Anxiety treatment serving Pompano Beach — exposure-based CBT, in-house psychiatry.

RECO Health treats anxiety disorders 18 miles north of Pompano Beach — 28 minutes up I-95 to the Delray Beach campus. Care runs at PHP and IOP levels with in-house board-certified psychiatry, exposure-based CBT delivered by therapists trained in disorder-specific protocols (ERP for OCD, interoceptive exposure for panic, in-vivo exposure for social anxiety), and weekly outcome tracking on the GAD-7, PDSS, LSAS, or Y-BOCS. Benzodiazepines are not the maintenance plan, and every treatment plan names a primary DSM-5-TR diagnosis before the first group.

Pompano Beach sits 18 miles south of RECO Health’s Delray Beach campus — roughly 28 minutes up I-95 outside rush hour. For clients in Cresthaven, Lighthouse Point, Sea Ranch Lakes, or Hillsboro Shores, the northbound drive puts genuine clinical distance between treatment and the local triggers that maintain anxiety symptoms without asking anyone to leave South Florida. RECO Health provides anxiety disorders treatment at partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient levels of care, with in-house board-certified psychiatry, exposure-based CBT delivered by clinicians trained in disorder-specific protocols, and medication management that targets the actual DSM-5-TR diagnosis rather than a generic “anxiety” label.

Disorder-specific assessment before treatment starts

“Anxiety” is a symptom, not a diagnosis, and the treatment plan for generalized anxiety disorder looks nothing like the plan for obsessive-compulsive disorder. RECO’s intake process names the primary DSM-5-TR diagnosis before the first group session and pairs it with a validated outcome measure that is tracked across the episode of care. Generalized anxiety severity is scored on the GAD-7. Panic frequency and severity are captured on the PDSS. Social anxiety is measured with the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), and obsessive-compulsive symptom burden with the Y-BOCS.

The distinction is not academic. GAD responds to worry-postponement work, applied relaxation, and cognitive restructuring. OCD requires Exposure and Response Prevention with response-prevention explicit in every session. Social anxiety collapses if it is run as a generic “anxiety group” — the disorder is maintained by safety behaviors that a mixed-diagnosis group will inadvertently reinforce. A PHQ-9 screens for co-occurring depression, and the ASRS flags adult ADHD, which frequently coexists with GAD and changes both the medication algorithm and the therapy structure.

SSRI pharmacotherapy at anxiety-appropriate doses

First-line pharmacotherapy for every anxiety disorder in the DSM-5-TR is an SSRI or SNRI. Sertraline, escitalopram, paroxetine, and fluoxetine each hold FDA approval for one or more anxiety indications. Anxiety-effective dosing typically sits at the upper end of the depression range — sertraline titrated to 150-200 mg, escitalopram to 20 mg — because subtherapeutic dosing is the most common reason a client will report the SSRI “didn’t work.” Initial titration is deliberately slow to avoid activation, which is the second most common reason clients discontinue in the first two weeks.

Adjuncts have defined roles rather than routine use. Buspirone augments SSRI response in generalized anxiety disorder. Hydroxyzine is available for as-needed use without the dependence liability of a benzodiazepine. Propranolol addresses situational performance anxiety by blunting the peripheral autonomic response. In treatment-resistant OCD, RECO’s psychiatrists will consider SSRI dosing above standard maximums or an aripiprazole augmentation strategy consistent with current APA guidelines. All medication decisions are made by board-certified psychiatric providers, not by primary care by proxy.

Exposure-based CBT is the therapy that works

Across every anxiety disorder, the evidence base points to exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy — not supportive talk therapy, not open-ended psychodynamic exploration of the anxiety’s origin. For OCD, that means Exposure and Response Prevention: a structured, hierarchical, therapist-guided sequence in which the client contacts feared stimuli and refrains from the compulsion. For panic disorder, interoceptive exposure deliberately induces feared bodily sensations — dizziness, tachycardia, breathlessness — so the panic cycle extinguishes. For social anxiety disorder, graded in-vivo exposures with cognitive restructuring dismantle the safety behaviors that maintain the fear.

RECO’s therapists run these protocols individually, and the group programming supports the exposure work rather than replacing it. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is layered in adjunctively to build willingness for exposure, particularly in clients whose experiential avoidance is severe. Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills — distress tolerance and emotion regulation modules — are drawn on when co-occurring borderline personality features complicate a straight CBT protocol. Motivational Interviewing anchors the early sessions when ambivalence about exposure is high.

Why we don’t lean on benzodiazepines

Benzodiazepines — alprazolam, clonazepam, lorazepam — relieve acute anxiety within minutes, and that is precisely the problem. The rapid relief blunts the extinction learning that makes exposure therapy work; the client learns that the pill, not the exposure, ended the fear. In clients with any history of alcohol use disorder or sedative-hypnotic misuse — a substantial share of RECO’s population, given the co-occurring nature of the center’s continuum — benzodiazepines carry meaningful risk of physiological dependence and cross-tolerance.

When situational bridging is genuinely warranted, hydroxyzine covers most as-needed use without dependence liability. Gabapentin is an option in anxiety with prominent somatic tension or a history of alcohol withdrawal. A short course of low-dose propranolol addresses performance situations. In clients without any substance use history and with severe functional impairment during SSRI titration, a time-limited benzodiazepine bridge may be prescribed with a defined taper date. It is never the maintenance plan.

What to expect during your first week

Admission from Pompano Beach typically starts with a phone screen the same day the call is placed. A licensed clinician completes a biopsychosocial assessment, confirms medical stability, and — for clients with co-occurring substance use — determines whether medical detox is indicated using ASAM Criteria across the six dimensions. Anxiety-only presentations enter at PHP (six clinical hours per day, five days per week) or IOP (three hours per day, three to five days per week) depending on functional impairment and symptom severity.

The first week includes a psychiatric evaluation within 72 hours, a primary therapist assignment, baseline scoring on the disorder-specific measure (GAD-7, PDSS, LSAS, or Y-BOCS), and initiation of the individual exposure protocol. Group programming — CBT skills, ACT, DBT skills, relapse prevention when indicated — runs concurrently. Family sessions are scheduled by week two when clinically appropriate and when the client provides written HIPAA authorization. Progress is reviewed weekly against the baseline measure rather than against clinician impression alone.

Insurance and admissions from Pompano Beach

RECO Health is in-network with Florida Blue, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, Humana, and BCBS commercial plans commonly held by Broward County residents. Admissions completes a verification of benefits within one business day and issues a written estimate of client responsibility before intake begins. For Pompano Beach clients, the 18-mile northbound drive keeps care inside standard South Florida commercial network geography — no travel authorizations, no single-case agreements required.

Clients who enroll in PHP and cannot commute reliably from Pompano Beach have access to RECO’s residential housing in Delray Beach for that phase, stepping down to commuter IOP from home once symptoms stabilize on the primary outcome measure. The admissions line operates 24 hours a day; no client is turned away for lack of an appointment slot within business hours.

Serving residents of: Cresthaven, Lighthouse Point, Sea Ranch Lakes, Hillsboro Shores.