I am literally going to the effort to write this review eight years later after my stay at the Renfrew center because I thought it was that awful. The only upside is that I physically reached a healthy weight.It’s like mean girls sleep away camp with militant rules for “recovery”. ”They need more therapists/ staff who actually understand what the patients are going thru & can deal with them a lot better.I have 2 friends I know from my stay there who have now died from their eating disorders/ drug addictionsNot saying it is renfrew’s fault- but it’s not a life changing happy place. You just go there to break your habits for a while . It won’t help u get better mentally , in my opinion. Unless you enjoy mean girlSleep away camp

Let’s just say I needed a lot of therapy after my experience at Renfrew (in 2020).counselors: The community was ONLY allowed to have three requests per week and one of them was for the counselors to be nicer to us. The counselors never offered check ins when a client was in obvious distress. There were MANY occasions when I was having a panic attack and got completely ignored. There has also been occasions when staff had air pods in DURING MEALS instead of supervising. One of the staff members told me it was okay to exercise while I was there, which was questionable. I was also hardly ever supervised which is not necessary “horrible” but probably not the brightest idea.nurses: The nurse staff was very aggressive. They were SUPER horrible at hiding clients private information (a client told me she saw MY weight charts). The nurses would change people’s medications and/or dosage without notifying the client AND they would give clients other people’s medications. The nurse staff also constantly gossiped about other clients. We constantly had to ask nurses to stop slamming doors, but that problem never got fixed in my time there. They hardly ever relayed information to the clients, but would get angry if the clients didn’t “magically” know. If you were two minutes late to med line, you automatically could not get your medication (which is ironic because most meals would start super late)groups: These were okay. Although many clients would stand during the entire groups and staff never redirected them to sit down (which clearly reenforces ED behavior).the food: In my personal opinion the food tasted horrible.things that are just messed up:Renfrew is fatphobic. Instead of normalizing the idea of fat on our bodies, my team just tried to reassure me that I won’t get fat. Also, we were allowed to see our weight everyday which is such a strange approach to eating disorder treatment? Many clients were able to have access to sleeping in their rooms the entire day which is also odd.Honorable mention to day program for LOWERING MY TARGET BODY WEIGHT because i was too scared to be at it, and although I was relieved at the time, it sent me into a horrible relapse

I was hesitant about sending my daughter to Renfrew based on the reviews I saw however we couldnt have had a more opposite experience than what others have written about. While the road to recovery was hard and very much so continues to be she is grateful for the support and therapy she received from Renfrew. I am a firm believer that the Renfrew model isnt for everyone (no ED clinic is) - it was a great fit for my daughter and our family.

It was very understaffed. nurses could be super rude and insensitive. there were ants in my bed for weeks and in my clothes but no one did anything for so long. traumatic things would happen regularly but they were too understaffed to deal with mentally ill people coping with the effects of their trauma. they had so many rules and were so inconsistent. some of the counselors are very nice tho and they did their best. the food was okay at best. I wouldn’t really recommend it tho. try somewhere else instead.

The same generic and condescending response i got from Yelp. Im so shocked. Glad to see you know how to copy and paste!Ive already posted on Yelp and got a generic and condescending response.First, if youre 30 and older forget it. The program is geared towards much younger people except for one whole group once a week.The groups are highly repetitive and sophomoric. Be prepared to meditate about 14 times a week, color your nails, listen to music, and their very sophomoric treatment plan with the acronym EAT. Im not joking.The nurses are mostly catty and incompetent and will gossip about you, especially Linda. A couple of the nurses are lovely and the nutritionists are well meaning and kind but dont believe that any food is bad food. Youre put into one of 3 meal plans even if youre obese like me and have a sugar addiction, and you can talk until youre blue in the face to advocate for yourself but doesnt matter. Im back to my old habits because I couldnt get refined sugar out of my meal plan even though I explained several times to intake why I was going there.We werent allowed to go outside, except for the 3 minute walk to another group, COVID-19 was the excuse. You can stand more than 6 feet apart, easily. Oh and supposedly 35 degrees on the winter in northeast United States is extreme weather. Absurd and unhealthy. And theres someone like me who prefers cold weather.Exercise is forbidden for everyone except for gentle yoga which you have to get approval for, the food is lukewarm to cold except for the water which is warm, the main nurse practitioner has the IQ of an ice cube, and you cant say words like weight or binge or purge for fear of triggering. Im not a drug addict or alcoholic but a substance abuse treatment center would laugh in your face if they heard that. If you get triggered, youre at a treatment center. Talk about it, let it out, work through it, share it in group. Thats how you get better. But no, theyll censor a lot of what you say. They dont individualize your treatment to you.Do not go here. Do not send your loved ones here. Complain to the Better Business Bureau and try to get this atrocity shut down.

