What is the Pand... Difference?
Why do so many people struggling with debilitating thought disorders needlessly fail to recover quality lives?
So many individuals with psychosis fall victim to unnecessarily diminished expectations because no one around them knows that a better way exists - The question is why? Decades of research have shown that maximal recovery requires more than medications alone. That same research has yielded novel therapies for the symtpoms of psychosis that are not sufficiently improved with medications, yet very few clinicians lknow that these therapies exist, even fewer have seen a patient who received these advanced treatments and virtually none have the technical skills or experience to deliver this care.
California OnTrack: the evolution of psychosis care.
California OnTrack was conceived from foundational cognitive neuroscience and our biological understanding of psychosis.California OnTrack' was conceived from the bottom up, beginning with a foundational cognitive neuroscience and knowledge of normal brain function. To learn more about and the systems biology underpinning our state-of-the-art treatment program see our tutorial Computational Psychiatry and the Science fo Psychosis.
Recovery SHOULD be the expectation, not the exception!
Our difference...a higher standard
Our flagship program, California OnTrack provides early and effective treatment solely to individuals who are experiencing an episode of disordered thinking or perception (aka psychosis). The core structure of our programs adhere to the clinically trialed and proven NAVIGATE & OnTrackNY Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC) frameworks for first episode psychosis. [See What is CSC]. We have extended the standard CSC to offer treatment to those with chronic psychosis, as well as, offer support to people with the co-occurring conditions typically excluded elsewhere. Moreover, we have expanded the CSC treatment core to include a full cognitive enhancement curriculum, physical conditioning, behavioral family therapy groups for caregivers, "Clubhouse", as well as other highly specialized therapies like Metacognitive Training for psychosis (MCTp), Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT). Combining many interventions in coordination produces gains across multiple domains and faster, longer-lasting improvement than any single piece on its own. In sum, every technique or treatment we offer was selected because it was proven effective in controlled clinical trials. California OnTrack leverages cutting-edge therapy with compassion equally, as we seek to break the stigma associated with mental illness. Our goal is to reduce the duration of untreated psychosis and achieving recovery through shared decision making, but our mission is to help you, create the best life worth living.
The Expansion Horizon
New modalities bridging the gap to full holistic recovery.
Restoring the Sense of Agency
Rebuilding the felt experience of authorship over one's own thoughts and actions, the background sense of "I did that" that psychosis erodes.
Cognitive Remediation (CR)
An evidence-based behavioral intervention using computerized restorative task practice and clinician-led strategy coaching to improve memory, attention, and executive function.
Physical conditioning & Nutrition
Rigorous lifestyle interventions tailored for those on antipsychotics to combat the 11–14 year life expectancy gap.
Cultural Bridge Integration
Lived-experience specialists engage young adults who feel alienated by traditional clinical hierarchies.
Metacognitive Training (MCT)
Focuses on the process of thought, debiasing 'jumping to conclusions', rather than challenging delusion content directly.
Social Cognition & Interaction Training (SCIT)
Targets social-cognitive deficits, misreading cues, jumping to conclusions about others' intentions, that drive paranoia and isolation.
DBT-plus
A blended Dialectical Behavior Therapy protocol that fuses DBT for psychosis (DBT-p) with DBT adapted for autism (DBT-A) to target emotion dysregulation and improve distress tolerance for those with impaired neurocognition and social cognitive deficits.
Club California Model
A socialization venue for building interpersonal and vocational confidence, social connection, and a recovery-oriented identity.
Bifurcated Behavioral Family Therapy (BBFT)
Our family therapy program operates on two parallel tracks. (1) Family Systems Therapy for the Individual and (2) Family-focused therapy (FFT+), a modified version of behavioral family therapy. The latter combines psychoeducation and teaching family members CBT, DBT, and motivational interviewing skills to lower patient stress and reduce harmful expressed emotion in the family unit.
Positive Affect Training (PAT)
A targeted intervention to reduce anhedonia and rebuild the capacity to anticipate, experience, and pursue rewarding activities.
Independence Transitioning
Structured coaching for daily living, workplace navigation, and self-advocacy to support sustainable independence outside the clinic.
Social Skills Training (SST) for psychosis
A dynamic curriculum rooted in Robert Liberman's pioneering work at UCLA, that draws upon both the works of Mueser,et al. and UCLA PEERS for Young Adults program,that teaches the concrete behaviors that carry conversation, friendship, and work relationships.
CSC Core Modalities
Essential pillars of coordinated specialty care that make recovery practical and sustainable.
Supported Education & Employment
Individualized support to help clients return to school, find meaningful work, and build the soft skills needed to thrive in academic and workplace settings.
Pharmacotherapy
Evidence-based medication management guided by comparative efficacy data, tolerability profiles, and individualized response monitoring.
Case Management
A dedicated care coordinator connects clients and families to resources, navigates benefits, schedules, and keeps every provider aligned on shared recovery goals.
Individual Resiliency Training (IRT)
NAVIGATE's modular individual therapy for first episode psychosis: processing the episode, building a wellness plan, healthy lifestyles, and strengthening the personal resiliency factors that carry recovery forward.
Our Mission
To set a new standard for early intervention and recovery-oriented care for thought disorders, combining clinical precision, compassion, and the latest evidence-based modalities so every young person in our care can return to a meaningful life.
Our Vision
A world where psychosis is detected early, treated expertly, and never sentences a young person to a smaller life, where functional recovery is the expectation, not the exception.
Our Values
Clinical rigor without shortcuts. Family partnership at every step. Respect for neurodivergent identity. A commitment to outcome transparency and continuous improvement.
Explore the team and the work
Meet our clinicians, see published outcomes, hear from families, and learn why our model works.
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Keep reading
All about pand health pages →- Programs & careWhat is coordinated specialty care?The CSC model, what CSCplus adds, and the unmet needs it addresses.For everyone
- About Pand HealthWhy choose usWhat sets our specialty care apart.For families
- About Pand HealthTreatment outcomesOur published patient outcome data.For everyone
- About Pand HealthWhy better treatment is neededThe gap between usual care and what recovery requires.For everyone
- About Pand HealthAbout Pand HealthWho we are and how California OnTrack came to be.For everyone