Odyssey Behavioral Healthcare began in 2015 with one person’s conviction that behavioral health treatment should be built around the people who need it. Hear founder Scott Kardenetz describe the experience that shaped that belief and the organization it became.
When Odyssey Behavioral Healthcare's founder, Scott Kardenetz, was young, his grandmother was institutionalized in a state hospital.
He watched someone he loved receive care defined by the system’s limitations rather than the person’s needs. That experience left a lasting impression and shaped a conviction that would eventually become an organization. Every person living with a behavioral health condition deserves access to treatment built around their recovery, not around what’s easiest to provide.
In 2015, Kardenetz founded Odyssey to address one of behavioral health’s most persistent problems. Too many people living with mental health conditions, substance use disorders, and eating disorders had no clear path between acute hospitalization and traditional outpatient treatment. The levels of care between those two settings — residential treatment, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient programming — were either inaccessible or unavailable in most parts of the country. Odyssey Behavioral Healthcare was built to bridge that gap.
"We do the right thing." — Scott Kardenetz, Founder
What started with two treatment brands in 2015 has grown into a national behavioral health organization with more than 60 treatment centers across multiple states. The same question that started the organization has guided every stage of that growth. Where are people unable to access the care they need?
2015
Odyssey Behavioral Healthcare is founded, acquiring Pasadena Villa and Lifeskills South Florida (now Lifeskills Behavioral Health) as its first two treatment brands. The initial footprint establishes residential and outpatient mental health programming in Florida and Tennessee.
2016
Magnolia Creek, a residential eating disorder treatment center in Alabama, joins Odyssey. The acquisition creates the foundation for Odyssey’s eating disorder treatment services.
2017
Selah House, an eating disorder treatment provider in Indiana, joins Odyssey to expand access to residential and outpatient eating disorder treatment in the Midwest.
2020
Clearview Treatment Programs, a mental health and co-occurring treatment provider based in Los Angeles, is acquired. The addition extends Odyssey’s geographic reach to the West Coast and brings specialized programming for women’s mental health and DBT-focused treatment.
2021
Odyssey acquires the Shoreline Center for eating disorder treatment, expanding outpatient eating disorder access in Southern California. Later that year, Odyssey acquires Civiq Health, establishing the organization’s substance use disorder treatment capabilities.
2024
Civiq Health is rebranded as STR Behavioral Health, reflecting expanded programming that now encompasses primary mental health treatment, substance use treatment, and co-occurring care across residential and outpatient settings in Pennsylvania.
2025
Lifeskills Behavioral Health expands into Orlando and launches its Signature Program. STR Behavioral Health introduces the Overwatch Program for veterans and first responders. New outpatient locations open across multiple states.
2026
Odyssey unveils The Odyssey Way, a unified clinical and operational framework that connects every brand and facility across the organization. The organization celebrates its 10th anniversary and continues expanding access to specialized behavioral health treatment nationwide.
The treatment gap in behavioral healthcare is not closing.
Demand for evidence-based mental health, substance use, and eating disorder treatment continues to outpace capacity in most regions of the country. Odyssey’s strategy going forward remains focused on the same principle that started the organization: expand access to specialized care wherever the distance between need and available treatment is greatest.
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