This place is absolutely horrible. my daughter is currently a patient and spoke to me today crying and in a panic over what she experienced today. i understand that patients need to be watched over but seriously? why would the staff need to watch her insert her tampon? especially after she expressed how uncomfortable she was. the staff member was ms. renee, and i genuinely can’t believe renfrew allows people like her to work there, especially with no consequences. i was told she was given a “stern talking to”...really? and this talk is supposed to keep her from abusing her power as a worker on people who are trying to heal? i am so disappointed with the work being done here. the food is terrible, the staff is awful, and my daughter is counting down the days until she can leave. Ms. Renee needs to be punished for what she did or I will do everything in my power (including taking legal action) to have her removed.

Please look elsewhere. still have nightmares over 2 years later after leaving. if you have binge eating disorder, this is NOT the place for you.

This center was absolutely terrible - they are over crowded and understaffed at all times. I was a patient there only because out insurance wouldnt cover anything else and I would advise anyone in the same position to FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE. I was put on an incredibly high meal plan right away and ended up with pretty significant re-feeding syndrome and despite asking to see the medical personnel on duty (which was rare) multiple times I was never evaluated. My parents pulled me out at midnight against medical advice because if my re-feeding syndrome worsened there could have been serious health consequences. Renfrew uses their own therapy model that most people found incredibly ineffective but when left with no other option you just had to keep coming back to Spring Ln, it was very cult-like. They have two residence buildings, one of which is called the Pink House. If you lived in the pink house you had to get up earlier and walk to the main building despite any inclement weather and you didnt go back to your building until 9:45 at night (this varied depending on if staff was willing to take you on time). There were 10 of us living there and we all had to use a locked bathroom in the main building during the day and the nurses got so tired of us asking for them to unlock it sometimes they refused to. Meals and snacks feel very the staff made you feel like you were a prisoner. The Covid restrictions made it even harder to have a normal relationship with other patients. There was a snowstorm while I was there and half of the staff didnt even come in - I missed an appointment with both my therapist and my dietician because they didnt bother to even make a Zoom call. There is limited time for school work for adolescents which only added to the stress and the completely mixed age groups made it very difficult to get personalized care. There was nothing to do on the weekends and limited support for when you were really struggling. This center is absolutely just a money machine and I never felt like they actually cared about me. No matter what you do, never send yourself or your child here. I left Renfrew in a worse spot with my eating disorder than when I first came. I would give it 0 stars if I could.

Still have nightmares from my experience here after a month of being home. touched by staff a couple times. yelled at or cursed out by therapist. may and erin are amazing counselors!

I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Renfrew Philadelphia. It saved my life and I will always be grateful. I entered treatment skeptical it was possible to fully recover but willing to try it since nothing else had worked. I finally found therapists who understood me and were able to help me understand why my past attempts to get better hadn’t worked.I met other people like me who wanted to get better and am still friends with many of them today. It is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life but it was worth it.

