Welcome
Licensed, Structured Intensive Outpatient and partial Hospitalization Programs for youths and adults.
A Higher Level of Care. Intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programming provide multiple hours of clinical services, including individual, group, and family therapy, medical and psychiatric assessment, stabilization and care, medication management, and nutrition and dietary support services, to establish a solid foundation of good habits, behavior modification, self-regulation, self-management, and coping skills.
Recovery in Real Life. Teen and Parent Wellness Centers is dedicated to providing residential-treatment caliber services in a family-focused outpatient environment. Our best-in-class day treatment programming was specifically designed to provide a needed vehicle for patients to recover while residing at home with their families, and taking part in the activities and routines that bring joy.
Expert-Run Treatment. Teen and Parent Wellness Centers was crafted through two decades of research and practice by a nationally-recognized certified eating disorder specialist, seasoned family therapist, adolescent specialist and credentialed school-based mental health expert, Mary Dobson, LMFT, CEDS, in partnership with medical director Dr. Alyssa Bennett and her Adolescent Division at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. We are differentiated by providing expert-level services, delivered by a curated clinical team of seasoned, licensed adolescent specialists.
The Lift Difference. Our mission at Teen and Parent Wellness Centers is to provide concentrated and comprehensive treatment for mental health diagnoses and eating disorders for patients and their families. Our small-milieu settings allow for customization of care from admission through discharge/after-care. LIFT is the only Southwestern Connecticut program with PHP and IOP services offerings exclusively created and run by specialists and licensed providers. Unlike any other regional program, our direct service providers consist of a multidisciplinary clinical team of experts with 100 years of combined experience on the front lines of adolescent mental health.
Evidence-Based Clinical Modalities. LIFT provides level of care assessments, individual therapy, family therapy, group therapies, dietary evaluations and sessions and psychiatric evaluation and medication management/monitoring as needed. LIFT is a Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) informed program which also uses Exposure Response Prevention (ERP), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) modalities.
Hours and Specifications. Partial Hospitalization Programming (6 hours of services per day,) and Intensive Outpatient (3 hours of services per day) are both now available in-person at our downtown Westport, CT campus. Tailored to meet the needs of adolescents, these offerings provide concentrated clinical services through group, individual and family therapies.Partial hospitalization program (PHP) runs for 6 hours each day, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 12pm-6pm, and Wednesday and Friday from 9am-3pm. Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) runs for 3 hours, each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, from 3pm-6pm. Outpatient services are scheduled directly by the providers within these time parameters. Each PHP patient receives two individual sessions per week and one family/support system session, which can be a combination of sessions with dietitian, therapist or both. All IOP patients have individual therapy and the option of a family/support system session. Patients in PHP receive AM snack, lunch and PM snack in program on M, T, Th, and lunch and PM snack in program on W, F. IOP patients receive daily PM snack in program.
Academics. Academics are a priority at LIFT. Our clients are passionate and dedicated learners, and we do not wish them to fall behind or compromise their academic lives in focusing on their mental health. For the majority of our clients, academic life is an important part of mental health, and so we have worked to ensure that intensive treatment participants may remain enrolled in school, and are provided with designated educational blocks throughout the week.
Insurance and Accessibility. Teen and Parent Wellness Centers will provide the same level of distinctive clinical excellence and customized care that Lift Wellness Group is known for, with the proud addition of insurance-based tracks, in order to widen community accessibility to the highest quality of evidence-based care, and improve treatment outcomes for all Connecticut youth.
Recovery is not a punishment, but a reward. LIFT wishes to ensure that our clients can develop access to MORE joy, and constantly identify new REASONS to recover. As such, the LIFT clinical team facilitates on and off-campus enrichment, including time to learn life skills, experience outings to participate in creative activities and the arts, enjoy the beach and natural environment, visit local libraries, museums, and civic events, volunteer, attend their spiritual or religious services, go on shopping excursions, practice intuitive and restorative body movement, creative expression, meal preparation, nutrition groups, and a diverse array of dining exposures. Our proximity to downtown Westport, with its myriad of cultural offerings and opportunities, provides rich opportunities for clients to explore, discover, and create.
Kosher Programming, Vegetarian and Vegan Dietary Modifications. The cumulative expertise at Lift’s specialty group informs our belief in removing barriers and obstacles to recovery, and supporting clients’ individual requirements. We understand that often, individuals require modifications in treatment, and this should not be preventive in their reaching out for help and seeking care. We have designed a facility capable of supporting dietary modifications and exemptions. Our small-milieu size facilitates customization in meal planning and support services, ensuring that we can meet clients where they are at, building on dietary restrictions when appropriate or aligned with treatment goals.
Food As Medicine. Our state-of-the-art kitchen allows for clients to work hand-in-hand with our registered dietitian, from menu planning, to food prep, food challenges, and therapeutic meals. A primary goal at Lift is to ensure that all clients develop a positive relationship with food, and embrace the tenants of ‘all foods fit,’ ‘variety,’ and ‘moderation.’
Groupwork. Daily group therapy, life skills, kitchen exposure for meal preparation and education time is provided within programming schedule, to prepare clients ‘in vivo' for the transition back into the world post-treatment.
Family Focus. As a program developed by family therapists, loved ones are a fundamental component of our clients’ recovery process. We rehabilitate weary families through support, psychoeducation, skills development, family therapy, and coaching. By empowering parents to become optimally effective with their teen, we set the stage for a communicative, emotionally attuned and harmonious parent/child relationship following treatment. This work is paramount towards a minor maintaining therapeutic gains. We are wholly committed to providing parents with all of the needed tools to help their child through their mental health condition, so that your family can emerge stronger than ever, together.
Inclusivity. Lift is an inclusive program, serving all genders, ethnicities, diagnoses, cultures, and religions. We are firmly Health At Every Size (HAES) informed and take a firm non-diet approach to treatment. Our facility has been designed with size-inclusive seating, and recognizes that eating disorders occur with equal frequency to individuals in larger bodies. We are an LGBTQ+ and allies recognized safe space. At Lift, we identify, rather than compare. Our humanity is the commonality that bings us together, and we learn from one another how similar we are on the insides. Interpersonal relating, shared support, mutual empathy and bearing witness to one another is a healing and transformationally therapeutic act.
