Expertise provided by Javier Verdin, Clinical Director
When you call a Tennessee crisis line and the intake coordinator says your family member needs behavioral health services, it’s hard to know what that means. Is it addiction treatment, mental health care, or both? For most people entering treatment, the struggle is rarely just one thing. Behavioral health services in Tennessee are meant to cover the whole picture: the drinking or drug use you can see, and the depression, anxiety, panic, or trauma that often sits underneath it. If you are the parent or spouse making the calls right now, you do not need to sort out the labels before you reach out. You need a program such as T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH that looks at the whole person and builds one plan for everything going on.
You may already be tired in a way that sleep does not fix. Maybe this is not the first program you have looked into. Maybe your loved one went to treatment before, came home sober, and slid back because the anxiety or the memories were still there waiting. That is painful, and it can happen when addiction and mental health are treated in separate places. This guide walks you through what behavioral health care in Tennessee includes and how T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH in Murfreesboro approaches co-occurring conditions. It also explains what each level of care looks like week by week, and what happens between your first phone call and your loved one’s first session.
What Do Behavioral Health Services in Tennessee Actually Include?
Behavioral health services in Tennessee include care for mental health conditions, care for substance use disorders, and care for both at once. That care is delivered through levels such as partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient programs. For most families, the label matters less than one question: will this program treat everything my loved one is dealing with, at the same time?
Think of behavioral health the way a family doctor thinks about heart health. Heart health is not one condition. It covers blood pressure, cholesterol, rhythm problems, and the daily habits that affect all three. A good doctor does not treat the blood pressure and send you across town for the cholesterol. Behavioral health works the same way. It is the umbrella over depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, borderline personality, trauma, and alcohol and drug addiction, along with all the ways those conditions feed each other.
Tennessee’s own system reflects that umbrella. The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services oversees this care, and its behavioral health research and data treat mental health and substance use as parts of one field. On the ground, though, some programs still run the two as separate clinical tracks. A person might get addiction counseling in one place and wait weeks for a psychiatric appointment somewhere else, with the two teams rarely talking. If your loved one has been through split care like that, you already know how easily something important slips through the gap. Research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse on co-occurring conditions supports the approach of addressing a substance use disorder and a mental illness together rather than one after the other.
That is why T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH in Murfreesboro begins every admission with a 90-minute biopsychosocial intake, followed by a symptom-driven clinical formulation. In plain words, the biopsychosocial part asks about three areas of life. The first is the body: physical health, substance use history, and current medications. The second is the mind: mood, anxiety, trauma, and past diagnoses. The third is daily life: family, housing, work, and relationships. The formulation is the clinician’s working answer to the question underneath all of it: what is actually driving these symptoms?
Someone drinking every night to fall asleep after a trauma may need a different plan than someone whose untreated ADHD made misusing stimulants feel like the only way to keep up. The formulation is how the T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH team tells those two stories apart before treatment begins.
How Does T.R.U.E. Approach Addiction and Mental Health Together Instead of One at a Time?
Once the intake is complete, the next step is a team decision. At T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH, every new client’s intake goes to a case conference, held each Tuesday and Friday. There, the clinical director, the prescriber, and the lead therapist review the formulation together. They then choose the therapist matched to that person based on trauma history, whether medication-assisted treatment (MAT) may be part of care, and which therapy approach fits.
You may be afraid your loved one will be treated like a case number, especially if a past program felt that way. That fear makes sense. Large systems often have to fill schedules first and match people second, and the case conference flips that order. Three people in three different roles look at the same person from three angles. The clinical director weighs how complex the trauma history is. The prescriber weighs whether MAT or psychiatric medication might be part of the plan. The lead therapist weighs which approach is most likely to fit how this person thinks, copes, and communicates.
Here is how that can play out. Picture someone who has panic attacks and has been using opioids, partly to quiet the panic. If a therapist addresses only the anxiety, the opioid use keeps pulling progress backward. If a counselor addresses only the opioids, the panic comes roaring back the first time stress hits. In one documented case at T.R.U.E., a client in that situation was paired with a therapist who uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for the panic and has experience coordinating MAT for opioid use. That single case is not a promise of any particular outcome, but it shows how comprehensive treatment can work: both problems sit inside one connected plan, run by people who talk to each other.
