Admissions And Getting Started

Key Takeaways:

Customized treatment for teens ages 11–18 navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, substance use, and more
Trauma-informed therapists
Evidence-based therapies, including CBT, DBT, Seeking Safety, and exposure therapy
Most insurance accepted

Getting your teen into treatment is straightforward at Bricolage Behavioral Health. From the original phone call to the first day of treatment, our admissions team will walk you through every step so you're never left guessing what comes next or whether you're making the right decision.

Did you know that more than 1.2 million Texas children under 18 report having at least one mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral problem? That's 20% of all Texas youth.

Watching your teen go through something difficult and not knowing what to do about it is one of the most isolating feelings a parent can have. You might be wondering if what you're seeing is serious enough to act on, whether your insurance will cover it, or how to even begin the conversation with your teen.

Taking that first step is hard.
But you don't have to figure any of it out alone.

At Bricolage Behavioral Health, we've designed our admissions process to be as clear and low-pressure as possible. We know that families coming to us are often already exhausted. The last thing you need is a complicated, confusing intake process on top of everything else. This page walks you through exactly what to expect from the first phone call to the first day of treatment and everything in between.

The First Call: What to Expect

The first call to Bricolage is a conversation, not a commitment.

You'll speak with a member of our admissions team who is there to listen, answer your questions, and help you figure out whether Bricolage is the right fit for your teen. There's no obligation and no pressure.

Here's what that first call typically looks like:

What we'll ask you:

What are you seeing in your teen, and how long has it been going on?
Has your teen received any prior mental health treatment?
How is your teen functioning at school and at home right now?
Are there any immediate safety concerns we should be aware of?
What insurance do you have?

These questions help us understand your teen's situation quickly so we can give you useful, accurate information from the very first conversation, not a generic pitch.

What you should ask us:

Is Bricolage the right level of care for what my teen is experiencing?
What does a typical day look like in your program?
How quickly can we get started?
What will my insurance cover, and what will I owe out of pocket?
How will my teen's school be kept in the loop?

No question is too small. Our admissions team is available 24/7, 7 days a week. If we’re on the other line when you call, just leave a message and we’ll call you back.

Psychological Assessment & Admissions Criteria

Our admissions process starts with a psychological evaluation. We can usually see your child the next day after a call. Our assessment takes about an hour, 45 minutes with your teen and 15 minutes with a parent or guardian for additional information and to go over results. Bricolage Behavioral Health is a specialized program, and being the right fit for your teen matters more to us than filling a spot. Here is a clear picture of who we serve and what we look for during the admissions process.

Who we serve:

Teens ages 11 to 17 (18 if still enrolled in high school)
Adolescents navigating mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, trauma, PTSD, OCD, eating disorders, self-harm, suicidal ideation, school avoidance, and anger management concerns
Teens with co-occurring substance use disorders are treated as dual diagnosis alongside the underlying mental health condition
Families served by commercial insurance: we are in-network with Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Baylor Scott White, Optum, Anthem, and UnitedHealthcare.

What we look for: During the admissions process, our clinical team evaluates several factors to determine whether Bricolage is the right level of care and the right fit:

The severity and nature of the presenting symptoms
Current level of functioning at school and at home
Safety – whether the teen can safely attend an outpatient program or requires a higher level of care
Prior treatment history and what has or hasn't worked before
Family availability and willingness to be involved in the process
Insurance coverage and logistical fit with our program schedule

If a teen's needs exceed what our outpatient programs can safely address – for example, if they require 24-hour supervision or acute inpatient stabilization – we will make that clear and help guide the family toward the appropriate next step.

We would rather point you in the right direction than admit a teen who needs something different.

Pre-Admission Assessments

Before treatment begins, every teen goes through a comprehensive assessment. This is not a formality — it is the foundation of everything that comes after. A thorough understanding of your teen's history, strengths, challenges, and goals is what allows us to build a treatment plan that actually works.

