Two teenagers laughing together on the wooden front steps of a house, school backpacks on the step beside them, a tree-lined street behind.

Teen programs ยท Ages 13 to 17

Teen IOP in Colorado

Intensive outpatient therapy three afternoons a week, built so your teen keeps the school day, the team, the job and the people they already have.

Get help for your teen Call (303) 219-0973
A teenage boy in the passenger seat of a parked car, a backpack in his lap, talking with the woman in the driver's seat.

Intensive outpatient

The school day ends, and program starts at four.

A teen intensive outpatient program is structured therapy for adolescents who need more support than a weekly appointment, delivered without taking them out of their own life. Your teen sleeps at home, goes to school in the morning, and comes to program in the afternoon. There is no residential stay and no 24-hour care.

The Redpoint Center runs teen IOP three afternoons a week, 4 to 7pm, for ages 13 to 17. It is the lighter of our two teen programs. Three hours, after the last bell. Practice, shifts, siblings and the rest of the week stay where they are, and that is the design rather than a concession made to it.

The schedule is deliberate. Teenagers do most of the real work between sessions, in the house and the hallway where the problem actually happens, and a program built around the school day gives them somewhere to bring it back to. A skill gets named on Monday and tested by Wednesday, which is the part a weekly appointment cannot reach.

Teen IOP runs out of our Boulder and Thornton offices. Availability varies by location, so call and we will tell you what is actually running near you rather than what is theoretically offered.

  • Ages 13 to 17
  • Three afternoons a week, 4 to 7pm
  • Group, individual, and family therapy
Teen IOP compared with teen PHP

In session

What the three hours are made of.

Individual Therapy

One-on-one sessions with a dedicated therapist, for personal goals and the things a teen will not say in front of a group.

Group Therapy

Peer sessions where teens work through versions of the same problem, and practice social skills somewhere it is safe to get them wrong.

Family Therapy

Scheduled sessions to improve communication, address the patterns in the house, and teach parents to support the work rather than police it.

Skills Workshops

Direct instruction in emotional regulation, distress tolerance, stress management and communication. Named, practiced, taken home.

Experiential Therapy

Art, movement and recreation, because teenagers often open up through doing something rather than sitting across a desk from an adult.

Academic Support

Coordination with your teen's school so treatment and coursework are not competing for the same afternoon.

Levels of care

Teen IOP, or teen PHP.

Both teen programs draw on the same clinical team and the same methods. What separates them is how much of the week treatment takes, and which one fits is a clinical question that the assessment answers rather than something you should have to decide before you call.

Most structured

PHP

Teen PHP

Time commitment

A full clinical day

When it runs

Daytime, on a schedule set at assessment

The school day

Takes it. A conversation with your school comes first.

Who it fits

When a few afternoons a week are not enough

What comes next

Often steps down into teen IOP

Explore teen PHP

Lighter of the two

IOP

Teen IOP

Time commitment

Three afternoons a week

When it runs

4 to 7pm, after the last bell

The school day

Untouched. That is the point.

Who it fits

When weekly therapy is not enough and home is safe

What comes next

Steps down to continuing outpatient work, same team

Start with an assessment

IOP is not only a step down. It is just as often a step up from weekly therapy once that stops being enough, and the assessment is what tells you which one you are looking at.

How we work

What we actually do with the hours.

Every teen gets a plan built around their own strengths rather than a fixed curriculum handed out at intake.

The clinical work is named rather than vague. Our teen groups draw on cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy, alongside psychodrama, Internal Family Systems, art therapy, motivational interviewing and trauma-informed practice. The group curriculum is built to be interactive, because a bored teenager is a teenager who is not telling you anything.

Family therapy is scheduled work here, not an optional evening bolted on at the end, and that is a clinical decision rather than a courtesy. SAMHSA's treatment protocol for adolescents with substance use disorders puts it plainly: data support the link between changes in central aspects of family functioning and changes in the substance-using and problem behaviors of the adolescent. Your teen goes home to the same house every night of this program, so the house is part of the plan. We also run a support group for the parents of teens in our programs, which is where the honest conversation about what this is actually like tends to happen.

Teens here work with licensed counselors and clinical social workers, and the teen program has its own clinical leadership rather than an adult team covering an afternoon. Alongside talk therapy the week makes room for mindfulness, creative expression and recreation, because teenagers tend to open up through activity and metaphor rather than a long sit-down. Where a teen has a talent or a passion, we build on it. The strengths-based approach is not a slogan on this page, it is usually the only lever that moves a fifteen-year-old.

