Co-care with outside therapists

Iron Ridge is a level of care, not a replacement for you. We run an eight-week intensive outpatient phase; your client's work with you can continue alongside it where that is clinically useful, and the arc is built to hand him back to you at the end. This page sets out who does what, what you receive and when, and what happens after the program.

Who does what

Iron Ridge runs the IOP phase. Nine to twelve clinical hours a week across eight weeks: group with men presenting similarly, individual sessions, structured phasing, and repeated measurement. Ian Birdwell, LPC, CSAT, reviews every referral against IOP level-of-care criteria before the case is accepted.

You keep your clinical relationship with the client. Most referring clinicians keep their own work with the client running alongside the program. Whether to continue weekly sessions during the eight weeks, reduce them, or pause is a clinical decision made case by case, with the client, and with you.

The partner, if there is one, is a separate client. Partners have their own intake and their own clinician in the Partner & Family Program, directed by Roxcy Brown, LMFT-Associate, CCPS-C (supervised by Billy Myers, LMFT-S, Texas license 201183). Nothing about either person's care is shared with the other without that person's consent.

What you receive, and when

Everything below requires the client's written consent and a signed release of information. The release runs in both directions, so we can also receive your history and formulation.

1. Level-of-care determination. After the clinical assessment, you hear whether the program is the right fit. If the answer is that he should stay in weekly work with you, we say so and he does.
2. Intake summary at admission. A written summary of the assessment picture and the treatment plan.
3. Mid-treatment progress letter at week 4. Where he is in the arc and what the repeated measures show.
4. Agreed check-ins during the arc. The timing is set with you at the start rather than assumed.
5. Discharge summary at completion, alongside the continuing-care plan.

Protected health information moves only over a secure channel: TLS-enforced email, a portal, or an established case-coordination workflow. Case coordination covers the release and the mechanics.

The step back to you

The final two weeks of the arc build a continuing-care plan, and that plan names you. Most men return to their outside therapist after the program. That is the intended sequence, not a loss of the client.

The plan is written down: early warning signs, high-risk contexts, a lapse protocol, and who carries the continuing individual work. A six-month follow-up assessment repeats the same instruments used at baseline, so you and he can see whether the change held. If things slip, he can come back to us to reset rather than starting over.

Where a different level of care is needed

The relationship with residential programs runs in two directions. If an assessment shows a man needs more structure than an IOP provides, we refer out to residential care. Men stepping down from a residential program can enter the IOP as the next phase.

We also decline referrals when we should, and early: active psychosis, unstable mood-disorder presentations, substance use requiring primary SUD treatment, acute suicidality, or where compulsive sexual behavior is not actually the presenting picture. When to refer to an IOP sets out the thresholds.

What we do not do

We do not contact your client directly unless you ask us to. We do not bill insurance or contact a carrier on anyone's behalf. And we do not take the case over.

Starting a co-care referral

Call (512) 877-8616 to talk the case through, or use the referral form. A licensed member of the clinical team responds within one business day. The referral process walks through each step, and the therapist partner brief is a one-page summary to keep on file.

If your client is in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or call 911.