Intensive Outpatient Program at OPI Living Expands Services For Local Young Adults

Young adults aged 17–28 in the Los Angeles area who need help defining goals and becoming independent can now participate in a unique Intensive Outpatient Program at the Optimum Performance Institute. This program offers everything from individual and group psychotherapy, life coaching and career development classes to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), yoga, tennis, hiking and jam sessions.

The OPI Intensive Outpatient Program works hand-in-hand with local therapists and other resources the outpatients may already have established.

“I am very pleased that we are finally able to take the services and resources we have developed over the past decade at OPI’s residential facility and offer them in a day program to struggling young adults who live locally,” said Robert F. Fischer, M.D., OPI executive director and co-founder.

The OPI Intensive Outpatient Program offers a menu of options designed to seamlessly coordinate individualized therapeutic services, living skills classes and recreational activities.

“Our unique program provides a ready-made opportunity to achieve personal empowerment through interactions of a social, therapeutic, educational and recreational nature,” said Dr. Fischer. “Although we are capable of dealing with more complex psychological conditions, we do this in the context of the whole person.”

“Part of the fundamental dilemma we see in many young adults is how limited their scope of life is, even though they come from worlds in which there are numerous opportunities,” he continued. “Unfortunately, for many, the pressures to succeed are so intense we forget that the real process of growth is best demonstrated by being able to develop an inner faith in ourselves, the kind of faith we all had as children when we learned to walk, talk and think.”

Young adults in the outpatient program may struggle with a variety of issues, including:

• Depression and Anxiety
• Failure to Launch
• Bipolar Disorder
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Asperger’s Syndrome
• Learning Disabilities
• PTSD, OCD, Social Anxiety, Mood Disorder
• Accompanying conditions, including substance abuse, eating disorders and computer addiction.

Dr. Fischer said issues of mobilization and extra support are essential. “When I was an outpatient psychiatrist there were many times I wished I could refer a young person to someone who could simply help them create a resume or try something new with the support of peers…go rock climbing or hiking and, most importantly, find the joy that comes from sharing a part of themselves with someone else.”

OPI outpatient services include individual and group therapy, life coaching and psychiatric consultation. Participants may select a minimum of three individual activities or packages that last 2, 3 or 5 days.

GROUP THERAPY:

• DBT Skills Group: Utilizing the four modules of Dialectical Behavior Therapy as a foundation for skills acquisition, participants learn to tolerate distress and facilitate independent living skills.
• Addiction: Young adults work on issues of substance abuse, sex addiction, self-injury/harm and eating disorder behavior in programs tailored to meet individual needs.
• Psychodynamic-based Groups: OPI runs groups designed to help young adults improve personal growth and achieve greater communication and life skills through peer interaction.
• Mindfulness Groups utilizing the UCLA MARC Institute: Mindfulness is letting the mind explore thoughts, feelings and emotions without judgment, a valuable tool for those dealing with constant emotional dysregulation.
• Others groups range from expressive art therapy and writing to action workshops that focus on the small steps needed to reach a desired result. Participants choose personal project goals and take steps toward achieving them each week.

LIFE COACHING ACTIVITIES:

• Life Skills Workshop: a 6-week workshop focusing on skills necessary to live independently including budgeting, resources, time management, organization, goal planning and nutrition.
• Improv Workshop: Participants practice saying “yes” to their own creativity and self expression. Instead of stifling their “authentic self,” these groups emphasize the value of non-judgmental interactions where mistakes are viewed as gifts.

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES:  (days may be subject to change):

• Monday:
  • Tennis Club
  • Art Club
  • Film Club
• Tuesday:
  • Cooking Class
• Wednesday:
  • Jam Sessions
• Thursday:
  • Hiking
• Friday:
  • Writing Club

Intensive Outpatient Program Packages include:

• Life Skills Package: May include one-to-one life coaching, a life coaching workshop, a goal action and in-vivo workshop and cooking class.
• Executive Functioning Package: May include a life coaching workshop, personal therapist, working with OPI Departments of Life Coaching, Education, Career and Volunteer
• Take Action Package: May include an action workshop, a personal therapist, a life coach and choosing from a list of groups and clubs.
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Package: May include multiple groups on DBT and mindfulness skills plus one-to-one life coaching
• Education/Back-to-School Package: May include student success seminar, one-to-one academic planning and life coaching and study hours.
• Career/Get-A-Job Package: May include one-to-one career counseling and life coaching, volunteering and career workshops.

“The objective of our outpatient program is to build one’s self esteem, which is a different process for each individual”, Dr. Fischer said. “By having the opportunity to observe young adults here for so long,  we realize there is not a singular, defined approach that works for everybody.”

Dr. Fischer said environments that facilitate real change are those with three elements in common: Patience, tolerance and compassion.

“These elements, in conjunction with each other, seem to create a space that allows for perseverance and growth,” he said. “They counteract the most common hindrances to experiencing joy and happiness: impatience and intolerance of ourselves or others and a genuine lack of compassion which, together, affect our ability to stay on-purpose. Many times this is difficult to achieve because of our own, internal, perfectionist or rigid thinking ideas.”

OPI Living prefers that participants in the Intensive Outpatient Program utilize therapy so they can be assured of having a case manager.

For more information, call (888) 814-5985 or visit the Intensive Outpatient Services section of our website.