Specialty Outpatient Care for Pediatric Anxiety & OCD

Beside you every step of the way

See how our personalized treatment works, guiding you and your family from application to graduation and beyond.

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855.438.8331

Getting started is simple.

We don’t have waitlists. It’s typically just 1-4 weeks from the time your application is accepted until the start of treatment, depending on your availability.

Find out more about who benefits from InStride
It takes less than 10 minutes to apply. You don’t need a referral or an existing formal diagnosis. Just have your health insurance card handy since you’ll need to upload photos of the front and back.
After you submit your application, an intake specialist will reach out within 24 hours to schedule a 15-minute call. This call is a chance for you to ask questions about our program. It’s also time for us to confirm or clarify the information you provided on your application.
After the follow-up call, you’ll have a comprehensive clinical evaluation with an InStride therapist who will help determine whether InStride is a good fit for you and your family and will begin to develop your personalized treatment plan.

Your team

A highly trained InStride care team and an engaged support network sets you up for success.

Meet your dedicated care team
At the start of treatment, you’ll be assigned an expert care team. InStride care teams are highly trained, experienced, and passionate about helping young people with anxiety and OCD thrive. They care deeply about the needs of your family. And they’ll be with you through every step of the program.
TherapistTherapist
Exposure coachExposure coach
PsychiatristPsychiatrist
Your extended support network
Your dedicated care team does not work in isolation. They join forces with other key adults and care professionals in your life so that everyone is on the same page and understands how to best support your ongoing progress.
Other Care ProvidersOther Care Providers
FamilyFamily
SchoolSchool

Follow your personalized care plan.

Every care plan is based on our evidence-based framework and customized to fit your needs, goals, and daily life.

Care grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

After a comprehensive clinical evaluation, we develop your personalized care plan that is grounded in CBT—the gold-standard for treating anxiety and OCD—with a focus on exposure therapy.

Your plan will have three treatment phases. You’ll have frequent interactions with your team each week in the first phase that gradually tapers off in phases two and three as you build confidence, skills, and new habits.

Each plan is also purposely time-bound, which means that instead of being in treatment over the long term, we want you to finish the program and get back to the things you love. And because we practice measurement-based care (MBC), we’re able to adjust and evolve your program based on how you’re responding to care in each phase.

We’ll have more frequent interactions at the start of your treatment, helping you rapidly learn and integrate new skills and strategies into your life. Like learning a new language, the more you can immerse yourself in it, the sooner you’ll be fluent. In Phase 1, you’ll meet with members of your care team for 2-4 hours weekly in visits that are spread out to fit your schedule, and you will participate in between-session coaching as needed.

Your Phase 1 weeks could look like this:
“

InStride required time and commitment and it was absolutely worth it.

Our daughter was really struggling—and it was affecting us all. We tried other programs, and nothing really helped. But then we found InStride. It helped her face her fears head-on.

– Parent of InStride Health graduate

As you progress through care, you’ll continue practicing exposures in different settings out in the real world, so that the learning sticks. By this phase, the frequency of sessions decreases to 1-3 hours each week.

Your Phase 2 weeks could look like this:

In this phase, the focus shifts toward developing self-reliance for the long term and engaging more fully in your day-to-day life. You’ll connect with your exposure coach for just 30-60 minutes each week, and your therapist and psychiatrist will move into supporting roles.

Your Phase 3 weeks could look like this:

When you’ve become “fluent” in managing your anxiety and OCD, and your skills have become habits, it’s time for graduation.

At that point, you will have a transition plan to help sustain the progress you’ve made. And if you need a refresher after graduation, you can always request booster sessions with your InStride care team.

Clinical outcomes that can change lives.

Initial InStride clinical results show the measurable difference we make in young people’s lives—and the lives of their families. InStride graduates show significant improvements in anxiety, functioning, and depression as a result of treatment.

0%

of graduates experienced a reduction in anxiety following two months of treatment, with an average symptom reduction of ~46%1

0%

of graduates reported reduced symptom severity and functional impairment after 3 months2

0%

of caregivers reported a reduction in their own distress3

0%

reduction in significant work absenteeism among caregivers after 7 months4

Preliminary Clinical Outcomes, Updated: October 2023
See the full outcomes report

1As measured by the GAD7, among patients with initial elevated anxiety symptoms at admission (GAD7>=8). This reduction was both statistically significant and characterized by a large effect size.

