Substance Use

Opioid use care, built around you.

Outpatient opioid use disorder treatment in Lakeway, Texas. CBT, contingency management, and FDA-approved medications for opioid use disorder, prescribed from a 2 to 3 day comprehensive assessment and delivered across four levels of care. Same-day or next-day admission.

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Same-day or next-day admission Prescribed care plan Most insurance accepted
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Recognizing Opioid Use Disorder

Treatable, and treated specifically.

Opioid 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.

An estimated 4.8 million people in the United States had opioid use disorder in 2024, the second most common drug use disorder after cannabis (SAMHSA NSDUH). Yet only about one in five US adults with OUD received any medication for the condition in the most recently reported year, even though medications for opioid use disorder are the single most effective treatment available (NIDA). The Stepwell Center treats OUD as the clinical condition it is, with a written plan, named modalities, and the medication options that fit your case, alongside the other substance use conditions we cover.

Recognition is rarely a single moment. Use that began with a prescription has shifted to higher doses or shorter intervals between refills, or use that began illicitly has become a daily organizing pressure. Tolerance has built, withdrawal has appeared between doses, work and family life have started to bend around the pattern, and prior attempts to stop have not held. The clinical definition follows that picture. OUD is diagnosed when at least two of eleven criteria appear in a twelve-month period, with severity rated mild, moderate, or severe (NIDA). 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 OUD, 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 Opioid 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. Medications for Opioid Use Disorder

    Three medications are FDA-approved for OUD: buprenorphine, methadone, and extended-release naltrexone. Methadone and buprenorphine are associated with reduced risk of overdose death. When clinically indicated, your prescribed plan names the option that fits, with selection informed by clinical history and pharmacogenetic testing.

  2. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

    CBT is a first-line behavioral treatment for OUD and pairs effectively with MOUD. Sessions identify the thought-feeling-behavior loops that lead to use, then rehearse new responses in structured exercises. The primary behavioral modality in most Stepwell opioid plans.

  3. 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 across the course of care.

  4. Contingency Management

    A structured incentive approach with strong evidence for opioid and stimulant use disorders. Verifiable abstinence is reinforced with predefined rewards, reshaping the daily decision loop. Used alongside MOUD and CBT rather than instead of them.

  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 use pattern, rather than offered as an optional add-on.

  6. Coordinated Medical Care

    Withdrawal-management coordination, medication oversight, naloxone access and education, 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.

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The Prescribed Care Model

One plan, delivered across four levels.

Opioid use disorder rarely arrives as a single problem. Pain, sleep, mood, work performance, and family life have usually been organizing around the use for months or years, and a plan that treats only the opioid 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 strategy that fits 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 and continued MOUD where indicated. 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 opioid care that fits a real schedule.

Many opioid plans interlock with related work. Depression and anxiety commonly travel with OUD, unprocessed trauma often sits underneath the use, and chronic pain frequently shapes how the pattern began. Integrated dual diagnosis care addresses each thread inside one plan rather than handing pieces off, and integrated treatment has stronger outcomes on both substance use and psychiatric measures than treating either condition separately (SAMHSA).

By the Numbers

Opioid use disorder in perspective .

US adults with past-year OUD

US adults with past-year OUD

Second most common drug use disorder, NSDUH 2024

Received any MOUD

Received any MOUD

Among US adults with OUD, NIDA 2023

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 opioid use disorder treatment.

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

Clinical Perspective

Opioid use disorder responds to a clinical frame: the right medication when it fits, paired with the behavioral work that holds the pattern in place, at the level of intensity the assessment actually calls for. The pattern is not a question of willpower. The medication options exist, the evidence is settled, and the plan changes when it is written for the person in front of you.

The Stepwell clinical team