We help people live examined lives on their own terms.

Recovery is rarely about one thing. Most people who find their way to Common Collab are carrying something underneath the substances or the symptoms, a history, a pattern, a set of circumstances that made coping necessary. We take that seriously. Our work begins with curiosity about the whole person, and it stays there.

We are a trauma-informed practice in the deepest sense of that phrase. That means understanding that what gets labeled as a problem is often a solution that outlived its usefulness. That substances and mental health struggles are frequently responses to real pain, not character failures. That healing asks for compassion first, and that clinical rigor and genuine warmth are not in tension with each other. We hold both.

What we built sits at the intersection of structure and autonomy. The structure is real: clinical oversight, a thoughtful schedule, clear expectations, and a framework that creates a container for the work. The autonomy is equally real. Clients and therapists build the plan together. Clients choose the groups most relevant to their goals. The shape of someone's recovery, what it looks like and what it means, belongs to them.

We believe treatment works best when it is built from first principles rather than borrowed from a formula. That means being honest about what outpatient care can and cannot do, designing a program that reflects genuine clinical values rather than just minimum compliance requirements, and creating expectations that clients agree to and are supported in keeping. People tend to stay accountable to choices they actually made. That is the foundation we build on.

In practice:

Groups are 90 minutes, focused, and built around specific therapeutic modalities, including DBT, ACT, CBT, art therapy, somatic work, narrative therapy, mindfulness-based relapse prevention, and more. Clients and their therapist select the groups that are clinically relevant and personally meaningful, and adjust over time as the work evolves. Individual therapy is available alongside groups, scheduled around mutual availability.

Assessments at intake and ongoing capture what is actually happening for each person, including trauma history, mood, substance use patterns, and readiness for change. Care is calibrated to that picture, and updated as it shifts.

The clinical team is small and connected. People here know their clients. That relational continuity is not incidental to the work; it is the work.