01
In sessions
Mental health therapy and recovery skills in the same week. CBT and DBT for the feeling the substance was treating. Refusal and trigger work that is adolescent — not an adult 12-step photocopy.
Teen co-occurring treatment in California
When several names arrive together, one plan. We treat the root, not eight competing problems.
- 30–90 days
- Ages 12–17
- 24/7
What this is
When the use and the pain are the same week
Cannabis, alcohol, pills — often a teen’s attempt to treat a mood, a trauma, or a night that will not start. Two programs that do not talk to each other fail. One team treats both. We are not a detox hospital. If they need medical withdrawal, we say so and help you find it.
What families usually notice
- 01
Use as the off-switch
Mood, panic, or a memory that only drops after they use. The substance is doing a job. Taking it away without treating the job does not hold.
- 02
Secrecy and a new peer group
Lying, missing money, friends you do not know. Trust leaves the house before the diagnosis does.
- 03
A scare
An overdose worry, a night they did not come home, a school that called. The scare is why you are reading this.
- 04
The mood was first
Depression, trauma, ADHD — then the use. Or the use first, then a mood that will not lift. We map the order. We treat both.
- 05
School and sleep collapse together
Grades, attendance, a clock that only works after midnight. The week is one problem with two names.
- 06
You cannot tell which is driving
Is it the depression or the cannabis? The answer is usually yes. That is the point of one plan.
What treatment looks like
Three rooms. One day.
Hover a room. Sessions, the family table, and the house itself — the same skills, practiced in three places.
02
With family
Parents learn boundaries that are not a war, and how to stop enabling without exile. Coaching, family sessions, and a plan for the first weekend home — when the old friend texts.
03
In the house
A house without the substance and without a lecture. Structure, peers, a staffed night. Craving is expected. Isolation is the thing we do not feed.
The work
How we treat it here
Chosen for this teen — not a stack of every method we know. Each piece is in the mix for a reason. None of them is the whole plan.
- Core of the plan
One team, both problems
Psychiatry, therapy, and recovery staff in the same plan. No silo. No “we’ll get to the other thing later.”
CBT & DBT
The feeling the use was treating — panic, shame, a spike. Skills for craving and for the mood underneath.
Recovery skills, adolescent
Triggers, refusal, a weekend plan. Not a lecture. Not an adult meeting with a teen in the chair.
Family as the aftercare
Trust, limits, what to do when they come home. Relapse planning is a family skill, not a teen promise.
- When needed
Psychiatry, when needed
The mood or ADHD underneath often needs a partner. We consult. We do not treat use with a pill alone — and we are not a medical detox.
Your part
You are not the police and you are not the supply
Use rearranges the house around catching them. Treatment here includes you — not as a visitor, as the person who has to hold a limit without becoming the enemy.
Search the room every night.
A limit that is a plan
Vigilance without a plan is just a war. We write the boundary, the consequence, and the repair — and practice it here.
Hand them over and wait.
Sit in the sessions
Family therapy is the work. You are not waiting in the parking lot. Trust is rebuilt in the room, not in a text.
Figure out Sunday later.
The first weekend home
A written plan for the friend, the night, Sunday. We practice the weekend before discharge — not after a cliff.
Academics
School stays in session
The use already took the classroom. Treatment here does not take the year.
Their curriculum
On-site accredited school. Work from the home district — not a generic packet — so the seat and the credits stay theirs.
Small by design
Tutoring sits beside the clinical day. No teen sits a semester out to get well.
Back to campus
We practice the return before the last day here — the hallway, the bell, the first class.
Send the transcript, the current schedule, and any IEP or 504.
Length of stay
30
days in residence, by progress
Most stays land between one and three months. We do not pick a discharge date before the work is ready.
90
A floor for the nervous system
Some co-occurring work belongs in outpatient. When use and mood have taken the house — or a scare has made home unsafe — a stay of one to three months gives both problems one floor. If they need medical detox, we will say so. Aftercare includes the next team, not a handshake.
- The first two weeks are for safety, a substance-free floor, and a map of both problems — not a forced confession.
- Most teens finish in one to three months. Some stay longer. We do not pick a discharge date before the work is ready.
- Aftercare is part of the stay: a written plan, a next team, and check-ins at 30, 60, and 90 days home.
When to call
Do not wait for a cliff.
If use and mood are the same week — or you cannot tell which is driving — call. If they need medical withdrawal, we will say so. We will be honest if this house is too much, or not enough.
Often arrives with