At CMC, we know that one size does not fit all!
We will work with you to design outpatient treatment options that best
suit your needs.
The dedicated clinicians in our outpatient program take a holistic approach, helping you reflect on all areas of your life - relationships, work, and mental and physical health. Using evidence-based techniques, we collaborate with you to identify and clarify your core values, accept difficult thoughts and emotions, and take committed action toward a meaningful life. We guide you in staying on course with your goals, even in the face of challenges, by fostering psychological flexibility and mindfulness. Our experienced clinicians will help you reduce reliance on behaviors like substance use, gambling, shopping, or eating while also tending to other interconnected issues, including trauma, anxiety, mood disorders, attention issues, and relationship problems.
We offer in-person and telehealth/teletherapy outpatient therapy for individuals, couples, families, and groups.
If you decide outpatient therapy at CMC would be helpful to you but have a therapist outside of CMC, we encourage you to continue working with them.
We collaborate closely with outside therapists and tailor our work to complement your work with them. If you don’t have a therapist, you’ll be paired with a clinician at CMC who specializes in the approaches most effective in helping you reach your goals.
If together we decide there is a need for psychiatric consultation/medication, nutritional consultation, or other types of wellness support, we will refer you to trusted colleagues who are experts in these areas.
WHAT IS OUTPATIENT CARE?
Outpatient treatment allows a person to receive treatment while living at home and maintaining their daily routines.
Outpatient therapy options include:
Individual Therapy: One-on-one sessions with an outpatient therapist allows for focused, personalized attention to better understand your feelings, behaviors, and thoughts to improve your mental health and overall well-being.
Couples Therapy: Joint sessions with a partner or spouse to resolve conflict, better understand each other, and strengthen your relationship.
Group Therapy: Therapist-led sessions with others who have similar goals allows for shared experience and learning.
Family Therapy: Sessions with multiple family members to resolve conflict, strengthen family bonds, and improve communication.
THERAPY SERVICES
THE COMPREHENSIVE BENEFITS OF CMC'S
OUTPATIENT TREATMENT
Convenience for Your Daily Life
Our outpatient treatment is convenient because therapy appointments can be scheduled without disrupting other responsibilities like school/work and family commitments. With fewer disruptions to other commitments, staying committed to ongoing therapy and support can be easier.
Enabling Stronger Relationships
CMC outpatient treatment allows you to stay in close contact with supportive family, friends, and peers while engaging in therapy. We know that family and friends can play a powerful role in providing essential support to a loved one struggling with substance use issues or other compulsive behaviors.
Throughout your outpatient therapy, we will work with you to identify supportive family and peer relationships (and help you strengthen ones that need attention) to maintain the changes you hope to make.
Family members mostly do their best to support their loved ones but often need more skills and strategies to better understand behaviors and offer support more effectively. We'll help you cultivate more positive interactions with your loved ones, helping them understand how to be a source of motivation and support in your life moving forward. We use our Invitation to Change (ITC) approach to achieve that.
Our outpatient therapy options offer family members various ways to learn these important skills, including individual therapy, couples therapy, family therapy, or a combination thereof.
Flexible
The frequency and intensity of outpatient therapy can be adjusted depending on your unique needs and goals. Many people start with a higher level of support, such as weekly group and individual outpatient therapy, and transition to less frequent therapy as they achieve their goals.
Opportunity to Practice New Skills
Since you are in your day-to-day life while in outpatient therapy, you can apply the skills learned in therapy to real-life situations between sessions. Therapy at CMC includes learning practical coping strategies and applying them to your life while problem-solving with your therapist. This practice allows for important new learning to take place.
Speak with a member of our Intake Team to learn more about treatment options at CMC
CMC OUTPATIENT TREATMENT PROGRAM
Our outpatient treatment is practical, active, results-oriented, and very supportive. Our clinicians work hard to address each client’s circumstances, preferences, and needs. We will help you monitor your progress by tracking your goals and readjusting your strategies and intentions as needed.
At CMC, our treatment approaches include Motivational-Interviewing (MI), Cognitive-Behavioral (CBT) approaches, Dialectical-Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). We also use a variety of evidence-based treatments for trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Prolonged Exposure (PE), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR), and Written Exposure Therapy (WET) . All of our clinicians take a harm-reduction approach to working with substance use and other compulsive behaviors. They are dedicated to helping you identify your personal values and goals that support change.
Family members are also engaged with evidence-based treatment including Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) and our Invitation to Change Approach (ITC). See our approach to outpatient family therapy here.
Individual Outpatient Therapy
Our CMC outpatient clinicians are trained in various therapy approaches, and we will match you with the person on our team who is trained in the clinical methods best suited to your needs. We will help you clarify the patterns in your life you wish to change and expose you to strategies that can help you implement those changes.
Therapy at CMC is not a passive process; it is active, engaging, and collaborative. We will help you connect with your values while understanding the emotional, physical, and social factors that influence your behavioral choices to help you find a path toward change that works for you.
Treatment at CMC is individualized to meet your needs, no matter your motivation level. Whether you are still deciding the changes you want to make or are eager for the tools to reach your goals, we will work with you to design an outpatient program that meets you where you are.
Group Therapy
CMC offers a wide range of groups, and we do our best to help you find one that best fits your needs. Aside from some specialty groups, our psychotherapy groups are no larger than eight people and run by at least one (usually two) master's or doctoral-level clinicians.
Our structured skills groups can be especially useful when you’re trying to learn strategies for coping with cravings, regulating emotions, or making new life choices. Our process groups are more open-ended in content and focus on maintaining behavioral changes and improving relationships, professional life, and other physical and mental health goals.
Our groups also incorporate exposure to mindfulness and self-compassion practices to increase mind-body awareness and kindness toward yourself as you make life changes.
OUTPATIENT THERAPY STARTS WITH AN INITIAL EVALUATION
As one begins outpatient therapy, questions, concerns, and uncertainties are common. The initial evaluation process at CMC is designed to be collaborative, encouraging, informative, and meaningful. An effective change plan starts with a clear and in-depth understanding of you and the circumstances that have brought you to the point of considering outpatient therapy.
As clinicians devoted to providing the highest-quality science-based care, we understand the importance of accurate evaluation in developing a successful tailored therapy plan for you.
Your initial evaluation will include:
A variety of standardized questionnaires and a comprehensive interview with a clinician. This allows us to understand you fully, including your strengths, vulnerabilities, goals, relationships, and life experiences.
A collaborative discussion, where we will make recommendations to help you understand your outpatient therapy options, including individual therapy, group therapy, couples or family therapy, or a combination thereof. We collaborate with treatment providers already working with you and help you identify and connect with any additional supports that may be helpful to you in reaching your goals, such as medication consultation and management.
We understand the importance of effective, collaborative therapy when making significant life changes. We welcome the chance to work with you to provide our best insights and expertise in developing a successful plan for moving forward.
Speak with a member of our Intake Team
Co-founders Dr. Jeffrey Foote and Dr. Carrie Wilkens opened CMC in 2003 to address the profound lack of evidence-based treatment options for substance issues. Their program was the first in NYC that was non-12-step/abstinence-only and the first to use only highly trained clinicians to provide evidence-based outpatient treatment. Thankfully, the field has started to shift, and there are more options like our outpatient program available. The difference is that we have been leaders in the field since our inception, and most of our clinicians are senior-level with decades or more of experience.