Residential Treatment Program in Minnesota
NorthStar Regional’s residential treatment centers in Minnesota offer low-intensity residential care, the bridge between rehab and home. You live on a recovery-focused campus while rebuilding independence, with clinical support still in place for every step. Substance use and mental health are treated together by one team, on the longer timeline that depression and trauma need. We serve adults across the Twin Cities metro, with connected care that often reaches 85 to 105 days. We accept Medical Assistance (Medicaid) and most major insurers, and structure comes back to you one piece at a time.
The program at a glance
Low-Intensity Residential Treatment
85 to 105 connected days
Level of Care
You still live on campus, but your days have more freedom. You keep working with your care team while you practice the daily skills you will need at home. This is the level of care between residential rehab and moving home or into sober living.
Licensed Treatment Programs
Founded 2015
Addiction and mental health care in one system
Multiple Campuses
Across the Twin Cities metro
MN Department of Health: Licensed
MN Department of Human Services: Licensed
What Comes Next
Why Residential Treatment Is the Bridge Between Rehab and Home
The most dangerous week in recovery is often the first week home after rehab. The structure of rehab ends all at once, and you return to the same place you left. Low-intensity residential treatment exists so that never has to happen. Structure is reduced bit by bit instead of all at once. You take on the parts of normal life one at a time: a job application, a class, a weekend visit. Clinical support is still there at each step. Most treatment systems skip this part of addiction treatment.
This is also where residential dual diagnosis work goes furthest. Depression, anxiety, trauma, and bipolar disorder usually take longer than 30 days to improve. They need more time, and that is what this level of care gives them. Mental health treatment is built into every week. There’s a mental health professional on campus, and nobody is rushing you through it.
One Full Continuum
Where Residential Treatment Fits in the Full Continuum of Addiction Treatment
This program is stage three of six. It comes after high-intensity residential treatment and before intensive outpatient. Every level of care lives inside the same system. So stepping down never means a new provider, a new intake, or telling your story from the start again.
About 3 to 7 days
Medical Detox
Safe drug and alcohol withdrawal with 24-hour nursing at the withdrawal management center in Eden Prairie, for alcohol, opioids, and benzodiazepines.
About 35 to 50 days
Inpatient Rehabilitation
The flagship program: 35 to 50 days of live-in treatment on separate men’s and women’s campuses.
85 to 105 connected days
Low-Intensity Residential
A home with recovery support while you build back your own life.
With or without lodging
Intensive Outpatient
Outpatient treatment that fits around work and family, with a place to stay if needed.
6 to 8 months or longer
Relapse Prevention
Weekly sessions and peer support through the months that matter most. We watch closely for early warning signs.
The rest of the way
Sober Living
Substance-free housing where recovery gets an address.
A Daily Routine That Supports You
What This Stage of Residential Treatment Looks Like
Fewer clinical hours than rehab, more life. The balance shifts week by week, residents help decide the pace, and clinical services still anchor the week.
Your Treatment Continues While Life Picks Back Up
Clients keep their programming blocks, primary groups, and mental health groups. But the clinical day gets shorter as work and school hours grow.
Rebuilding Daily Life With Support
Job searching, classes, appointments, family time. The errands of a real life, done with support and accountability still in place. Case managers and counselors help residents with each step.
A House Where Recovery Comes First
Meals with peers, a peer-led meeting of your choosing, and house rules that keep recovery first. It is a community that expects you to take part and cheers when you do.
Addiction and dual diagnosis
Substance Use and Mental Health Treatment in One Place
Residential dual diagnosis treatment is the reason this level exists at NorthStar Regional. Co-occurring disorders are treated together. Same building, same team, and on the longer timeline that depression, bipolar disorder, and PTSD need. Treating mental health and addiction as one is a step most residential programs still miss. It is how people here find recovery that lasts.
For Addiction
Addiction looks different for every person. So addiction treatment here is different for every person. Every substance we treat, from alcohol to opioids and beyond, has its own page. Each one is explained from the first assessment through sober living.
