Virtual IOP in Minnesota
NorthStar Regional delivers virtual therapy in Minnesota through Virtual IOP, our full intensive outpatient treatment, live from your own home. Real groups meet over secure video with the same people every week, alongside individual sessions with a counselor who stays yours. Mental health and substance use are treated together in one plan, from any county in the state. We built this telehealth IOP for adults kept away from a campus by distance, work, or childcare. We accept Medical Assistance (Medicaid) and most major insurers, and the program is the same one our in-person clients receive.
The program at a glance
Virtual IOP
From home
VIRTUAL CARE
The full intensive outpatient program, live over secure video. You join the same groups and individual sessions as our in-person clients, from anywhere in Minnesota.
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
Distance was never the problem
Why Online Therapy at IOP Intensity Works
For a lot of Minnesota residents, the barrier to treatment was never willingness. It was eighty miles of highway, a shift schedule, a farm, a toddler, or limited access to mental health services in a thinly covered county. Online therapy also removes a barrier people rarely talk about: the fear of being seen walking into a treatment center. People drop out of outpatient care for one reason more than any other, and that is getting there. Online therapy removes that too. With telehealth, you get support where you are. No commute, no waiting room, no office. You do the treatment work from home, around your normal day.
The program is not weaker because it is on a screen, and research on outpatient care given by telehealth suggests as much. Treatment proven by research works when it is delivered consistently, and attendance is usually better online than in person. Groups are live and kept small, the group members are the same every week, and your therapist stays yours. Co-occurring care stays intact, with depression, anxiety, and trauma treated in the same plan as substance use. Many clients tell us honesty comes easier from their own home.
One Full Continuum
Where Virtual Therapy Fits in the Full Continuum
Virtual IOP is stage four of our levels of care, delivered online instead of on campus. You can step into it from residential care or start here. You can move up or down within the same system whenever your treatment plan calls for it. That includes a higher level of care if symptoms need more than weekly therapy from home.
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.
What to Expect
A Virtual IOP Week: The Sample Schedule
The program takes up a few blocks of your week, and the rest of your life goes on as usual. Here is a sample schedule to make the time commitment concrete:
Live Video Groups
Several live, interactive online sessions each week on a set schedule, with the same group each time. Everyone talks and takes part, like a group meeting in a room, not a lecture you watch.
Weekly Check-Ins on Your Treatment Plan
A one-on-one telehealth therapy session that tracks your treatment plan. Mental health sessions with a therapist as the plan calls for. And medication management through our medical partner where it helps. Your therapist adjusts the plan with you, week by week.
The Five-Minute Setup
A private space, a camera, and our detailed information sheet on the telehealth setup, sent before you start. The platform is secure and meets HIPAA privacy rules. We run a test call by phone or video before your first group. So day one is about you, not the tech.
Addiction and dual diagnosis
Treating Substance Use and Mental Health Together
Co-occurring care is part of the program at full strength. Depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, trauma, and ADHD are treated in the same virtual sessions as substance use. New skills, like handling strong emotions, are practiced where you will use them, in daily life. Rural Minnesota has the state’s thinnest mental health coverage, so this program is how we treat people outside the metro. Living far from a clinic does not keep anyone from getting care.
For Addiction
Every substance we treat is explained on its own page, from the first assessment through sober living.
For Mental Health
At designated NorthStar Regional campuses, these conditions, depression above all, are treated along with addiction as co-occurring care, in one plan. Mental health treatment on its own is also offered, with no established diagnosis needed to contact us. It runs through our outpatient clinic in Shakopee.
Inside Treatment
Therapies and Services Inside This Program
The same therapy services proven by research, delivered live by licensed clinicians. Your therapies are chosen at the comprehensive assessment and adjusted as you go. So the right therapist and the right fit stay yours.
Counseling and Mental Health Services
Primary groups, mental health groups, and one-on-one sessions with your counselor, a licensed therapist who stays yours. It is structured support, on a schedule your week can keep.
CBT and DBT-Informed Skills
Noticing the thought, catching the pattern (including anxiety loops), and choosing differently. Plus skills for handling strong emotions and getting through distress. These skills work the same on a screen as in a room.
EMDR for Trauma
Many clients’ substance use grew around trauma and past experiences that never got safe to talk about. For them, EMDR helps the brain reprocess what talk alone can’t reach.
Family Therapy
Addiction affects relationships, and so does recovery. Family therapy sessions rebuild trust and teach the family how to help. Joining from different screens often makes the hardest talks easier to start.
