The Emily Program Seattle

I spent time in both the residential and php programs with TEP. The PHP is an excellent step-down from a residential level of care. The group content is usually very good, and the facilitators are very caring and kind. The therapists and dietitians are very knowledgeable. They will push you, but it’s a necessary push in order to overcome the ED. Art group and yoga are excellent. The program provided food isn’t always great, due to not being made on-site, but the variety is good and they will challenge you to overcome food rules and rituals and develop a very “free” and fluid way of eating. I struggled with rigidity around what I should be eating and when I should be eating it, and the program helped me unlearn all of that. I do think this program is most fitting for those with restrictive eating disorders.

While I did receive help breaking my restrictive eating patterns, I could not, in good conscience, recommend this place to anyone struggling with an ED that is related to neurodivergence, trauma, or gender dysphoria. The program is extremely one-size fits all. I had a psych provider who refused to make a single adjustment to my medication - despite high levels of reported depression and anxiety. They had me do expensive gene testing but still made no med changes upon receiving the results. I briefly ended up in a different inpatient behavioral health facility due to lack of psych care at TEP. They gatekept the psych med I was prescribed by the other facility and repeatedly tried to send me to Labcorp for blood work because 1. Staffing shortages 2. I was - according to the person in charge of nursing - a “hard stick” (I asked if I could lie down for labs because I get dizzy with blood draws). My medical provider insisted I had “an extensive history of drug use” - I don’t. I also overheard her say that she “needed to get her steps in” one afternoon as she was walking through the dining area, with clients present. What concerns me the most however is the overall icky cult mentality feeling I get from this place. The interns were amazing - and it’s clear there are some compassionate people on staff - but overall, the providers here have a real virtue-signaling, liberal buzzword wielding, “TEP staff can do no wrong” attitude. They pose shortcomings as “challenges” and all critical thought goes out the window as soon as they clock in. Maybe I don’t want to peel and eat the orange because I’m neurodivergent, and there’s an alternative accommodation that could be made that doesn’t involve asking me “what my plan is”. I can see why a past client brought allegations of ADA violations against them with the DOJ (and settled out of court for 15k) last year. Woof.

The Emily Program does wonderful work. They gave my daughter and our family a safe harbor during a desperate time, and gave us the tools to allow my daughter to move forward and change her relationship with food. The program also is a loving community of like-minded humans, and we've made good friends.

I could feel that every person here cared for how I felt and was invested in my healing. And the gorgeous view out the windows was calming.

Does anyone know of a better center for ED that focuses on the scarier ones( the ones that are not by choice like anorexia or bulimia, aka BED the one that makes you fat and not skinny and i you cant control it...)like is there a place where mostly other ND people with eating fixation go??? My drs recommended this place but obviously never read the reviews or don’t know there will probably be no one like me there. And body image isnt an issue for fat women so i would hate having to hear from a weird perspective it’s the worlds issue. and why would i wanna be stuck in a place with ppl who literally starve themselves JUST so they don’t end up like me..... as if being fat is so bad that they literally have to show their bones and starve.

Excellent staff, thoughtful helpful itinerary & provides hope

I was in the PHP program which I thought did the job—it taught me to feed myself reliably again. Most of the staff is great, when I left I made some of them handmade goodbye cards. My gripe is with the fact that I was discharged from a very high level of care, and when I left I was on the waitlist for outpatient care. It has been almost 2 months and I have not received a single update about when or if I will be receiving follow up care. My calls trying to inquire about the waitlist have been ignored. I had been out of treatment without providers for over a month, and had to struggle to find individual providers to take over my care. At this time, I am struggling significantly which I believe is in part due to the fact that I went such a long time without care. They did tell me it would be a long wait but not returning my phone calls is just bad patient care. I do recommend the PHP program but what’s it really worth if you can’t get any care when you discharge?

Tl;dr - if you go to TEP w co-occuring mental health conditions do not be afraid to leave TEP for not attending to those conditions. I am appreciative of my time at The Emily Program though I’d like to echo that they do not handle comorbidities very well. If you’re thinking of receiving services from them you should be sure that a (non-ARFID) Eating Disorder is your primary mental health concern - or at least be cognizant of any other diagnoses you have while in treatment with TEP. They often ask patients with ADHD to go off of their meds, as a side effect of many ADHD medications is a suppressed appetite. When doing this, they do not counsel patients on alternative medications without this side effect, though they do exist. They also allow for very few Autism accommodations - such as a quiet place to self-soothe. And they offer none - so if you do not go in with an understanding of what works best for you it may be tough going to find out. They also do not treat General Anxiety, Depression, Substance Use, or Trauma-related disorders very well. If you suspect, or uncover, your eating difficulties are driven by - or strongly related to - these conditions you may have a hard time getting to the root of and resolving the issue at TEP. While I strongly encourage individuals to hear their team out, I feel the folks at TEP are very slow to recommend another treatment center - even when providers identify another condition as heavily influencing the ED.