Center for Discovery - Thousand Oaks

"i don’t recommend this facility… first of all emily the dietitian didn’t help whatsoever, she was often rude to the clients and other staff. she made up her own rules. made up her own serving sizes. and just didn’t follow the cfd protocols. julia the therapist and i just fought the entire time during our sessions bc i was voicing that she wasn’t helping me and she got defensive. i told her i wasn’t ready to leave because i was going to relapse if i did. and guess what!! i relapsed the day i left CFD and dropped a dangerous amount of weight. it disappoints me that they never listened to me or other clients. melissa, luz, katya, gerald, and sam all were incredible staff members and helped me feel safe and heard. i appreciate them for what they have done for the other clients and myself"

"This facility is one of the worst I have attended, their treatment team serving as more of a trigger than an intervention. First off, I was accepted into this facility despite being underage, and was expected to behave as if I were an adult. I was advised to adhere to guidelines of what a “normal adult life” would look like outside of treatment, despite being far from an adult. There was this unrealistic stigma of ‘the real world’ that was pushed and preached by their dietician, Emily Rotenberg. Emily proceeded to refuse purchasing my safe foods, due to them not being “shelf stable”. Fresh fruit and produce was prohibited. Certain crackers and bars were rejected due to a supposed lack of shelf space. This is far from Emily’s only issue. As a part of center for discovery, facilities are required to follow specific company wide menus and guidelines. Emily, despite being new, figured that she could betray company policies, and wrote her own menus based again on “shelf stability”. She implemented a breakfast cycle menu, one that was not approved by corporate, so we could (I quote): “burn through the extra groceries”. Besides being bad in this regard, Emily was not a great dietician. I was steadily losing weight on her meal plan, and she had the nerve to blame me for the issue, despite me having followed her every command. When I expressed any form of discomfort or emotion in sessions, Emily would kick me out of her office. If this wasnt bad enough, her and therapist Julia Youn proceeded to discharge me due to them not liking me, which I found out after leaving the facility. They lied and claimed it was an insurance discharge. Around this time, Julia was being incredibly rude to other staff members, though admittedly her therapy was decent. Overall, I would recommend this facility for those who wish to relapse in the future. The core team here is awful, though the floor staff are all wonderful people. Nurses Diane, Katya, and Luz are some of the sweetest people I have ever met, and have helped me more than my own treatment team. Additionally, counselor Melissa and diet tech Gerald were very cool people. It saddens me that they had to be located at this sad excuse for a treatment center."

"I came here to walk back out the doors in a state of confidence that I could fully recover at some point. Instead, 5 weeks later, I left with the same mentality I had before I went and struggled with behaviors until the literal day I left. Although it was my insurance that cut me, I felt that the head of the house made little effort to keep me there. And now I am back in outpatient, struggling again. The other 99% of the staff changed my life in a very positive way however (some of which fought hard to keep me there). They quite literally sat with me while I sobbed, stayed with me at the table, and went out of their way to make sure I was okay. I felt loved and cared for. Never judged and met where I was at rather than forcing me into a stage of recovery that wasn’t in my reach yet. If I hadn’t gone into treatment, I most likely wouldn’t be here to write this. So thank you. I wish desperately that the staff drama wasn’t a thing because I would recommend this place to someone I loved if there wasn’t so much going on in that house right now. A special shout-out to Melissa, Erica, Gerald, Ashley, Emily, Sam, Luz, Katya and Diane. You guys are in my heart forever."

"they switched me to discovery mood and anxiety when I need to stay center for discovery. They told me insurance would not pay anymore for center for discovery when insurance told me otherwise afterwards. They sent me to a place where I was abused and now need even more treatment. It felt as if they only cared about money. They didn’t help me with my ED when I needed it. I needed their help and they sent me away like an object. It felt invalidating and still does."