Teen Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) in Westlake Village, CA

Isolation. Frustration. Fear. These are just a few of the words that we know can describe a teenager’s experience with depression and anxiety.

At Engage Treatment, our Teen IOP is built to foster conversations, develop meaningful relationships, and validate the struggles and experiences of teenagers. Our job is to facilitate those difficult conversations, teach clients how they can use the tools around them to pull themselves out of isolation and foster a sense of belonging through everything we do.

For teens ages 13–17, our Teen IOP centers on 9 to 12 hours of weekly group therapy in co-facilitated groups of no more than 10 participants. Teens start at 12 hours across four afternoons a week, then step down to 9 as treatment goals begin to be met. Weekly DBT skills groups teach practical tools in four core areas: distress tolerance, emotion regulation, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness. DBT has been adapted specifically for adolescents who feel emotions intensely and struggle to regulate them. Around those skills groups, teens work through a full clinical curriculum that includes Gestalt-based experiential work (Oaklander Model), CBT, mindfulness practice, experiential and process groups, and Family Systems work. In group, teens have a space to be authentic, vulnerable, and honest.

Engage’s teen program depends on weekly family therapy and active participation in our parent support services. We believe that parents growing and developing new skills alongside their teenagers allows for the most meaningful and lasting outcomes.

 Learn more about our Parent Support group

Our Teen IOP runs four days a week, typically for 30 treatment days, though the length of treatment varies based on each individual’s treatment plan. As treatment progresses, the schedule moves to three days a week. For more information or to start the admissions process, contact our intake coordinator at 805-497-0605.

Important Program Details:

• Groups meet Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays from 4 pm – 7 pm
• This schedule moves down to three days a week as treatment progresses
• Family therapy is scheduled weekly with therapists
• Virtual Parent Group meets on Tuesdays from 5-6 pm

Weekly DBT skills groups anchor the clinical week in our Teen IOP. Teens learn and practice the four DBT skill areas: distress tolerance (managing a crisis without making it worse), emotion regulation (understanding and changing intense emotional responses), mindfulness (staying present and aware), and interpersonal effectiveness (building and maintaining healthy relationships).

DBT skills are one part of a larger curriculum. Across 9 to 12 hours of weekly group therapy, teens also take part in Gestalt-based experiential work (Oaklander Model), CBT, mindfulness practice, experiential groups, process groups, and Family Systems work. Exposure to multiple forms of treatment matters because teenagers don’t all heal the same way. A teen who shuts down in talk-heavy groups may open up in experiential work, and the reverse is just as common.

Our Curriculum Coordinator builds and maintains that curriculum, and sits in our weekly treatment meetings where the clinical team reviews every case in the Teen track. When the needs of the current group shift, the curriculum shifts with them. What your teenager experiences in group each week was designed for the teens actually in the room.

Skills carry across the entire program. Teens practice them in group, families work with the same language in weekly family therapy, and parents build parallel skills in our Parent Support Group, so what’s learned in the program transfers to life at home.

Groups are facilitated by master's- and doctoral-level clinicians under the supervision of our licensed clinical team —
Clinically reviewed by Adelina Brisbois, LMFT, Chief Clinical Officer