Phase W: Welcome/Orientation
Clients acclimate to Synergy, establish early structure, meet their care team, participate in recovery activities, and begin developing safety, consistency, and initial community connection.
Women’s Flagship Program
Women’s Flagship Program Overview
The Women’s Flagship Program at Synergy is designed around the understanding that early recovery requires structured support and a gradual step-down process that helps clients face real-world challenges with increasing independence. Through a coordinated PHP, IOP, and OP continuum, clients move through treatment while supported by clinicians, program staff, alumni mentors, and a strong peer community.
Structured sober living, individualized case management, and recovery-oriented programming provide accountability and stability at every stage, allowing clients to practice new skills, build resilience, and develop meaningful relationships. This integrated model creates a connected recovery community that equips young adults with the tools, purpose, and confidence needed to sustain long-term growth and lasting sobriety.
Your Care Team
Every client in the Women’s Flagship Program is supported by a dedicated Synergy care team that remains consistent throughout the entire experience. This team includes:
- Primary Therapist
- Family Therapist
- Psychiatric Provider
- Case Manager
Clients also build trust and connection with members of the broader Synergy staff, often forming meaningful relationships with support staff and members of the leadership team who naturally become part of their support system. Synergy’s philosophy is grounded in understanding each client’s history, needs, worldview, and emotional landscape and aligning the style and delivery of care to meet them in the most effective and human-centered way possible.
Synergy’s direct care staff operate on site all day, every day, across both the program house environments and the in clinical settings, navigating the campus and providing moment-to-moment support for clients’ needs. These staff members play a crucial role in upholding structure, modeling healthy relational engagement, reinforcing therapeutic direction, and ensuring alignment between the clinical and community experience. Synergy is intentional in hiring staff who make recovery look attractive, who live in a way that clients feel inspired by, and who bring diversity in interests, backgrounds, credentials, and strengths. This diversity allows Synergy to meet a wide range of client needs while also maintaining and managing the culture of the community in a thoughtful, attuned, and critically supportive manner.
The Five Phases of the Women’s Flagship Program
Synergy’s Five Phase System gradually increases responsibility, independence, and real-life engagement. Each phase builds practical life skills, emotional maturity, and stability in recovery.
Phase 1: Foundation Building
Clients develop healthy routines, strengthen relationships, deepen recovery participation, and build momentum toward personal goals while engaging more actively in clinical and community life.
Phase 2: Responsibility and Integration
Clients begin integrating recovery into real-world responsibilities through work, school, service, or community involvement. Independence increases, leadership skills begin emerging, and recovery principles deepen.
Phase 3: Leadership
Clients act as senior members of the community. They mentor newer clients, support the house culture, and engage in long-term planning for independence, career, education, and emotional stability.
Phase 4: Independence and Transition
Clients reinforce independence, complete advanced recovery and clinical work, refine transition plans, and prepare for graduation. They demonstrate stability across all areas of life and engage confidently in routines that support long-term success.
Campus Environment and Properties
The Women’s Flagship Program is anchored by a single, spacious residence positioned just two walkable blocks from Synergy’s clinical buildings, creating a cohesive and open campus feel. The Women’s Flagship House features multiple community rooms, inviting shared spaces, and a free-flowing upstairs layout with both single and double bedrooms. Set within beautiful West Chester, the property allows clients to move seamlessly between their living environment, clinical supports, and the surrounding semi-urban town as they build early recovery.
Key Elements of the Program
Individualized Case Management
A core component of the Synergy experience is individualized case management, which focuses on understanding the past, present, and future needs of each client. Case managers are committed to supporting clients in key areas of their lives, including legal matters, education, employment, relationships, and long-term personal development. They communicate with clients regularly, provide structure for day-to-day life, and support planning around next steps as clients prepare for transitions.
Families receive updates every two weeks to stay informed about progress and engagement. Case management meetings are organized around seven core categories that guide every session:
- Daily living and wellness: Supporting clients in routines, self-care, health, nutrition, physical activity, and personal organization.
- Relationships: Exploring family systems, friendships, communication patterns, and relational accountability.
- 12-Step and recovery: Discussing meeting attendance, sponsor involvement, step work, fellowship engagement, and consistency.
- Work: Reviewing employment progress, communication, responsibilities, performance, and long-term goals.
- School: Supporting academic planning, enrollment, structure, and execution of school responsibilities.
- Budgeting: Building financial literacy, reviewing spending behaviors, creating budgets, and reinforcing responsible habits.
