Heroin addiction treatment · Hopkins, Minnesota
Heroin Addiction Treatment in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Outpatient heroin rehab for adults who are done with the chase and want to rebuild while living at home.
Northwoods Haven Recovery provides outpatient treatment for heroin use disorder to adults across Minneapolis and the Twin Cities from our center in Hopkins. Most people who come to us for heroin have already been through detox, jail, or a residential stay and know that the hard part is not the first week. It is the third month, when the structure is gone and the old numbers are still in the phone. That is the stretch our Intensive Outpatient Program and Relapse Prevention Program are built to hold.
In-network with Minnesota Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, HealthPartners, UnitedHealthcare, and Medica
Heroin use disorder
The heroin supply is not what it was. Neither is the danger.
What treatment includes
Group, one-on-one counseling, and care for what is underneath.
Group therapy with people who get it, individual counseling with your own licensed alcohol and drug counselor, and care for the trauma or depression underneath. You go home after every session.
6 to 12
Hours until heroin withdrawal typically begins after the last use
2 to 4
Months in IOP, then the Relapse Prevention Program step-down
18+
Adults, including young adults
0
Nights away from home. Every level of care here is outpatient
What heroin addiction is
Heroin use disorder, and what has changed about it
Heroin is an illicit opioid made from morphine. It can be injected, smoked, or snorted, and however it gets in, it reaches the brain fast and hits hard, which is a large part of why dependence forms so quickly. Heroin use disorder is diagnosed like any other opioid use disorder: use you cannot control, withdrawal when you stop, time and money spent getting and using, and continuing despite what it costs you. Most people did not start here. A common road runs from a prescription painkiller to street pills to heroin, because heroin was cheaper and easier to find.
What has changed is the supply. Much of what is sold as heroin in Minnesota and across the country now contains fentanyl, or is fentanyl entirely. Fentanyl is many times stronger, and the amount in any given bag cannot be judged by sight. People who have used heroin for years describe the drug behaving differently: a shorter high, a harsher withdrawal, and overdoses in people who thought they knew their dose. If you are using heroin today, you are almost certainly using fentanyl some of the time, and that overdose risk is part of what we plan around.
Treatment for heroin at Northwoods Haven Recovery is outpatient. It starts with a chemical use assessment and, for most people, means detox or stabilization on buprenorphine or methadone through a medical provider first, then the counseling and group work here. Medication for opioid use disorder is prescribed elsewhere. People taking it are welcome, and the plan we build accounts for it.
One thing to be clear about
We are outpatient only. No detox, no inpatient, no residential care, no prescribing. Heroin withdrawal is rarely a threat to life, but it is severe, and many people need medical support or a medication to get through it. Call anyway: we will help you find that care and welcome you back when you are through.
Our space
Inside our outpatient treatment center in Hopkins, Minnesota
A safe haven should feel like one. Our suite on Green Oak Drive looks out over water and trees, and the rooms where groups meet were built to feel calm, comfortable, and homey. Not clinical, not institutional. You are more than your diagnosis here, and the space is meant to say so before anyone does.
The lounge
Where people land and catch their breath before group.
The group room
Three hours a day, in a circle, with people who understand.
The view
Water and treeline out every window: the northwoods, in the metro.
Another Group Room
Three hours a day, in a circle, with people who understand.
Quiet corners
Somewhere to sit with a thing before you say it out loud.
Room to breathe
Daylight and treeline out every window. No clinical fluorescence.
Signs and symptoms
Signs of heroin use, for you or someone you love
About half of the calls we get are from a family member. If you are seeing several of these in someone you love, you are not imagining it.
Behavioral
Use and equipment
Small bags or foil, burnt spoons, syringes or cut straws, long sleeves in warm weather, frequent short trips out, and a phone that is guarded closely.
Physical
Body and appearance
Pinpoint pupils, drowsiness that comes in waves, scratching, weight loss, track marks or abscesses, and flu-like sickness that clears up suddenly after a trip out.
Consequences
Money and trust
Cash or valuables missing, pawned belongings, unexplained debts, lost jobs, legal trouble, and lies that no longer hold together even to the person telling them.
Psychological
Mood and withdrawal
Irritability and agitation when a dose is late, deep apathy between uses, isolation from anyone who is not using, and a flatness that lifts only when high.
Withdrawal and health effects
Heroin withdrawal, overdose, and the long-term toll
Heroin withdrawal typically begins six to twelve hours after the last use, peaks within one to three days, and mostly fades within a week. It feels like the worst flu of your life layered over panic: bone and muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, sweats and chills, restless legs, and insomnia. If fentanyl has been in the supply, symptoms can start faster and run harder. Withdrawal alone is rarely life-threatening for an otherwise healthy adult, but it is brutal enough that most people cannot get through it without medical support or medication.
