- Joint Commission accredited
- Girls-only home
- Ages 12 to 17
- Admissions 24/7
Dual diagnosis treatment for teen girls near Goodyear, AZ.
When a mental-health struggle and the substance a girl uses to get through it are treated in separate buildings, neither one really lets go. Nexus Teen Academy treats the two as a single problem, one residential program for girls ages 12 to 17 at the licensed Cave Creek residence, a drive northeast of Goodyear across the Valley.
- Free & confidential · No obligation · (480) 485-3424
- 4.7 Google · 37 reviews
- AZDHS-licensed residential facility
- Most major private insurance accepted
- Free consultation
- Counselor online now
If you're reaching out from Goodyear, share a phone number or email and a licensed admissions counselor will get back to you, usually in minutes. Expect a calm conversation about fit, benefits, and options.
- It's now where you are · typical callback under 10 minutes.
- Secure, private, and HIPAA-protected. By submitting you agree to be contacted about care; message/data rates may apply.
- 4.7 Google · 37 reviews
- Joint Commission accredited
Every credential is independently verifiable. Joint Commission · AZDHS registry · LegitScript.
Joint Commission accreditedAZDHS-licensed · LegitScript certifiedAbout Nexus Teen Academy
How Nexus Teen Academy supports Goodyear families.
Nexus Teen Academy is a licensed, Joint Commission-accredited residential program for adolescent girls who are living with a mental-health diagnosis and a substance problem at the same time. One clinical team treats both at the girls' residence on desert acreage in Cave Creek, ages 12 to 17. For a lot of the families who find us from Goodyear, the vaping or the drinking began as a fix, a way to turn down anxiety, escape a memory, or finally get to sleep. Pull out the substance and leave the reason and she is back where she started; treat only the mood and the using keeps unraveling the gains.
If a girl first needs withdrawal handled under medical supervision, that step happens at a hospital, and admissions schedules the move so her program opens the day she is released. The care is clinician-led, AZDHS-licensed, Joint Commission accredited, and LegitScript certified, with staff kept awake through the night.
Nexus Teen Academy provides residential treatment for teen dual diagnosis for families from Goodyear, Arizona, for ages 12 to 17. Girls live in a licensed home in Cave Creek with daily therapy, accredited school on site, and weekly family therapy. Most stay 30 to 60 days, and the team works with AHCCCS and most private insurance.
Cave Creek
Girls, 12 to 17 · Phoenix metro
Cave Creek
Girls, 12 to 17 · Phoenix metro
Accredited Arizona centers
Ages we treat, gender-separate
Awake clinical staff, every hour
A primary therapist, by name
Where residential care fits: IOP, PHP or residential
The subacute level between weekly therapy and a hospital bed.
Therapy once or a few times a week. Your teen stays home and at school.
Live-in clinical care with 24/7 awake staff, daily therapy, and accredited school, in a real home.
You are hereShort-term acute stabilization for immediate medical or safety crisis.
| Question | Intensive outpatient (IOP) | Partial hospitalization (PHP) | Residential (RTC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | A step down from PHP, or a starting point for teens who need more than weekly therapy | A step down from residential care, or a starting point for teens who need structure without 24/7 care | Teens who need 24/7 care in a safe, immersive setting |
| Where your teen sleeps | At home | At home each evening | A licensed, home-like residence with 24/7 awake staff |
| Weekly schedule | About 4 hours a day (10:30 to 2:30 or 1:00 to 5:00), 3 to 4 days a week | Several days a week, multiple hours a day | Daily therapy, with care around the clock |
| Typical length | 30 to 90+ days | 30 to 90 days | 30 to 60 days |
| School | Stays in school; IOP is therapy-focused, with no academic support | Daily schoolwork time in a classroom, with educators on staff | Accredited, credit-bearing classes on site |
| Family | Weekly individual therapy and family counseling every other week | Family therapy sessions included | Weekly family therapy, in person or by secure video |
IOP and PHP run at NexStep Teen Academy, the Nexus outpatient program in Scottsdale for teens ages 12 to 17.
