Fairfax Behavioral Health opens Lynnwood outpatient clinic

Fairfax Behavioral Health opens Lynnwood outpatient clinic

Published 12:45 pm Sunday, October 4, 2026

LYNNWOOD — Fairfax Behavioral Health celebrated the opening of its new outpatient location in Lynnwood with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday.

Branches Lynnwood, located at 20700 44th Ave. W, will begin providing outpatient mental health therapy Monday.

Fairfax Behavioral Health specializes in psychiatric, detox and rehabilitation treatment. Fairfax has an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Everett and offers inpatient addiction treatment at its Monroe location. The organization also has locations in Kirkland and Bellevue.

“For many years, people know Fairfax as primarily an inpatient organization,” CEO Patrick Wilder said. “… Lynnwood, and more importantly Lynnwood branches, really starts to represent our movement and exposure — our ‘branches,’ if you will — into the outpatient space.”

The Lynnwood clinic will serve adolescents and adults by providing specialized intensive outpatient programs, including group therapy and medication management. The services will help support people experiencing a variety of mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, panic disorders, trauma symptoms and suicidal ideation. Group therapy will be available to teens and adults either in-person, hybrid or virtually.

Laurel Schilling, chief operating officer for Fairfax, said she hopes the clinic can act as a stopgap to avoid overcrowding in emergency departments.

“Branches is about growth, it’s about recovery and it’s about sustained wellness,” Schilling said. “So it’s going beyond that acute crisis.”

A relatively new focus for Fairfax with the Lynnwood center is supporting neurodivergent individuals, including adults and children with autism and ADHD. Services will focus on strengthening executive functioning, emotional regulation and social skills. The clinic will also provide neuropsychological testing.

“They go through mental health crises too,” Schilling said. “We want to be able to accommodate and adjust our (dialectical behavior therapy) programming so that it’s neurodivergent friendly.”

Branches Lynnwood also plans to offer transcranial magnetic stimulation, a type of treatment that uses magnetic pulses to stimulate areas of the brain and could help people with treatment-resistant depression and other mood disorders.

Several police officers and elected officials were present at the ceremony Friday, including State Rep. Lauren Davis, D-Shoreline. Davis said that with the recent openings of the Lynnwood Crisis Care Center and a methadone clinic, there continues to be a wider range of care for people experiencing substance use or mental health challenges in the Lynnwood area.

“The end of addiction is not jails, institutions and death. It’s hope, it’s recovery, it’s dreams renewed, it’s families rebuilt, it’s amends made,” Davis said. “For so many people in our community, that’s going to start here, walking in these doors.”

Jenna Peterson: 425-339-3486; [email protected]; X: @jennarpetersonn.