Overdose is the real killer. Heroin slows breathing, and with fentanyl in the mix, the margin between a dose that gets you high and one that stops your breathing is razor thin. The most dangerous moment is a return to use after a break, when tolerance has dropped but the habit dose has not. Naloxone reverses opioid overdose. It is available at Minnesota pharmacies, and anyone who loves someone using heroin should have it and know the signs.
Over time, heroin use brings collapsed veins, skin and heart valve infections, hepatitis C and HIV from shared equipment, chronic constipation, and worsening depression. Many of these are treatable, and many people arrive already connected to medical care for them. What outpatient treatment adds is the part medicine alone does not cover: the months of low mood and craving after the acute phase, the relationships to rebuild, and the daily decision to stay when the old life is one text away.
If someone may be overdosing
Slow, shallow, or stopped breathing, gurgling or snoring sounds, blue or gray lips, pinpoint pupils, and a person who does not wake when shaken are signs of opioid overdose. Call 911, give naloxone if you have it, and stay with them. Treatment here can start once they are medically stable.
Who it is for
Outpatient heroin treatment is probably the right fit if you
- Have finished detox or a residential stay and need structure that holds through the months when going back is most tempting and most dangerous
- Are stable on buprenorphine or methadone from a medical provider and want counseling and a group that understands what you are working through
- Have a job, a family, or a court date that you cannot walk away from for a month, and need treatment that fits around them
- Have relapsed before after treatment and want a plan built around what went wrong last time, not a repeat of the same thing
- Are a parent or partner watching someone use heroin and need to know what a first step looks like, even before they are ready
Not sure yet
A comprehensive assessment answers it.
A chemical use assessment confirms the diagnosis, gauges severity, and tells us whether outpatient care is the right starting point or whether you need medical stabilization first. If it is the latter, we say so and help you find it. If you have a recent assessment from another provider, send it over and we will review it.
For families
About half our calls are from someone else.
You can ask a question without committing anyone to anything, and family involvement is part of the work when the client wants it.
How we treat it
How heroin addiction treatment works at Northwoods Haven Recovery
Most people come to us for heroin after a higher level of care or while stable on a medication from a prescriber. From there the path is the same as for every substance: assessment, IOP, and a step-down that ends with a written relapse prevention plan.
Step one
Chemical use assessment
An hour with a licensed counselor that produces a diagnosis and a level of care. If you need medical stabilization first, we say so and help you find it.
Where everyone starts
Most people start here
Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)
Three-hour groups most programming days, individual counseling with your own counselor, and treatment for co-occurring trauma, depression, or anxiety. About two to four months.
Explore IOP →
Then
Relapse Prevention Program
Ten to twelve weeks of lower-intensity care with the same counselors. Your triggers named, your people identified, and a plan for the day the old dealer texts.
Explore relapse prevention →
Therapies
Evidence-based addiction therapies, taught as options, not prescriptions.
We’ll walk you through every approach we use and why, then build your plan around the ones that fit your beliefs and your life. No single pathway, no ideology, no judgment.
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Find the thought patterns that drive use, and learn to interrupt them.
Dialectical behavior therapy
Skills for distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and hard relationships.
Acceptance & commitment therapy
Move toward what you actually value, even when it’s uncomfortable.
Motivational interviewing
Your reasons for changing, in your words. Nobody lectures you here.
Individual counseling
Your own licensed counselor, where the plan gets built and adjusted.
Group therapy
Three hours a day with people who know the terrain you’re crossing.
Addiction counseling
One-on-one counseling with your own chemical dependency counselor.
Trauma-informed care
Care that accounts for what happened to you, not what’s wrong with you.
Relapse prevention and aftercare planning run through every level of care rather than sitting off to the side, and whole-person care means mental health psychoeducation happens alongside all of it.
Substance use
Every substance use disorder we treat in Minnesota
Seven groups, one outpatient path. The substance shapes the withdrawal risk and the early weeks, not the level of care or the counselors you work with.
The most common reason people call us, and the one most often hidden behind a functioning life.
Prescription opioids, heroin, and the fentanyl that now contaminates most of the illicit supply. Detox often comes first. We do not provide it, but we help you find it.
Methamphetamine, cocaine, and prescription stimulants. Group work is where most of the traction comes from.
Benzodiazepines, sleep medications, and other prescriptions that started as treatment. Stopping abruptly can be dangerous, so a medical provider guides the taper.
Legal does not mean harmless. Cannabis use disorder is a real diagnosis.
LSD, ecstasy and MDMA, ketamine, and PCP. Usually part of a wider pattern, which is what the assessment sorts out.
Inhalants, nitrous oxide, and substances that show up faster than the research does.