Not sure which level your teen needs? A licensed counselor will walk through it with you on the phone, free, and tell you honestly if a lower level of care is the better fit.
Speak with our admissions teamThe program
What our residential dual diagnosis program includes.
Substance-use recovery and mental-health treatment carried on one plan, inside a girls-only home with a predictable daily rhythm. Every girl who arrives from the southwest Valley receives each piece below, weighed each week against her own goals rather than a set number of days.
One shared assessment
Psychiatric and substance histories gathered together, alongside school records and prior treatment, so no one is left guessing which problem came first.
Detox scheduled first
Withdrawal that needs oversight is handled at a hospital beforehand, with admissions timing the transfer so treatment begins the day she is discharged.
Therapy every weekday
One named licensed clinician, working the thinking, the triggers, and the using underneath them, five days a week.
Motivation and relapse work
For the girl who is sure she has no problem, resistance is met rather than argued with, and the high-risk moments get a written plan.
Family sessions and parent group
Weekly family work and the Saturday parent group, because the Goodyear home she comes back to is part of the plan.
Psychiatric care on site
Medication managed at the residence by the prescriber, including what is safe alongside a history of misuse, with your consent at every change.
School that earns credit
A certified teacher runs credit-bearing classes every weekday, so the schooling that slipped while she was using starts to recover.
A plan for afterward
Discharge brings a written relapse plan, a Goodyear-area therapist and prescriber lined up, and a staged return to her Liberty or Agua Fria classes.
- One care team for her diagnosis and her substance use together
Dual-diagnosis care
Conditions we treat with dual diagnosis care.
In these families a substance problem almost never travels by itself. Across the country, roughly 15% of adolescents went through a major depressive episode in the past year and 7.8% met the bar for a substance use disorder, and the two run together: about a third of teens with depression reported using illicit drugs, compared with 12% of those without depression.
At the Cave Creek residence one team holds both the diagnosis and the substance use inside a single plan, with nothing shipped off to another provider midway, because staying clean while the underlying reason goes untouched rarely survives the first rough week back home.
Making sense of a teen girl's dual diagnosis
Primary focus
Co-occurring mental health and substance use in adolescent girls
Depression
Frequently the load the using was meant to ease.
Anxiety & panic
Alcohol and cannabis leaned on to slow the spinning.
Trauma & PTSD
Substances used to hold the memories down.
ADHD
Impulsivity meeting easy access moves fast.
Substance use
Alcohol, cannabis, vapes, or borrowed pills.
Defiance at home
The blowups that mask the using beneath.
Self-harm
Often surfaces once the substances come out; screened at intake.
Safety firstSuicidal ideation
Assessed before any other work starts.
Safety first- Whichever struggles are in the mix, her treatment runs through one coordinated plan, one clinical team and one residential setting.
The setting
The Cave Creek residence for dual diagnosis treatment.
The girls' residence sits on desert acreage in Cave Creek, north of central Phoenix and roughly an hour's drive from Goodyear once you cross the Valley. It is a genuine house built for the early weeks of recovery: one steady routine, no substances and no dealers anywhere near, meals prepared and eaten as a group, staff awake overnight, and full AZDHS licensure.
Take a self-guided 3D walkthrough of the home
Life inside
Structure and routine in residential care.
The stretch right after waking is the toughest in the opening weeks, which is exactly why it carries the tightest structure. When every adult runs the day the same way, the cravings and the standoffs that used to set the tone lose their grip.
- MorningHygiene, meds & breakfast
Hygiene and meds from 6:30 to 7:30, then breakfast from 7:30 to 8:00.
- - Morning
Gratitude journal & education
A gratitude journal from 8:00 to 8:20, then education from 8:30 to 10:45 and a snack at 10:45.
- MorningGroup therapy & lunch
Group therapy from 11:00 to 12:00, then lunch and mindfulness from 12:00 to 1:00.
