Inside Inner Haven: A Closer Look at Our Approach to Eating Disorder Recovery 

If you or someone you love has been told it’s time for a higher level of care, you probably want to know what happens next. From the first assessment through PHP or IOP treatment and ultimately the transition back to outpatient care, every part of the Inner Haven experience is designed to help you build skills you can carry into life beyond treatment. In this issue, we’re taking you inside Inner Haven for a closer look at what you experience throughout the treatment journey, including our ACT- and DBT-based approach, hands-on nutrition support, multidisciplinary care, and how we partner with you, your family and your providers to build a foundation for lasting recovery. 

Getting Started 

You don’t need to know in advance whether PHP or IOP is the right level of care. Our team will guide you through every step of the process. 

The process is simple, and treatment can start right away. We offer same day assessments and can often schedule admission within 24-48 hours.  

1. Call, email or fill out our web form. If you’re already working with a therapist, doctor, or dietitian, they can send us a referral too. 

2. We’ll answer any questions you may have and complete a comprehensive phone assessment. 

3. Our medical and clinical directors will review the assessment within 24 hours and provide a level of care recommendation. 

4. We’ll verify insurance benefits, discuss out-of-pocket costs, and review flexible payment options or financial assistance when needed.  

5. When you are ready, we’ll schedule the admission and orientation. 

6. Once admitted, we’ll have you sign a release and keep your outpatient providers in the loop on your care through discharge.  

A Look Inside Treatment 

Our programs are intentionally designed to feel comfortable, welcoming and therapeutic while providing the structure of a higher level of care. 

Your treatment plan is individualized. Typically, treatment includes: 

Individual and group therapy 

Supported meals and snacks 

Nutrition education and counseling 

ACT- and DBT-based skills development 

Food exposures and specialized ARFID support 

Family involvement and support 

Coordination with your medical and outpatient providers 

Real-world practice of recovery skills, not just in the treatment room 

A Different Approach to Lasting Recovery 

At Inner Haven, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) are the foundation of how we approach recovery. Our team is deeply committed to this model because we believe lasting recovery isn’t about eliminating every difficult thought or feeling, but helping you build the psychological flexibility and practical skills to experience discomfort without letting it dictate your choices.  

If you’ve experienced treatment focused primarily on challenging or changing eating disorder thoughts, the Inner Haven approach may feel different: we focus on helping you change your relationship with those thoughts, reconnect with what matters most to you, and choose actions that move you toward a richer, more meaningful life. 

What Does ACT- and DBT-Based Treatment Look Like? 

At Inner Haven, ACT provides a foundation for how we approach recovery, alongside skills and principles from DBT. Both are often described as “third-wave” behavioral therapies because they incorporate mindfulness, acceptance and the development of a different relationship with difficult internal experiences. 

The goal isn’t to eliminate every eating disorder thought, negative body image thought or uncomfortable emotion. We also aren’t trying to convince you that a thought is “wrong.” Instead, we help you become curious about a different question: 

Is responding to this thought in the way I usually do helping me build the life I want? 

For example, you may think, “If I eat this, my body will change.” A more traditional cognitive approach may explore the evidence for and against that prediction and work to challenge or restructure the thought. In ACT, you don’t need to stop having or believing the thought before taking a recovery-oriented action. 

Instead, you’d practice recognizing: “I’m having this thought. I can make space for the discomfort it creates. And I can still choose what I do next.” 

That process is called cognitive defusion: learning to experience a thought as a thought rather than something that automatically requires action. 

Recovery Is About Building Freedom 

Throughout treatment, you will identify your individual values: what matters to you, the relationships you want to have, the person you want to be and what makes your life meaningful. 

Your team will help you distinguish between values-based actions and control-based actions. Eating disorder behaviors can provide short-term relief from anxiety, fear or other uncomfortable experiences while creating significant long-term consequences. ACT helps you notice that cycle and practice choosing behaviors that move you toward your values, even when uncomfortable thoughts and feelings are present. 

This becomes very practical in eating disorder treatment. 

You don’t have to wait until a feared food feels safe before eating it. An adolescent doesn’t have to eliminate body-image distress before getting back to school, friends and activities. You don’t have to stop feeling anxious during a food exposure to keep going. 

The goal is to build the psychological flexibility to experience discomfort and still choose recovery. 