2As measured by the Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale (OASIS-Y). This reduction was both statistically significant and characterized by a medium effect size.

3After seven months of the patient’s treatment initiation as measured by CGSQ-7. Reported while patient was currently enrolled.

4As measured by CGSQ-7. Reported while patient was currently enrolled. Significant absenteeism defined as missing quite a bit/very much work.

The InStride patient experience, from evaluation to graduation.

Sara is 14-year old with fear of vomiting and nausea, dating back to early childhood. Over time, her fear had led to avoidance of certain foods and restaurants and of going to places where she thought people could throw up. She obsessively checked expiration dates on the few foods she ate, and this caused family strife at meal times. As Sara’s fear grew, she began having frequent panic attacks, and she started skipping classes because of this.

Phase 1:

  • Comprehensive clinical evaluation with therapist
  • Treatment plan and exposure hierarchy creation
  • Motivation building exercises with exposure coach (e.g., connecting values to treatment goals)
  • Psychiatry evaluation to determine the role of medication and follow up sessions
  • Coordination with pediatrician and school initiated by care team
  • Class re-entry plan developed and reviewed with school and family
  • In-session exposures with therapist and coach (e.g., going to previously avoided class, looking at pictures of cartoon vomit, etc.)
  • Between-session exposure practice with coach reminders and support
  • Skills group with peers to learn skills to manage anxiety (e.g., responding to thoughts and feelings)
  • Family sessions to address identified family goals (e.g., improving communication and parent skill use)
  • Caregiver group with other parents to learn skills to support their child (e.g., expressing validation and encouraging and reinforcing brave steps)
  • Texting with exposure coach at school during times of high anxiety (e.g., before entering a previously avoided class or trying a new food)

Phase 2:

  • Family sessions to review progress and re-evaluate treatment goals
  • Psychiatry meeting to follow up on medication adjustments
  • Exposure group participation with encouragement from peers after hard exposures (e.g., making fake vomit mixture)
  • In-session exposures in the community with exposure coach (e.g., eating in a cafe, picking out previously avoided foods at grocery store)
  • Texts to and from exposure coach in moments of high anxiety (e.g., before a hard class at school, while riding the wave of panic symptoms) to support effective use of her strategies
  • Caregiver practice group for parents to receive ongoing guidance and support from group leader and other parents

Phase 3:

  • Continued exposure practice with exposure coach with emphasis on their becoming increasingly self-directed
  • Texting exposure coach before and after big exposures (e.g., eating school lunch in cafeteria)
  • Celebration of exposure victories with peers in exposure group and of parenting wins in caregiver group
  • Continued medication monitoring with psychiatrist
  • Planning for continued exposure and skill practice after graduation
  • Graduation celebration

See how each of our treatment phases work in this example patient journey.

  • Phase 1
  • Phase 2
  • Phase 3

The individual depicted is not a real patient. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental. The example incorporates symptoms commonly reported at InStride Health but is not reflective of any specific patient.

The example activities are illustrative of the treatment at InStride Health but are not comprehensive.

Is InStride a fit for you?

Identifying Anxiety and OCD

The signs and symptoms can vary by individual. You may be experiencing:

  • School avoidance
  • Generalized anxiety and worry
  • Panic attacks
  • Fears (of crowded places, vomiting, etc.)
See full list

Age

You must be 7-22 years old

Location of care

You must receive care in one of the states in which we operate:

  • Connecticut
  • Maine
  • Massachusetts
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New York
  • Ohio
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • Virginia

If you don’t see your state listed here, you can sign up to be notified once we expand into that state.

Insurance coverage

We accept most insurance in the states in which we operate but cannot accept Medicaid.

Check your insurance

Get started today.

In less than 10 minutes, take your first steps with InStride Health.

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Have more questions?

Find the answers to specific FAQs here.