Not on the list?
This list is not a filter. Call us and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit, and help you find who is if we are not.
Mental health
Co-occurring mental health conditions we treat alongside addiction
Treating one and ignoring the other does not work. Northwoods Haven Recovery treats co-occurring mental health conditions alongside chemical dependency programming. If your needs are mental-health-primary, a program built for that will serve you better, and we will help you find one.
Trauma and PTSD
Care that accounts for what happened to you, not what is wrong with you.
Depression
The loop between using and feeling worse, treated from both ends at once.
Anxiety
Using to quiet it works for an hour and costs more than that.
Bipolar disorder
Care that steadies mood episodes while chemical dependency programming continues.
ADHD
Structure and skills for adult ADHD when stimulants, alcohol, or cannabis became the coping strategy.
Something else?
If a mental health condition is tangled with substance use, tell us. We treat both together or help you find who can.
Paying for treatment
Insurance-covered addiction treatment that's accessible to anyone who wants it.
Medicaid was the first network we joined, on purpose. We’re also in-network with major commercial plans. We’ll verify your benefits and tell you plainly what your plan covers before you commit to anything.
Minnesota Medicaid
Blue Cross Blue Shield
HealthPartners
UnitedHealthcare
Hennepin Health
Medica
Private Pay
Not listed? Call and we'll check.
Common questions
Questions people ask about heroin addiction treatment
If yours is not here, ask us directly. We would rather tell you honestly that we are not the right fit than have you find out later.
LegitScript Certified
Verified addiction treatment provider
Can heroin addiction be treated on an outpatient basis?
Yes, for many people, especially after detox or once stable on a medication from a prescriber. Outpatient heroin rehab at Northwoods Haven Recovery means three-hour groups most programming days, individual counseling, and co-occurring mental health care while you live at home. If you need a higher level of care first, we tell you and help you find it.
Do I have to go through detox before I start?
Usually, yes, or start a medication like buprenorphine through a medical provider. Heroin withdrawal is rarely dangerous to your life, but few people get through it without support, and stopping abruptly without a plan leads most people straight back to using. We do not provide detox. We help you find it and welcome you back after.
Can I be on Suboxone or methadone while I am in your program?
Yes. Medication for opioid use disorder prescribed by a medical provider is welcome here, and for heroin it is often the difference between a plan that holds and one that does not. Tell us during the assessment so your plan accounts for it.
Is what I am using even heroin anymore?
Possibly not. Much of the illicit supply now contains fentanyl or is fentanyl entirely, which is why overdoses have become so common among people who thought they knew their dose. Whatever is in the bag, the treatment is the same. Fentanyl addiction treatment here covers that drug in detail.
How long does outpatient heroin rehab take?
Most people spend about two to four months in our Intensive Outpatient Program, then ten to twelve weeks in the Relapse Prevention Program. Programming starts right after intake. The timeline flexes with how you are doing, not with a fixed package.
What if I have relapsed after treatment before?
Then you know something about what did not work, and that is useful. Many people who come to us have been through treatment before. We build the plan around the moments that went wrong last time, and we talk openly about naloxone because tolerance drops fast after a break.
My son or daughter is using heroin. Can I call?
Yes. About half of our calls come from a family member. You can ask questions, learn what treatment looks like, and get resources without committing your loved one to anything. Family involvement becomes part of treatment when the client wants it.
Does insurance cover heroin addiction treatment?
We are in-network with Minnesota Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, HealthPartners, UnitedHealthcare, and Medica. Share your plan information on the first call and we will verify benefits and tell you plainly what is covered.
Related articles
Related reading on heroin, opioids, and recovery
Getting started
How to get started: four steps, no waiting eleven days.
Reaching out doesn’t commit you to anything. It means you asked a question, and we answered it.
01
Call
We listen to what’s going on and where you are in the process. No script, no pressure.
02
Chemical use assessment
A comprehensive assessment to determine diagnosis and the level of care that fits.
03
Referral to the right care
Ideally with us. If another program fits you better, we’ll connect you to it.
04
Intake
Programming starts immediately after intake. Already have an assessment? Send it over and we’ll review it.
Your team
Meet the counselors who answer the phone and guide your treatment.
Take the first step
When you're ready, we're here.
Reaching out doesn’t mean you’ve committed to anything. It means you’re asking a question, and we’ll answer it honestly, even if the answer points somewhere else.
100% confidential
Insurance verified fast
No commitment to ask
Outpatient only
Referring professionals
Send a comprehensive assessment, plus treatment plan reviews, discharge summary, med list, and insurance information if applicable. A list, not a portal.
Visit us in Hopkins
Northwoods Haven Recovery
5900 Green Oak Drive, Ste 306
Hopkins, MN 55343