Kyle Adams was only a freshman in college when he learned that his close childhood friend was killed in a shooting, leaving him to struggle with grief for months and receive therapy provided by his school’s counseling center. It wasn’t until after college when Adams learned about intensive outpatient programs, and thought to himself “that’s exactly what I needed.”

Just a few blocks from University Park Campus, there is a mental health clinic that provides therapy services for university students who need just a little more support as they transition into campus life. Nack Behavioral Health, which opened in Fall 2024, is a clinic for college students that collaborates with USC Student Health to refer students to services. 

Adams, founder and CEO of Nack, said he founded the program to provide students with a powerful support system, which would have helped him as an undergrad. He worked for a behavioral health company called Muir Wood Adolescent Family Services, where he first gained experience helping adolescents who had substance addiction or mental health disorders. 

Adams said Nack uses IOP, which he said goes beyond a typical counseling program by meeting more often. Students realize therapy once a week just isn’t enough, not serving all the difficulties that they’re experiencing daily. The program holds a group therapy session for students that meets four days a week for three hours each day. 

“Our hope is for this to be a place where they can find a sanctuary for treatment and to be able to do therapy, and then from there, be able to live the life that they want for themselves afterwards,” Adams said. 

Heather Russo, chief clinical officer of Nack’s USC office, said students arrive at Nack with a wide variety of struggles, but said Nack’s schedule accommodations make it uniquely equipped to help university students.

“There’s a lot of social isolation that we see with students, and so we help to solve that by helping them create community with one another. That’s one of the benefits of Nack, is that we only treat college students, which means that our clients are able to really resonate and connect with the clients that are in the program with them, and they ultimately are able to develop a really strong support system,” Russo said. 

Adams said with the students meeting consistently every week, it creates a safe environment for friendships to form.  

“Students are learning emotion regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness and mindfulness … in a setting of peers and fellow college students who are having similar experiences,” Adams said. “They’ve created group chats, they’ve had July 4th barbecues, and they’ve really been able to develop relationships that go beyond just the walls of Nack.”

Margot Rittenhouse, clinical director of Nack, who manages operations, said she has noticed that the tight-knit support system Nack’s program creates is especially helpful for college students because they might not know where to turn to for help.“[College] can be a time of transformation, but also a time of challenge,” Rittenhouse said.  “Often that means needing more skills, needing more support and not necessarily knowing where to find that.”

Adams said Nack wants to be as accessible to students as they can be. When students provide their contact information on the website, they’re given an intake assessment within 48 hours. Once they fill out the form, there are no waitlists to make an appointment. 

“If there’s financial hardship, then we’ll work with students to be able to accommodate those circumstances,” Adams said. “We have had zero students unable to attend our program because of cost.” 

After opening another location in Westwood for UCLA students in September 2025, Adams said he is in conversation with other universities to potentially open new offices in the future. 

Asiana Guang contributed to this report.