Reasons Eating Disorder (BHC Alhambra) — Local services in Temple City

I was at the Pasadena house twice, as well as did virtual PHP/IOP. The last time, I was there and also pregnant.

While the dietitians I worked with did their best to accommodate me and work with me, I felt very much unsupported overall by most of the staff (with the exception of maybe 2 nurses). They were culturally incompetent, dismissive, and I felt quite disregarded.

The fact that I needed to get special permission to eat rice as part of breakfast was absolutely ridiculous. Especially when being told it's "not a normal breakfast item." When I brought up that they serve Breakfast for Dinner as a challenge and said to tell me the difference, they couldn't give me an explanation that made sense. Also I wasn't allowed to use chopsticks for the most part, because others supposedly use it so they slow down their eating? I eat much slower with a fork and a plate than a bowl with chopsticks or a spoon. I literally learned to use chopsticks at a similar time as forks and spoons and knives.

They enforce and encourage food rules that I didn't have prior to being there, and don't actually individualize care despite claiming they do. My eating disorder is more ARFID leaning and my aversions are texture and taste-based. You don't treat texture based aversions the same way you treat fear-based ones.

Additionally — just like most treatment centers — you're forced into a ton of exposure therapy. Except, it's immorally-based. When undergoing exposure therapy for trauma or anxiety, there is constant checks of consent to continue. And while they try to insist that you have that right to say no, they disregard the fact that there's a huge power dynamic at play.

Additionally, not being able to bring up triggering topics regarding food during group therapy while in residential makes no sense. If people are triggered by those topics, residential is probably the safest place to exist during that. You can't expect people to learn to cope with conversation triggers if you only avoid it and don't allow the one space to learn to safely cope to even exist.

I did reach out after almost a year to give feedback and explain how to improve their program, but I doubt they took any of it to implement.

I know that even if I ever needed treatment again, I wouldn't be able to go there because I developed mobility issues unrelated. But even if that were not the case, I would never choose to go there again. I don't think I could ever learn to trust a place that once asked me "How can we self soothe during this moment of overwhelm?" even though I was going into my 3rd trimester of pregnancy and was crying because I felt unsupported.

It also isn't okay that I was dropped at the Emergency Department alone and told to call when I was done. (I had an autistic meltdown and couldn't verbalize while I was there so I had to text several others to communicate for me instead).

The only positive that came out of me going back was that I learned to identify all the areas that tended to be disregarded in terms of "individualized care" for those with ARFID or cultural concerns.

Edit to respond: As I said in my review, almost a year after I was there I had reached out and given feedback and suggestions on how to improve. I also followed up multiple times and I have zero reason to believe based on those follow ups that my concerns had been taken seriously. The fact that I made those efforts is why over two years later I'm finally writing this review. It's important to realize if you're reading this, that while this program has helped a lot of people, it's damaged and hurt most who comes outside of a euro-white centric background or who is neurodivergent and deals with ARFID based symptoms. I have no further reason to reach out to you directly and offer specific feedback that you'll do nothing with. I just want people who need genuinely individualized care to know they would not do well here, and that's not their failure just because this place has been helpful to others. It's not for everyone and it certainly was not for...

This review is for Reasons residential in Pasadena. I was never in-patient at BHC Alhambra and did not go to PHP/IOP through Reasons. I wish desperately there had been a review like this for me to read when i was deciding where to go for residential ED treatment. No treatment place is going to feel good. But theres a difference between being miserable because you’re in treatment, and miserable because of the way you're being treated.

Reasons' philosophy is NOT conducive to helping and healing people with eating disorders. Given the mental state many eating disorder patients share regardless of size, age, disorder, race, economic status, the program philosophy felt so highly inappropriate, unrealistic, and sometimes downright cruel.

What most people with eating disorders need is a means of healthy communication, connection, support and community.

Reasons is a NON-RELATIONAL program. The staff is not allowed to be supportive. All they are allowed to do is “validate how you are feeling.” Residential level of treatment means you need more support than outpatient can give you, yet the staff responsible for your care cannot offer emotional support. Patients aren’t even allowed to talk about struggles with one another. If staff sees patients talking about anything real, they will be asked separate and save the conversation for group or in individual therapy. But! In group you’re not allowed to give feedback or support; you can only reply by saying "i relate because.." During groups the therapists don’t prompt. Or provide feedback. Individual therapy is much of the same. The RD is there only twice a week, so if you have questions about meals/food (which duh girls with EDs have lots of ?s and concerns) theres NOTHING TO BE DONE ABOUT IT until whenever your session is that week. This creates so much extra unnecessary anxiety around food and eating. Which is already stressful and literally why you are seeking help!

