Regulating Together Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)

Regulating Together is a neurobehavioral emotion regulation intensive outpatient program (IOP), serving youth ages 5 to 18 with developmental or neurobehavioral disorders including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who are also experiencing mental health or behavioral concerns.

The program is geared toward children who are stepping down from a higher level of care or who have been unsuccessful with outpatient treatment. Families may also be seeking an intensive jump-start to therapy before beginning regular outpatient therapy.

Regulating Together is staffed by a multidisciplinary team of experts in developmental disabilities including a clinical psychologist, clinical social worker, and a mental health specialist. Components of treatment include an initial intake determining appropriateness for the program, psycho-education, psychosocial skills training, parent training, role playing, and follow up in general outpatient therapy following discharge from the program as needed.

Our treatment strategies are based on the philosophy that helping a child or teen requires a family-based approach. The program is oriented toward empowering and intervening with whole families and is committed to a family focus. Additionally, this program uniquely offers intervention that is delivered in a well-integrated, collaborative, multidisciplinary fashion, where families benefit from the expertise and unique services rendered by a clinical psychologist and a clinical social worker.

Skills training for children and adolescents includes relaxation, anger management, emotion identification, program solving, social skills and cognitive restructuring techniques. Skills training for parents include crisis management and safety planning techniques, behavior management, and coaching skills to implement the material taught to the children. Coaching will assist in generalizing the skills taught in the program to settings outside of the program and continued use of the material once the program ends.

We hold sessions for parents and youth two times weekly for one hour and a half. The course of treatment is five weeks. Homework will be provided with each session to help reinforce the materials covered in the groups. This program is led by Rebecca Shaffer, PsyD.

Reasons for Services

• Serves children and adolescents, ages 5-18 years old
• Serves youth presenting with mixtures of developmental disabilities and mood, family conflict, mild aggression, anxiety, emotional outbursts, social skill deficits and disruptive disorders
• Serves youth who have failed to respond to routine, outpatient psychiatry services
• Serves youth who have recently been discharged from higher levels of care, but are not yet stable enough to be treated at the routine outpatient level treatments
• Serves youth who are just beginning therapy and would like an intensive jump-start to treatment
• Children must be able to participate in a group setting