Outpatient Therapy for Co-Occurring Disorders in New Jersey

Co-occurring disorders — the overlap of mental health and substance use — are the norm, not the exception, in behavioral health. Depression and alcohol. Anxiety and cannabis. Trauma and opioid use. These conditions feed each other, yet most care still treats them in separate silos — one therapist for the mental health, another for the substance use — leaving clients to fall through the gap between two fragmented treatment plans.

Therapy Aligned was built with this reality at its center. Co-founders Andrew Kim and Chandni Patel hold dual LCSW and LCADC licensure, clinically trained in both mental health and addiction treatment from the start, not as an afterthought. Mental health and substance use concerns can be addressed together in outpatient therapy, with additional providers involved when needed. Your therapist holds the full picture and treats both conditions concurrently, because that is how they actually operate in your life.

LCSW licensure covers psychotherapy, diagnosis, and mental health treatment; LCADC licensure covers addiction assessment, relapse prevention, and substance use disorder treatment. Holding both means your therapist is qualified to treat both conditions together, while referrals may be needed for additional care, drawing on evidence-based modalities including IFS, CBT, DBT, ACT, psychodynamic therapy, and motivational interviewing, adapted to the specific interplay of your concerns.

Sessions are available to adults in person in Metuchen and virtually throughout New Jersey. Virtual sessions use secure, HIPAA-compliant telehealth. Whether you are in North, Central, or South Jersey, virtual sessions remove the barrier of a commute. Whether you are early in recognizing the connection between your mental health and substance use or have been living with both for years without finding a provider who treats them together, this is the kind of care we were built to provide.

Co-occurring conditions are common, and the evidence favors treating both together rather than in separate silos.

• Across national surveys, about half of adults who experience a mental illness in their lifetime also experience a substance use disorder — and vice versa. NIDA Research Report
• In 2023, of the 58.7 million U.S. adults with any mental illness, about one-third — 20.4 million people — also had a co-occurring substance use disorder. SAMHSA, 2023 NSDUH
• Yet only 18.6% of adults with both conditions received treatment for both in the past year, and more than a third received treatment for neither. SAMHSA, 2023 NSDUH

“Integrated treatment for comorbid drug use disorder and mental illness has been found to be consistently superior compared with separate treatment of each diagnosis.”— National Institute on Drug Abuse, Common Comorbidities with Substance Use Disorders Research Report (2020)