The pre-admission assessment at Bricolage is a biopsychosocial evaluation, which means it looks at the full picture: the biological, psychological, and social factors shaping your teen's mental health.

Here is what it covers:

Current symptoms and how long they have been present
Mental health and medical history
Family history and home environment
School performance and attendance patterns
Peer relationships and social functioning
Substance use history, if applicable
Trauma history and adverse childhood experiences
Safety assessment, including any history of self-harm or suicidal ideation
Your teen's own goals – what they want to get out of treatment

The assessment is conducted by one of our masters level therapists and typically involves both the teen and the parent or guardian. We want to hear from both of you; your perspective as a parent and your teen's perspective on their own experience are both essential to building an accurate picture.

After the assessment is complete, our clinical team reviews the findings and develops a personalized treatment recommendation. You will hear back from us quickly – we know waiting is hard.

Note that if your teen is currently in inpatient or residential, it is possible for us to do a virtual assessment so that they can step down immediately into our program upon discharge.

Personalized Treatment Recommendation

No two teens are the same, and no two treatment plans at Bricolage are the same.

The goal of the assessment process is not to assign a label – it is to understand the specific pattern of challenges driving your teen's behavior and determine the level of care and approach most likely to help them.

After the assessment, our clinical team will make one of the following recommendations:

Recommendation	What It Means
Day Treatment (PHP)	Your teen needs intensive, daily structured support. They will attend Monday–Friday, 9:30 AM–3:30 PM, returning home each evening.
Intensive Outpatient (IOP)	Your teen needs meaningful therapeutic support but is ready for a less intensive schedule. They will attend on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9:30 AM–12:30 PM.
Higher level of care	Your teen's needs exceed what outpatient treatment can safely address right now. We will help connect you with the appropriate next step.
Step down from PHP to IOP	Your teen begins in PHP and transitions to IOP after approximately six weeks as they make progress. This is the most common pathway at Bricolage.

The treatment recommendation conversation happens with the family present. We explain our reasoning, answer your questions, and make sure you feel confident in the plan before anything is confirmed. This is a collaborative process, not a decision made about your teen without you.

Treatment plans at Bricolage are also not static. We reassess every teen bi-weekly throughout the program to ensure the level of care and clinical approach continue to reflect where they actually are – not where they were when they started.

Insurance Verification

We accept most major commercial insurance plans and will handle the verification process for you. Our admissions team will confirm your coverage, identify your benefits for PHP and IOP, and walk you through any expected costs before treatment begins.

Insurance plans we currently accept:

Aetna
Cigna
Humana
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Anthem
Optum
Baylor Scott White
UnitedHealthcare

If you are unsure whether your plan is in-network, the easiest way to find out is to submit your information through our insurance verification form. Fill out the form, and our admissions team will follow up within one business day with your coverage details.

You can also call us directly, and our team will handle the verification process from there. Either way, you will have a clear picture of your coverage before anything begins.

Out-of-Pocket Costs After Insurance

Cost is one of the most common reasons families delay getting help – and one of the things that most often turns out to be less of a barrier than expected. With in-network insurance coverage, the majority of treatment costs are covered by your plan. What you owe out of pocket depends on your specific benefits.

The main factors that affect your out-of-pocket costs are:

Your deductible: how much you need to pay before insurance kicks in, and how much of it you have already met for the year
Your copay or coinsurance: your share of the cost per session or per day of treatment
Your out-of-pocket maximum: once you hit this number, insurance covers 100% of covered services for the rest of the plan year
Your level of care: PHP and IOP have different billing structures, and your coverage for each may differ

After verifying your insurance, our admissions team will walk you through exactly what to expect before treatment begins – including any remaining deductibles and estimated copays. There are no surprises. If you have questions about payment beyond what insurance covers, call our admissions team directly at 469-968-5700, and they will work through the specifics with you.

Practical Preparation - How to Get Ready

Once the assessment is complete and a treatment plan is in place, most families find themselves asking the same question: Now what?