For Co-Occurring Mental Health Care
At most NorthStar Regional campuses, these conditions are treated with addiction in one plan. You can also get mental health services on their own through our outpatient clinic in Shakopee. No established diagnosis is needed to contact us.
Inside Treatment
Therapies and Evidence-Based Treatment Inside This Program
The addiction counseling core continues from rehab. The focus shifts toward skills that hold outside the building. Your mix is set at the comprehensive assessment and rebuilt as you go through treatment.
Counseling and Mental Health Services
Daily primary groups and mental health groups. Plus therapy sessions with your counselor, one on one.
CBT and DBT-Informed Skills
Noticing the thought, catching the pattern, choosing differently. Plus skills for handling strong emotions and hard moments.
EMDR for Trauma
For many clients, substance use grew around trauma. EMDR helps the brain process traumatic memories that talk therapy alone cannot reach, through steady work.
Family Therapy
Addiction affects relationships, and so does recovery. Family sessions rebuild trust. They teach family members how to help without constant worry.
Life Skills and Employment
Resumes, budgets, benefits, and the daily skills of living on your own. These are rebuilt before discharge. A job and long-term stability belong in the plan.
Comprehensive Assessment
A comprehensive assessment is the starting point for all our services. It is done when you start and updated as you go.
Where this program runs
Residential Programs Across the Twin Cities Metro
Every residential program here is built to connect to the next one. Withdrawal management and inpatient care come first. Low-intensity residential comes next. Outpatient treatment, relapse prevention, and sober living follow after that, all inside one system. You keep your counselor, your records move with you, and support never drops between stages. Clients often tell us this is the first time treatment felt like one path instead of a series of stops and restarts.
Men's Treatment Center | Shakopee
The men’s residential program is on a residential street. It is minutes from our outpatient center.
Men's Treatment Center | Otsego
32 wooded acres on the river, serving the northwest metro, our extended care program for the long stay.
Women's Treatment Center | Chaska
Women step down through the Klein Mansion, right next door to the residential campus.
Our treatment programs serve adults 18 and older, from young adults in recovery for the first time to older adults starting over after decades. We don’t offer residential treatment for children or teens. If that is what you need, still call, and we will point you to the right community resources.
What Recovery Makes Possible
What Life Looks Like After Treatment
Recovery is about the freedom to function. That means a job you can hold, a family that trusts you again, and an ordinary weekday that doesn’t need managing. This is the stage where Minnesotans get their ordinary days back. That means the first paycheck in recovery, the first class, and the first family dinner where nobody worries about whether you have been using. Independence isn’t handed to you at discharge. It is rebuilt here, step by step, by residents who take part in their own recovery, with the program’s structure supporting them. Recovery has to happen this way: slowly and in the right order.
Healing involves the whole family. Every parent, spouse, and child has been worried and waiting too. So family work is part of the program, not an add-on. Our resources for families begin before your loved one ever says yes.
Before You Call
Signs You're Ready for Treatment
If you’re asking whether you have a problem, you probably already suspect the answer. Maybe you’ve hidden it, counted how much you use, promised to stop on Monday, or woken up trying to piece together last night. Maybe you’ve quit before and it didn’t last. You don’t need to hit rock bottom to deserve help, and you don’t need to be certain to start. Being willing for even a minute is enough to make one phone call. Any Minnesota adult can start that way, today.
Being ready doesn’t mean you’re not afraid, and it doesn’t mean you’ve stopped doubting. Be patient with yourself. This is one stage of recovery, and you do not have to pass it like a test. Readiness means you make the decision and let us handle the logistics. If you are willing to call, even for a moment, we will take care of the rest.
Reading this for someone you love? You can start the entire process on their behalf: call, and we will coach you through the conversation. Start with our guides for parents and for spouses and partners.
How Admission Works
What Happens From Your First Call to Your First Night
You did the hard part when you picked up the phone. Here is exactly what happens next, so nothing about day one is a mystery.
You Call and a Real Person Answers
A real person answers, usually within seconds, and asks one short question: substance use, or mental health? There is no phone tree, and you don’t have to tell your life story. We ask only what we need and handle the rest.
