Sheppard Pratt - Timonium

The retreat at Sheppard Pratt is a joke. I was there for 5 weeks—they insisted I stay (to get more money) did not help me one bit. They do not do anything to try and help you bill your insurance nor set you up for success when leaving—their version of success is a print out from your insurance website about therapists in your area. My initial psychiatrist misdiagnosed me 15 minutes into our first session, I promptly switched, and while Dr. M was nice, I made virtually no progress whatsoever and quickly regressed to my pre treatment state, but $75k poorer than before! If you love your child or your spouse, do not send them here. To say they are trauma informed would be a massive overstatement. The food is disgusting hospital food and half of the modalities advertised online they don’t actually practiced. I basically had to beg for more therapy sessions since I was not improving. There is also no focus on harm reduction surrounding mental health. The cleaning staff were overall the most supportive people there. -10/10 would rather be at a shitty state hospital than this dump. They spend all of the money on snacks and not on giving high quality treatment to their patients. Mind you this place is about $3500 per night and the nicest amenities they offer are justin’s almond butter packets and bathtubs in a handful of rooms. Again -10/10 would only recommend this place to my worst enemies!

Dr. Foster ruined my life putting me on Klonopin. It has destroyed my brain, destroyed my family, destroyed my life. I hold her accountable. Don’t trust her or any of the other quacks at SP. They knew the dangers of Klonopin and never explained it to me. She essentially destroyed me as a person.

This place seems nice on the outside, but its all empty promises. I could write like a 20 page long detailed narrative of the horrible experience I had there. The entire OCD team is terrible. They just don't care. Especially Jon Hersfield. I have severe PTSD. They promised they could treat trauma-induced OCD. They couldn't. Jon the ignorant and arrogant therapist even acted out one of my compulsions. And told me to do OCD in open defiance of my mom. My mom bullied me for having OCD my whole life. This made it clear he doesn't have the faintest idea how to treat trauma induced OCD or in general, how to deal with a trauma patient. And he insisted I was uncooperative and does not have PTSD, but has BPD. He made the entire medical team turn against me. This team questioned my own judgement and looked down on me because they decided I have a personality disorder which apparently makes my thoughts crazy looney thoughts. They become hostile and aggressive when a patient has concerns about their treatment. A psychiatrist who has never met me told my abusive family how uncooperative I was and how I won't let anyone object me and how I don't want to help myself. They of course abused me later. A year later and I am still dealing with the damage they caused me. They should be sued for malpractice. STAY AWAY.

I was very very fortunate to be treated by Jonathan Hershfield at the Retreat through the OCD Program. After a decade of unsuccessful treatment, Jon and his associate Rebecca, really took the time and effort to learn about my individual struggles and gave me a tremendous amount of support, time, patience and tailored treatment. Jon Hershfield and his team TRULY understand this disease and really care to help the people that come to them for treatment. I witnessed this not only in the care they provided me but also in the care they provided other people in the group. I was NOT an easy case, very severe and resisted treatment, yet Jon's commitment to seeing me get better was able to allow me to trust his guidance and led to my improvement. I would definitely recommend The OCD Program and Jonathan Hershfield to any OCD sufferer looking for this level of care.

I went to The Retreat at Sheppard Pratt to treat terrible OCD which I’ve been living with my whole life, but had gotten much worse in recent years. A lot of professionals and doctors that I trusted recommended The Retreat because of their OCD team led by Jon Hershfield, who is a leader in the field. I can unequivocally say that the OCD team at The Retreat is the best group of therapists that I’ve ever worked with in my nearly 20 years of OCD therapy. I worked very closely with Jon, Molly, Shane, Brenda and Dr. Amara who were all outstanding and were each uniquely gifted in their own way of treating OCD and thier insights. They understood my OCD themes and spikes better than anyone has before, and they were able to strategize effective treatment plans that were uniquely tailored to my needs. Some of the therapists on the OCD treatment team have OCD themselves (they are now in recovery, of course, and are subclinical) so they could personally relate to my issues and sympathize with my struggles as we created my treatment plan. OCD treatment is a very, very unique type of therapy (CBT and ERP) which often involves facing your deepest fears and a certain aspect of “tough love” from therapists, friends, and family in order for the treatment to be effective. It’s hard to explain or truly understand the benefits unless you’ve been through it. However, I found the OCD team at The Retreat to be extremely compassionate, smart, and excellent at what they do. They helped me tremendously and I would definitely recommend anyone with OCD, especially those with complex cases, to seek treatment from the OCD specialists at the Retreat. I would also recommend that they read Jon’s excellent Mindfulness Workbook for OCD. The Retreat isn’t a perfect program (I would imagine that no residential program is) but I’m very happy I chose the Retreat to help treat my OCD, anxiety and depression. I plan to write a longer review in the future that further details my time at The Retreat but for now, I will say that I was very happy with my level of care at The Retreat across the board (the nurses and other mental health workers were also outstanding) but I was especially pleased with the OCD team.

My OCD had gotten completely out of control, and finally at last measure, I went to the Retreat in Baltimore for help. Jon Hershfield was the one person who truly was able to and capable of helping me. The OCD program there is outstanding, but only because he leads it. To get well, you have to go to the best person, not necessarily the "perfect program." The Retreat is extremely expensive, but I finally got my life back, and I'm just amazed every day at how free I am! Thank you, Jon, for your exceptional help, encouragement, and compassion. Karen H.

For the longest time, I had struggled with OCD and let it run my life. I had to withdraw from college and isolated from my friends. My life was spiralling out of control and I struggled to fight it. At the end of 2022, I was fortunate to come across Sheppard Pratt, Jon Hershfield, and the outstanding OCD treatment team. Within the first two weeks of being there, I had a new understanding of how OCD manipulated my decision-making process and how best to deal with it. Since leaving Sheppard Pratt, I have regained stability in my life and have successfully returned to college. Over two months later, I am still improving and have not let OCD play any role in my life. For this, I have Jon Hershfield, the OCD team, and the wonderful staff at Sheppard Pratt to thank.

I stayed at the Retreat for four weeks due to having severe OCD. I can confidently say that Jon, Molly, and the OCD team are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I could not be more grateful that I received treatment for my OCD at the Retreat. I owe them everything. Definitely recommend!