Clementine Briarcliff Manor

I went to Monte Nido September of 2021 and had to be removed from the program just less than 2 weeks. The program and house was beautiful but it simply seemed like a show to compensate for the awful experience. I’ll start with the “recovery coaches”. I will admit, one or two of them were genuinely so helpful and I’m grateful for them to this day but the rest had zero understanding of an eating disorder. When I was admitted I was severely mentally and physically sick. Nearly the brink of death. I was often met with comments from the staff like “Are you actually gonna try to eat today” in a a rude sarcastic tone as well as, after I said I feel nauseous, “You can’t possibly be nauseous! You haven’t eaten anything” these comments were not only out of line, but invalidating and made me feel like a freak. The nurse at the time or doctors I don’t even know, would give me a complete cocktail of vitamins and pills. I refused because well I was sick and had a restrictive eating disorder after all. She said something along the lines of, “well if you just ate this wouldn’t be a problem”. This was one of many out of line comments. One night, while using the bathroom, a recovery coach began to yell at me telling me to “back off” repeatedly when I approached her to her to ask to use the bathroom. I was treated like some kind of freak and inhumanly but staff and some fellow patients, that behavior was not corrected and infact seemed encouraged. My therapist was dismissive. She didn’t treat me the same as other paintings and once again treated me with no encouragement like she knew she couldn’t help me so she didn’t even try. Since I was refusing food, I was treated so inhumane. A place ment to help people with not eating treated you awful if you didn’t eat. I had a severe exercise addiction at the time. The made me watch the other girls do yoga despite the fact I expressed how triggering it was. They watched me cry and bed for help with no compassion. I once completed a meal and was questioned but a staff member. She was like “Wow I’m shocked you actually ate for once!” My private coping mechanism I said privately where used and announced during meals as well as my food rules despite me wanting them to be confidential They wouldn’t try to make me eat. They just left me to starve until I cried hard enough saying “I’m going to die” to my parents till they finally let me go and I was hospitalized and then put into ERC Denver where I continued a real journey to recovery.

Briarcliff Manor was very helpful with getting our daughter on the path to recovery. She was there from June through August for 10 weeks. While sending our 14 year old daughter several hours away for treatment was the hardest thing we had to do, we felt confidence in the Director, Melissa. The therapists and resident counselors were supportive and helpful. The facility was beautiful and well maintained. The food was well-prepared and there was variety (better than what we are able to provide at home). They went out to lunch once per week and went on an outing on Sunday. They were also able to go for a walk or do yoga a few times per week, contingent on meal completion. This made the treatment easier to comply with for our daughter and served as a motivator for completion. Our daughter was able to make connections to other girls experiencing what she was going through and it helped her to not feel so alone with this very misunderstood illness.

Ants in the chips. Disrespectful to those who are trying to recover. My sister went here a while back, and when ants were found in the chips they all ran upstairs to brush their teeth, some girls were even crying. Not a great place for those trying to recover and avoid eating bugs.

I know everyone has their own experiences in everything they do, but our experience at Clementine Briarcliff Manor was wonderful from start to finish. It’s truly surprising to read some of these negative reviews because our experience was overwhelmingly positive. My daughter was here for 10 weeks and without a doubt they saved her life. Her therapist Bethany was a blessing, Rebecca, our family therapist was incredible, and Melissa, every RC, and every nurse there contributed to her feeling of safety, security, and ultimately, healing. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I was thankful I could felt confident leaving my daughter in their hands. I will always be grateful for this program and these people.

Penny is the best rc!

they called acs on my family for no reason other than requesting to discharge me. the way in which my care team spoke with my mother left me with the feeling that her not being fluent in english and having a more direct manner of discussing my case influenced their sentiments towards her. it's not only this aspect of it, as i will write further on the other elements of my time there that made it feel very non-inclusive and western. clementine has absolutely zero cultural awareness and perpetuates a western and whitewashed approach in their programming and in their relations with caregivers and clients. my recommendation for the current directors of this facility is to train your therapists and rcs on cultural and social dynamics across immigrant and third+ generation households, and hire therapists who specialize in the lived experiences of people of color, queer people, and immigrant communities. all of the therapists and almost all of the staff at clementine were white. this being the case in a state as diverse as new york strikes me as immensely problematic. at least try to incorporate foods from the various immigrant communities in new york in your menu rotation; i found the foods I was eating to be completely divorced from the meals I was used to at home. it is unacceptable that your services do not hold space for the unique and underacknowledged struggles of immigrant communities who frequently have insufficient access to eating disorder care and diagnosis. please do better!

I cannot recommend this residential enough! They truly have been so insanely helpful in my recovery. However, the extent to which you benefit from treatment here is 100% on you. To preface, I've recently discharged from here for the second time (as I was here in the spring of 2024 as well) and my experience this time around was so drastically, incredibly different due to my mindset shift that I experienced throughout the time between my stays there. I was fully ready and open to treatment there, as I decided to return myself. I also really advocated for myself and the specific things I wanted to work on and how I wanted to be involved in my treatment. I'm not saying that this is going to be the reality for everyone if they do the same, as I think it very much depends on maturity and age of the client as well; however, approaching recovery willingly and openly is by far the thing that will ensure an effective stay here. I'm on the older side of clients here (17), so I know that this is difficult for parents of younger girls, but I'm being so serious when I say that forcing your child into treatment here will likely not result in the outcome you want (in the sense that relapse is more likely). Rather, I heavily encourage any parent who's reading this to approach the idea of treatment here with your child in an open and gentle manner- encouraging them to be the one to ultimately decide to go, and ideally, feel open to treatment as well. I say this while also acknowledging that everyone's situation and dynamic is dfferet, and depending on the severity of the situation, you may feel like you can't even give your child a choice; however, I heavily enourage every parent to do so, and to really encourage their child to find their OWN motivations for recovery; to want to do it for THEMSELVES rather than to just leave residential asap, please others, avoid conflict with parents,etc. I want to end this, though, by saying that I truly can't thank clem enough this time around, as my life was positively changed in many ways. My therapist was such a perfect fit, and I felt so understood and taken seriously, and my family therapist as well, was very understanding and helpful. As i'm writing this, some current RC's (recovery coaches) that are truly so amazing are : Alex, Sam, Amber, Anthony, Stefania, Jules, Britt, and Paulette! I can't thank them enough.

This is THE best treatment facility we have used so far. The staffs are very friendly and knowledgeable. They know what they are doing and they are very willing to help. Melissa definitely is the best. She leads an excellent team. Everyone in her team, including but not limited to Rebecca, Jesse, Bethany, Avery and Lisa and all the RCs, a big THANK YOU to all of you for your fantastic work! My kid definitely has learned a lot from all of you guys. She'll definitely miss you guys. THANK YOU!