The Meadows Outpatient Center - Silicon Valley

I did the PHP, and the first 3 weeks of my experience were good, but by week 4 they were shedding staff at an alarming rate. By week 5 they were painfully understaffed and I was no longer getting anything out of the program. Their director was stepping in to run the PHP and she was extremely rude and dismissive to one of the patients. It was so unprofessional and outright harmful towards patients that are recovering from trauma, I couldn't believe she was allowed to be in the same room as us. I hope that they can turn the ship around, because my first 3 weeks were incredibly healing, but man they went downhill quick.

Avoid this place at all cost. The leadership team demonstrates a troubling pattern of unprofessional behavior that undermines the healing process. Instead of fostering a safe, supportive environment, they engage in dismissive and condescending interactions. Frequently interrupting patients, minimizing their concerns, and using language that feels more like name-calling than therapy. Other participants in my group have also experienced what can only be described as gaslighting, where their feelings or experiences were invalidated or reframed in a way that caused further harm. The result is not “tough love” but a drill sergeant approach, an unsafe space where vulnerable individuals can leave feeling worse than when they arrived.

Not sure what's going on with new management. My experience under Clinical Director Suzette Garcia mirrored those of other negative reviews. I wonder if this down slide is at least partly the result of a push to more aggressively market and monetize trauma recovery to meet quotas? This center is like a beautiful piece of fruit that is rotting from the inside. It's disappointing and not in keeping with the Meadows legacy. Avoid.

I started going to IOP at the Meadows in April and I absolutely love this place. I don’t understand why this place has negative reviews. I love having a routine, and coming here every morning during my medical leave. I will miss this place so much after I graduate. I wish I could stay longer! -Overall I feel very safe and supported in this environment. I am excited to come to IOP every morning. All of the staff is amazing, and create a safe positive environment. -The front desk staff is always kind, helpful, and very knowledgeable about everything. Whenever I ask a question, they are always ready to help me with anything! -Group therapy is a safe place to be vulnerable and express your worries or get things off your chest. The group's feedback is always welcomed. I would have shared more, but I was struggling with sinus issues that made it hard for me to talk. -Mental Health classes are informative and enjoyable. I learned a lot of DBT skills I can use in the real world when I return to work. This actually inspired me to go back to school. -Everyone is assigned a therapist, and individual therapy occurs on a weekly basis. My therapist is amazing, kind, empathetic, and goes above + beyond to help me overcome my anxiety and ADHD. She taught me how to set boundaries, and manage distress tolerance. My therapist is the best therapist I've ever had, and I wish I could get treatment here long-term. -The neurofeedback sessions have significantly helped me with sleep and mood. I struggled with insomnia for a couple of years. After doing a couple of sessions, I am able to fall asleep immediately within 30 minutes. My anxiety symptoms have also improved. -Art and yoga classes are enjoyable and allowed the group to relax and have fun! We use art therapy as a way to express ourselves and process our emotions which was helpful for me. -On Fridays, they offer acupuncture, DBT classes, and pizza for lunch. I wish I could come to the Friday sessions more often, but I am often busy with doctor appointments.

