Treatment Programs
A full continuum of evidence-based care, built around whole-person treatment planning.
Medical Detox
Medical detox at LFSP is a 3 to 7 day medically supervised withdrawal period in a dedicated detox suite separate from the residential floor. Physician oversight is continuous, registered nurses staff the suite around the clock, and comfort-medication protocols are titrated to the specific substance and the patient's medical history, not applied as a one-size template.
The most common substances we detox in the South Bay are alcohol, opioids (with a substantial fentanyl component), benzodiazepines, and barbiturates. Each carries a distinct medical risk profile during withdrawal — alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal can be life-threatening without supervision, opioid withdrawal is rarely medically dangerous but is severe enough that under-treated patients leave before completing the work. Our protocols are built around those realities.
Patients are evaluated by a physician on admission, every morning of detox, and on transition to residential. Vitals are checked every two hours during the acute window. The goal is a complete and comfortable withdrawal that delivers the patient into residential ready to do clinical work — not exhausted, not still in active symptoms, not undermedicated.
Residential Treatment
Residential treatment at LFSP runs 30 to 90 days in our 47-bed San Jose facility. The standard arc is 30 days for patients in early recovery with strong external supports, 60 to 90 days for patients with longer substance-use histories, dual diagnoses, or unstable post-discharge environments. Length of stay is reviewed weekly and adjusted in conversation with the patient and clinical team.
The therapeutic backbone of residential is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy delivered through a motivational enhancement frame, integrated with the mind-body modalities that distinguish LFSP's clinical approach: neurofeedback for self-regulation training, equine-assisted therapy for relational and emotional work that talk therapy alone reaches slowly, and adventure therapy that uses structured outdoor challenges to build the executive-function capacities recovery requires. Each patient meets individually with a primary therapist twice weekly, attends three group sessions daily, and engages in family-systems work that runs in parallel from week two onward.
The Creative Arts Studio, Aquatic Center, Outdoor Yoga Deck, and Art Therapy Room are integrated into the schedule, not treated as recreational time. The clinical purpose of each is specified in the treatment plan and the participation is tracked alongside the verbal-therapy metrics.
Outpatient Program
LFSP's outpatient continuum has three tiers: Partial Hospitalization (PHP), Intensive Outpatient (IOP), and standard outpatient. Each is structured for a specific point in the recovery arc, and most patients move through more than one tier on their way to long-term aftercare.
PHP runs five days a week, six hours a day, for two to four weeks. It is the appropriate level for patients stepping down from residential who still need clinically intensive structure, and for patients entering treatment whose substance-use severity does not warrant residential but whose dual-diagnosis picture or home environment requires more than IOP can provide.
IOP runs three days a week, three hours a day, for eight to twelve weeks. Morning and evening tracks accommodate working professionals across Silicon Valley — engineers at the major tech employers, healthcare workers at Stanford and Kaiser, teachers in the Santa Clara County school systems, and parents who need treatment that fits around school pickup. The evening IOP is intentionally scheduled to allow continued full-time employment without required employer disclosure.
Standard outpatient is weekly to bi-weekly individual therapy and case management, available as long as the patient and clinical team agree the contact is supporting recovery. Our longest-standing outpatient relationships are now in their seventh year, dating to the original 2017 admissions cohort.
Dual Diagnosis
The majority of patients we admit carry a co-occurring psychiatric diagnosis alongside their substance use disorder. Most often it is depression, generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, or bipolar disorder; less commonly we treat complex trauma, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or attention-deficit disorder co-occurring with substance use. The treatment plan must address both, in integrated rather than parallel fashion, or it does not produce durable recovery.
Every dual-diagnosis admission is reviewed by our Director of Psychiatry, Dr. Heinrich Voltaire, within 48 hours. The psychiatric plan — medication initiation, adjustment, or tapering — is developed in conversation with the addiction-medicine plan, not in a separate clinical channel. Patients meet with a staff psychiatrist weekly during residential and biweekly during PHP and IOP, with more frequent contact during medication transitions.
The integrated approach matters most for the patients whose substance use was, in some real sense, a self-medication strategy for an underlying psychiatric condition that had never been adequately treated. When the psychiatric piece gets care that actually works, the substance-use piece often becomes substantially easier to hold over the long term.
Substances We Treat
- Alcohol
- Opioids
- Fentanyl
- Benzodiazepines
- Barbiturates
- MDMA / Ecstasy
- GHB
- Inhalants
- Marijuana
- Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2/Spice)
Treatment Modalities
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Motivational Enhancement Therapy
- Individual Counseling
- Group Therapy
- Neurofeedback
- Equine-Assisted Therapy
- Adventure Therapy
A Day in Treatment
LFSP runs a structured-academic residential schedule built around psychoeducation lectures, addiction science workshops, and workbook-driven group work. The day begins at 7:00 AM and is organized like a clinical curriculum: each block has a learning objective, each session connects to the broader treatment plan, and each week builds on the prior week's material.
- 7:00 AM — Wake, morning check-in, hydration
- 7:30 AM — Breakfast and reading time
- 8:30 AM — Psychoeducation lecture: the neuroscience of addiction, the stages of change, or relapse-prevention theory (rotating curriculum)
- 10:00 AM — Process group (CBT-focused, workbook-based)
- 11:30 AM — Individual therapy, psychiatric appointment, or neurofeedback session
- 12:30 PM — Lunch and reflection time
- 2:00 PM — Addiction science workshop: case-study analysis, treatment-plan review, or applied skills practice
- 3:30 PM — Specialty modality block: equine-assisted therapy, adventure therapy, art therapy, or aquatic center (rotating)
- 5:00 PM — Outdoor yoga or unstructured movement on the deck
- 6:00 PM — Dinner
- 7:00 PM — Evening recovery meeting (alumni-led, alternating 12-step and SMART formats)
- 8:30 PM — Workbook study time or community lounge
- 10:00 PM — Lights out
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Find the Right Program
Our clinical team will help determine which program fits your needs.