To contact our team directly, please email us at info@instride.health or call 855.438.8331

We engage patients and families in a fully virtual care journey that research has shown to be as effective as in-person treatment for youth with anxiety and OCD. The treatment plan is personalized to fit into the patient’s life, rather than the other way around. While we offer regularly scheduled therapy sessions, we also have real-time coaching and check-ins via phone and text to help engage kids in treatment and increase accountability, as well as opportunities to be supported by the therapist/coach virtually while doing exposure exercises out in the community (using portable devices and headphones).

Exposure therapy is a key component of CBT that involves purposely confronting the situations, objects, and places that trigger your anxiety and/or OCD symptoms to break the cycle of fear and avoidance.

Your InStride therapist will work with you to develop a roadmap for exposure practice. Your therapist and exposure coach will then support you in practicing your exposures out in the real world—at school, in stores, in restaurants, in your home, and in your neighborhood—wherever you need it most. We do this at a pace that feels right for you, and we’ll never ask you to do something that is unsafe or dangerous or that we, as the care team, wouldn’t do ourselves.

We work with school personnel while a child is in our program to ensure consistency and support; however, we are not a school-based program. We also conduct exposures and between-session coaching during school, as appropriate.

Yes! Our only location requirement is that the child must be physically located in a state we serve while treatment is going on.

Yes, your dedicated psychiatrist can prescribe medications. However, since we meet virtually, we cannot prescribe controlled substances, such as stimulants and benzodiazepines.

Yes, that’s your choice. Your InStride Health psychiatrist will collaborate with your existing doctor to ensure coordinated care. We’re happy to work with you to determine the best option to meet your needs. Families may:

  • Work with their InStride psychiatrist while meeting with their outside psychiatrist less frequently, in order to stay connected. If that is the best approach for you, be sure to verify that your insurance will cover it.
  • Pause appointments with their outside psychiatrist during InStride treatment and resume after graduation. Your care team will ensure that your outside psychiatrist has all of the information needed to step back into their ongoing role at that point.

You’ll be assigned an InStride therapist to lead your care team, along with an exposure coach and a psychiatrist. For that reason, most people pause their ongoing therapy while they take part in the InStride program. In certain circumstances, however, it can be helpful to continue meeting with your existing therapist to address issues that are separate from anxiety and/or OCD. If that is your situation, please be sure to check that your insurance will cover both InStride treatment and outside therapy at the same time.

InStride exposure coaches are wonderful at helping individuals build motivation for treatment. For those individuals who are not ready or willing to participate in InStride treatment, we give parents the option to meet with the care team (therapist, exposure coach, and psychiatrist) without their child to learn skills and strategies that will help their child manage anxiety or OCD. Treatment still targets the child’s anxiety and/or OCD condition and symptoms, but sessions focus on changes that parents can make to their own behaviors to help the child.

Parents and/or caregivers are an integral part of the treatment process. At a minimum, we ask that parents participate in the initial clinical and medication evaluations as well as intermittent treatment review sessions. We also highly encourage you to participate in parent/caregiver groups and additional family and/or psychiatry sessions, as needed. Additional family support can be provided and coordinated by the care team. For young adults, we work with the individual and family to determine the most appropriate plan of action, based on their unique needs and circumstances.

In the states in which we practice, we accept most major insurers. To check if we accept your insurance, use our insurance finder.

We recommend that families call the number on the back of their insurance card to confirm current coverage, as we’re continually working to add new insurance options and new states.

Note: At this time, we do not accept Medicaid.

Yes! If you choose to undergo care at InStride Health and elect to not use insurance, or if you are uninsured, you will be expected to cover the full cost of care.

No. We bill for services in a monthly bundle. You may see a psychiatrist, therapist, and exposure coach all in the same week, but you will not have a copay for each of those sessions. Your insurance carrier will determine how many copays are due for a given week or month of InStride treatment.

Click here for our latest outcomes reports.

At this time, we are only able to provide services in English.

Recommended resources

Strategies for Addressing School Avoidance Due to Anxiety
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Why Measuring Mental Health Improvement Matters
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Follow @instride.health on Instagram for tips and strategies from our clinical team that help you manage anxiety and OCD.
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Contact Us

Talk to Us

Have a question about InStride Health? We're here to help.

For Families and General Inquiry:
Phone: 855.438.8331
Email: info@instride.health

For Providers:
Phone: 855.438.8331
Email: providersupport@instride.health