- Program status: Clarifying level of care, phase status, expectations, clinical progress, and overall trajectory within the Synergy continuum.
Each meeting concludes with collaboratively developed SMART goals that clients work on between sessions. These goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound, helping clients build structure, accountability, and momentum.
Accountability
We manage accountability through clear daily processes, including routine and random drug and alcohol testing to ensure compliance with sobriety standards. Medication observation is also provided to support adherence, engagement with psychiatric services, and follow-through on prescribed treatment recommendations.
Accountability also shows up in the relational dynamics of the program. Staff provide steady guidance by helping clients follow through on their commitments, align their actions with their stated goals, and navigate the natural challenges that arise in early recovery. This often looks like supportive interactions that feel caring and natural while still ensuring clients honor the expectations of the program and receive redirection when needed.
At Synergy, accountability is not about punishment or control. It is about helping clients experience integrity in action, build trust with themselves and others, and receive the support they need to stay on course even when things get difficult.
Life Skills
Life skills represent a foundational component of Synergy’s extended care model and are developed through multiple avenues of the program. These skills are explored and reinforced during individualized case management sessions, where clients identify areas of life that require structure, learning, or refinement. Life skills are also addressed during individual therapy sessions when emotional patterns, relational dynamics, or behavioral habits intersect with functional capacities.
Additionally, life skills are coached, modeled, and reinforced throughout daily living activities in the properties, facilitated by Synergy’s support staff. Clients build competencies in budgeting, communication, time management, professional skills, household organization, self-care, nutrition, and general independent living. These skills prepare clients for sustainable recovery and successful transitions into independence.
Budgeting
Budgeting becomes one of the earliest structured opportunities for clients to demonstrate discipline and follow through. Each client meets with staff early in their stay to review their financial habits, establish a functional budget, and receive guidance on responsible spending.
Clients learn how to allocate money according to obligations, recovery needs, and long-term goals. Budgets are reviewed regularly to support accountability, reinforce positive financial behaviors, and improve overall financial literacy.
Meals and Nutrition
Clients in the Women’s Flagship House receive a weekly food budget and are supported in grocery shopping, meal planning, and preparing meals in the property’s kitchen spaces. The house includes small kitchen pods on the first and second floors as well as a larger community kitchen for shared cooking. When needed, clients may also work with an outside dietician to support balanced nutrition and a healthy relationship with food.
Exercise
Women have access to multiple local fitness opportunities, including yoga studios, pilates studios, and group fitness classes. Many clients also maintain memberships at local gyms such as LA Fitness, which provides a reliable structure for movement and wellness. Additional opportunities for physical activity occur through Synergy’s weekend programming and recreational outings.
Art Studio
The Women’s Flagship House features an art studio where clients can engage creatively through painting, drawing, crafts, and other expressive activities. Clients use the space individually or in small groups, allowing for both personal reflection and shared creative experiences. The studio provides an emotionally supportive outlet that fosters expression, confidence, and connection.
Activities
Activities play an important role in fostering community, exploring interests, and reinforcing recovery through action. Week to week, staff pay close attention to the interests of the current community and organize intentional experiences that bring clients together, build connections, and support a balanced recovery lifestyle. Activities offered throughout the year have included:
- Ice skating
- Linvilla Orchards outings
- Bates Motel haunted attractions
- A Painted Plate pottery and art sessions
- Escape rooms
- Paintball
- Ski trips
- Laser tag
- Friendsgiving with alumni
- Leadership nights at the Women’s Leadership House
- Murder mystery parties
- Museum visits
- Amusement parks
- Paddle boarding
- Fishing
- Movies
- Bowling
- River tubing
- Jersey Shore beach trips
- Kayaking
Outings typically involve small groups of four to ten clients, allowing for meaningful engagement and shared experiences.
Empowering Women Toward Lasting Recovery
The Women’s Flagship Program at Synergy Houses offers young adult women a structured, supportive, and empowering path to long-term recovery. With a full continuum of care, a dedicated clinical team, and a nurturing community environment, individuals develop the emotional resilience, independence, and life skills to help them thrive beyond treatment.
Synergy provides not just a place to recover, but a community where women can build meaningful futures rooted in connection, confidence, and lasting sobriety. If you’re seeking treatment for drug or alcohol use, our programs provide a supportive, focused environment to help you heal, grow, and reclaim the life you deserve. Contact us today to take the first step toward lasting recovery.
