Outpatient sex offender groups are available for those individuals who do not need treatment in a secured setting nor the level of structure or intensity provided by Alpha's residential treatment program. The overall goal of this program is to reduce the likelihood of a recurrence of inappropriate or deviant sexual behavior. 

A felony conviction is not a requirement for admission to the outpatient program. Those who are court-referred can be on probation, work release, supervised release or in other community programming or residential treatment programs.  Additional referral sources include social service agencies, health care management organizations, attorneys, employers, families and clients themselves.
 
Outpatient groups are also available for those who have been released from a Minnesota Correctional Facility and are either on intensive or regular supervised release. The following groups are available only when there are enough offender referrals to constitute the specialty group. If there are an insufficient number of offenders for a specialty group, those individuals will be seen in the traditional sex offender groups.

Outpatient sexual behavior groups at Alpha are intensive and focus on behavioral goals as well as emotional and psychological development. Specifically, clients are required to take full responsibility for past negative behaviors and to resolve any underlying contributing emotional issues. Clients are confronted with and expected to change maladaptive cognitive defense systems, such as denial and/or rationalization, which tend to support the negative behaviors. Clients learn to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate sexual fantasies and learn techniques to prevent the highly reinforcing practice of masturbating to deviant sexual fantasies. Each client is expected to develop genuine empathy for his or her victim(s) which is achieved through a variety of therapeutic techniques, such as role-playing and/or writing a letter of apology to the victim. Completing a reoffense prevention plan is required during treatment. Periodic individual or family sessions are offered to each group member as an adjunct to group therapy. When indicated, individual psychotherapy without group participation is also offered.

Clients are required to participate in at least two polygraph examinations while in treatment.  The first polygraph examination verifies full client disclosures regarding the referral offense as well as any other incidents of sexual abuse and deviant sexual history.  The second polygraph examination is administered prior to completion of treatment and verifies client compliance with both probation and treatment rules and expectations.

Clients are assessed to determine their appropriateness for outpatient community treatment.  Community safety is always considered when accepting someone for outpatient programming.  Potential clients are of at least average range in intellectual ability and should have no mental illness that would impede their ability to benefit from cognitive/behavioral therapy.  Typically, clients who do not have an extensive history of sexually deviant behavior and who are not chemically dependent, or have already received chemical dependency treatment, are appropriate for an outpatient group.

Outpatient groups either meet once a week for two hours or meet for three hours weekly for three weeks each month.

Payments for outpatient services can be made by the client, by his or her medical insurance, or by the referring agency. It is possible for a referring agency to pay part of the cost while the individual pays the remainder.