The Emily Program Eating Disorder Treatment Center - St. Louis Park, MN — Local services in Saint Louis Park

The quality of care here has significantly gone downhill as the company has expanded over the years. This program was super strong when I did an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) here in 2005. But when I did an IOP at the St. Paul location in 2017, all the providers in my IOP were unlicensed & inexperienced. Groups consisted of reading out loud from worksheets, painting placemats, doing activities from “the art cart” & doing whatever Pinterest ideas could be morphed into a therapy group. I quit the IOP after 2 weeks because it was so bad. It felt more like an adult daycare than a treatment center. It’s a very basic program with young clinicians that haven’t been properly trained to lead intensive programming. The Emily Program (TEP) likes to say they are a University of Minnesota affiliate... but what that really means is they let inexperienced U of MN students have internships at The Emily Program (TEP) & staff higher levels of care with students for cheap labor.

They are a for-profit company owned by a private equity firm, TripleTree, & at the end of 2017 the program callously & abruptly dropped 100s of outpatients from their program in an effort to boost profits. You can Google it- it was a complete mess. Many of their patients were left stranded with no care who still had very active eating disorders. They wanted to get rid of outpatient care & try to funnel as many patients as possible into their higher levels of care to try to boost profits. They did this at the expense of their long standing clients’ mental health & recoveries. They forced providers to drop caseloads of 100s of struggling patients. To do this to their employees was cruel, & to do this to such a vulnerable population was simply inhumane. I read an article written by Steven Dunn saying they are so money hungry they have turned around & sued patients for medical debts as low as $500.

I haven’t been to the Anna Westin House when it’s been owned by TEP, but I’ve heard from former patients the quality of care is pretty bad there as well. I’ve heard it is more like a sorority than a treatment center. I’ve also known people who have worked there who have said some staff still have active eating disorders & are purging at work- I can name two by name. When I was looking for intensive residential treatment 3 years ago during a major relapse- my entire outpatient treatment team recognized there were no in state options to get comprehensive care so I ended up going out of state. Ironically, some members of my outpatient team used to work at the Emily Program & have explicitly told me they don’t recommend it. If you are local & looking for a good treatment center I would recommend Water’s Edge in Burnsville. If you need residential or inpatient I would recommend Laureate, Monte Nido, or Eating Recovery Center. Definitely not the Emily Program... please don’t give them...

I've never felt compelled to write a review of any place, but the wild unprofessionalism and overall ineptitude of this place honestly leaves me no choice. After meeting with a therapist a few times, I decided to cancel all future appointments as they had no availability outside of normal work hours, making it very challenging for me to accommodate my work schedule. Despite calling to cancel all future appointments, I received a bill a month later with 2 "missed appointment" fees. When I called to complain, I was told "oh, it looks like someone failed to cancel all of your future appointments," but that the fees would be waived and to call back if I had any such fees in my subsequent bill. Sure enough, I did, but when I called to ask for an explanation, I was told that there was no record of me ever having made a call to request the cancellation of my appointments. Given their staff's inability to correctly cancel all of my future appointments, it doesn't surprise me that they also failed to keep a record of this phone call. Save yourself the headache and gaslighting and seek therapy from a practice that handles itself...

I was left completely heartbroken and helpless. Like many others, I was referred to a more intensive program than I was able to attend (intensive day program which is 5 days a week). I did the program last year and was drained due to doing school full time and working on weekends. Luckily I was living with my parents and didn’t need to pay for many bills.

Now I live with my boyfriend and have plenty other bills to pay for. I have to work at least 4 days a week to make ends meet. They kept pushing for IDP after I told them I don’t think I would be able to do it. I asked them if I could do a less intensive treatment and they said no. So I was left with nothing. They suggested a grant but it was only $500. Better than nothing but that wouldn’t be enough to cover expenses with how long treatment would be. They never referred me or suggested any other places to go to. They just suggested that I see my primary doctor. I was denied flexibility in treatment when I needed it the most. Some treatment is better than none but obviously they don’t agree. It felt like a slap...