Verve Behavioral Health IOP

In my experience, Verve takes client care seriously and deserves to be recognized as a great option for treatment in NWDC. What makes a program great is the team that operates it and the staff members that work closely with their clients and Verve has an excellent group of staff members. I would recommend my own close friends and family for this program!

Proud graduate, this place is great, very welcoming. The counselors are awesome, especially dan. The only thing I disliked was the confusion between mental health, and substance abuse. Yes they intertwine but some people are only there for mental health, it confused me a bit. Its hard to mix the people together. I couldn't say more pleasant things about the people who work here. Zahar is amazing. I would reccomend to anyone in NW DC struggling with substance abuse.

Impressed with their professionalism and genuine concern treating a dear friend. Today they recommended inpatient treatment for him and I believe that was the right call. They really went the extra mile. Thank you!

I have had the privilege to work with many clients who stepped down from residential programming to Verve Behavioral Health for intensive outpatient services. I have seen their lives significantly improve because of the intimate setting and their attention to detail. They indeed design a treatment plan that fits the person's specific struggles, whether it be substance use disorders, sex and love addiction, technology addiction, gambling addiction, or depression and anxiety. I trust this compassionate team with my clients and would recommend this program to anyone seeking behavioral health treatment in the greater DC region.

My boyfriend entered Verve for substance use problems in March of 2024, and the program was really working for him. Everyone around him saw lots of improvements. He did have relapses, which the team assured us was "part of the journey to recovery." However, what they failed to mention is that if you fail 4 urine tests in 5+ months, they will kick you out. I just find that quality of care so unsympathetic. For someone who obviously is improving and not failing tests every week, it's just such a rigid standard. During his time there, he also saw many others discharged for unknown reasons. Not to say some people shouldn't be discharged, it did seem odd to him. Additionally, I was really displeased to see the staff fail time and time again to work with the family on this. I would reach out with specific behavioral concerns I wanted to discuss and would never get a response. He also voiced concerns to the staff about his therapist and wanting to switch to another provider who he thought would be a better match for him, and they denied him repeatedly. They also claim to be highly flexible. As my boyfriend went back to work, he had to fight to get a flexible schedule. Verve does not offer evening programming, making it really challenging for those who need to work while going through recovery. Additionally, on days he would have sessions in the morning and afternoon, they were incredibly strict about not letting him eat lunch at the facility. He also saw other clients offered a very flexible program, but that was never offered to him. For those who couldn't manage work and the program (especially if they needed to travel), they had to voluntarily discharge. If you have outside commitments or a work schedule that changes week over week, this program would be very difficult to manage. Verve focuses on substance use disorder but increasingly added in patients with mental health conditions (that didn't intersect with substance use). This changed the nature of the programming offered on a daily basis. Over time, the number of people with substance use disorder has vastly decreased compared to the amount of people with other mental health conditions. Overall, some of the therapists at Verve are amazing, and my boyfriend got so much out of them. But the rigidity of the program, the black and white nature of the urine tests, and the lack of including the family in his recovery was not helpful. Out of 100 people he went through the program with, maybe only 6 people successfully completed the program. It makes it seem as if the team doesn't actually care if people recover or not.

A wonderful option for anyone dealing with substance use disorder issues in the DC area! I personally have known Verve's Chief Clinical Officer Susan Berlin for over a decade, and I'm always impressed by the quality of care she and her team offer to those in need. The environment is beautiful and supports healing, the staff is passionate and clinically sophisticated, and I have personally seen the impressive type of compassionate care they offer to clients.