Outpatient addiction treatment, 65 minutes from Miami.

Most clients from Brickell, Coral Gables, and Coconut Grove don't commute to RECO daily — they step out of Miami's social scene entirely and live in our Delray Beach sober-living network while attending PHP or IOP. That hour up I-95 is part of the clinical plan, not a logistical inconvenience. You keep the same primary therapist across PHP and IOP, and the family work happens with the same team from intake through aftercare.

For someone living in Brickell, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, Aventura, or Pinecrest, RECO Intensive sits roughly 50 miles up I-95 — about 65 minutes outside of rush hour, longer if you’re leaving downtown Miami at 5 p.m. That distance matters clinically. Most of our Miami clients don’t commute back and forth each day; they move into one of our Delray Beach sober-living residences for the duration of the higher-intensity phases of care, then transition home as their treatment density steps down. Putting an hour of geography between someone and the bars on Lincoln Road, the after-hours scene in Wynwood, or a familiar dealer’s phone number is part of how outpatient treatment actually works for people coming from Miami.

This page walks through what outpatient addiction treatment looks like at the PHP and IOP levels, who it’s clinically appropriate for, what a treatment day actually contains, and how the sober-living component fits in. If you’d rather speak with someone now, the admissions line is (866) 396-2008.

What outpatient addiction treatment actually means

“Outpatient” covers a wide clinical range. At one end is standard outpatient — an hour of individual therapy a week, maybe a weekly group. At the other end is partial hospitalization (PHP), which runs 30 or more clinical hours per week and is structurally similar to residential treatment minus the overnight stay. In between sits intensive outpatient (IOP) at roughly 15 hours per week, typically three to four days of programming.

For most people arriving with a moderate to severe substance use disorder, standard outpatient is not the right starting point. The clinical density isn’t sufficient to interrupt the patterns driving the use. RECO’s continuum begins with PHP for clients who need full-day structure and steps down to IOP as they stabilize. The same primary therapist follows the client across levels of care, which means the treatment relationship doesn’t reset every few weeks.

Who outpatient is the right fit for

Placement decisions follow the ASAM criteria, which assess six dimensions: acute intoxication and withdrawal potential, biomedical conditions, emotional and behavioral conditions, readiness to change, relapse potential, and recovery environment. PHP or IOP is generally appropriate when withdrawal risk can be managed medically without 24-hour monitoring, when co-occurring medical issues are stable, and when the client has a recovery environment — either their own home or a structured sober-living residence — that supports the work being done in session.

For clients coming from Miami, the recovery-environment dimension is often the deciding factor. A young professional in Brickell who lives alone in a high-rise with their dealer two blocks away has a fundamentally different home environment than the same person living in a monitored Delray Beach residence with peers in early recovery. When the home environment isn’t yet stable, residential care or PHP-with-sober-living may be the more honest clinical recommendation.

Medication-assisted treatment is integrated where indicated. For alcohol use disorder, that may mean naltrexone or acamprosate; for opioid use disorder, buprenorphine or extended-release naltrexone (Vivitrol). MAT decisions are made by our psychiatric providers in coordination with the primary therapist, not handed off to an outside prescriber.

What a PHP day looks like

PHP at RECO runs Monday through Friday, generally from mid-morning into mid-afternoon. The clinical day is structured rather than a string of unrelated appointments. A typical day includes process group, a psycho-educational group built around a specific evidence-based modality — Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills, Motivational Interviewing-informed work — and time built in for individual therapy, psychiatric review when scheduled, and case management.

Experiential modalities are part of the week, not an afterthought: art therapy, equine work, and movement-based groups. For clients with trauma histories driving the substance use, the trauma track includes EMDR and Trauma-Focused CBT with clinicians specifically trained in those modalities. Family sessions are scheduled separately and can happen by video — a practical detail for Miami families who don’t want to drive to Delray every week.

Sober living as part of the treatment plan

RECO operates its own network of sober-living residences in Delray Beach, walking or short-driving distance from the clinical campus. The houses are gender-specific, drug-tested, and staffed. For Miami clients, this is usually the default arrangement during PHP. Trying to do PHP-level treatment while commuting daily from Coconut Grove to Delray is not realistic — the drive alone consumes two and a half hours of the day, and the home environment hasn’t changed.

Coordination between the clinical team and the sober-living staff is direct. If a resident is struggling outside of programming hours, the primary therapist hears about it. If clinical recommends a step up or step down in housing structure, that conversation happens internally rather than through a referral chain. As clients move from PHP into IOP, many remain in sober living for an additional period — IOP’s lighter clinical schedule pairs naturally with the continued structure of a recovery residence.

Length of stay, step-down, and aftercare

There’s no fixed program length. A typical trajectory might be four to six weeks at PHP, six to eight weeks at IOP, then a step into outpatient and aftercare. Some clients need longer at PHP; others step down faster. The decision points are tied to clinical progress measured against the treatment plan, not to a calendar.

For specific substances, the deep dives on alcohol and opioid treatment cover what the first few weeks tend to look like for each, including withdrawal management and the MAT decision tree.

Insurance, admissions, and how to start

RECO is in-network with most major commercial carriers including Aetna, Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield (including Florida Blue), and several behavioral-health subcontractors. We do not accept Medicaid or Medicare. The fastest way to know what your specific plan will cover is to call admissions or submit the form on our insurance verification page — verification typically comes back the same business day. Admissions handles transportation logistics from Miami, including pickup from Miami International or Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood if a family member is putting the client on a flight or driving them up.

The first call is a clinical screening, not a sales pitch. If outpatient at RECO isn’t the right level of care — if detox is needed first, or if a higher level of care closer to home makes more sense — we’ll say so.

Serving residents of: Brickell, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, Aventura, Pinecrest.