Bridge Program for Adults

Menninger's Bridge Program for Adults is a residential inpatient treatment program designed for individuals who are stepping down from an inpatient program or stepping up from traditional outpatient services for more structure and support. These individuals are in addiction recovery or in recovery for a mental health issue like depression, anxiety, etc.

The program has capacity for 24 patients, each of whom has a private room.

Our Bridge Program emphasizes patient-centered treatment in a relaxed therapeutic community that is unlocked except during sleeping hours. Patients progress with increasing personal accountability for wellness and nutritional choices, resuming work tasks, and building skills in the treatment pathways that best meet their clinical needs:

• Mood and anxiety: Addresses symptoms of depression, bipolar disorder (hypomania and mania), generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, and more. Evidence-based interventions include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment Therapy (ACT), and individual therapy. The pathway includes meditation and yoga.
• Substance use and addictive behavior: Addresses a person’s substance use or addictive behavior(s) in a nonjudgmental, compassionate way that aligns with their personal values. The team and addictions specialist collaborates to understand the resident’s substance use or problematic behavior and how it relates to or impacts their life and treatment. Patients have access to our recovery options and support from a peer counselor with lived experience.
• Emotion regulation: Guides patients in exploring the drivers of their intense emotional experiences and new ways of adaptive coping. Based on dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), an evidence-based treatment for various conditions, emotional first aid skills taught include mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.
• Trauma work: Addresses trauma with evidence-based therapies and a focus on individualized treatment to meet the patient’s specific needs. Trauma education, regulation skills, and fostering healthy relationships are fundamental. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT) target the effects of traumatic incidents and are available if indicated.
• Over-controlled personalities (radically open DBT): This evidence-based treatment is specifically useful for the individual with excessive self-control or overcontrol that is causing difficulty in their life. Called RO DBT for short, radically open DBT is an intervention that targets specific problem areas while still capitalizing on an individual’s strengths.

Other Features

Patients in this residential program also benefit from:

• Weekly therapeutic and psychoeducational groups
• Twice weekly individual therapy
• Weekly family therapy
• Psychiatry services
• Rehabilitation, recreational therapy, and vocational offerings
• Community outings and therapeutic exposures

Individuals may bring their own laptops, tablets, and cell phones or use a laptop provided by Menninger. WI-FI is available along with specified hours for personal work in their room or in the program’s business center.

Check out the program's sample schedule.

Key Facts

• Program length: 30 to 60 days
• Capacity: 21 residents, each in a private room
• Admission: Monday-Friday and Sunday
• Smoking allowed in designated outdoor areas
• Daily rate: $1,375
• Add-ons: Neuropsychiatric or psychological testing if it hasn’t been completed in recent months, brain stimulation treatment, sleep medicine services, external medical or lab tests when needed, medications, and personal care services, such as haircuts

Residential Program Director

The Bridge Program is led by Elissa Bauer, MEd, LPC-S.