Does it work? Outpatient care at this intensity has a real evidence base for exactly the problems families bring us. A 2024 study of an adolescent intensive outpatient program in JAACAP Open found that symptoms of depression and anxiety both fell significantly across weeks spent in the program, with the share of patients meeting the clinical cutoff for depression falling from 85.2% at intake to 55.3% by the final visit. That is one program rather than a promise about your teen, and we would rather give you the real number than a reassuring one.

Conditions

When teen IOP is usually the right call.

Teen IOP is generally the fit when your teen needs more than a weekly appointment and can stay safe at home. These are what parents are describing when they call us.

Depression or a persistent low mood

More than moodiness, and more treatable than most families have been told.

Anxiety

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

Substance use

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

Mental health and substance use together

Common enough to be the norm rather than the complication, and treated in one plan instead of two.

Trauma or PTSD

Something that happened is still setting the terms, months or years later.

Self-harm behaviors

Cutting or burning, which families usually discover rather than get told about. If your teen is in immediate danger, call or text 988 first.

School avoidance

The mornings that have become a negotiation, and the absences that are now their own problem.

Family conflict and social withdrawal

The same argument on a loop, or a teen who has quietly stopped seeing anyone.

Starting

How a teen actually starts IOP.

  1. 1

    You call, or send the form.

    Tell us what the last month has looked like. You do not need a diagnosis, a referral, or the right vocabulary. What you have noticed is the useful information.

  2. 2

    A clinical assessment.

    We meet your teen, and we meet you. The point is to work out whether IOP is the right intensity, and sometimes the honest answer is that it is not. We would rather say so now than after enrollment.

  3. 3

    We fit it to the actual week.

    Which afternoons, how the 4 to 7pm block sits against practice, work and the bus, and what we will need from your teen's school. Logistics get solved here rather than assumed.

  4. 4

    Your teen starts, and family sessions are already booked.

    Group and individual work begins that week. Family sessions are scheduled from the start rather than offered later, and the plan changes as your teen does.

Parent questions

What parents ask about teen IOP.

How long will my teen be in IOP?
Program length is individualized rather than a fixed number of weeks. It depends on what your teen came in for, how they respond, and what is waiting at home, and it is reviewed as you go rather than set once at intake. We will give you a realistic picture at the assessment and update it honestly. Anyone quoting you a week count before meeting your teen is guessing.

Is PHP or IOP better for a teen?
Neither is better. They are different intensities, and the right one is whichever matches what your teen needs right now. Teen PHP is a full clinical day and takes the school day with it. Teen IOP is three afternoons a week, 4 to 7pm, and leaves school alone. Most families start at IOP. The assessment is what decides it, and moving between the two later is normal rather than a setback.

Will my teen miss school?
No, and that is the main reason this program is built the way it is. Groups run 4 to 7pm, after the school day has already ended, so classes, practice and shifts stay where they are. Our team will coordinate with your teen's school where coursework needs it. If your teen needs more structure than that, teen PHP is the fuller-day option and the school conversation comes first.

What happens when IOP ends?
Aftercare planning starts in the first weeks, not the last. Stepping between levels of care is where treatment most often falls apart, which is worth choosing for: SAMHSA's protocol on intensive outpatient treatment notes that any change of setting, staff, or peers introduces a risk of the client dropping out, and that transfers inside one organization are less disruptive than referrals out to another. Redpoint runs several levels of care, so stepping down from IOP to lighter continuing work keeps the same team and the same treatment philosophy. Alumni stay connected to the community afterwards.

What is the parent support group?
A group for the parents of teens in our programs, separate from your family sessions. Family therapy is about your household and its specific patterns. The parent group is about you, and about being in a room with people whose last six months looked like yours. It is where most parents stop performing and start comparing notes.

What if my teen does not want to go?
That is the normal starting position, not a sign this will fail. Most teenagers arrive somewhere between reluctant and furious, and the first job of the work is meeting that honestly rather than arguing with it. Our clinicians use motivational interviewing for exactly this. Tell us at the assessment that your teen is against it, because it changes how we open, not whether we can help.

Does insurance cover teen IOP?
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.

Where is teen IOP offered?
Teen IOP 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. Teen IOP serves ages 13 to 17. For 18 and over, our adult IOP runs across more of our Colorado offices.

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. Redpoint is an outpatient center rather than a crisis line, and we can take care from there once the immediate danger has passed.
Not sure whether IOP is the right level? Call (303) 219-0973

Tell us what the afternoons have been like.

You do not need a diagnosis or the right words. Describe what you have been seeing, and we will tell you whether teen IOP is the right level of care, including when it is not.

(303) 219-0973 Text Us