We Help with the Details
Our team helps review your benefits, and a short screening covers withdrawal risk, medical needs, and mental health, so you land at the right level of care. Then we schedule you, same day or next day whenever possible.
We Pick You Up
You get reminder calls and texts. Before pickup, your admissions coordinator and your driver call you together, so you know the name, the car, and the timing before it’s in your driveway. In the car: water, Gatorade, snacks, and a bagged lunch. Your driver, most often someone in long-term recovery, helps with your bags.
A Real Person Meets You When You Arrive
Your driver walks you inside and hands you off by name to the team member waiting for you. Your intake team completes your application with you. If you’re hungry, there’s a meal waiting. Treatment starts, and you never carried the logistics.
“The client has done the hard work by picking up the phone. We will carry them the rest of the way.”
Sarah Roy, Executive Vice President
Paying for Care
Insurance and Payment Options
Our team helps review your benefits and handles the paperwork with you. If you have no insurance, we help walk you through enrolling for benefits. County case managers, probation officers, hospitals, and crisis teams send clients to us because, in their words, we just get it done.
Insurance and State Funding
Commercial plans, Medical Assistance (Medicaid), county placements, and private pay. We verify benefits and handle the paperwork with you.
We Are Here to Help
We help review your benefits, find your right starting point, and schedule you for the same day or the next whenever possible. Then we pick you up anywhere in the Twin Cities metro.
Reviews from Google
Why Clients Choose NorthStar Regional
Don’t just take our word for it. Here is what alumni say about their time in treatment.
Who's behind the work
About NorthStar Regional
NorthStar Regional is Minnesota’s treatment system built around access: alcohol and drug treatment centers and mental health care across multiple Twin Cities metro locations. Founded in 2015, we provide one connected continuum: detox (withdrawal management), residential, outpatient, mental health, and a sober housing pathway. Separate men’s and women’s campuses, co-occurring care at designated programs, and no faith requirement set us apart. We accept Medical Assistance (Medicaid) and most major insurers, and if you are uninsured, our admissions team helps you through enrollment. A person can walk in with nothing and leave with everything they need to build a life.
Keep reading
Related Articles and Resources
Resources
Before You Call
How admissions works, guides for families, and the forms you can complete early. More resources are linked throughout the site, or contact admissions and we’ll send anything by email.
Questions we hear every day
Common Questions About Residential Treatment
What is low-intensity residential treatment?
A residential program with clinical structure. You live on campus and keep doing group and individual work. You start going back into ordinary life, work, school, community, with support still around you. It’s the bridge between high-intensity residential treatment and living on your own.
Who are residential treatment centers in MN for?
This level of residential treatment in MN is for adults who have finished the intensive phase of inpatient treatment, or who are starting at this level directly. For them, going straight home would mean returning to the same place where their addiction developed, whether the substance was alcohol or something else. This level is also where dual diagnosis work goes deeper, because life stress comes back gradually, not all at once.
How long does residential treatment last?
Connected care often reaches 85 to 105 days across the residential stages, shaped to your clinical needs rather than a fixed calendar. Clients who complete the full continuum are with NorthStar Regional a year to 18 months.
Is mental health treated here too?
Yes. This program includes co-occurring care. With more time at this level, it’s often where the deepest work on depression, anxiety, trauma, and bipolar disorder happens.
Where does low-intensity residential run?
Low-intensity residential treatment is offered on our men’s campuses in the Twin Cities metro, and each campus has the same clinical and mental health services. Women move from residential care to IOP with lodging at the Klein Mansion in Chaska.
What comes after?
Intensive outpatient treatment (with or without lodging) comes next, then our relapse prevention program with continuing care for 6 to 8 months or longer. After that comes the sober living path. Every one of these programs runs inside the same system: same records, same support, no starting over.
Will insurance cover it?
Coverage depends on your plan, the service, eligibility, and authorization requirements. Our team helps review your benefits and available payment options. Benefits verification is not a guarantee of payment.
Admissions
Make the First Call and We'll Take It from There
Confidential, no obligation, and answered by someone who knows what you’re facing and cares to listen.