The Professional Track: private treatment for executives

Most of the men in the Iron Ridge program are working full time in positions with a great deal to lose, and the program is built around that fact rather than in spite of it. We call it the Professional Track, and it is not a separate program; it is the way the program already runs: evening groups, a fixed eight-week length you can plan a life around, the same arc by secure video from anywhere in Texas, and private pay with no claims, so that nothing about your treatment exists in an insurer's records. A managing partner, a surgeon, a founder with investors, a man whose name is on the door: the pattern is the same one every man in the room has, and the exposure is not. What is different for him is what a treatment program can cost him if it is careless, and what it has to be built to protect.

This page describes, concretely, how Iron Ridge handles privacy, records, scheduling and the room itself for men whose position makes every one of those a risk. It is written plainly because vague reassurance is what an executive has learned to distrust.

Confidential, private, discreet: what the words mean here

Every program uses these words. Here is what they refer to at Iron Ridge, specifically. Confidential means your record is held under a licensed provider's obligations and nothing leaves without your written authorization. Private means the option of private pay: no insurer sees a claim, a diagnosis, or an authorization request. Discreet means the practical things: a clinician reads your inquiry rather than a call center, we reach you only the way you tell us to, evening groups, no shared waiting room, video from a private office if you prefer, and a co-founder's own unrecorded line if you would rather talk to a person before you fill in anything. Each of those is on the privacy commitments list, written so it can be checked.

What we do not do

• Pay privately and we never bill your insurance, contact your carrier, or seek authorization. No claim, no diagnosis on a carrier's record, no utilization review. Out-of-network billing and superbills exist if you want to use your benefits; whether a claim is ever submitted is your decision alone.
• We do not contact employers, boards, partners in your firm, or anyone else. Nothing about your treatment leaves the program without your written authorization, and nobody at Iron Ridge will confirm or deny that you are a client.
• We do not use a call center. Your inquiry is read by a clinician. The first conversation is clinical, with a licensed professional, not a sales or intake script.
• We do not put you in a room with detox clients, substance-use groups, or anyone who is not a man doing this specific work. Every group is men with compulsive sexual behavior only.
• We do not ask you to disappear for a month. The program runs around a working life; nobody has to be told anything.

Four things you can plan around

• Evening groups. Group is evening-weighted so that it fits after a working day, not instead of one.
• Eight weeks, known in advance. 9 to 12 clinical hours a week, 72 to 96 in total, with the schedule set at admission. Rolling admission means no waiting for a start date, and you know the end date on the first day.
• Texas-wide by video, the same program. Same clinicians, same hours, same price, from a private office or home. Travel inside Texas does not interrupt it.
• No claims, if you choose. Pay privately and there is no diagnosis on a carrier's record, no authorization, no utilization review. Out-of-network billing or a superbill exists if you would rather use your benefits.

How the room works

Admission is rolling, so you start your own eight-week arc when you are admitted rather than waiting for a start date, and you finish eight weeks later. Groups are held small enough that every man is known, which is also what makes them safe; a large anonymous group is where a recognizable man stops talking. The men around you are at different points in their own eight weeks, which means someone in the room has already been where you are. Group is evening-weighted so that it fits after a working day, and the specific schedule is set at admission.

Men who prefer not to be seen entering a clinic take the same program by secure video from a private office or home. Privacy on video runs both ways: cameras stay on for every session, and before each group every man shows his room on camera so that everyone in the session knows no one else can hear it. Your confidentiality in that room depends on the other men's, and theirs on yours. The virtual and in-person arcs are the same clinical program with the same clinicians and the same price. Some men in the Austin program attend group in person and individual sessions by video, or the reverse.

Everything on this page, and more, is written as a checkable list on our privacy commitments: nineteen specific things we do and do not do, signed by the founders, including the two things no provider can honestly promise.

Records and what they contain

Your clinical record is held by Iron Ridge, a licensed mental health provider, under the same confidentiality obligations as any therapist's record, and it is not shared with anyone without your authorization. If your partner enrolls in the partner program, she has her own record with her own clinician, and neither record is visible to the other person. Coordination with an outside therapist happens only with a signed release, at the points you agree to.

What we cannot promise is what nobody can: that no third party could ever compel a record by legal process, or that a licensing body's own rules do not create obligations for you. If you hold a professional license, the question of what you are and are not obliged to disclose is one to raise on the first call, and we will answer it honestly rather than reassuringly.

Why the program, and not a discreet weekly therapist

Because an hour a week with even an excellent clinician gives a pattern that has organized itself around concealment six days to reassert itself, and men who are good at managing appearances are good at managing a weekly session. The program's structure, several clinical hours a week, a group of peers who recognize the pattern, an accountability contact who is not impressed by the résumé, is what makes the concealment harder than the honesty. It is also what most of the men in the room, who have tried the discreet weekly route already, were missing.

The clinical work is led by a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist, and every client's individual therapy is with one. The curriculum was written for this pattern, not adapted from a substance program.

The practical questions, answered

How much time? 9 to 12 clinical hours a week for eight weeks, evening-weighted. Most men work through the arc.

Where? North Austin, 4030 W. Braker Ln, Suite 410, with on-site parking, or by secure video from anywhere in Texas.

What does it cost, and how is it paid? $25,000 for the arc, billed in two payments, by card or from an HSA. The charge reads "Iron Ridge Recovery" on the statement, nothing more specific. There is no separate fee for the partner program. A standalone clinical assessment is $300, credited against the program if you enroll. Every option and its price.

What if I need to travel during the eight weeks? Video sessions cover travel within Texas. Travel outside Texas needs to be planned around, because our clinicians are licensed in Texas; raise it at admission and the schedule is built with it.

Who will know? The people you tell.

If you searched "luxury" or "high-end" sex addiction treatment

The words usually mean one of two things. Sometimes they mean a residential program with a campus, a chef and a private room, and if that is what you need, the residential comparison is where to read. More often they mean something plainer: treatment that will not embarrass you, that is run by people who understand your position, that does not put you in a room with strangers in crisis, and that respects your time. That is not luxury. It is what a serious outpatient program for men in your position should look like, and it is what this page describes. Iron Ridge is not a resort, and the men who do best here are not looking for one.

If you would rather talk to a person than fill in a form

Ian Brown, Iron Ridge's co-founder, takes calls and texts directly at (310) 421-5564. That is his own phone: it is not a tracking number, it does not go through our call system, and it is not recorded. If you would rather set up a time than talk now, text him and he will arrange the consultation around your schedule, early, late, or between meetings. He is not a clinician and will not assess you. He will tell you plainly how the program works, how privacy is handled, and what the first weeks look like, and he will hand you to a clinician only if you ask him to.

If you use the form instead, a clinician, not a call center, reads it and follows up with you personally.

Where to start

The consultation is a clinical conversation with a licensed clinician, not a sales call, and nothing about it obliges you to anything. If the right level of care is something other than Iron Ridge, we say so.

If you are in immediate danger or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 — the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24 hours a day — or call 911.