Starting treatment is a significant transition for your teen and for your whole family. The weeks ahead will look different from what you're used to. That's not a bad thing. But it does help to go in prepared. The practical steps below are designed to help you get organized, set the right expectations, and give your teen the best possible start.

How to Talk to Your Teen About Starting Treatment

This is the step many parents dread the most.
And it's understandable …

Bringing up mental health treatment with a teenager can feel like defusing a bomb. Say the wrong thing and the conversation shuts down entirely. Get it right, and you open a door that changes everything.

Here are the most important things to keep in mind:

Lead with curiosity, not conclusions. Rather than telling your teen what's wrong with them or what they need to do, start by asking what their experience has been like. "I've noticed you seem really exhausted lately. What's going on for you?" is a better opening than "You need help."

Separate treatment from punishment. Many teens hear "I'm sending you to therapy" as "you are in trouble" or "is something wrong with you?" Be explicit that this is not a consequence, it's support. "I want to get you help because I love you, not because I'm punishing you" is a sentence worth saying out loud.

Be honest about what the program looks like. Surprises feel like betrayals to teenagers. Tell your teen where they're going, what the schedule is, that they'll be with other teens going through similar things, and that they'll be home every evening. The more they know, the less threatening it feels.

Don't oversell it. Telling your teen it will be great and that they'll love it sets expectations that may not align with the first few days. It's okay to say, "I don't know exactly how it'll feel at first, but I'll be here the whole time, and we'll figure it out together."

Expect resistance – and don't let it derail you. A teen saying "I don't want to go" is not a reason to abandon the plan. It's developmentally normal. Hold the line with warmth. "I hear you, and we're still going."

At Bricolage, we actively work to build teen buy-in from the very first session. We don't impose goals from the outside; we help teens identify what they actually want for themselves and show them how treatment helps them get there. The internal motivation that creates rarely comes before day one. It builds once they're there.

Travel Arrangements

Bricolage Behavioral Health is an outpatient program, which means your teen comes to us each day and returns home each evening. Transportation to and from the facility is the family's responsibility. Teens with a driver’s license may drive themselves.

We are located at: 3204 Long Prairie Road, Suite A, Flower Mound, TX 75022

We are conveniently situated in Flower Mound and easily accessible from communities throughout the DFW area, including Copper Canyon, Highland Village, Lewisville, Argyle, Denton, Southlake, and surrounding communities. Most families find the commute to be straightforward and manageable.

If you need directions or have questions about getting here, call us at 469-968-5700, and we'll help.

Preparing Your Teen for Their First Day: What To Bring and What Not To Bring

Because Bricolage is a day program, not a residential facility, so there is no packing list in the traditional sense. Your teen is not moving in. They come to us in the morning and return home each evening, which means the practical prep is minimal.

The most important things to have ready before the first day are any current medications your teen takes, clearly labeled with dosage instructions, and any schoolwork or materials they may want to have on hand during the optional afternoon academic support time in our PHP program.

Beyond that, our admissions team will walk you through anything specific to your teen's situation before day one. Just ask.

Teens are not allowed to bring:

Cell phones (all phones are collected prior to the start of group and kept in a locked room near the front desk). Phones are returned after group is done for the day.
Alcohol, drugs, smoking, or vaping. This includes clothing that promotes the use of such as well.
Weapons or sharp objects of any kind. All teens are scanned with a metal detector prior to group.
Food or drink besides water

Teens may bring their backpacks, but these are kept in a locked safe during group. Teens may also bring one stuffy or one blanket as a comfort object.

What Role Does the Family Play During Treatment?

Family involvement is an important component of treatment at Bricolage.

Research on adolescent mental health is consistent on this point: teens whose families are actively engaged in the treatment process make faster progress and maintain that progress longer after discharge.