Before joining the program, I saw these low ratings on google, and I thought, maybe these reviews are from "crazy" patients, etc. And after actually trying out their IOP out, I fully agree with the low ratings on here. Some other clients in my group agreed with me as well-- they just never rly had a chance to speak out. My reasons below: 1) They do not specialize in treating PTSD/ CPTSD/ trauma: When I joined this program, I made it very clear that I am treating my PTSD issues, and they made it very clear that they definitely specialize in treating them (wrong). I attended for 5 weeks, and i dont think my "therapist" even knows the full spectrum of diagnoses im dealing with or knows what im supposed to do about them. The IOP program is designed around substance abuse issues, and just general depression/anxiety symptoms. 2) They don't teach you any coping skills, and content at IOP is very basic and progresses incredibly slowly: I would say if you have never ever done therapy before, the content learned here might come as novel and helpful. But if you have done any sort of self study online via youtube, then it'll be incredibly basic. Most importantly, they dont teach you any real coping skills to manage your symptoms on a day to day basis. Out of the 3 hours, the first hour was devoted to "check in" and process, but because they squeezed in so many people into group, there was only really like 10-15 min left at the end for process in a room of 10- 12 people. Then the second hour, they usually make you watch some long video on youtube and discussion with group afterward -- Last hour, doing some exercises on the topic from 2nd group. But again, not enough time to really go deep because there are too many people in group. 3) Lack of attunement from your "therapist": I was told individual therapy was part of the program. when i was doing intake, the intake coordinator/ therapist made it sound like she really would care about my symptoms and progress, and how she will be meeting with me every week. WRONG. First of all, that therapist left for time off randomly, and was replaced by a new therapist, who definitely did not follow up with people. For example, I set a schedule to meet her the first week, and i was surprised to learn that it was *not a recurring meeting the following weeks. And if i wanted to see her then i had to approach her each time. Providing a service that is expected bc it was promised versus ASKING the clients to approach them as needed is a big difference in experience. 4) Lack of transparency/ Lying/ False advertisement When i first approached them, they said EMDR was a service they provide (which was a huge factor in me choosing this program). Then a few days or a week in after i start, they told me EMDR is not available for me (like they made it sound like it was because this invisible therapist's schedule was full). Wrong. I found out they never even had an EMDR therapist on staff to begin with. Like she never existed. 5) Cramming 10-12 people into a group At one point, there were so many new clients that there wasnt even a chair available for the therapist to sit on. There were people with diagnosed PTSD and anxiety disorders with skyrocketing anxiety bc of the lack of CO2 in the room. What made the director of this program allow this to happen knowing it impinges on the experience of the existing clients. The only plausible conclusion is that this center is extremely greedy. 6) Not being on top of my treatment needs: After 5-6 weeks of no real improvement in symptoms, i asked them if i can move up to PHP to see if i can actually get anything out of it, but because i have a habit of arriving 10-15 min late, they said they cant move me up. It's kind of like a chicken and the egg situation, where my ptsd, depression, and adhd symptoms are so severe that i can barely function, but they also wont provide me with the treatment that i need. And the therapist would understand all this if she was actually attuned to me via individual time.

NOT TRAUMA INFORMED AT ALL!! Tina Aggrawal, the director of this center, calls herself the trauma expert, but in my experience, she is the most unprofessional, judgemental, disrespectful, egotistical, condescending and trauma uninformed therapist I've ever come in contact with. I would give a negative star if I could to my review because of this person's horrible leadership. It's scary to think that someone as incapable as her is leading a mental health organization and is involved in the treatment plan, concerning people's lives. Her involvement in my treatment worsened my trauma and undid the progress I made through the PHP program (led by Jacina Laney and Stephanie Samson, two incredible people who truly care about the wellbeing of the patients)

The clinical care coordinator Tina triggered me and made my condition worse before, during, and months after i left the program. She made it hard for me to heal and make the most out of the support I needed and received from program group members. Even though i barely interacted with her, she had a significant impact on my experience at Meadows and retraumatized me countless times. She is not trauma informed but she insists that she is. When I built the courage to speak to her and calmly and professionally point out ways in which she triggered everyone in our group and when I brought up the fact that everyone in our group said they didn't feel emotionally safe because of her, she rudely raised her voice and said "I'm a trauma expert, if you want to leave the program be my guest", knowing how hard it is for people to find care. She is not credentialed to diagnose people or suggest that they take medication, but she will frantically throw around diagnosis without ever actually respecting or listening to patients experience and she will spread fear in patients by trying to convince them that they need medication(even though she is not trained to know this) and she will convince the patients and the parents that patients need to stay longer or go to another facility. People in my group became more depressed and anxious and even lost their job because she did not have any awareness of her power and role in their lives and their treatment. She disclosed confidential information that a patient did not want shared with the group and then sent that patient to another state for residential treatment because she exaggerated the issues they were experiencing. She should be screened for narcissistic personality disorder. She got a good therapist fired so she could be next in line to take the job she has now.

We stopped referring people here after the fourth negative experience. When I tried speaking with their director, he didn't seem receptive to the idea that there were discrepancies between what was promised vs what was delivered in terms of services. It's all the more disappointing to me as I've partnered with The Meadows when I ran a lab in Arizona and they were outstanding.