At the Austen Riggs Center, our treatment environment has no locked doors, privilege systems, or physical restraints. Instead, we hold those who come for treatment responsible for balancing their freedom with responsibility. Collaborative relationships are key–with staff and other patients. We help you take charge of your life when other psychiatric treatments have not worked.

At the center of your treatment is intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy four times a week with a doctoral-level clinician.

What exactly is psychodynamic psychotherapy? It’s therapy that recognizes that symptoms, problems, and struggles have meaning and that learning about their meaning–especially meaning that is outside our awareness–allows us to see our struggles in context and make better choices based on new learning about ourselves. The optimal environment for such learning includes a safe, trusting relationship with a skilled therapist and membership in a community of others involved in similar work. Through understanding and through being understood, most people find they can make clearer choices, take charge of their lives, build healthier relationships, and feel better.

There are around 300 published, peer-reviewed studies demonstrating that psychodynamic therapy works for people with a range of specific disorders and people with complex and co-occurring disorders. When compared to other forms of therapy, many of which focus on symptoms more than on meaning, psychodynamic therapy has been found to be equally effective. Among people struggling with several co-occurring disorders, those receiving longer-term psychodynamic therapy had better outcomes than 90% of those receiving other treatments.