That plan has support on site. T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH has staff who specialize in CBT, psychiatric medication management, and MAT integration for co-occurring cases, so medication decisions and therapy decisions happen within the same team. Clients also attend psychoeducation groups, which are classes that explain how addiction, trauma, and mood conditions work in the brain and in daily life. T.R.U.E.’s CEO and Chief Clinical Director lead some of those groups, which says something about how close leadership stays to everyday care. Family therapy and partner or couples therapy are also part of what T.R.U.E. offers, so the people at home can be brought into the work instead of standing outside it, wondering what is happening.
Which Level of Care Does Your Loved One Need Right Now?
With a matched therapist in place, the next question is how much structure your loved one needs. At T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH, one common path begins with Partial Hospitalization (PHP) at 5 hours a day, 6 days a week. Clients then may step down to Intensive Outpatient (IOP) for another period at 3 hours a day, three or five days a week, and continue into outpatient care and aftercare. The right starting point depends on current risk and how much daily structure the person needs.
| Level of care | Schedule at T.R.U.E. | Typical length | Who it may fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHP (Partial Hospitalization) | 5 hours a day, 6 days a week | Varies by individual | Someone who may benefit from daily structure and close clinical support but does not need 24-hour medical care |
| IOP (Intensive Outpatient) | 3 hours a day, 3 or 5 days a week | Varies by individual | Someone who has stabilized and is ready to practice new skills while living more of a normal life |
| Outpatient / Aftercare | A lighter, individualized schedule | Based on need | Someone keeping momentum after IOP ends |
PHP is the most structured level T.R.U.E. offers. Your loved one spends most of the day in individual therapy, group work, psychoeducation, and medication management, six days a week. That much structure matters early, because cravings, sleep problems, and mood swings tend to hit hardest in the first weeks. For families coming from farther away in Tennessee, clients can stay in the facility’s housing during PHP and IOP. When IOP ends, clients arrange their own supportive housing, and T.R.U.E.’s admissions and case management staff help with referrals. Planning that next step early keeps your loved one from leaving structure with nowhere steady to land.
Stepping down from PHP to IOP is a planned move, not a sudden drop. Fewer hours mean more time at home, at work, or with family. That gives your loved one a chance to use what they learned in real life while still checking in with their therapist several times a week. Outpatient care and aftercare continue that pattern on a lighter schedule. Each step gives back a little more independence, and the T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH clinical team decides each one with your loved one rather than by a date on a calendar.
Placement is not a guess. T.R.U.E.’s team follows the ASAM Criteria approach, which weighs current risk, withdrawal potential, co-occurring mental health conditions, readiness to change, relapse history, and the recovery environment at home. Two people who drink the same amount can need very different starting points. Someone just out of detox who lives in a home where alcohol is always around may need PHP. Someone already stable with a supportive home may start in IOP. If your loved one needs more care than PHP can safely provide, such as medical detox or inpatient stabilization, T.R.U.E. arranges that first. The insurance and timing section below explains how that works.
Why Does Trauma Work Wait Until Your Loved One Has Steadier Ground?
Many families are surprised to learn that deep trauma work does not start on day one. T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH begins active treatment with grounding techniques and emotion-regulation skills. In the team’s clinical experience, a person often needs solid prevention, coping, and communication skills before going deep into trauma. For that reason, EMDR is not part of active treatment at T.R.U.E. Instead, it may be recommended as aftercare through a private practice outpatient setting, after the person finishes the PHP and IOP structure.
A simple way to picture it: you would not ask someone to swim in deep water before they can tread water. Trauma work can stir up powerful memories and emotions. If a person has no way to calm their body when those feelings surge, the old way of coping, often a drink or a pill, is right there waiting. Grounding gives them a new option. It can be as basic as feeling both feet on the floor, naming objects in the room, or slowing the breath until the panic eases. Emotion regulation goes a step further. It teaches a person to notice a feeling building, name it, and choose a response instead of reacting on instinct.
