Partner Programming

The clinical framework

The Partner & Family Program is delivered under the Multidimensional Partner Trauma Model (MPTM), the framework developed by APSATS and the most widely adopted clinical model for work with partners of sexually compulsive clients. MPTM treats betrayal trauma as a distinct clinical injury with its own arc — acute reaction, stabilization, longer-term reorganization — not as a symptom of someone else’s disorder. Care is directed by Roxcy Brown, who trained in MPTM through APSATS and holds the CCPS-C credential.

How the program is structured

Currently, one weekly group plus individual sessions as needed, running on the same eight-week arc as the men’s IOP, with a separate track and separate goals. The work is focused on the first phase of the APSATS model: safety and stabilization.

• Weekly clinical process group with other partners walking the same territory. Not a peer support meeting — a clinician-led group with a clinical arc.
• Individual sessions as needed with a clinician trained specifically in partner trauma. This is where the acute clinical work happens — naming what you are experiencing, stabilizing sleep and nervous-system dysregulation, and building enough ground to make any decision from.
• Coordination with the man’s IOP treatment team so that disclosure, stabilization, and any decisions about the relationship happen on a shared clinical timeline rather than in isolation. Coordination is bounded by consent on both sides.

Pacing across the eight weeks

Weeks 1–3 · Stabilization. The first three weeks are not about deciding anything. They are about containment: safety planning where appropriate, nervous-system regulation, sleep, and building a clinical relationship strong enough to hold the harder work that follows. Most partners arrive somewhere between acute crisis and depleted numbness; both are treated as clinical.

Weeks 4–6 · Processing. With stabilization in place, the middle weeks address the traumatic material directly — discovery, intrusive memory, hypervigilance, and the reorganization of self-concept that betrayal trauma requires. This is often the hardest section of the arc and the point at which clinical support matters most.

Weeks 7–8 · Reorganization. The last two weeks focus on what comes next: your own step-down plan, longer-term individual therapy referrals when appropriate, couple work only if and when it is clinically indicated, and a shared understanding with the man’s treatment team about the post-IOP period.

Who this program is for

• Partners of men currently in or entering Iron Ridge’s intensive outpatient program.
• Partners trying to figure out what to do next, whether or not their partner is willing to seek treatment yet.
• Family members affected by a loved one’s compulsive sexual behavior who want clinical support rather than a support-group meeting.
• Betrayed partners of any gender. Betrayal trauma is not gendered, and the clinical work is not organized around a specific relationship structure.

You do not need your partner’s permission to start. You do not need to have decided anything about the relationship.

What this program is not

• Not couples therapy. Couples work is often clinically premature in the acute phase, and this program is designed to make sure that decision is made carefully and at the right time.
• Not a peer-led support group. Both the individual work and the group are led by a licensed clinician.
• Not organized around whether the relationship survives. It is organized around whether you do.

Logistics

In-person at 4030 W. Braker Ln, Suite 410, Austin, TX 78759, with on-site parking. Telehealth available for partners located anywhere in Texas.

Out-of-network. Private pay, out-of-network billing to your PPO, or a superbill you submit yourself. Nothing goes to your insurer unless you choose.