, or smoking, drinking, or using drugs

Risky or destructive behavior, alone or with friends

Having thoughts of suicide

Periods of highly elevated energy and activity, needing much less sleep than usual

Saying they think someone is controlling their mind, or that they hear things other people cannot hear

Starting

How a family actually begins.

  1. 1

    You call, or send the form.

    No diagnosis needed, and no right words. Describe the last few weeks: what you have noticed, not what you think it is called.

  2. 2

    A clinical assessment.

    We meet your teen and we meet you, and work out whether this is the right level of care. Sometimes the honest answer is that a program is not what your teen needs, and we would rather say so at this stage than after enrollment.

  3. 3

    The plan gets built with you in the room.

    Which program, which days, what family sessions look like, and how the whole thing sits against school and everything else already in the week.

  4. 4

    Your teen starts, and you stay in it.

    Group and individual work begins, family sessions are on the calendar from the start, and the plan changes as your teen does.

Parent questions

What families ask before they call.

Is my teen struggling, or is this normal adolescence?
The clinical test is function, not intensity. NIMH puts the threshold at behavior or emotions that last weeks or longer, cause distress, or interfere with school, home, or friendships, and says to seek help immediately if a teen is unsafe or talks about hurting themselves or someone else. Every parent who calls us is worried they are overreacting. Almost none of them are, and an assessment is how you find out either way.

What is the difference between Teen IOP and Teen PHP?
How much of the week treatment takes. Teen IOP runs three afternoons a week, 4 to 7pm, after the school day. Teen PHP is a full clinical day and is our most structured teen program. Same clinical team, same methods, different intensity. You do not have to choose before you call, because the assessment is what decides it.

Will my teen have to stop going to school?
No, and that is the main reason these programs are outpatient. Teen IOP runs 4 to 7pm specifically so the school day is untouched. Teen PHP takes a full day, which is a bigger conversation with your school, and it is one worth having during the assessment rather than after.

How old does my teen have to be?
Our teen programs serve ages 13 to 17. For 18 and over, our adult programs are available across the same offices.

Do we have to be involved as parents?
Yes, and it is deliberate rather than administrative. Family sessions are scheduled work in both programs, not an optional evening bolted on at the end. A teen goes home to the same house every night of treatment, so the house is part of the plan. Practically, expect to be asked to change some things about how it runs.

My teen says everyone does it. Is teen substance use really that serious?
Serious enough that the timing matters more than the amount. NIDA is direct that early use of alcohol and other substances can increase the likelihood of going on to use other drugs and of developing a substance use disorder, because the exposure lands while the brain is still developing. That is not a reason to panic about a single incident. It is a reason to take a pattern seriously rather than wait it out. Cannabis is the one families most often wave off, and the belief that it cannot become a dependence is the misconception we correct most; if that is what you are seeing, our marijuana addiction page goes further into it.

Where are the teen programs offered?
Teen programming runs out of our Boulder and Thornton offices, and availability varies by location. Call and we will tell you what is actually running near you rather than what is theoretically offered. You can also read more about our teen mental health and teen substance use treatment, or the teen IOP program specifically.

Does insurance cover teen treatment?
In most cases, yes. We accept Aetna, Anthem, Carelon Behavioral Health, Cigna, First Health Network, Kaiser Permanente, Rocky Mountain Health Plans, Select Health, TRICARE, and United Healthcare, and we will still check a plan that is not on that list. We can also accept some Colorado Medicaid policies; call us or submit an insurance verification form to find out about your specific coverage.

What if this is an emergency right now?
Call or text 988 before anything else on this page. It reaches 988 Colorado, the state mental health line, free and confidential, 24 hours a day. If your teen is in immediate physical danger, call 911. The Redpoint Center is an outpatient center rather than a crisis line, and once the immediate danger has passed we can take care from there.
Still deciding whether to call? Call (303) 219-0973

Start by describing the last two weeks.

No diagnosis needed, and no right words. Tell us what has been happening and we will tell you whether this is the right place, including when it is not.

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