Online IOP for College Students and Emerging Adults in MA & VT
About the Austen Riggs Center
Riggs is a residential psychiatric treatment center in Stockbridge, MA, offering intensive psychotherapy, interdisciplinary care, and a therapeutic community for adults whose difficulties have persisted despite serious prior treatment.
We Treat the Person, Not Just the Diagnosis
We help people take charge of their lives through intensive psychotherapy, therapeutic community life, and a treatment approach grounded in human relationships, personal autonomy, and the meaning behind symptoms.
At Riggs, patients are not reduced to a diagnosis or a list of symptoms. Treatment is built around the whole person: their history, relationships, inner life, capacities, conflicts, and hopes for the future.
Riggs is designed for adults whose psychiatric problems are serious, complex, and often long-standing. Many patients come after prior hospitalizations, outpatient treatment, residential care, or other forms of treatment that helped but did not fully address the patterns shaping their lives.
Our work is grounded in a core conviction: symptoms carry meaning, relationships are central to both suffering and change, and patients have real authority over their own treatment and lives.
Riggs is not a locked hospital, a retreat, or a behavior-management program. It is an open therapeutic community where intensive individual psychotherapy, community life, and opportunities for responsibility work together to support meaningful change.
Austen Riggs at a Glance
Founded: 1919
Location: Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in the Berkshire Hills
Setting: Open, voluntary residential treatment center
Patients: Approximately 60 patients at any time
Individual psychotherapy: Four times per week
Accreditation: Joint Commission Accredited
Licensure: Licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health
Clinical team: Therapist, psychiatrist, clinical social worker, nursing staff, community staff, and substance use counselor
Therapists: Doctoral-level psychiatrists or psychologists
Location: Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in the Berkshire Hills
Setting: Open, voluntary residential treatment center
Patients: Approximately 60 patients at any time
Individual psychotherapy: Four times per week
Accreditation: Joint Commission Accredited
Licensure: Licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health
Clinical team: Therapist, psychiatrist, clinical social worker, nursing staff, community staff, and substance use counselor
Therapists: Doctoral-level psychiatrists or psychologists
Start with a Conversation
A first call is not a commitment. You, a family member, or a clinician can call to describe the situation, ask questions about our model, cost of treatment and financial assistance, admission process, or whether this setting may be useful now.
A Team that Follows the Patient Through Treatment
Each patient at Riggs is cared for by an interdisciplinary team that follows them from admission through discharge. This team may include a therapist, psychiatrist, clinical social worker, nursing staff, community staff, and substance use counselor.
All individual therapists are doctoral-level psychiatrists or psychologists. The team works together during and after the six-week residential evaluation and treatment to understand the patient’s clinical history, current difficulties, relationships, strengths, risks, and treatment goals.
This continuity matters. Patients are not passed from one disconnected service to another. The team develops a shared understanding over time and works with the patient as a whole person.
Founded in 1919. Still Focused on Depth, Dignity, and Responsibility
Riggs was founded in 1919 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. After World War II, under the leadership of Robert P. Knight, MD, the Center became internationally recognized as a center of American psychoanalytic thought.
During that period, the Riggs staff included influential figures such as Erik H. Erikson, David Rapaport, Merton Gill, Margaret Brenman-Gibson, and Roy Schafer. That history continues to shape the Center’s commitment to psychodynamic understanding, clinical education, research, and respect for the complexity of each person’s life.
Today, Riggs remains a residential treatment center, a therapeutic community, and a center for clinical education and research.
An Open, Walkable, Human Setting
Riggs is not a locked facility. The campus is open and walkable. Patients move between the Inn, treatment spaces, studios, greenhouse, theater, nursery school, and the town of Stockbridge.
Located in the southern Berkshires of western Massachusetts, Riggs is approximately two hours from Boston, three hours from New York City, and one hour from Albany.
That openness is not just a feature of the setting. It is essential to how the treatment works.
What Patients Report After Treatment
Accreditation, Licensure, and Professional Affiliations
The Austen Riggs Center is Joint Commission Accredited and licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health.
Riggs is also proud to be affiliated with professional organizations that support residential treatment, psychotherapy, and mental health care.
Frequently Asked Questions About Austen Riggs
What is the Austen Riggs Center?
The Austen Riggs Center is an open, voluntary residential psychiatric treatment center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, for adults with complex psychiatric difficulties. Riggs combines intensive individual psychotherapy, therapeutic community life, interdisciplinary treatment, education, and research.
Is Austen Riggs a locked psychiatric hospital?
No. Riggs is not a locked facility. It is an open residential treatment center where patients move within the campus and the town of Stockbridge as part of a treatment model that emphasizes responsibility, relationships, and patient agency.
Who does Austen Riggs treat?
Riggs treats adults with complex psychiatric problems, including people whose difficulties have persisted despite serious prior treatment. Patients may struggle with depression, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, trauma-related symptoms, psychosis, anxiety, suicidality, self-harm, relational problems, or diagnostic complexity.
What makes Austen Riggs different?
Riggs treats the person, not just the diagnosis. Treatment focuses on understanding the meaning behind symptoms, the role of relationships, and the patient’s own authority in treatment. Patients participate in intensive psychotherapy, community life, and real-world responsibilities within an open residential setting.
Where is Austen Riggs located?
The Austen Riggs Center is located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It is approximately two hours from Boston, three hours from New York City, and one hour from Albany.
Is Austen Riggs accredited?
Yes. The Austen Riggs Center is Joint Commission Accredited