Outpatient care in Minnesota
Outpatient care in Minnesota
At Blue River Behavioral Health, every session gives you something specific to take into your week. Our addiction and mental health therapies are selected based on what you’ve been through and where you want to go, which means no two plans look alike. Substance use and mental health are treated together by the same team, whichever one brought you in. Each service below has a clear job, so you can see where it fits before your first call.
We don’t use one method at Blue River. Your therapist draws from the four approaches below and often combines them. CBT and DBT build skills for your thoughts and emotions. Individual sessions focus on your own history and goals. Group sessions let you practice with other adults in your program.
You learn to spot the thought and behavior patterns keeping substance use or a low mood going. Then you test those thoughts against situations from your own week and practice a different response.
Learn moreWhen emotions run high, DBT skills help you manage them, tolerate distress without making it worse, and handle relationships in healthier ways. Your therapist helps you apply them to the conflicts and urges in your own life.
Learn moreYou meet one-on-one with your own therapist to work on what is specific to your life.
Learn moreIn group sessions, you work alongside peers who have similar substance use or mental health challenges. You practice skills together and hear how others handle them.
Learn moreAround your therapy sessions, we also handle medication, crisis support, care coordination, and planning for life after the program.
For opioid or alcohol use disorders, your plan can include buprenorphine (Suboxone) or naltrexone when a psychiatric provider recommends it. The medication is there to ease cravings and withdrawal while you do the work in therapy.
Learn moreIf you take medication for depression, anxiety, or another co-occurring condition, our psychiatric provider follows up and adjusts it with you. Those changes come out of regular follow-up visits, where you talk through what you are noticing day to day.
Learn moreCrisis support is part of your program with us, so help is there between scheduled sessions. When you need more care than outpatient treatment can give, our team coordinates directly with crisis units.
Learn moreYour case manager keeps your other providers in the loop and handles the practical side of your care. If you need detox, residential care, or sober living, your case manager coordinates a referral to a partner program.
Learn moreWe plan your aftercare with you before your program ends, so you know what support continues afterward. Alumni planning is part of that conversation, with ways to stay connected to our team and your peers.
Learn more
Insurance and Coverage
Blue River accepts all insurance plans, including out-of-network benefits. Cost questions keep many adults from calling. We answer those first.
Share your plan details, and our admissions team contacts your insurer. Then we explain what your plan covers in plain language. Nothing you share commits you to anything.
No obligation. We never quote costs before your benefits are checked.
Moving between levels of care changes how often you practice, while your addiction and mental health therapies stay with you. Our partial hospitalization program (PHP) is the most intensive version, typically with 5 to 6 hours of group therapy Monday through Friday. Individual sessions fit into those days as well. Our psychiatric provider is close at hand while medications are being sorted out.
In IOP, you attend 3 to 5 days a week, with about 3 hours of group on the days you come in. Individual therapy continues alongside group. The work turns toward the stretches in between, like the commute, the weekend, and the moments when a drink or a spiral used to follow. Relapse prevention planning takes up more of your time here.
In OP, you meet weekly or biweekly for individual and group sessions, scheduled flexibly around work and family. You bring in what you practiced on your own, and your therapist helps you adjust it. Virtual IOP and OP follow the same approach from home. They suit you if privacy matters or distance makes regular visits hard.
One call to the member services number on your insurance card can clear up most coverage questions before your first session. Ask about your behavioral health benefits by name, since they can work differently from the medical side of your plan. The most important answers are your deductible, what you owe per session, and whether PHP or IOP needs prior authorization. It also helps to ask whether virtual sessions are covered the same way as in-person ones.
Jot down the date, the representative's name, and the call reference number. Those notes help if an answer changes later. Your plan does not have to be in our network for you to work with us. At Blue River, our admissions team handles pre-certification with your insurer and explains what your plan may cover.
You don't need to know which therapy you want before you call. Just tell us what has been hard lately, in whatever words come naturally. It might be a habit you can't shake, a mood that won't lift, or both. Our team at Blue River will explain which addiction and mental health therapies might come first and why each one would be part of your plan. After your assessments, you and your therapist settle on the mix together, and our psychiatric provider weighs in on medication. Whether you move forward is always your call. When you're ready, contact us.
Confidential. No obligation.
Most people have a few practical questions before their first session. Here are the questions people most often ask about therapy at Blue River.
(612) 614-0964Trauma-informed care puts your safety, choice, and respect first in every session. At Blue River, it shapes all of our therapies, from CBT to family sessions. You decide what you share and when. This approach does not assume every client has a trauma history.
A safety plan is a written, personal plan for getting through a crisis. It lists your warning signs, the coping steps you rely on, and the people to contact. Building one is part of our crisis support. You and your clinician write it together, so it reflects your own life.
You sign consent forms for treatment once your insurance pre-certification is complete. The forms describe the care you are agreeing to, and you can ask about anything before you sign. At Blue River, this step comes before your needs assessment and biopsychosocial assessment. Your therapy starts only after you have agreed to it.
Yes, most of our levels are set up with work in mind. Our IOP offers flexible schedules for working professionals. OP meets weekly or biweekly, and virtual IOP and virtual OP let you join from home. Only PHP requires meeting for a full-day session on weekdays.
Tell your therapist. At our facility, we review your plan as you go. If an approach isn't helping, we can adjust or swap it. If you need more support for a while, you can move to a fuller level of care. You always have a say in what your sessions focus on.