- - Afternoon
Group therapy
Group therapy from 2:00 to 3:00, a snack at 3:00, then group therapy again from 3:15 to 4:00.
- - Afternoon
Movement, dinner & evening activity
Movement with nursing from 4:15 to 5:00, dinner at 5:00, then evening activity and meds from 6:00 to 7:00.
- - Evening
Free time & lights out
Free time from 7:00 to 8:30, evening hygiene from 8:30 to 9:00, gratitude journal at 9:00 and lights out at 9:30.
Weekends run differently
Saturday and Sunday follow a lighter routine than the weekday schedule above.
Click here for a free consultationTap to call (480) 485-3424 and our admissions team will walk you through a full weekend. Someone answers any time.Awake clinical staff are on-site every hour, including overnight, at both Arizona centers.
How healing happens
Evidence-based therapies for teen dual diagnosis.
Integrated treatment, meaning one team addressing both conditions at once, is what national guidelines recommend for co-occurring disorders. A residential setting supplies the supervised hours that a weekly outpatient appointment cannot reach.
Core therapies
- 1
Motivational interviewing
Designed for mixed feelings. Instead of arguing her into agreeing, it draws on the reasons she already carries for changing.
- 2
CBT and relapse prevention
Triggers, high-risk situations, refusal skills, and a written plan for the moments that usually end in using.
- 3
Emotion-regulation and distress-tolerance skills
Rehearsed daily, so she has something to grab for once the substance is out of reach.
Supporting care, running alongside
Trauma-focused CBT and EMDR
When trauma is doing the steering, it is treated directly, once she is stable rather than in week one.
after stabilizationsafety firstFamily therapy and parent group
Weekly family sessions, in person for Valley families and by secure video for those farther out, plus the Saturday parent group.
weeklyhome planEquine, art and experiential
Friday time with the horses, along with art and music: hours that rebuild a life with no substance in it.
equine Fridayshealthy outlets
Your teen's clinical team
Meet our licensed clinical team.
Each girl is matched to a named, licensed clinician, and the psychiatric prescriber and residential staff are named too. Every Arizona license listed below is open for you to check yourself.
LPC, BC-TMHHannah Carr-Unquera
Executive Director
Leads the clinical program, licensed in Arizona and board certified in telemental health.
LCSW, DSWDr. Tyler White
Director of Adolescent Clinical Services
Sets the treatment plan each resident’s team works to, and supervises the clinicians who deliver it.
DNP, PMHNP-BCAlexandria Penner
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner
Runs psychiatric evaluation and medication management on-site, so prescribing stays inside the house.
House teamAshley Daniels
Director of Family Services & Education
Runs family services and education, after directing theatre and teen programs and building liberal-arts residential summer camps for Mount Holyoke College and Bryn Mawr College.
House teamJennifer Inderberg
Education Supervisor
Twenty-five years in education, supervising the accredited school that runs inside each house and the credit transfers back to your district.
House teamMelissa Stockmar
Director of Food Operations
Leads the kitchen team behind the chef-prepared meals, and runs the cooking group where residents learn to feed themselves.
Arizona-licensed clinical team.Every Nexus Teen Academy clinician is licensed in Arizona. Verify any license on the AZ Board of Behavioral Health Examiners directory.
What families say
Family reviews of Nexus Teen Academy.
4.7/ 5
Read them all on Google★★★★★
“Nexus Academy was a wonderful place for my daughter. The staff were amazing and so supportive. They worked with our entire family. Highly recommend Nexus.”
★★★★★
“Sending your child or teen to a residential treatment facility is a difficult and heart-wrenching decision. The team at Nexus Teen Academy was exceptional. Our daughter’s therapist was a great fit for her and played a significant role in helping us grow as a family.”Read the full review →
★★★★★
“The program at Nexus was a lifesaver for my 15-year-old daughter. After a tough year in and out of different levels of care, my husband and I had truly hit a breaking point and knew a residential facility was needed.”Read the full review →
These come straight from our public Google Business Profile, anyone can read all 34 and add their own.
