A partial hospitalization program (PHP) is a high level of addiction treatment without overnight stays in a clinical facility. You attend therapy, medical appointments, and skills groups during the day, then return to your housing in the evening. The name sounds more clinical than the experience. You don’t check into a hospital, and you don’t stay overnight. At Synergy Sobriety Solutions, our partial hospitalization program in Palm Beach Gardens, FL serves adults 18 and older who need that daily intensity.
How PHP Differs From Residential, Intensive Outpatient, and Outpatient Care
Residential is the one level where you sleep at the facility and clinical staff stay on site all night. Medically complicated detoxes belong there. So do situations where home makes sobriety close to impossible. PHP ends the overnight stay. You’re in treatment during the day and somewhere else at night, and a treatment team keeps checking how the week is going.
Intensive outpatient programs (IOP) are lighter. Our evening option runs 6 to 9 PM three days a week when census allows, so a day job can stay put. Standard outpatient counseling drops to one or two sessions a week and works best after your routine has settled. PHP covers the ground in between.
Living arrangements separate the levels. Residential patients sleep at the facility. PHP patients don’t, so housing becomes its own question. If you have a supportive home environment, you return there in the evening. Otherwise, we place PHP and IOP patients in separate men’s and women’s houses in Palm Beach Gardens, grouped by level of care. Admissions can explain which arrangement works for your situation.
Who PHP Fits and How Placement Works
PHP covers people who need more than weekly therapy but don’t need overnight monitoring. Patients leaving detox or residential often fit. So do people who relapsed during outpatient therapy. Your home matters, too, along with your health and your mental health symptoms. If your symptoms call for 24-hour monitoring, we’ll say so and point you to that level first.
Admission starts with a benefit verification, which confirms your insurance is active. A pre-assessment follows, mostly questions about your medical history. Our clinical team reads it and decides whether PHP is the right level. If it is, you’re admitted and complete an intake when you arrive. At our partial hospitalization program in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, you can arrive from detox or residential. You can also start at PHP directly.
What a Week in PHP Looks Like
Your clinical team sets your schedule after assessment, and admissions can confirm the exact days and hours before you start. Once a week, you meet your therapist for a one-hour individual session. Group therapy, skills work, and any medical appointments you need fill the rest of your treatment time. The schedule shifts as your needs change.
Synergy groups follow several models, including 12-step, faith-based, trauma-informed, holistic, cognitive, and dialectical formats. When census allows, we run two group rooms at once, and you choose the format you prefer. Groups center on substance use or on mental health, and dual diagnosis groups cover both. Outside meetings help you find a fellowship of your choosing.
Medication management is part of the plan when your situation calls for it. We offer medication-assisted treatment for opioid use and opioid blockers, and the team can prescribe sleep medication and antidepressants. Narcotics are not prescribed, and benzodiazepine tapers or maintenance are not part of the program. Those limits matter if you’re dependent on a benzodiazepine, because that situation may call for medically supervised detox first.
How Your PHP Plan Is Tailored to You
Your PHP plan starts with your assessment, and your therapist builds on it from there. Our program is small, so the team gets to know each patient’s needs individually. One patient may need help building a résumé to get a job while in our care. Another plans to focus on sobriety and nothing else.
Your substance use history and mental health symptoms shape the therapy side. Physical health shapes the medical side. For relapse prevention, your therapist asks what was going on before you last used, then helps you plan a response to each trigger. Family can join an individual session by phone or video if you agree and your therapist thinks it will help.
Evidence-Based Therapies in PHP
PHP therapy draws on several methods at once, and your therapist adjusts the mix as your needs change. Each approach below has research behind it for substance use disorders, the mental health conditions that often accompany them, or both. Acronyms like CBT and DBT can sound intimidating in your first week. The descriptions here keep it plain. Ask your therapist to explain any method by name, and expect an answer without jargon.
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT): Helps you notice the thoughts that lead to substance use and practice new responses you can use the same day.
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT): Builds skills to handle intense emotions, tolerate distress, and manage conflict without falling back on old habits.
- EMDR: Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing helps your brain work through traumatic memories that keep fueling symptoms or cravings.
- Individual therapy: A one-hour weekly session with your therapist to review your history, goals, and progress.
- Group therapy: Sessions with other patients let you practice new skills and hear how others handle setbacks.
If trauma sits behind your substance use, EMDR may take up more of your week than it would for someone else. We also offer brainspotting and other services, and your therapist can add them when they apply. Progress gets reviewed as you go, and the mix changes when something stops working. You don’t need to know which method to start with before you call.
Treating Substance Use and Co-Occurring Mental Health Conditions Together
According to the 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 44.6 million people aged 12 or older, or 15.3 percent, had a substance use disorder in the past year. Among adults, 7.0 percent, or 18.5 million people, had both a mental illness and a substance use disorder during 2025. Overlap on this scale means many patients arrive with both conditions, whether they know it yet or not. A person seeking help for alcohol use can also be dealing with anxiety or depression that went unnamed for years.
When both conditions are present, treating only one often leaves the other running. Untreated anxiety can push someone back toward alcohol or pills to get through a day, and ongoing substance use can deepen depression or disrupt sleep. PTSD adds another layer, since nightmares and constant alertness often drive use as a way to cope. In PHP, one team looks at both conditions, so the therapist working on cravings sees what the mental health side looks like too. Medication decisions get made with the full picture in view.
Our PHP program in Palm Beach Gardens, FL works with PTSD, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder alongside alcohol and drug use. Schizophrenia depends on severity, and our team may recommend a higher level of care first. Each condition on that list is named and addressed in your treatment goals. Our treatment programs cover addiction, mental health, and dual diagnosis, so your PHP plan connects to a larger picture.
What Happens After PHP
Your clinical team decides when you’re ready to step down, based on how you handle cravings, symptoms, and daily routines. For many patients, the next level is IOP, which cuts weekly hours but keeps a set schedule. Standard outpatient therapy comes later. It makes sense once work or school fills more of the week. A partial hospitalization program in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, is one stage, so stepping down means fewer weekly hours while your work continues. Some patients need a higher level of care again, and the team adjusts course when that happens.
Before you leave PHP, your therapist builds an aftercare plan with you. It covers ongoing therapy and meetings, plus who to call when things get shaky. Family can take part when you agree. The outside meetings you start attending during PHP carry into that plan, so the fellowship you chose is already familiar. Men who want more time in a sober setting can move into our graduate sober living residence, which has 7 beds. Anyone else can arrange outside sober living or go home.