UCLA Health Westwood Rehabilitation Services — Local services in Los Angeles

More harm than good. Complete waste of time insurance scam that I had to wait a year for.  Read Yelp reviews and for Burbank.   I left and found movement therapy solutions on YouTube with pros who understand my conditions, Ehlers-Danlos and hypermobility spectrum, which UCLA didn't catch and I had to diagnose myself with, although all the evidence was right there in front of them, a dozen UCLA specialists, orthos, and PTs didn't catch it!!! I have such serious C-PTSD from the medical establishment's abuse and negligence.

UCLA offers clinical, 30-minute insurance driven sessions with mechanical staff which perform for record keeping but don't help patients.  No help, no time for warm-ups, no heat packs. I had referrals for knees, feet, arms, wrist and back injuries and all 3 PTs at this location I tried working with addressed all of those body parts separately as if they were not related and working together. Same with Burbank. They literally had no idea how to put an entire human body together as a working system and instead treated me like car parts: brakes, struts and shocks, missing the hypermobilty entirely. It's so obvious. I found the Beighton score and Ehlers-Danlos Society for help. UCLA is so far behind.

They're still conducting business like it's 1972. Groping. No directions. PT exercises on photocopies, movements that are square, stiff, and hurt.  No clue how to treat compound issues, whole body systems or sense of the body-mind, somatic therapy, nervous system regulation. None. Zero breath. The setup is stressed, so are they, and they will pass that stress on to you. I couldn't even get a proper evaluation because I was shuffled from one PT to the next and met by video and she never saw my body. I literally had to evaluate myself to tell her the muscular imbalances!

The first PT Noel couldn't understand how to put things together and only gave me exercises for my feet while ignoring my spine entirely and repeatedly stroking and touching my leg without permission, even after I corrected him. Helen and an older hand OT Renee P told me to massage an injured elbow joint which made things worse. Rest was the solution and I had to find that online. I told the OT that I was having problems picking up a one pound jar of table salt with a straight arm and so the exercise she tried giving me was picking up a 3 pound weight with the same movement! So I kept being given directions that would injure me and I had to find all of the solutions online instead!

Helen kept canceling her appointments and missed 6 or more and there was really no use to continue. 8 appointments and there was no progress or action plan and I ended up injured. Another problem was that she directed me NOT to use an ankle brace for peroneal tendonitis against the direction of 2 ortho foot docs and it became worse with cuboid injuries. People with HEDS need braces because their joints of the whole body don't hold. That's a huge reason for collapsed feet and posture. SO UCLA made it worse.

Zero privacy. I have PTSD and requested a private evaluation, but they booked me with the OT in a crowded room with 8 other therapists and 8 patients all loudly talking at the same time. They do not have patient-centered care. When I asked the OT she said, "but all of my equipment is here". So again, the patient is supposed to comply to doctor desires, not their own needs. They think they are the sun god and we are to revolve around them.

Web, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram was the solution. I found all the exercises, classes, and spine decompression that this PT lab should have offered, but didn't. NW Foot & Ankle Center, Foot Collective, Chaplin Chiro, Jon Saunders. Ray McClanahan, Daniel Maximov, Spine Care Decompression, gentle pilates, Jeannie di Bon for HEDS. Find hypermobility care elsewhere and Ehlers-Danlos Society. I'm feeling so much better due to MY own research and care! ...

I was skeptical. The first meeting was an hour long and to me seemed like a waste of time, it was just me talking about why I was there and them doing little tests that seemed worthless. But boy after the first visit did things change. I was there for OT and saw Rebecca. And I exaggerate not when I say that she changed my life and that there isn't enough stars to show my appreciation for her work. After the first visit which allowed her to set benchmarks of what my current abilities were, I was given a series of exercise that not only helped me gain mobility in my hands, but also helped with the pain I was dealing with at that time. Now while I'm dealing with a back injury from my previous job that has me in massive amounts of pain in my back and has even caused pain in my arms, legs, and the sides of my neck and shoulders that even medicines don't help with, Prachi started and Frank in conjuction with Rebecca have taken over putting me through a series of exercises that for the first time have helped to lessen the pain in my body. I still have a ways to go, but I don't doubt that between them I'll be able to get to a point where the pain is manageable. Cant recommend these three enough: -Rebecca -Frank -Prachi

5 stars only cause I...

Individual therapists are great and the 1:1 care is superior to any other PT facility I’ve been to except Casa Colina and private pay PT. I’ve been a complex patient here for 2.5 years with multiple injuries and a connective tissue disorder. It took self advocacy to be in a place where I’m getting better and finding the right therapist to work with.

Systemically it is a mess for complex patients to navigate and you will have to advocate for yourself get your needs met. The individuals in this system are all amazing folx doing their best to help patients from the managers to the therapists themselves. Appreciate my care team here keeping me mobile through a complex...