Reasons Eating Disorder Center

I’m very grateful and truly appreciate Reasons Residential. I had a really good experience with my therapist and dietitian. To some they are just doing their job but for me they’re helping save lives. We had several exposures that now have helped me to face my fears around food and people! I will be eternally thankful’nn

My stay at reasons inpatient eating disorder treatment center was pretty okay. The environment itself is hard to get used but the staff are all amazing. The rooms are designed for the safety of the psych patients and all of the eating disorder patients have to stay on the same unit as the psych patients for sleep which is not the best because the rooms are cold and the bathrooms are so hard to get used to as the showers are not clean and super hard to use since they are really small. Since we barely spend any time in our rooms it’s not a huge deal. I wanted to give a shout out to some of the staff including Sue (who’s super supportive, funny, caring and will always brighten up your day), Goli who’s an amazing dietician who’s been very supportive in my stay at inpatient and who helped me truly have a new perspective on how to approach my disorder to help me break this cycle of treatment, Chloe who’s therapeutic approach worked super well for me, Alec who was not my therapist but was always just as supportive as they could be for me and everyone else, and Niesha who always ran amazing groups. The food here is not too bad considering it’s a hospital but the menu can get quite repetitive after a while of staying here. You get to prep and choose your own snacks which is nice.

My experience was challenging but incredibly valuable. The staff created a supportive, structured environment where I felt safe enough to work on difficult things. They really listened and adapted care when I needed it, which made a big difference. The program helped me build a solid foundation for recovery and gave me tools I can actually use outside of inpatient. I’m especially grateful for the consistency, compassion, and professionalism of the treatment team. I’m stepping down residential feeling more hopeful than I’ve been in a long time. I'm updating to add a little for the residential program as well. Although I struggled, the kindness and compassion I was met with was unparalleled. I especially want to recognize the Dietician I worked with, Monica, for helping me fight a hard battle. I truly don't know what I would've done without her. Both her and my therapist, Vanessa, also ACTUALLY cared, which is not as common as you may think. They both went above and beyond for me more times than I can even count. Thanks a million to them and so, so many other amazing individuals that work there. While no one WANTS to be there, inpatient, or in the mental health program, having people treat you like a worthwhile human being makes the time doable.

I had a very good time at this place and found people who accept me for me and have helped me along with my healing journey I would highly recommend

When I first arrived here, I felt like I was in the wrong place and I needed to leave immediately, but I soon realized that was just me in a new situation and I needed to adjust. The staff are extremely helpful and always make sure you’re stable both emotionally and physically. Therapy is frequent, and you get to really dive deep into the cause of your disorder. I’m very appreciative of everyone here and what made it the good experience was mostly the friends I made along the way. Even if I was having a hard week (I stayed for 9) the staff and my peers were there ready to help at all times.

I’ve had an amazing experience receiving care and going on this journey of recovery at this hospital. I was very nervous to get here, I traveled about 14 hrs and arrived at around 10pm. My roommates were still so welcoming and the staff as well. I had an amazing connection with my therapist and dietician. I have grown so much this past month thanks to this team and my hard work included. It wasn’t easy, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s well worth it to finally start fighting for my wellbeing and my recovery. Don’t be afraid to fight for your happiness!!

While the staff at this facility are very kind and helpful, the facility itself is extremely unsanitary. My bed was covered in ants and my body was covered in insect bites. There was mold everywhere in the bathrooms. There were insects in the eating areas as well. It is also important to note that Reasons EDC is located inside of BHC Alhambra’s psychiatric hospital. I feel that this was not clearly communicated to me prior to arriving. The ED unit is separated from the psychiatric unit during the day, however ED patients sleep on the general psych unit at night. Also you do not always sleep with other ED patients- I was assigned to sleep with a psychiatric patient due to there being no space in the ED patient rooms at the time. Like I said, the people are very kind and do seem to care about the patients. If the sanitary standards were increased I believe this facility could be much better.

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 anyone like me.