I was a resident here in January 2021. I was 22 and had been struggling with Bulimia for 8 years (my emotional eating started as a young child). I went into treatment at Spring Lane motivated to recover, and Renfrew gave me the tools and support to start that process! It was hard to surrender to my treatment team after my eating disorder had controlled my eating and perceptions of my body for so long. But my therapist, nutritionist and psychiatrist explained everything to me along the way. They held me accountable, were compassionate and also pushed me. The rest of the staff (nurses, counselors, kitchen staff and maintenance staff) were also very friendly.But Renfrew is an imperfect institution full of imperfect staff, and I had to look past a lot of issues that made the experience unpleasant at times. A lot of people in these reviews say that Renfrew made their eating disorders worse. Renfrew’s philosophy on recovery is that recovery will only work if you find the motivation within you. Renfrew doesn’t force feed residents, so if someone is DEEP in their eating disorder, they can take advantage of the ways that Renfrew’s program relies on self-motivation. It’s a one-size-fits-all method, and it makes sense that it doesn’t work for everyone.Some of the negative things I observed while at Spring Lane include: At points during my stay patients were given the wrong medications and at one point nursing ran out of feeding tubes for patients who needed that intervention. There was also a consistent lack of communication between staffing groups (between the higher ups and the counselor, for example), and expectations and rules were sometimes unclear. Also Renfrew’s meal plan model is clearly designed for people primarily struggling with anorexia/bulimia. And it seemed like patients struggling with binge eating didn’t feel like their experiences were prioritized or helped as much. It is definitely true that Spring Lane is understaffed, that was a constant frustration for everyone. I think Renfrew’s one-size-fits-all model of treatment has a lot of flaws, but I think it does much more good than harm.I was able to overlook those negative things, however, because I was there for one purpose: to force myself to change. I’m two months out of my treatment and my life is already SO MUCH freer than I ever imagined it could be. Renfrew may be able to give you or your child an INCREDIBLE opportunity to heal! So PLEASE take all of the reviews you read with a grain of salt (including mine! I will admit that my experience was more positive than a lot of other residents), because I believe that a lot of the negativity in reviews of Renfrew is less about Renfrew as an institution and more about the extraordinary difficulty of healing from an addiction like an eating disorder.

This place is ridiculously understaffed and overcrowded. When I was there, 3 counselors would be in charge of 58 patients which is obviously dangerous. The staff are more focused on disciplining patients for minor incidents (like sitting in the staircase) than actually helping them recover. The nursing staff is rude and they constantly misgender/misname nonbinary and transgender patients. The food is decent, not great but not completely inedible. Its really easy to get away with a lot of ed behaviors so you have to be very motivated for recovery and good at holding yourself accountable in order to actually make progress there. The only good parts I can think of are the other patients. Even if you make absolutely no progress in recovery, you will probably make friends so thats a plus.

My daughter is currently a patient in the Philadelphia location, in the PHP virtual program. Trying to communicate with the staff, and actually being heard, not just appeased, with no results is so unprofessional. The worst experience so far though, was trying to have a phone conversation, either the site director, whom after I gave her more than ample time to speak, never allowed me an opportunity to get a word in edgewise. Kriste is her first name, and was u the most unprofessional, and discourteous person holding a professional position, that I have ever encountered. Don’t send anyone you care about to this location. The Radnor location is for more respectful and professional!!! Learn some manners, and professionalism Renfrew, Krist in particular!

