ABOUT IRON RIDGE
Why we built this.
Iron Ridge Recovery is a clinically led IOP for compulsive sexual behavior, founded in Austin, Texas by three co-founders on the clinical and business sides.
Our story
Iron Ridge is Texas’ dedicated intensive program for men with compulsive sexual behavior and porn addiction — Texas’s only intensive outpatient program built exclusively for this pattern, in-person in Austin and by secure telehealth across Texas. CSBD affects men across the entire state, and the ones who reach us consistently describe the same barrier before finding us: their relational damage, their partner’s betrayal, and their CSBD-specific shame sat next to unrelated presentations in mixed-diagnosis groups, and the clinical room could not hold the weight. Building this program for that population, in that state, was the point from day one.
Iron Ridge Recovery started with a simple observation: the men who needed the most structured clinical care for compulsive sexual behavior were the least likely to walk into a room full of strangers to get it. High-functioning professionals — executives, physicians, attorneys, founders — do not typically self-refer to a peer support meeting. They wait, often for years, while the pattern gets more expensive to carry.
So we built something different: a safe, professional space where a man can speak freely about the most intimate details of his life, without wondering who else is in the room or what happens to what he says. Every group is small, every clinician is licensed, and the structure exists so that guardedness — the thing that has kept the pattern hidden for years — isn’t required here.
We built Iron Ridge as an intensive outpatient program specifically for that man: clinically led, discreet, and structured enough to interrupt a pattern that has organized itself around concealment. The clinical model treats compulsive sexual behavior as a clinical condition with a system underneath it, not a moral failure, and it is led by a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist, not a general practice.
We also built a parallel track for partners. Betrayal trauma is its own clinical injury, and it deserves its own clinicians — not a seat in the addict's program. Iron Ridge treats both sides of the household, on separate tracks, from day one.
Men living with CSBD carry an unusual amount of shame and stigma, often in silence, often for years before anyone finds a place that takes it seriously without moralizing about it. All three of us bring behavioral health leadership to this: Ian Birdwell, LPC, CSAT, and Roxcy Brown, LMFT-Associate, CCPS-C (supervised by Billy Myers, LMFT-S, Texas license 201183), built the clinical model; Ian Brown has held behavioral health leadership roles from turnaround CEO to regional vice president, and saw an underserved population with no program built specifically for it in Texas. What follows is who we are, how we think about this work, and why the model is built the way it is.
We also built Iron Ridge to reject something specific: cookie-cutter treatment for a problem that isn’t cookie-cutter. A lot of programs in this space run on a fixed protocol — one individual session a week, every case, regardless of what it actually needs — because a fixed protocol is easier to staff than individualized care. Iron Ridge is founder-owned, not backed by private equity or venture capital, and that matters here specifically: nobody is optimizing our clinical hours for a margin target. Individual therapy runs at least weekly and twice weekly where the case calls for it, at no extra charge, because the right cadence is a clinical decision, not a standing rule.
“The first intensive outpatient program in the state built specifically for men with compulsive sexual behavior.”
How the Valiant Living Podcast introduced Iron Ridge, episode 70, September 2026
The founders
Ian Brown
Founder & CEO
Built the organization and runs it — strategy, operations, and the partnerships behind the clinical work.
Ian Birdwell, LPC, CSAT
Co-founder & Clinical Director
Sets the clinical standard for the men's IOP and carries a focused individual caseload.
Roxcy Brown, LMFT-Associate, CCPS-C
Co-founder & Director of Family Programming
Supervised by Billy Myers, LMFT-S, Texas license 201183.
Directs clinical care for partners carrying betrayal trauma.
Clinical team
Joshua Heater, LMSW
Primary Clinician
Supervised by Eboni L. Ceasar, Ph.D., LCSW-S, Texas license 53065.
Primary clinician in the men's IOP: individual and group work across the eight-week arc.
Nick Borges, LCSW, LCDC, CSAT-C
Group Facilitator, Men's IOP
Facilitates group therapy in the men's IOP.
John Rocco Rodney, MD
Consulting Medical Director
A physician practicing family and addiction medicine. He consults with the clinical team and does not see or prescribe for clients.
Clinical model
Iron Ridge's clinical arc runs eight weeks, 9–12 clinical hours per week — 72–96 total clinical hours — across three phases.
Stabilization
Weeks 1–3
Trauma Processing
Weeks 4–6
Relapse Prevention
Weeks 7–8
Read our clinical philosophy → Press: the opening announcement →
Why Iron Ridge
Built for the man who won't sit in a group of strangers.
Iron Ridge is a small, structured program for high-functioning men — not an open community meeting. Group size, format, and pacing are built around men who have never told anyone what they are carrying.
Clinically led, not peer-led.
Every process group and every individual session is led by a licensed clinician. Peer support has a place in long-term recovery, but the clinical work of an 8-week IOP is led by clinicians, not by other clients.
Confidential by design, not by promise.
Iron Ridge is out-of-network, and private pay with no claim filed is always an option. Nothing goes to your insurer unless you choose out-of-network billing or submit a superbill. Confidentiality is built into the financial model, not just stated as a value.
Structured enough to interrupt a pattern that has organized itself around concealment.
A pattern that has survived years of private effort to stop rarely responds to more private effort. The structure of an intensive outpatient program — set hours, set clinicians, set accountability — is what interrupts it.
Founder-owned, not private equity.
Iron Ridge is owned by the people who built it, not a private-equity roll-up or a venture-backed chain. Clinical decisions here are made by clinicians, not by a return target.
Individualized care, not a fixed protocol.
We don't run a one-size-fits-all schedule. Individual therapy is at least weekly, twice weekly where the case calls for it, at no extra charge — because the right cadence is a clinical decision, not a standing rule.
Location
4030 W. Braker Ln, Suite 410, Austin, TX 78759
When you're ready, we're here.
A consultation is confidential and is a clinical conversation, not a sales call. Calls answered live by our team, Mon–Fri 8am–9pm CT.
Every inquiry is read by a member of our clinical team, not a call center.