Getting started
How admission works, from first call to first day.
- You set the pace, with no pressure to decide
- Clear answers to every clinical and financial question
- An honest recommendation, even if another program is the better fit
1
- Today · 24/7
- ~15 minutes
One calm call
A licensed Nexus Teen Academy counselor asks what she is using and how often, when she last used, which diagnoses and past treatment are already on record, and whether anyone is unsafe, then tells you straight whether residential care is the right fit for your daughter.
- What to have ready: nothing. Just call, questions are welcome, and there is no obligation.
2
- Same day
- Free & confidential
Coverage check
With your permission we contact your insurer and come back with plain numbers for residential behavioral-health care, whether we are in network, and the realistic out-of-pocket, and both benefits count here, the mental-health side and the substance-use side.
- What you get: your coverage answer, usually the same day, every option mapped, including in-network and out-of-network paths.
3
- Within 24 to 48 hrs
- Licensed clinicians
Clinical assessment
A licensed clinician works through the substance history, the psychiatric history, earlier treatment, and safety, then recommends the level of care those findings point to; her last use and any history of withdrawal decide whether hospital detox needs to come first.
- Your input matters: what you have seen at home is a key part of the clinical assessment.
4
- Within days
- Named coordinator
Plan the arrival
A single named coordinator manages medical clearance, the trip in, school records, prescriptions, and a packing list reviewed for safety, so arrival day holds no surprises.
- No surprises: you will have the packing list, schedule, and your coordinator's direct line in writing.
5
- Welcome day
- Never out of the loop
A gentle, planned arrival
Your daughter meets the clinical team and eases into the routine, and your first family update is booked before you make the drive back to Goodyear.
- From here: predictable days, weekly updates, and a team your teen knows by name.
Coverage & cost
Using insurance for residential dual diagnosis treatment
Residential behavioral-health care is a covered benefit under most major private insurance plans, and a dual diagnosis draws on both the mental-health and the substance-use side of that coverage. Nexus Teen Academy is accepted by most major commercial insurers. Goodyear families get a free, confidential review of their exact benefits, in-network or out-of-network, often finished the same day, with any out-of-pocket amount spelled out simply before anything is signed.
- 1You send your plan detailsTwo required fields. Member ID optional. Takes about a minute.
- 2We verify with your insurer directlyIn-network or out-of-network, free and confidential, usually the same day.
- 3You get the number in plain EnglishYour exact out-of-pocket cost, explained before you commit to anything.
- Meritain
- UMR
- + more
Out-of-network or unsure about your plan? Call anyway, cost should never be the reason a teen doesn't get help.
- Free benefits check
Learn exactly how your insurance handles residential dual diagnosis treatment, at no cost and with no commitment.
After discharge
Aftercare planning for Goodyear families.
Discharge planning begins weeks out with you involved: an adolescent PHP or IOP step-down where it makes sense, an outpatient therapist and prescriber arranged close to Goodyear, a written relapse plan that names her risky people, places, and hours, and a return to class coordinated with the Agua Fria Union or Liberty district.
Answers
Dual diagnosis treatment FAQs for Goodyear families
Direct answers for Goodyear parents weighing residential dual diagnosis care for a daughter.
A licensed admissions counselor can answer it on the phone right now, no script, no pressure, and no obligation to enroll.
Talk to a counselorAnswered 24/7 at (480) 485-3424Centers & getting there
Yes. Nexus Teen Academy treats co-occurring mental health and substance use at its AZDHS-licensed girls' residence in Cave Creek, about an hour northeast of Goodyear across the Valley, serving the southwest Valley and families throughout Arizona. Admissions answers (480) 485-3424 at any hour.
It means two things hold true at the same time: a mental-health condition such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, or ADHD, and a substance problem. Integrated treatment sets one team on both at once, rather than sending her back and forth between a mental-health program and a separate substance program.