During PHP and IOP, T.R.U.E.’s clinicians draw on several evidence-based approaches:
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) teaches skills for handling intense emotions and distress.
- CBT helps a person spot and change the thought patterns that drive anxiety, depression, and cravings.
- Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) challenges rigid beliefs that keep someone stuck, like “I can never handle this.”
- Motivational interviewing helps a person find their own reasons to change, which matters a great deal when someone came to treatment only because family pushed.
- Trauma resolution, trauma-informed care, and solution-focused therapy round out the work, so the person is never asked to relive more than they can handle.
If your loved one has been through treatment before and it did not hold, you may be asking whether this is just another attempt that ends the same way. What you can look for is a program that understands why past attempts may have fallen short. A plan that addressed the substance but left the trauma untouched can leave someone exposed. So can a plan that pushed into trauma before the person had any skills to cope. T.R.U.E.’s sequencing, skills first and deeper trauma work later, is built around that understanding. When a client leaves IOP with a referral for EMDR in aftercare, they bring a set of coping tools into that work instead of facing it empty-handed.
Will Insurance Help Pay, and How Fast Can Treatment Start?
For many families, the next worry is practical: cost and timing. T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH accepts and verifies benefits with Tricare, Cigna, Aetna, UHC, BCBS, and Anthem before admission, then gives you an out-of-pocket estimate based on your specific plan. If your loved one needs detox or medical stabilization first, the admissions team coordinates that referral so they can move into PHP once medically cleared.
Money fear is real, and it stops many families from making the call at all. You may be wondering whether you can afford this, or what your plan will actually pay for. Those are fair questions, and you deserve answers before anyone signs anything. Benefits differ from plan to plan, even within the same insurance company, so T.R.U.E. checks your loved one’s specific benefits ahead of time. If your plan is not one of the carriers listed above, ask admissions directly instead of assuming the answer is no.
From first call to first session, the steps usually follow this order:
- The first call. You talk with T.R.U.E.’s admissions team about what is happening. You do not need a diagnosis or the right words. Just describe what you are seeing at home.
- Insurance verification. Admissions checks your loved one’s benefits with the carrier before admission.
- Your out-of-pocket estimate. You receive an estimate based on your specific plan, so you know what to expect before committing.
- Detox or stabilization, if needed. If withdrawal or a medical concern makes it unsafe to start PHP right away, admissions coordinates a referral to a trusted medical detox partner or stabilization setting.
- The 90-minute intake. Once your loved one is ready, they complete the biopsychosocial intake and clinical formulation.
- The case conference. On the next Tuesday or Friday, the clinical director, prescriber, and lead therapist review the case and assign a matched therapist.
- PHP begins. Your loved one starts the structured daily schedule with a plan built around their whole situation.
The detox step deserves a word of caution. Stopping alcohol, benzodiazepines, or opioids suddenly can be physically dangerous for some people, so please do not try to manage withdrawal at home without medical guidance. T.R.U.E. does not provide detox on site, but the admissions team handles the referral so you are not left making cold calls. Once your loved one is medically cleared, they can move straight into PHP instead of starting over with a new provider. If your loved one is in immediate danger right now, call 911 or the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline before anything else.
Why Murfreesboro Care Does Not Have to Feel Like a Case Number
Beyond the steps and schedules, families want to know what the experience will feel like. T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH serves Tennessee communities statewide from its Murfreesboro location. It offers care for co-occurring conditions at a personal, less institutional scale than national chains. It also works with people who have been turned away by other centers, which matters for families who have heard “we can’t help with that” more than once.
Being turned away is hard to live with. Some people get declined because their case is complex, with several diagnoses, a long history, or a past program that did not work. Those are often the people who most need a team willing to look closer. T.R.U.E.’s case conference and its on-site mix of CBT, psychiatric medication management, and MAT integration exist for exactly that kind of complexity. A program that accepts harder cases also has to invest in the clinicians who work with them.
