Online IOP for College Students and Emerging Adults in MA

What We Treat

At the Austen Riggs Center, we have successfully treated many types of mental disorders. Whatever your particular disorder or combination of disorders, our treatment begins with understanding you as a person.

Man sitting on park bench contemplating treatment
People come to Riggs seeking relief from mood disorders, personality disorders, psychotic disorders, anxiety disorders, and many other mental health issues. Through intensive clinical engagement on our open campus, we can help you gain a deeper self-understanding that can bring, not only relief from your symptoms, but also the chance to lead a more fulfilling life.
A Word on Diagnosis: Nature or Nurture?
At Riggs, we take a nuanced and thoughtful approach to diagnoses and their origins.
How Riggs Thinks About Diagnoses
The usual person seeking treatment at Riggs has a range of disorders rather than just one. Probably the most typical person has a mood disorder (depression or bipolar disorder) that has been difficult to treat (a so-called “treatment-resistant” mood disorder) co-occurring with other disorders like a personality disorder, anxiety disorder, PTSD, substance use disorder, or another disorder that complicates the response to treatment. There is increasing recognition in the field that this kind of complex clinical picture is more the rule than the exception, especially among those with previous poor treatment response.
Mental health clinicians and researchers once hoped that decoding the human genome and clearly defining diagnostic categories in the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders (we are currently using DSM-5–the 5th edition of the DSM), would allow researchers to discover the genes that cause these diseases. Now, with the human genome decoded and many very large studies of psychiatric genetics completed, we have learned that dozens to hundreds of bits of genetic material are involved in any given disorder (e.g., over 250 for schizophrenia and close to 100 for depression) and that many of these overlap across disorders.
Although heredity clearly plays a role in mental disorders, the genetics of mental disorders are complex and usually involve interaction between genes and environmental factors. Since it has become clear that mental disorders are not simply caused by genes, the previous hypothesis that “genes = disease” has been replaced with recognition that “gene-by-environment interaction = disease . . . and health. The old question of whether it is nature or nurture that matters most in mental disorders has been answered: they both matter.
We have learned that early adverse experiences, trauma and losses play a major role in causing mental disorders. Just as adverse environmental factors like these play a role in causation, positive environmental experiences, like trusting relationships, play a role in treatment and in achieving resilience. As is consistent with this learning, at Riggs, we do not limit our treatment focus to the diagnosis in question, but build trusting relationships that address the whole person and the underlying adverse experiences, trauma, and losses that are part of their story.

Disorders We Treat

Our approach helps you better understand yourself and your relationships. In doing so, you can then find your own path to recovery from many types of mental health disorders.

*Although we don’t offer treatment to people whose substance use disorder (SUD) is active or primary, many of those struggling with mental disorders have co-occurring SUDs.

The Riggs Difference

You can feel it in the air of our voluntary, open, natural setting. You can hear it in the voices of our caring experts. And you can experience it each day in our flexible residential treatment program tailored to your needs. At Riggs, the whole person is the focus of treatment–because, while symptoms must be addressed, they also have meaning.

Voluntary, Open Setting

Here on our open campus, we've helped people like you overcome many types of mental health disorders.

Finding Meaning in Behavior

Symptoms have meanings that can be understood - and that understanding can help lead you toward recovery.

Importance of Relationships

Relationships are central in human life, and they are central to your psychiatric treatment here at Riggs.

Taking Charge of Treatment

Your voice matters and you have authority in your life. At Riggs you actively shape your own residential treatment.

Start the Admission Process

From first contact to admission consultation, let's find out if we're a good fit.