Week by week

Nine to twelve clinical hours a week for eight weeks — 72 to 96 hours in total, structured to be attended alongside a full-time job. This is what an actual week contains.

The weekly structure

Every week of the arc includes:

• Group programming, where most of the clinical hours sit. Clinician-facilitated, with other men carrying the same presentation. See group therapy.
• Individual sessions with your clinician. At least one every week, without exception; two where the case calls for it, which is decided with you, not by a schedule.
• Psychoeducation, on the condition, the mechanism, and the specific clinical material relevant to the phase.

Specific group times are confirmed on the consult call so you can work out whether the schedule is realistic before you commit to it. Attending in Austin and attending virtually are the same clinical week.

Weeks 1–3 — Stabilization

Interruption and information. A concrete behavioral interruption plan built with you, safety planning, medical coordination where needed, baseline assessment, and orientation to the group.

Expect week two to feel worse than week one. The behavior was regulating something; interrupt it and that something surfaces without the usual off switch. This is expected, it is planned for, and it is not evidence that treatment is failing.

Stabilization in detail →

Weeks 4–6 — Trauma processing

The middle of the program and the hardest part of it. Work on what the behavior was for: the condition underneath, the affect-regulation function, and the trauma history where there is one. Modalities are matched to your formulation.

Assessment is repeated at week four and reviewed with you.

This is the phase where men most often want to leave. The initial relief of stopping has worn off, the underlying material is surfacing, and week eight looks a long way away. Your clinician will name that when it shows up.

Trauma processing in detail →

Weeks 7–8 — Relapse prevention

Consolidation and durability. A written continuing-care plan, high-risk mapping specific to your pattern, lapse planning, week-eight assessment, and the formal transition into aftercare.

Relapse prevention in detail →

What is expected between sessions

Attendance. Nine to twelve hours is the clinical dose. Missing sessions in weeks one to three costs more than missing them later, and if attendance becomes a pattern it is a clinical conversation rather than an administrative one.

Working the interruption plan. It is only useful if it is actually running.

Honesty about lapses. A lapse disclosed within twenty-four hours is a workable clinical event. A lapse that goes underground takes weeks of secrecy with it and does far more damage than the lapse did. You will not be discharged for telling us.

Alongside the arc

Partner programming runs on its own track, with its own clinician, two clinical hours a week, if your partner wants it. It is her clinical care, not a component of yours, and it is included in the cost.

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