My experience at Renfrew was absolutely horrible. Firstly, this location is INCREDIBLY understaffed. Often times, we had a ratio of 2 counselors for 56 patients. We had to skip groups after meals multiple times because there werent enough staff members. Many of the counselors are unhelpful and obviously untrained. Additionally, the nurses are incredibly unprofessional, rude, and lazy. Even during the current pandemic they didnt wear gloves while taking blood and giving out medication (they gave me the wrong medication for the first three nights that I was there). The nurses would often sleep during their shifts, and show up late to weights and vitals forcing patients to wait for 30 minutes at 4 in the morning. The nurses would also not lock the bathrooms for people who were supposed to be on locked so we had a house full of adolescents throwing up all the time... one of my friends had to put her foot in the door for her roommate when she used the bathroom to make sure she didnt engage in behaviors. Each week patients would try to bring up these SAFETY CONCERNS to Dr.Alex and other administrators at Renfrew and they would cut us off, say they were working on it, and do absolutely nothing. After voicing the fact that I felt unsafe in the adolescent house (especially because they kept bringing in as many patients as possible even if they should have been in inpatient, had so many patients that people over the age of 18 were living in the adolescent house, and admitted two men into an all female facility) I was screamed at for not speaking up during those situations. The burden of safety was placed on patients who should ONLY be focusing on recovery. On one of my last days at Renfrew, I was approached by a man in civilian clothing with his hand on a gun asking where the office was. I was terrified, and many people had panic attacks. It later turned out that he was a detective, but we were given no explanation as to why police officers were roaming around campus, going in and out of the buildings that we live in, and investigating for 3 days. No parents were notified of any police presence, and many women were traumatized from the experience. The community is toxic and the directors only care about making money. My friend was kicked out A WEEK AND A HALF after getting her tube out so that they could bring in sicker patients who would make them more money (a therapist confirmed this). Do not send a loved one here.

Please please please, don’t send anyone you love to this place. My daughter attended this center and had to leave. They changed her treatment program without telling us knowing she suffers from anxiety, this caused a massive panic attack. This panic attack went to her needing to leave, and when I asked to speak with her psychologist she was denied because apparently they were “in a meeting“They do not know how to deal with other types of mental illness that goes along with eating disorders. Please save yourself and your loved ones find a place that actually cares about About their patients as humans and not just about making money

The biggest problem with this facility is the you must eat everything you are served or you will have to drink a supplement rule. If Im served something I dont like, have never liked, and even my own parents wouldnt make me eat...I AM NOT EATING IT. Yet, even if you literally clean your plate except for the (insert hated food here), you still have to drink it, which then doubles the amount of calories you just ate. So, why not just drink the supplement every time? Renfrew, do you see the problem here??? Maybe thats why anorexia has such a high rate of relapse.

I was at The Renfrew Center a few times in the mid-90s. My experiences were mostly positive. I am still in contact with some women I had met. Was it difficult? Absolutely! Was it worth it? Again, absolutely! If my daughters ever needed eating disorder treatment, Renfrew would be my first call.

The staff treats you like you’re a child. severely understaffed.

I have struggled with eating disorders for a long time and have been to many eating disorder treatment centers. This was by far the worst one I have ever been too. The staff did not provide a positive environment supportive of recovery. They invented their own therapy model that is far less helpful than traditional CBT and DBT therapy models. Its repetitive, basic and the therapists delivered it with no passion like they didnt agree with the model or something. The nurses were very lazy and unprofessional. The counselors were unqualified to provide mental health support, it was obvious they had no training. There were so many rules and they were obsessed with discipline and teaching people consequences, which I guess is an important life lesson but in an eating disorder treatment center is not really the time and place for learning that lesson. Most concerning is that I needed individualized medical health accommodations and the nursing staff refused to accommodate them which not only endangered my safety but also forced me to seek treatment elsewhere. There are many amazing treatment centers in the US and this is not one of them. Take your insurance money somewhere else. Its unbelievable that they consider themselves First in Eating Disorders. Someone needs to report this place for unethical care. It also costed my insurance company 50,000 dollars for 2 weeks which is absurd, especially considering their low quality of care

The community has changed my life for the better 💙

I would give this place zero stars if I could. Completely unprofessional and many ignorant staff members. The staff mixed up my family members strong pain killer meds with someone else so she got a double dose. She could have died! She was passed out all day and they hardly apologized or did anything. The staff is extremely unprofessional, manipulative and has zero compassion. They also kept making up stories to cover for mistakes they made. Please don’t ever send someone you love there . We took her out as fast as we could!

