Substance Use

Alcohol use care, built around you.

Outpatient alcohol use disorder treatment in Lakeway, Texas. CBT, motivational interviewing, and FDA-approved medication options, prescribed from a 2 to 3 day comprehensive assessment and delivered across four levels of care. Same-day or next-day admission.

Start a conversation 512.743.9285
Same-day or next-day admission Prescribed care plan Most insurance accepted
A white man in his late 30s standing three-quarter profile at a sun-warmed warm white-oak kitchen island in a modern Hill Country contemporary kitchen, both hands resting palms-down on the island, calm grounded gaze through a tall paned window above the sink, with potted basil on the windowsill in warm late-morning light.

Recognizing Alcohol Use Disorder

Treatable, and treated specifically.

Alcohol use disorder is a clinical condition with defined criteria, named modalities, and three FDA-approved medications. Your plan begins with recognition, then a written treatment plan, then the level of care that fits.

According to the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 27.1 million US adults, or 10.3 percent of adults 18 and over, had alcohol use disorder in the past year, and just 7.5 percent of them received any alcohol treatment that year (NIAAA). The gap between the people who would benefit from care and the people receiving it is wider for alcohol than for almost any other treatable condition. The Stepwell Center treats AUD as the clinical condition it is, with a written plan and a defined modality mix, alongside the other substance use conditions we cover, rather than as a willpower problem.

The recognition signs are usually quieter than crisis. Drinking that began as social or recreational has crept upward, tolerance has built, mornings feel harder, and attempts to cut back have not held. Work, sleep, and relationships start to organize around the pattern. The clinical definition follows that pattern. AUD is diagnosed when at least two of eleven criteria appear in a twelve-month period, with severity rated mild, moderate, or severe by how many criteria are present (NIAAA). Outpatient care is appropriate across that range when the assessment indicates the level of structure that fits.

Your plan begins with a 2 to 3 day comprehensive assessment that integrates clinical interview, qEEG brain mapping, pharmacogenetic testing when medication is on the table, and standardized psychological testing. The output is a written care plan that names the modalities, the medication considerations including the FDA-approved options for AUD, and the level of care that fits your clinical profile. The plan is delivered across PHP, IOP, Evening IOP, and Outpatient at our Lakeway, Texas facility in the Lake Travis corridor, by the same clinical team across each step.

How We Treat Alcohol Use Disorder

Six modalities, combined.

Specific evidence-based modalities, named in your prescribed plan rather than left implicit. Your combination is selected from these and others based on your assessment.

  1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

    CBT is the most studied first-line behavioral treatment for AUD. Sessions identify the thought-feeling-behavior loops that lead to use, then rehearse new responses in structured exercises. The primary modality for most Stepwell alcohol plans, often paired with relapse prevention.

  2. Motivational Interviewing

    A collaborative, change-focused conversation that strengthens your own reasons for change rather than imposing them. Used early in every plan to align the work to where readiness actually sits, then woven through later phases as ambivalence shifts.

  3. Medication for AUD

    Three medications are FDA-approved for alcohol use disorder: naltrexone, acamprosate, and disulfiram. When clinically indicated, your prescribed plan names the option that fits, with selection informed by clinical interview and pharmacogenetic testing rather than trial and error.

  4. Dialectical Behavior Therapy

    DBT skills work in distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. A strong fit when the alcohol picture sits alongside mood instability, trauma reactivity, or self-criticism that has driven prior relapse cycles.

  5. Group and Family Therapy

    Process and skills groups complete the weekly mix in PHP and IOP. Family or partner sessions are integrated when the assessment identifies household dynamics that maintain the drinking pattern, rather than offered as an optional add-on.

  6. Coordinated Medical Care

    Withdrawal-management coordination, medication oversight, and referral for medically supervised detox when assessment indicates it is needed first. Handled by your care team, with the prescribed plan in place when outpatient begins.

A Hispanic-Latina woman in her late 40s standing three-quarter profile at the wide weathered cedar railing of a covered Hill Country back deck, hands resting loosely on the railing, calm reflective gaze across native silver salvia, agave, terracotta-potted lavender, and a soft Hill Country horizon in late golden afternoon light.

The Prescribed Care Model

One plan, delivered across four levels.

Alcohol use disorder rarely arrives as a single problem. Sleep, mood, work performance, and family life have usually been organizing around the drinking for years, and a plan that treats only the alcohol side tends to leave the rest pulling the pattern back into place. Stepwell's Prescribed Care Model assembles a plan that holds the whole picture.

After your assessment, your prescribed plan names the level of care, the modality mix, and the medication considerations that fit you specifically. You might begin in PHP for the first weeks of stabilization, then step down to IOP across three or more days per week, then continue in standard Outpatient as stability holds, all with the same clinical team. If daytime sessions are not workable, Evening IOP delivers the same content after hours, often the entry point for working adults in the Lake Travis area looking for outpatient alcohol care that fits a real schedule.

Many alcohol plans interlock with related work. Depression and anxiety commonly travel with AUD, and unprocessed trauma often sits underneath both the drinking and the mood symptoms. Integrated dual diagnosis care addresses each thread inside one plan rather than handing pieces off, and integrated treatment has stronger outcomes on both alcohol and psychiatric measures than treating either condition separately (SAMHSA).

By the Numbers

Alcohol use disorder in perspective .

US adults with past-year AUD

US adults with past-year AUD

10.3% of adults 18 and over, NIAAA 2024

Received any alcohol treatment

Received any alcohol treatment

Among adults with past-year AUD, NIAAA

Day assessment

Day assessment

Before any plan is written

Levels of care

Levels of care

PHP, IOP, Evening IOP, Outpatient

Find the level that fits.

Begin admission 512.743.9285

Common Questions

What people ask about alcohol use disorder treatment.

Pulled from the questions families and prospective patients ask most often when considering outpatient alcohol care.

Clinical Perspective

Alcohol use disorder responds to the same thing every chronic condition responds to, which is a specific plan, written for the person in front of you, delivered at the level of intensity the assessment actually calls for. The willpower frame keeps people out of care for years. The clinical frame, with named modalities and the right medication when it fits, is what changes the pattern.

The Stepwell clinical team