How We Treat Mental Health and Autoimmune Conditions at Highlands in Bloom
Highlands in Bloom is a licensed residential treatment center in Agoura Hills, California providing individualized, clinically supervised care for high-functioning adults navigating mental health disorders and autoimmune conditions. Our treatment approach is overseen by Medical Director and Psychiatrist Dr. Todd Hill and Clinical Program Director Stacy McNeal, PhD, LMFT, and integrates evidence-based clinical therapies, integrative healing modalities, and whole-food vegetable forward nutrition into a single, cohesive residential program.
We treat anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, OCD, ADHD, and burnout alongside autoimmune conditions including lupus, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, IBD, and more. We do not treat these as separate concerns. The inflammatory, nervous system, and psychological mechanisms that drive autoimmune conditions and mental health disorders are deeply interconnected, and our treatment model is designed around that reality.
Our approach is organized across three core pillars: Clinical Programming, Services and Modalities, and Nutrition. Each is described in full below.
Clients live on-site at our Agoura Hills facility for a typical stay of 30 to 90 days, with length of stay determined by individual clinical need and progress. The residential setting removes clients from the environmental stressors and triggers that sustain chronic stress, nervous system dysregulation, and autoimmune flare cycles, creating the conditions necessary for meaningful and lasting clinical change.
Each day is structured around therapeutic consistency. Mornings begin with gratitude and ecotherapy to regulate the nervous system before the clinical day begins. Individual therapy sessions with licensed clinicians are scheduled throughout the week, with frequency and focus adjusted based on each client’s evolving treatment plan. Group therapy, clinical programming, and somatic movement take place daily, providing structured peer support, psychoeducation, and evidence-based skill development.
Medical and functional health assessments are conducted at intake to establish a clinical baseline, informing the individualized treatment plan developed by our multidisciplinary team. Nutrition is treated as a clinical intervention rather than an amenity, with whole-food vegetable forward meals prepared daily by our onsite chef in alignment with anti-inflammatory principles. Mind-body practices including breathwork, somatic movement, and trauma-informed care are embedded throughout the daily schedule as core clinical components, not optional add-ons.
Community circles provide weekly structured group check-ins for processing, connection, and peer accountability. Reflective and integrative practices including journaling, guided inner work, and mindfulness-based exercises support the emotional processing work happening in individual and group therapy. One-on-one clinical support is available throughout the day, ensuring that clients have consistent access to their care team as needs arise.
Clinical Programming
Highlands in Bloom’s clinical programming is developed and overseen by Clinical Program Director Stacy McNeal, PhD, LMFT and delivered by a multidisciplinary team of licensed therapists and clinical specialists. Programming is fully individualized and built around each client’s diagnostic history, trauma background, presenting conditions, and treatment goals.
Our core clinical modalities include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), somatic experiencing, trauma-focused therapy, nervous system regulation, psychoeducation, and mindfulness-based interventions. Individual therapy, group therapy, and specialized clinical programming run concurrently throughout the residential stay, providing daily therapeutic engagement at a depth that weekly outpatient sessions cannot replicate.
Clinical programming is designed to address both the psychological and physiological dimensions of mental health and autoimmune presentations. For clients managing conditions such as PTSD, complex trauma, anxiety, depression, or burnout, the clinical program addresses the nervous system dysregulation and unresolved emotional patterns that sustain these conditions. For clients managing autoimmune conditions such as lupus, fibromyalgia, MS, or IBD, clinical work addresses the chronic stress, trauma history, and nervous system activation that directly influence disease activity and immune function.
Services and Modalities
Alongside our licensed clinical programming, Highlands in Bloom offers a comprehensive range of evidence-informed and integrative modalities designed to support nervous system regulation, reduce systemic inflammation, address trauma stored in the body, and promote whole-body recovery. These modalities are not wellness amenities. They are selected and integrated into each client’s individualized treatment plan based on clinical relevance to their presenting conditions.
Modalities available to residential clients include far infrared sauna, red light therapy, BEMER Pulsed Electromagnetic Field therapy (PEMF), cold plunge hydrotherapy, hot tub hydrotherapy, sound healing, yoga, somatic bodywork, meditation, and energy healing. Educational sessions are embedded throughout the residential program to support psychoeducation and long-term self-management.
Optional self-pay services available to residential clients include IV therapy, functional neurology consultation, integrative compounding pharmacy consultation, and functional chiropractic care. These offerings extend the integrative framework of our program for clients whose clinical presentations benefit from additional functional medicine support.
On-site medical support includes an on-call nurse and weekly one-on-one sessions with our Medical Director and Psychiatrist Dr. Todd Hill, ensuring that psychiatric oversight is embedded throughout the residential stay rather than delivered episodically.
Nutrition
At Highlands in Bloom, nutrition is a clinical intervention integrated into every residential treatment plan, not a hospitality service. Our full-time onsite chef prepares whole-food, vegetable forward meals daily in alignment with anti-inflammatory principles and each client’s individual health history, dietary needs, and treatment goals.
