ALCOHOL AND DRUG TREATMENT PROGRAM
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Program Director: Thomas Irwin, PhD
Medical Director: Timothy G. Benson, MD
On a mountain-ridge with a breathtaking view of the expansive valley below and of the city of Boston, The McLean Center is located in the charming quintessential New England town of Princeton, Massachusetts, 50 miles west of Boston.
Built in 1835 and previously a Bed and Breakfast listed on the Select Registry as a Distinguished Inn of North America, The McLean Center is an elegant Federal mansion house that exudes all of the warmth and charm that a luxurious New England Inn can offer. It is complete with private rooms and private full baths.
The program's goal is to help individuals achieve and maintain abstinence, reclaim a sense of self worth and learn to manage the stresses of an active life without returning to substance dependence.
The McLean Center offers an unsurpassed individualized treatment plan provided by highly skilled addiction specialists and includes a comprehensive group program. Individuals who would benefit most from the program include those who may:
- Seek longer-term individualized care in a discreet and serene setting.
- Need lifestyle changes to maintain sustained recovery.
- Require further treatment following the completion of detoxification.
- Require medication evaluation or currently take medication for their disorders.
- Experience persistent relapses and require further psychiatric or psychosocial assessment.
- Have addictive disorders complicated by psychiatric issues.
This seven day-a-week psychoeducational and relapse-prevention treatment program is comprised of individual therapy and a group treatment program, characterized by small groups, run by expert clinicians. Individuals learn skills to help them regain control and to pursue constructive and meaningful substance-free and psychologically stable lives.
A Unique Program
- An intensive individualized treatment approach.
- Onsite psychiatric and psychotherapeutic services provided by Harvard Medical School faculty.
- Highly skilled addiction and mental health treatment team with 24-hour onsite residential support.
- An effective recovery approach founded on evidence-based treatment modalities that have been empirically tested.
- An integrated treatment approach for patients with substance abuse and psychiatric illness developed by Roger Weiss, MD, clinical director of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Program at McLean Hospital and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
- The experienced staff at the McLean Hospital Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Program have been involved in large national studies of the medications such as naltrexone (Revia), buprenorphine (Suboxone) and acamprosate (Campral) and have conducted studies of innovative individual and group psychotherapy and counseling approaches for individuals with addictive disorders.
- The team is highly knowledgeable about the use of state-of-the-art medications and behavioral approaches in the treatment of addictive disorders.
- Utilization and lifestyle integration of relaxation response techniques for sustained relapse prevention.
- Hands-on support and education of family members and significant others are integral parts of the treatment program.
For more information, please call 1 (800) 906 9531 or email McLeanCenter@mclean.harvard.edu.
The McLean Center is a satellite program of McLean Hospital's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Program.