How ACT Supports the Hard Work of Recovery 

ACT doesn’t mean that cognitive or exposure-based interventions don’t have a place in treatment, and we incorporate other modalities into our care as appropriate. CBT may help you examine patterns of thinking, and exposure and response prevention (ERP) can be particularly important when treating conditions such as ARFID and OCD.  

But ACT connects the hard work of recovery to something bigger: the life you want to reclaim and build. 

An exposure is uncomfortable by design. Connecting the exposure to your values can transform the question from “How do I make this anxiety go away?” to “What freedom could become possible if I’m willing to experience this discomfort?” 

Ultimately, our definition of progress isn’t simply having fewer difficult thoughts or feelings. Recovery is gaining the freedom to experience thoughts and emotions without allowing them to determine what happens next. 

We help you  learn to notice thoughts, make space for emotions, stay present and take intentional actions aligned with the life you want to build. 

Where Nutrition Meets Real-Life Recovery 

Our nutrition program uses the Plate-by-Plate Approach® to help you build balanced, flexible eating patterns without relying on numbers or rigid rules. Each treatment day provides opportunities to practice recovery in different ways: you’ll bring or prepare one meal, while another meal is ordered, served or cooked by Inner Haven, allowing you to build skills across a variety of foods, settings and real-life eating experiences. 

Nutrition work is intentionally integrated with our ACT- and DBT-based approach. Supported meals aren’t simply about completing the food in front of you. You’ll practice noticing difficult thoughts and emotions, making space for discomfort, using coping and emotion-regulation skills, and choosing recovery-aligned actions anyway. Over time, the goal is greater flexibility, confidence and freedom around food that you can carry with you beyond treatment. 

PHP vs. IOP: What’s the Difference? 

Both PHP and IOP provide the same foundation of specialized eating disorder care at Inner Haven: ACT- and DBT-based treatment, supported meals and snacks, interactive and educational group therapy, weekly individual therapy, and weekly individual nutrition counseling. The primary difference is the amount of structure, support and clinical oversight you need at that point in recovery. 

IOP | 3 Hours a Day, 5 Days a Week 

Our Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) is designed for clients who need more structure and support than traditional outpatient treatment can provide, while still having enough stability and independence to spend most of the day outside of treatment. 

IOP may be appropriate when eating disorder behaviors are becoming more difficult to interrupt, progress has stalled in outpatient care, or you need additional meal support, therapeutic contact and accountability to continue moving forward. 

During those three hours, you won’t just talk about recovery. You’ll practice it. Supported meals and snacks create opportunities to apply nutrition goals while using ACT and DBT skills in real time: noticing difficult thoughts, making space for discomfort, regulating emotions and choosing actions aligned with recovery and your values. 

PHP | 6 Hours a Day, 5 Days a Week 

Our Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) provides a more intensive level of structure for clients who need significantly more support throughout the day but can safely continue living at home. 

PHP includes everything provided in IOP, with additional time for therapeutic and nutrition support, plus weekly psychiatry and nursing check-ins to help monitor and manage psychiatric and medical needs. 

PHP may be appropriate when eating disorder symptoms are more persistent or disruptive, completing adequate nutrition independently is especially difficult, functioning has declined, or outpatient treatment and IOP-level support are not sufficient to create or maintain progress. 

For adolescents in either level of care, weekly family therapy is also an integral part of treatment. 

The Right Level of Support for Where You Are Now 

PHP and IOP use the same treatment philosophy at different levels of intensity. As you gain stability, confidence and independence, you can practice using the same ACT, DBT and nutrition skills with progressively more autonomy in your everyday life. 

And you don’t need to know which level is appropriate before reaching out. Our team assesses you individually and recommends the level of care that best matches your current clinical, nutritional and medical needs. 

Treatment Doesn’t Have to Mean Putting Your Life on Hold 

We offer afternoon, evening and virtual programming to make specialized eating disorder treatment more accessible for adolescents, college students and working adults who can’t put life on hold for treatment. 

Our programs include: 

Madison 
Adult PHP + IOP 

Neenah 
Adolescent PHP + After-school IOP 

Virtual Wisconsin & Missouri 
Adult PHP + IOP 

Virtual Adolescent 
Adolescent PHP + After-school IOP 

Ready to Take the Next Step? 

You don’t need to know what level of care you need before reaching out. 

Contact our Admissions team to discuss whether an assessment may be appropriate.