That investment shows up in how T.R.U.E. trains its people. Tennessee’s 2021 Public Behavioral Health Workforce Workgroup report examined the staffing pressures that behavioral health providers face across the state. When clinicians are stretched thin, ongoing training is often the first thing to slip. T.R.U.E.’s leadership went the other direction. They built a clinician training module on love, compassion, and root trauma therapy, and the practice gives staff a platform for continuing education units. For you, that means the person sitting across from your loved one is being taught to look for the root of the pain, not just manage the symptoms on the surface.
The need is not small. SAMHSA’s Behavioral Health Barometer for Tennessee tracks the state’s mental health and substance use indicators side by side, a reminder that these struggles show up together in Tennessee homes. Accessible care means more than an open door. It means insurance checked before admission, housing during PHP and IOP for people traveling from across the state, and a team in Murfreesboro small enough to know your loved one by name. Those are the pathways to recovery T.R.U.E. builds for each person, and they are what good behavioral health services in Tennessee should look like.
Questions Families Ask Before They Make the First Call
Most families ask the same handful of questions before they reach out to T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH in Murfreesboro. Here are direct answers, so you can walk into that first call already knowing what to expect.
What is the difference between behavioral health and mental health treatment in Tennessee?
Behavioral health is the umbrella term that covers both mental health conditions and substance use disorders. Mental health treatment often focuses on conditions like depression or anxiety without fully addressing addiction. If your loved one is dealing with both, look for a program that addresses them together.
Does insurance cover behavioral health services at T.R.U.E. in Murfreesboro?
Coverage depends on your specific plan. T.R.U.E. accepts and verifies benefits with Tricare, Cigna, Aetna, UHC, BCBS, and Anthem before admission, then provides an out-of-pocket estimate based on what your plan actually includes.
How long does PHP last, and when do I step down to IOP?
The length of PHP varies by individual. Most clients then step down to IOP at 3 hours a day, three or five days a week. The T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH clinical team decides the timing with each client based on progress, not a fixed calendar.
What happens during the intake process at T.R.U.E.?
Every client completes a 90-minute biopsychosocial intake and a symptom-driven clinical formulation. The case then goes to a Tuesday or Friday conference, where the clinical director, prescriber, and lead therapist assign a therapist based on trauma history, MAT considerations, and the therapy approach that may fit.
Can T.R.U.E. work with someone with both a substance use disorder and a mental health condition?
Yes. Dual diagnosis care is the center of what T.R.U.E. does. Clients are paired with therapists experienced in both MAT coordination and the mental health approach the person needs, such as CBT for panic disorder or DBT for emotion regulation.
What if I need detox before starting treatment at T.R.U.E.?
The admissions team coordinates detox or medical stabilization referrals. Once your loved one is medically cleared, they can move directly into PHP and begin behavioral health treatment.
What Can You Do Today If Someone You Love Needs Help?
The most important step is also the simplest: one phone call. Call T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH in Murfreesboro at (615) 378-6159 to verify your insurance benefits and schedule a 90-minute intake. If you are unsure which level of care fits your situation right now, ask about the case conference process.
You do not have to have everything figured out before you dial. You do not need to know whether this is “addiction” or “mental health,” whether your loved one needs PHP or IOP, or whether detox comes first. Sorting that out is the admissions team’s job, and the clinical team’s after that. Your job is simply to start the conversation, and you can do that today.
One thing will make that first call more useful. Before you dial, write down three things on a single sheet of paper: what your loved one has been using and how often, the mental health symptoms you have noticed (panic, sleeplessness, rage, withdrawal, talk of hopelessness), and the member ID from their insurance card. Those three details are the raw material for both the benefits check and the clinical formulation. Families who bring them often get clearer answers on that very first call, and clearer answers are what let you finally hand some of this weight to someone you can trust.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
If you or someone you care about is navigating both substance use and mental health challenges, you don’t have to figure it out alone. T.R.U.E. Addiction & BH in Murfreesboro is here to provide the dual diagnosis support that addresses both concerns together. Reach out today to learn how our team can help you move forward.
Treatment outcomes vary by individual. No program can guarantee specific results, and recovery depends on many personal factors including engagement, support systems, and individual circumstances.