Here is what family involvement looks like in practice at each level of care:

During PHP (Day Treatment):

Scheduled family therapy sessions are built directly into the program on a bi-weekly basis or as needed
Regular communication between our clinical team and parents throughout treatment
Parent coaching on how to support your teen's progress at home – and how to avoid inadvertently undermining it
Regular clinical updates so you always know where your teen stands

During IOP:

Ongoing communication with our clinical team
Family involvement in discharge planning as your teen approaches the end of the program
Guidance on what to watch for after treatment ends and how to respond if things get harder

Throughout both programs:

You are encouraged to reach out to our team with questions or concerns at any time
We will never leave you in the dark about your teen's progress
If something significant happens – a safety concern, a major clinical development – you will hear from us directly

The work that happens in the therapy room matters enormously, but so does what happens at home. We will equip you with the tools and communication strategies to make home a place that supports your teen's recovery – not one that works against it.

What Happens When You Arrive

The first day of treatment can feel overwhelming for both teens and parents – but knowing what to expect makes it easier. Doors open at 9:15 for teens and families.

When you arrive at Bricolage for your teen's first day, here is what the experience typically looks like:

Check in with the front desk. You'll be greeted by a staff member who will confirm your paperwork, answer any last-minute questions, and walk you and your teen through what the day will look like. All parents & guardians must sign their child in and out each day using the sign-in sheet at the front desk.
Brief orientation. Your teen will get a quick overview of the program – the schedule, the expectations, where things are, and who their primary clinician will be. This is kept low-key intentionally. The goal is to reduce anxiety, not add to it.
Meeting the group. Your teen will be introduced to the other teens in the program. Groups at Bricolage are intentionally small to foster genuine connection. Most teens find this moment less intimidating than they expected.
The first session begins. Treatment starts on day one. There's no lengthy settling-in period. Our clinical team is trained to bring even the most resistant teens into the group in a way that feels safe and manageable.
Parent departure. Once your teen is settled, you'll say goodbye and head out. For many parents, this is the hardest moment. Our staff is there to support both of you through it.

Pick-up at the end of the day follows the same basic routine. Your teen checks out with a staff member, and you're reunited. The first evening home is a good time to keep things low-key, let your teen decompress, and resist the urge to debrief every detail of the day.

What Does a Typical Day at Bricolage Look Like?

One of the most common questions parents ask before enrollment is, "What is my teen actually doing all day?" It's a fair question, and the answer is one of the things that sets Bricolage apart.

The chart below shows the daily schedule for both programs side by side:

Time	PHP (Day Treatment)	IOP (Intensive Outpatient)
9:30 AM	Program begins	Program begins
9:30 AM – 1:30 PM	Whole-group therapy sessions	Whole-group therapy sessions
1:30 PM – 23:30 PM	Optional academic support with an educational liaison	Program ends – teen returns home or to school
23:30 PM	Program ends – teen returns home	NA
Days	Monday–Friday	Monday, Wednesday, Friday only

What's happening during those therapy hours matters just as much as the schedule itself. At Bricolage, group therapy is not a room full of teens taking turns talking to a therapist while everyone else waits.

Every teen is actively engaged throughout the entire session through:

Focus tasks: structured exercises that build specific skills
Pair work: working directly with another teen to practice communication and perspective-taking
Project-based activities: collaborative work that mirrors real-world problem-solving
Role play: practicing new responses to difficult situations in a safe environment

These aren't filler activities. They are the mechanism through which real skill-building happens and the reason that teens leave Bricolage with tools they can actually use, not just insights they've talked about.

How Long Will Treatment Take? – What to Tell Your Teen's School, Friends, and Family

Treatment length at Bricolage varies based on each teen's individual progress, but most families can plan around the following timeline:

PHP (Day Treatment): approximately 6 weeks, Monday through Friday
IOP (Intensive Outpatient): approximately 6 weeks, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Total average program length: approximately 12 weeks

This timeline is a guide, not a guarantee. Some teens progress more quickly; others need more time. We reassess each teen weekly throughout treatment and adjust as needed. There is no pressure to finish by a certain date. The goal is for your teen to leave with the skills and stability they need, whenever that happens.