Their philosophy is based on empowerment and using INTERNAL coping skills. Only. while this sounds great in theory, its not practical for the demographic they are dealing with. To expect someone who hates themselves to feel safe & strong without helping them place the building blocks to get there results in reinforcing feelings of brokenness and hopelessness.

Even though every client is different, there is no meeting the client where they are at. At one point when i was struggling, their method was to withhold therapy sessions until I complied. So I was living in distress, facing my trauma and fear at every meal, and had no way to process it. Even with peers. Because rules.

When they are telling you to empower yourself & advocate for your needs, and you are able to work up the courage to do so, it is EXTREMELY DESTRUCTIVE and confusing to have those needs completely disregarded.

Reasons reinforced every negative core belief I had about myself and made me more hopeless than ever.

There are good people who work there, but they are not allowed to follow their instinct and support people who are really suffering. It is counterintuitive to helping people with eating disorders, and their program should really be looked at.

2 positives about Reasons:

1. Jillian the yoga instructor is an absolute gift to humanity. She does trauma-informed body work, makes each client feel seen and heard, and gently moves you towards improving relationship between movement and body. The amount she cares and the safe space she creates and provides is incredible. Danielle, the drama therapist, is also amazing. Shes a ray of sunshine and energy in an otherwise deeply dark and depressing space.

2. At Reasons, the clients are responsible for picking and preparing/cooking meals and snacks. They don’t allow you to repeat meals within 2 days of each other which forces practice with food variety.

If you are looking for a place to truly recover, be cared for and SUPPORTED, go to Monte Nido. They change...

Only reason this isn’t a 1 star is because they truly did save my life in a time of crisis. I was at Reasons inpatient for 11 weeks and at residential for one month. The journey to get to inpatient took almost 3 months, Ashley and Christina were extremely helpful. Lara gave me an admission date 2 different times then immediately told not to come in. The inpatient program was very repetitive if you are there for more than 4 weeks, being given stacks of paperwork to fill out for every group wasn’t helpful. Neither was counting out snacks, or measuring out food with a measuring cup/ food scale. Cafeteria food was cafeteria food. Sometimes the food was undercooked, and multiple times I had ants in my plate or inside my water, so watch out. The A2 side of the hospital was disgusting. It took the hospital 3 weeks to fix my shower faucet since water wouldn’t come out at all, so for the first few weeks I was in inpatient I had to shower in the dining room’s bathroom. Neither bathroom was ever cleaned up. They’d put bleach in the toilet and call it a day. The shower was full of hair from previous patients, black mold in the shower, blood on the floor, and an extremely dirty toilet with pee on the side of it. I asked several times for maintenance cause the shower did not drain and the whole time I was there, it wasn’t done, so everytime I showered i had to shower in a puddle of black mold, ants, and god knows what else. Basic humanity was stripped away the whole time in there. Can’t forget the ant infestation. I woke up to ants on my bed multiple times, I showered with ants, and the dining room was also full of ants on the table at one point. My therapist and dietitian in inpatient were helpful. The nurses and MHW’s were very supportive too. Daisy went above and beyond with my case, as there was a lot of insurance issues, and I’m forever thankful for her help. I did not have stable therapy in residential. I felt like a revolving door. The one I first had got fired, then I had my case worker as my therapist, then another therapist. Most of my therapy sessions consisted of me making phone calls to free clinics preparing me for discharge. I believe a lot of this could’ve been handled by the case worker. The dietitian helped me integrate back into society by taking me on some solo exposures and they helped cover my meals during outings as I was struggling financially. They discharged me with a folder full of all the meals we had for dinner, so that did help some. Unfortunately, I was discharged because I lost insurance coverage, but even then, I was discharged to an unhealthy environment, they gave me two options “go to a homeless shelter for battered women” or “go to Texas and live in an unhealthy environment for you.” I wasn’t given any more help for my eating disorder which I find extremely irresponsible of them. I asked for all my medical records to be sent to me and I have heard absolutely nothing from anyone after I sent in the medical release form. I’ve been without any continuity in care for my eating disorder for 2 months now. Unless you can pay them hundreds of dollars a day or have insurance coverage, good luck...