Comprehensive Assessment
A comprehensive assessment, rebuilt as you go. So the therapy matches the person, not the diagnosis code.
Telehealth Support
Simple setup steps, a test call, and a team you can contact to fix tech problems. That way a tech problem never costs you a therapy session or a program day.
Where this program runs
One Virtual Program for Every County
Anywhere in Minnesota
Clients join live from any county, any town, any kitchen table. Virtual therapy reaches adults and young adults across the whole state of Minnesota. Even the smallest town can get support.
In Person at Our Twin Cities Campuses
Move to in-person IOP, or IOP with lodging, whenever the plan calls for it. That can be a single in-person visit or a full transfer. It stays inside the same system with the same records.
When Home Isn't the Answer
If home isn’t safe for recovery, we say so and bring you in. That may mean residential care, where you live at the treatment center. It may mean something closer to a partial hospitalization program elsewhere. Whatever your situation needs.
What Recovery Makes Possible
What Life Looks Like After Treatment
Recovery is about the freedom to function: a job you can hold, a family that trusts you again, an ordinary weekday that doesn’t need managing. Virtual IOP is treatment that fits around a working Minnesota life. You can milk the cows before group, get the kids on the bus, cover your shift, and make school pickup. You don’t have to leave your job, family, and home to get treatment. Families gain too, because they see your recovery happen at home instead of hearing about it by phone. That is the benefit clients name first: treatment that fits into daily life.
And healing involves the whole family. Parents, spouses, and kids have been living with the stress too. So family work is part of the program, not an add-on. Our support for families starts before your loved one ever says yes.
Before You Call
Signs You're Ready for Treatment
If you are asking the question, part of you already knows the answer. Maybe you’ve hidden it, counted it, promised Monday, or woken up doing math about last night. Maybe you’ve quit before and it didn’t hold. You don’t need to lose everything before you deserve help, and you don’t need to be certain to start. If you feel ready to get help, even for a moment, that is enough to make one phone call. We can work out the schedule and the technology after that.
Being ready doesn’t mean you’re not afraid, and it doesn’t mean you’ve stopped doubting. It means you make the decision and let us handle the logistics. You only need one moment of willingness. We handle everything after that.
Reading this for someone you love? You can start the entire process on their behalf: contact us, and we’ll coach 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 Virtual IOP
What is a virtual IOP?
It is the full intensive outpatient program for adults 18 and older. Live, secure video delivers it at full clinical strength. You get several group therapy sessions a week, plus one-on-one sessions with your therapist. They treat mental health and substance use together, whether the main problem is alcohol, drugs, anxiety, or all three. Same clinical program, same team, no commute.
Is virtual therapy in Minnesota as effective as in person?
For IOP-level care, research backs telehealth again and again. Our clients’ attendance is usually better from home. One caveat: if your assessment shows home isn’t a safe place to recover, or your symptoms need more structure, your therapist will say so and we will bring you in. The right fit matters more than the format, and we will tell you if this is not a good fit.
Does insurance coverage include virtual therapy?
Almost always, yes. Minnesota requires most plans to cover telehealth like an in person visit. We take Medicaid (Medical Assistance), most major insurance networks, public funding, and private pay. First, we check what your plan covers.
I'm a new parent. Can I do treatment from home?
Yes. You are exactly who this program was built for: new parents, shift workers, students, farmers eighty miles from the nearest group, adults with full lives. The program schedules around real weeks, your therapist works with your schedule, and childcare stops being the reason treatment waits.
What does the IOP schedule look like?
Several live online sessions per week in set evening or daytime blocks, plus a weekly one-on-one therapy session. The sample schedule above shows the shape. Your assessment sets the actual time commitment, and hours step down as you progress.
What do I need at home?
A private space, a camera or a phone, and an internet connection. Any device works. We send detailed information before you start, the platform is secure, and a test call makes sure the tech never costs you a session.
Can I switch between virtual and in-person?
Yes, that’s the point of one connected network of care: move to a campus group, add lodging, or step up to residential care whenever the treatment plan calls for it. Clients keep their team, their records, and their momentum.
Who is virtual IOP not right for?
Adults who need medical detox first, anyone whose home makes recovery unsafe, and anyone whose symptoms need more structure than a few evenings a week. Your comprehensive assessment sorts this out. If you need more, we treat that here too, in person, in the right program.
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.