What to tell the school:

You don't need to share a diagnosis or disclose the specifics of your teen's treatment. What the school needs to know is that your teen will be absent for a period of time due to a medical reason. Our educational liaison handles the communication with the school directly – coordinating on attendance, coursework, and accommodations so that your teen doesn't fall behind academically during treatment. And, if you decide to involve the school, they are generally accommodating and can help with a 504 plan.

What to tell friends:

This is entirely your family's decision, and there is no single right answer. Some families are open about where their teen is and why. Others keep it private and offer a simple, vague explanation. Either is okay. What matters most is that your teen feels supported in whatever story they're comfortable with, not pressured to explain or justify where they've been.

What to tell extended family:

Again, this is your call. What we'd encourage is being thoughtful about who you tell and how, particularly with family members who may respond with judgment, unsolicited opinions, or minimizing comments. Your teen's treatment is protected health information, and you are under no obligation to share it with anyone.

What About School?

School is one of the biggest concerns parents have when they consider treatment.

And understandably so.

The fear that their teen will fall behind academically, miss important milestones, or have difficulties reintegrating is real and valid. At Bricolage, we've built academic support directly into the program so that getting better and staying on track with school are not competing priorities.

Here is how it works:

The educational liaison: Bricolage has a dedicated educational liaison who maintains a direct line of communication with your teen's school throughout treatment. They coordinate on attendance, assignments, and accommodations. You don't have to manage that relationship yourself – we do it for you.
Enrollment stays intact: Your teen remains enrolled at their current school throughout the entire program. They do not lose their spot, their grade level, or their academic standing.
Optional academic support: During PHP, teens have access to a structured study hall from 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM each afternoon. This is an optional but highly encouraged opportunity for teens to complete assignments, get help with coursework, and stay caught up while they're in the program.

The goal is simple: treatment should not cost your teen their education.

And at Bricolage, it doesn't.

Why Choose Bricolage for Your Teen’s Mental Health Treatment

Choosing the right program for your teen is one of the most important decisions you'll make. Here is what makes Bricolage different from every other teen mental health program in the DFW area.

Whole-group engagement, not round-robin talk therapy. Every teen in the room is actively participating throughout every session through focus tasks, pair work, role play, and project-based activities. Bored teens don't make progress. Engaged teens do.
We treat the "why," not just the diagnosis. A diagnosis tells us what to call the problem. We dig into the specific reasons behind it – the experiences, the skill gaps, the unmet needs – and build treatment around those. That's what creates change that lasts.
Your teen's goals drive the process. We never impose a recovery agenda from the outside. We help teens connect their current patterns to what they actually want for themselves – and then give them the skills to get there.
Strength-based from day one. Every teen has something to build on. We start there, not with a list of deficits.
Real skills, not just insights. Emotional regulation, assertive communication, trigger identification, goal setting, and coping strategies. Teens leave Bricolage with tools they can actually use in real life, not just things they talked about in a room.
Medication-independence by design. We use medication judiciously when it's clinically appropriate; as a catalyst, not a centerpiece. Our goal is always medication independence.
Family is part of the program. Family therapy is built into PHP. Parents stay informed and equipped at every level of care. Recovery doesn't happen in a vacuum, and we don't treat it like it does.
Your teen stays in school. Our educational liaison works directly with your teen's school throughout treatment. They stay enrolled, stay on track, and don't fall behind.
Joint Commission accredited. Independently verified. Rigorous standards for safety, quality, and clinical practice. Not every program can say that.
In-network with major insurance. Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and UnitedHealthcare. Our admissions team handles verification and walks you through costs before anything begins.

Get Your Teen Treatment For Mental Health With Bricolage

If you're ready to take the next step, we're ready to help you take it.

The admissions process at Bricolage is designed to be simple, transparent, and low-pressure. One phone call is all it takes to find out whether we're the right fit, what your insurance covers, and how quickly your teen can get started. You can also start the insurance verification process online – just fill out the form and our admissions team will follow up within one business day.

We're available 24/7, 7 days a week at 469-968-5700.