The relationship between nutrition, gut health, and both autoimmune and mental health conditions is well-established in clinical research. Chronic gut inflammation disrupts the gut-brain axis, impairs neurotransmitter production, and contributes to the systemic inflammation that drives autoimmune flares and sustains mood disorders including depression and anxiety. Nutritional support at Highlands in Bloom is designed to directly address these mechanisms as a core component of the overall treatment plan.
Nutritional education, herbal supplementation, medicinal tea, and practical meal preparation education are provided throughout the residential stay. Clients leave with the clinical knowledge and practical skills to sustain anti-inflammatory dietary practices at home, making nutrition a long-term self-management tool rather than a temporary intervention.
Why We Treat the Mind and Body Together
The central clinical premise at Highlands in Bloom is that mental health and physical health, particularly autoimmune health, cannot be meaningfully separated. Chronic psychological stress activates the HPA axis and sustains elevated inflammatory signaling that directly triggers autoimmune flares in conditions including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, IBD, MS, and psoriasis. Unresolved trauma dysregulates the nervous system in ways that perpetuate anxiety, depression, and immune dysfunction simultaneously. A program that treats only the psychological or only the physiological addresses half the picture at best.
Our treatment model addresses the full picture. Evidence-based clinical therapies work on the cognitive and emotional patterns sustaining mental health symptoms. Somatic and body-based therapies work on the nervous system dysregulation stored in the body. Integrative modalities work on the inflammatory and physiological environment. And clinical nutrition works on the gut-brain axis and systemic inflammation that connect immune function to mental health.
This is not a wellness philosophy. It is a clinically grounded approach to the biological reality that the mind and body are one system, and that lasting recovery for both mental health disorders and autoimmune conditions requires treating them as such.
Ready to Learn More?
Highlands in Bloom accepts clients from across California and the United States. If you are ready to understand whether our residential treatment program is the right fit for your mental health, autoimmune, or stress-related needs, our admissions team is available daily for a complimentary, confidential clinical consultation.
Request a Consultation or call us directly at (805) 892-6313.
FAQs
What therapies are used at Highlands in Bloom?
Highlands in Bloom’s clinical program incorporates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), somatic experiencing, trauma-focused therapy, nervous system regulation, mindfulness-based interventions, group therapy, and psychoeducation. Treatment plans are fully individualized based on each client’s clinical history, presenting conditions, and treatment goals.
Who oversees treatment at Highlands in Bloom?
Clinical care at Highlands in Bloom is overseen by Clinical Program Director Stacy McNeal, PhD, LMFT and Medical Director and Psychiatrist Dr. Todd Hill. All treatment plans are developed and regularly reviewed by our multidisciplinary clinical team.
How does Highlands in Bloom treat autoimmune conditions?
Highlands in Bloom addresses autoimmune conditions through the lens of the mind-body connection, targeting the chronic stress, nervous system dysregulation, trauma history, and inflammatory patterns that directly influence immune function and disease activity. Clinical therapy, somatic work, integrative modalities, and anti-inflammatory nutrition are combined into an individualized residential treatment plan. We do not medically treat autoimmune disease directly but address the psychological and physiological patterns that coexist with and worsen autoimmune presentations.
How does Highlands in Bloom treat trauma?
Trauma is addressed through a combination of EMDR, somatic experiencing, trauma-focused CBT, nervous system regulation work, and body-based therapies. Our approach recognizes that trauma is stored not only in narrative memory but in the nervous system and body, and treatment addresses both dimensions within the residential setting.
What is somatic therapy and why is it used at Highlands in Bloom?
Somatic therapy is a body-based approach to healing that addresses how stress, trauma, and emotional experiences are held in the nervous system and physical body. At Highlands in Bloom, somatic movement, breathwork, and body-based practices are integrated as core clinical components because nervous system regulation is central to recovery from both mental health disorders and autoimmune conditions. Somatic work is not an add-on. It is a required part of daily residential programming.
How does nutrition support mental health and autoimmune recovery?
Research consistently demonstrates a bidirectional relationship between gut health, systemic inflammation, and both mental health and autoimmune conditions. Chronic gut inflammation disrupts the gut-brain axis, impairs neurotransmitter production, and elevates the inflammatory signaling that drives autoimmune flares and mood disorders. Our anti-inflammatory, whole-food nutritional program is designed to address these mechanisms directly as part of a comprehensive clinical treatment plan.
What is the difference between clinical programming and modalities at Highlands in Bloom?
Clinical programming refers to the licensed, evidence-based therapeutic interventions delivered by our clinical team, individual therapy, group therapy, CBT, DBT, EMDR, and trauma-focused care. Modalities are the integrative and complementary practices that support nervous system regulation, inflammation reduction, and whole-body recovery alongside clinical therapy, including far infrared sauna, red light therapy, PEMF, cold plunge, sound healing, somatic bodywork, and others. Both are integrated into each client’s individualized treatment plan.
Does Highlands in Bloom accept insurance?
Yes. Highlands in Bloom is in-network with Blue Shield of California and Aetna and accepts most major PPO plans. Our admissions team provides complimentary insurance verification and works directly with providers to clarify benefits and reduce out-of-pocket costs. Learn more about insurance coverage or call us at (805) 892-6313.