We understand that seeking a higher level of care for your child is a very difficult decision, and is often the result of many years of outpatient treatment with minimal change.
You might not feel comfortable with placing your child in a hospital setting and are now having a hard time choosing the next level of treatment. Our therapeutic placement consultant, David Levin, LCSW-C, works with your family on an individual level to help place your child or family member in the right program to achieve the best possible outcome.
Potential candidates for therapeutic placement services are adolescents and young adults who have not responded to previous treatment approaches.
What is a Therapeutic Placement?
Therapeutic placements are designed for teenagers and young adults who require treatment and supervision in a more intensive therapeutic setting. These settings include therapeutic boarding schools, wilderness programs, residential treatment centers, and transitional programs that follow a therapeutic model. Because of the variance, it is important to tailor your choice to the individual and magnify their strengths.
Why work with our Therapeutic Placement Consultant?
David Levin will dedicate his time to personally explore and vet available therapeutic placement options to offer confidence and perspective that would otherwise require months of research and planning.
In many situations, there is neither time nor financial resources and the process can be extremely overwhelming to an already fragile situation. With deep understanding and vast experience, David provides an expert evaluation and referral to the most appropriate placement and accompanies you throughout the entire process.
Types of Therapeutic Placements:
Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOPs)
- Approx. 6-9 hours of treatment per week
- Combination of individual and group therapy, medication management, and complementary therapies such as yoga or art therapy.
Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHPs)
- Day treatment programs that meet Monday-Friday for 5-6 hours a day.
- Combination of individual and group therapy, medication management, and complementary therapies such as yoga or art therapy at a more intense level than an IOP.
Therapeutic Wilderness Programs
- Intensive clinical programs that involve removing the client from all external stimuli, including technology and environmental stressors.
- Help break the cycle of substance abuse, gaming, social phobia, school resistance, trauma and adoption-based issues.
Residential Treatment Centers (RTCs)
- Programs that predominantly focus on clinical services, with a small academic component. The primary concentration is in therapeutic and psychiatric services.
- The length of stay at a residential treatment center is often more extended with a minimum of six months and as long as 24 months.
- Like Wilderness and Therapeutic boarding schools, residential treatment centers offer specializations in substance abuse and/or other psychiatric conditions such as eating disorders, anxiety, depression, gaming, adoption, and trauma.
Therapeutic Boarding Schools
- Residential programs that fuse an academic curriculum with a clinical therapeutic environment. These models tend to have a greater emphasis on preparing the client academically and emotionally for their next journey to college or a job.

About David Levin,
LCSW-C
David M. Levin, LCSW-C, is a licensed clinical social worker and therapeutic placement consultant with over 30 years of private clinical experience working with teens and young adults. David previously owned Adolescent Intervention Services for over 16 years, a clinically engaged transport company, accompanying over 1,500 patients to therapeutic treatment programs. It was during this time that he cultivated relationships with many different programs, where he continues to maintain active contact and visit regularly. In 2014, David was co-founder and Clinical Director of North Star Academy, which provided day treatment for adolescents who were returning from environments such as wilderness and residential treatment along with psychiatric and other partial hospital and day treatment programs.
David puts his patients and their families first and foremost throughout the process, helping them every step of the way. He never leaves a family alone and makes himself available 24/7 to provide support, advice, and advocacy for his patients. Once a patient is admitted to a program, David continues to provide case management and acts as a liaison between clinicians in the program and patients’ families. Upon program completion, David also helps patients and families transition to step-down programs to ensure a supportive, smooth transition.