The Cave Creek residence takes girls ages 12 to 17 only. A girls-only home opens up what can be discussed: sexual-trauma history, self-harm, disordered eating, and the social pressures that push many teenage girls toward using are all worked on openly, and groups, bedrooms, and staffing are shaped around that one group.
No. When withdrawal needs medical management, detox is handled at a hospital first, and admissions times the transfer so treatment starts the day she is discharged. The same goes for any acute medical instability.
Care & cost
The program addresses what turns up most in adolescent girls: alcohol, cannabis, nicotine and vaping, prescription pills passed between friends, and stimulants. What matters clinically is the pattern and what the substance is doing for her, not the substance by itself.
With motivational interviewing instead of argument. Most girls turn up convinced they do not belong here. The approach builds from her own reasons for change, and the daily structure gives her a sober baseline to measure against, usually within the first couple of weeks.
Many commercial plans do once medical necessity is established, and both the mental-health and the substance-use benefits come into it. Nexus Teen Academy accepts most private insurance and returns your coverage, network position, and likely costs before you commit to anything.
Family work is built in: weekly family therapy, in person for Valley families and by secure video when the drive is long, a Saturday parent group, and daily phone calls. Because the home she returns to is part of the relapse plan, you are part of the treatment.
Yes, and the prescriber reviews everything she comes in on. Where a history of misuse makes a medication risky, the prescriber walks you through the alternatives, and nothing changes without your consent.
Licensing & privacy
Stays are planned around 30 days or more, then adjusted against clinical markers: steady mood, skills she reaches for without prompting, a family ready for the home plan, and a step-down in place. Before discharge your case manager books an outpatient therapist near Goodyear and stages her return to school.
A certified teacher runs credit-bearing classes on site every weekday, and the credits transfer back to her Agua Fria Union or Liberty school. For a girl whose attendance fell apart while she was using, that is often the first thing to steady.
That is common, and it does not stop treatment from beginning. Our counselors coach you through the conversation, and many girls who arrive certain they do not belong settle once the home is calm, predictable, and no one is fighting them. One call works through your specific situation.
Admission & daily life
Often within a few days. Admissions calls are returned within 24 hours, usually within minutes. A counselor checks your insurance benefits and licensed clinicians complete an assessment, and if everything moves smoothly your teen can move in shortly after. A coordinator walks you through travel, paperwork, and the first day.
Yes. Nexus Teen Academy offers tours of the home by appointment, so you can see where your teen would live and ask the team your questions in person before you decide anything. Call admissions to schedule a tour at a time that suits your family.
Yes. Family therapy happens once a week and is typically followed by about an hour of visitation, and parents are expected to take part. After orientation, teens can call home during designated hours most days, and families can also join a weekly virtual Family Empowerment group with other parents.
No. Personal phones and other devices stay at home for the length of the stay. Teens use tablets for video calls with approved contacts and computers for schoolwork, so contact with family continues through approved channels while the focus stays on treatment.
School continues during treatment. Teens attend accredited, credit-bearing classes on site, and education supervisors help with coursework and stay in touch with families. Bring a copy of any 504 plan or IEP at admission, and before discharge the team plans a staged return to your teen's home school.
Pack about two weeks of clothes without laces or drawstrings, alcohol-free toiletries, and any prescribed medication in its original packaging with a current medication list. Bring a guardian ID, a copy of any 504 plan or IEP, and school books. Personal phones and school-issued tablets stay at home.
The data
Research on dual diagnosis in teen girls
Teenage girls report more substance use than they did ten years ago, and the mental-health piece is usually there already. Each figure below is sourced.
7.8%
of U.S. adolescents 12 to 17, about 2 million, had a substance use disorder in the past year (SAMHSA NSDUH, 2024).
1 in 3
teens with depression reported past-year illicit drug use, against 12% of teens without depression (SAMHSA NSDUH, 2024).
