Outpatient Behavioral Health Care

With guidance from Cone Health outpatient behavioral health services, you or a loved one can make positive life changes. Children, adolescents and adults benefit from innovative, evidence-based care. Our experienced psychiatrists, psychologists, physicians, nurses and licensed therapists collaborate to understand your unique needs and to provide treatments to restore your well-being.

Individualized Outpatient Services

Build a path to recovery and wellness through therapy and education, including:

• Individual therapy to guide you in managing thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
• Group therapy for confidential peer support.
• Family and couples therapy to improve relationships.
• Children’s therapy to addresses emotional, psychological and medical issues is offered in partnership with the Cone Health Developmental and Psychological Center.
• Dialectical and behavioral therapy group to manage borderline personality disorder.
• Veterans’ therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other conditions.
• Life skills education to teach social skills and strategies for solving problems and making decisions.
• Medication management to educate you on how to safely and correctly take medications.

Group Therapy

For adults diagnosed with a psychiatric condition, outpatient group therapy programs at Cone Health Behavioral Health Hospital can help you function better. Join group therapy as an alternative to inpatient care or in tandem with other outpatient services. Group therapy programs are held weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon.

Group therapy is ideal for patients who want to:

• Explore ways to cope with depression, anxiety, anger, grief and mood swings.
• Build self-esteem.
• Improve relationship skills.
• Learn how to manage medications.

To schedule an assessment, call 336-832-9700. No physician referral is required. During the assessment, you will learn about program costs and verify your insurance benefits. Our group therapy programs do not accept Medicaid.

Specialized Group Therapy for Substance Abuse

If you have a substance abuse disorder (with or without a mental health condition), you may benefit from specialized substance abuse therapy in a group setting. According to discharge survey data, 70 percent of patients completing our chemical dependency intensive outpatient program report fewer symptoms of substance abuse and incidents of relapse.

Meet with your peers every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. for six to 10 weeks to:

• Learn about chemical dependency, mental illness and co-occurring disorders.
• Develop relapse-prevention skills.
• Set personalized goals with your treatment team.

To build on the skills you gain, you can attend Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings in the evenings and access follow-up care through weekly group meetings with peers. Ongoing support promotes wellness and recovery.

For more information, call 336-832-9800. We work directly with employers and families to ensure you receive the care you need.

Substance Abuse Intensive Outpatient Program for Adolescents

The Adolescent Intensive Outpatient Program is an evidence-based substance abuse program designed to meet the unique mental health needs of at-risk adolescents with substance abuse or co-occurring disorders.

The goal of the program is to reduce psychiatric symptomatology for adolescents ages 13-17 years old and to improve the young person’s ability to function successfully at home, at school and in the community. Our program operates Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 3:30-6:30 p.m.

Partial Hospitalization for Young Adults

If you or a loved one is age 18 to 26, receive short-term, comprehensive mental health care in Cone Health’s partial hospitalization program. Ask your doctor or therapist for a referral to this program. 

Once enrolled in this program, you will live at home or on your college campus and visit the Behavioral Health Hospital in Greensboro for at least five hours each weekday for two to four weeks to receive: 

• Dialectical and behavioral therapy, which aims to help you develop constructive ways of acting and includes individual and group therapy.
• Occupational therapy.
• Education on reducing your risk of a mental health crisis.
• Guidance about taking medications.
• Nursing care, as necessary.

Advanced Treatments

In addition to a broad range of therapy and education options, we offer specialized patient treatments, including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and pharmacogenetics testing.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

TMS is an optional depression treatment for qualified patients to supplement medications and therapy. If you have tried psychotherapy and at least four medications for your current depressive episode without success, consider TMS.

This treatment for major depression sends gentle magnetic pulses through your scalp and into the part of your brain that affects mood. TMS treatments lasts about six weeks, with the option of taper-down sessions toward the end of that period. During the main treatment phase, you will visit Cone Health Behavioral Health Outpatient Clinic in Greensboro five days a week for 40-minute sessions. You can read, watch television or listen to music during treatment. You may drive yourself to and from TMS sessions.

At Cone Health, 44 percent of TMS patients achieved full remission from depression. In addition, 67 percent experienced a significant benefit with an average of 87 percent reduction in scores on a test of depression severity.

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

For certain patients with severe mental health conditions and symptoms, including depression, mania, and dementia, ECT can provide significant and rapid improvements, especially when other medications or forms of therapy have not worked.

Performed under general anesthesia, ECT passes small electric currents through the brain, which causes changes in brain chemistry that can rapidly reverse symptoms of certain mental illnesses.

Although ECT is generally safe, there are some risks and side effects, which you can discuss with your provider.

Pharmacogenetic Testing

Pharmacogenetic or drug-gene testing uses laboratory results from a specialized genetic test to personalize medication and other therapies. Research has shown that when genetic factors inform the prescribing process, patient outcomes improve.