Online IOP for College Students and Emerging Adults in MA & VT

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For college students and emerging adults (18–30) in Massachusetts and Vermont who want treatment that addresses the source of their struggles and helps them take charge of their lives.

Online IOP Inquiries: 833.921.5700

Rolling Admission: Start the Process Today

In-network with Cigna (Wellfleet) / Evernorth, Carelon (Wellpoint), Point32Health, Harvard Pilgrim, and Tufts Health Plan. You can also utilize out-of-network benefits and/or apply for need-based financial assistance.

A Developmental, Patient-Centered Approach

The online IOP is an innovative program for emerging adults in Massachusetts and Vermont that draws on over a century of expertise at Riggs treating people with complex emotional and interpersonal challenges.

Through our online format, we bring Riggs' clinical depth directly to you, helping you access comprehensive treatment while maintaining your existing commitments. Through sustained therapeutic relationships with peers and experienced clinicians, you are supported in developing greater self-understanding, agency, and flexibility in how you navigate internal, interpersonal, academic, and work challenges. 

The Riggs IOP views symptoms as efforts to manage developmental challenges. Rather than merely offering rote skills and medication management, we apply clinical expertise in a community format to help you better understand yourself and what interferes with leading a self-directed life.

Each week, you’ll move between individual and group services. This process allows personal insight and real-time relational experiences to inform one another with support from peers and the treatment team. Throughout your time with us, your voice is the central force shaping our engagement with you, including how the patterns that emerge during treatment may reflect earlier family and social experiences that continue to influence current expectations and relationships. This integration of reflection, practice, and lived experience creates meaningful opportunities for growth.

View our Online IOP brochure

Online IOP Virtual Open House: How We Promote Self-Direction in College

Join an upcoming online information session to see if the Riggs IOP is the right fit for you, a family member, or your patient. Sessions are offered from 6:00-6:50 p.m. (Eastern) on multiple dates throughout the year.

Online Information Series

Who the Online IOP Serves

Our online IOP serves individuals who are:

Emerging adults 18-30 in Massachusetts or Vermont
Feeling that outpatient treatment hasn't been enough
Having difficulty managing school, work, or relationships
Transitioning down from a higher level of care
Considering whether residential treatment is right
College or graduate students, including those on medical leave

What the IOP Offers

The IOP provides 9–12 hours of treatment per week, spaced out over five days. 

Individual Psychotherapy

Each week in the program includes two therapy sessions, where the initial focus is on building a secure, reflective relationship. Over time, your connection with your therapist can help you clarify the feelings, beliefs, and conflicts that are holding you back and driving symptoms like depression, anxiety, perfectionism, and suicidal thoughts. Translating these symptoms into words that can be heard, tolerated, and put in perspective opens space for you to make more direct and informed choices about how you want to live.

Group Therapy 

IOP groups are an opportunity to connect with peers and apply the insights you gain through depth-oriented individual psychotherapy. We maintain consistent membership so participants can build trust with one another and take manageable risks in support of meaningful change. Group offerings emphasize social learning, mindfulness practices, and coping skills that reflect your unique history, abilities, and goals. Collectively, these groups promote curiosity, interpersonal connection, consolidation of internal experience, and purposeful self-direction.

Medication Management

Our team of  psychiatrists integrate consultation and medication management with your psychological and medical care. Rather than offering brief, symptom-focused interventions, they build individualized relationships with you and explore the meaning medications may hold in order to overcome barriers to adherence and optimize their effectiveness.

Family Therapy 

Emerging adulthood is a time of developmental transition for young adults and their parents. When mental health challenges are involved, these tensions often create strain in families that can result in unhelpful patterns and poor communication. When indicated and desired, Riggs offers family therapy to help young adults and their parents sort through these obstacles so that development—for all parties—can proceed.

Treatment Team 

Our IOP team meets for three hours each week, and our clinicians regularly collaborate, consult, and share information with one another. Our systems-based approach recognizes that context matters—no person behaves identically across all settings or relationships, and the variability is meaningful. Each team member holds an important piece of the puzzle of a patient's struggles and capacities. Patients are also periodically included in team meetings to ensure that their voice helps guide the process.

Case Conference 

Treatment begins with an initial assessment phase to fully understand each patient's unique challenges and opportunities for growth. This assessment period culminates in a case conference where the team develops a comprehensive, coherent perspective and provides you with practical feedback and recommendations for ongoing care.

Care Coordination 

The Riggs IOP actively develops partnerships with college counseling centers and outpatient therapists to ensure continuity of care. With patient authorization, Riggs clinicians consult with referrers after their patient is admitted to the program and as needed throughout IOP treatment. Referrers are included in the case conference to enhance care coordination.

Sample Schedule

Below is a sample schedule to give you an idea of what a typical week in the online IOP program looks like.

Day 1 Monday

2-3 p.m. Resilience Through Relationships Process Group

3-4 p.m. Yoga, Mindfulness, and Meditation

4-5 p.m. Coping: Skills Within Stories

Day 2 Tuesday

Psychopharmacology (scheduled between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.)

Family Therapy (scheduled between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.)

Individual Psychotherapy (scheduled between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.)

Day 3 Wednesday

2-3 p.m. Resilience Through Relationships Process Group

3-4 p.m. Yoga, Mindfulness, and Meditation

4-5 p.m. Coping: Skills Within Stories

Day 4 Thursday

2-3 p.m. Resilience Through Relationships Process Group

3-4 p.m. Yoga, Mindfulness, and Meditation

4-5 p.m. Coping: Skills Within Stories

Day 5 Friday

Psychopharmacology (scheduled between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.)

Family Therapy (scheduled between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.)

Individual Psychotherapy (scheduled between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.)

Information for Referrers

When a young adult needs more than skills and stabilization, the Riggs Online IOP may be able to help. We partner with outpatient clinicians, prescribers, and college counseling centers in MA and VT to explore whether an IOP level of care is right for your patient or student. Our team is available to answer questions, discuss clinical fit, and support thoughtful referral planning.

Refer a Patient

Treatment Cost and Insurance

We will help you understand your cost before you commit to treatment. The Riggs Online IOP works with patients and families to review insurance coverage, out-of-network benefits, and eligibility for need-based financial assistance. Your information will be reviewed confidentially, and we will provide a personalized rate in advance.

Learn About Costs

Patient Outcomes

Former Riggs Online IOP patients report meaningful relief from symptoms and stronger footing after treatment. Patients with moderate to severe symptoms experienced reductions in depression, suicidality, anxiety, and interpersonal problems. Most patients were successfully discharged to a lower level of care, and many described feeling more understood, more engaged, and better able to continue therapy.

See Patient Outcomes

Online IOP Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Training Certificate Program

The Erikson Institute offers a nine-month, fully online IOP psychodynamic psychotherapy training certificate program for Massachusetts-licensed, clinical social workers and doctoral-level mental health professionals.

Certificate Program