About 30%
of the 2.4 million adolescents who needed substance use treatment received any (SAMHSA NSDUH, 2024).
1 in 4
Arizona adolescents who needed mental-health care found it very difficult or impossible to get (AZDHS, 2026).
Put side by side, these numbers show a substance problem and a mental-health diagnosis arriving as a pair far more often than either turns up on its own.
The Arizona access figure is why southwest Valley families reach out early: when help nearby is thin, one program that treats both halves is often the faster route.
Group home alternatives for teen girls
Homelike on the outside, clinical at its core.
If a teen group home is what brought you here from Goodyear, meet our girls-only residence in Cave Creek. AZDHS licenses it as a behavioral-health residential facility, so her therapy, classes and supervision are all delivered inside the home instead of being split across different buildings.
A typical group home
- Licensed for shelter and supervision
- Daily living and structure
- Supervision, not clinical treatment
Nexus homes
- AZDHS behavioral-health residential licence
- Daily therapy and psychiatric care
- Accredited school on site
Families from the Phoenix metro 9 cities
Families from Greater Arizona 6 cities
Girls from Goodyear and the other cities shown here all receive care at our Cave Creek residence. We help work out the drive, and parents stay part of treatment with weekly therapy in person or on secure video.
Across Arizona
Residential dual diagnosis care within reach of Goodyear.
The girls' residence sits up in Cave Creek on the north edge of the metro, about an hour from Goodyear by way of the Loop 303 and I-17, still an easy same-day trip for a southwest Valley family. Admissions answers at any hour.
A Valley crossing, roughly an hour
Families leave Goodyear on Loop 303, merge onto I-17 north, and reach Cave Creek in about an hour. It is an easy same-day round trip, so weekend visits and in-person family therapy stay realistic.
Weekly sessions, near or far
Some Goodyear parents drive up for family therapy each week; others log on by secure video when the hour across the Valley doesn't fit. Either way, the weekly session and Saturday parent group continue.
Discharge planned around Goodyear
Step-down PHP or IOP and outpatient providers are booked near Goodyear ahead of discharge, and school re-entry is arranged with her Agua Fria Union or Liberty district team.
Nexus Teen Academy, Cave Creek · girls’ residence
Admissions 24/7
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Distance from Goodyear to the Cave Creek residence
Roughly an hour northeast by Loop 303
Saddle Mountain Rd, 85331 · 20 min north
Avondale, Buckeye and Litchfield Park
Travel, telehealth & aftercare
Every Nexus program, statewide
Teen treatment programs by condition.
Eight conditions, one clinical team, and girls from communities statewide. Select the concern that fits your daughter, then learn how care works when you're coming from Goodyear.
Licensed residential treatment at Nexus Teen Academy serves teens ages 12 to 17 facing eight conditions: anxiety, depression, trauma and PTSD, self-harm, suicidal ideation, bipolar disorder, substance use and ADHD. Our girls live at a dedicated girls-only residence in Cave Creek, set in the desert north of Phoenix. Goodyear families, like families across Arizona, receive clear drive-time information, hands-on travel help, and family therapy over secure video when making the trip each week isn't possible.
Depression care, statewide
Dual diagnosis care in other Arizona cities
The cities listed below all send girls to our Cave Creek residence. Open any one for local detail on the drive, re-entry planning with that home district, and answers to the questions families from there usually bring.
Other conditions we treat for teens
Condition links open the Arizona guide; the neighboring city links show what care looks like from each area.
Talk it through with a counselor
Tell an admissions counselor what you are seeing at home, and they will say plainly which program fits.
Girls-only programs
Treated only at the Cave Creek girls residence
Five programs for teen girls, each with an Arizona guide and a page for families from each nearby city.
Co-occurring mental health and substance use
Eating disorders in teen girls
Sexual trauma in teen girls
Severe mood swings in teen girls
Can't find your city in the list? We accept girls from any part of Arizona as well as other states. Phone (480) 485-3424 and we will explain the route to Cave Creek and help you plan it.