I attended Renfrew n 2010- my senior year of high school. Hard to believe almost 10 years later. I am blessed to say I have been in solid recovery for 5 years in part because I attended 5 long term centers in total. My second center happened just 2 months after discharge. I do not recommend this center in part because the food outside of the mental struggle we all expect is sadly just bad- it was always cold and so hard to even cut making the battle harder than it had to be. Unlike all my other centers, they start you off with a high meal plan verses start small and work your way up making it extremely difficult. The time limit was also nearly impossible given the plan. While there are a few kind staff who will advocate I would suggest others before this one. I hope things have changed and wish anyone looking all the best. Recovery is possible! I just remember relapsing quicker than ever from this place. The center that saved my life had more of a holistic approach and realistic wellness goals. I felt like renfrew just focused on the physical and not the whole picture required for true recovery. I wish renfrew would implement clients learning to cook/ make grocery lists. I remember having a meltdown just a day after getting off the plane home because I hadn’t been in a store with food in months. Wasn’t prepared mentally especially with such rapid weight gain with no counseling to help me handle the changes needed. I also hated how staff in the meal room would just stare at you waiting to write down behaviors. I felt judged rather than helped.

I was there in 1991 for an eleven week stint. The experience changed my life in a profound, positive and productive way. I felt supported by the staff who I interacted with during my stay. I made a few life long friendships during that time, sadly a number of those friends continue to struggle with their disorders. After my discharge I reviewed my medical records/bills and noticed that my consulting psychiatrist billed me for a session (over $300.) that was actually a result of my having asked him a quick question in passing in the hallway. I thought that was sketchy. It was evident in dealing with him that he had a few of his own issues. Overall the experience was positive.

THIS PLACE HAS NO STAFF, i hate that i pay so much money and dont even get fed on time! they treat everyone like doo doo. they made me worse and sometimes the community is SO toxic. id rather be in a psychiatric ward that is LOCKED than be in this TERRIBLE place!!!!!!!

A year ago today I had been at this facility for a week. Stayed a total of 5 weeks. Recovery itself was extremely hard but Renfrew was so supportive. It changed my life and I am eternally greatful.

My daughter is currently going there. She has given me permission to post this review. This program has been a turning point in her recovery. It has helped her tremendously and now feels she is on her way to recovery. The staff is wonderful and understanding. I had to post this after seeing the negative reviews.

Unprofessional, extremely understaffed. Overcrowded (45-50 people) and the age range was 13-50+. I was cursed at by a staff member. Most of the staff also lacks compassion. Dont waste your time here. They only want your money.

Let me share with you a brief timeline of my 4 day stay at Renfrew and preface this by saying I signed out against medical advice. Day one was tough but it always is in inpatient which I expected, the staff is TERRIBLE only one or two decent people who helped me to get home and get out of there fast. I had been calling my Mom everyday a few times a day crying and having full on panic attacks and I mentioned to her an incident that happened pertaining to food. Now, not ever human is going to like every single food and it just so happens that I was forced to eat something I did not like, will not ever like, and have not liked since I was a child and was told that I would have to drink a FULL disgusting ensure to make up for me not eating TWO cherry tomatoes...my mother had been fed up by day three and demanded she speak to someone in charge and this is how I figured out that my assigned therapist breached HIPPA, the Nurse informed me that they legally could not talk to my mother because I was 23 years old and BOY WAS I FUMING WHEN I FIGURED THIS OUT. The Director is an awful person and only thinks of patients as dollar signs and kept insisting that I needed this treatment and to stay the full time which is EXACTLY what the therapist has told me she had told my mom on the phone without my knowledge. The therapist Lynn or Lin should be FIRED AND LOSE HER LICENSE FOR THIS. My parents immediately picked me up the next day and I will never ever refer anyone to this place. Not to mention they cross contaminate their foods for people with allergies and do not have any regard for them. I have a serious nut allergy and go into anaphylactic shock, I notified one of the girls in the dining room that my tongue and lips were swelling and she said I was over reacting. I ran to the front desk and was immediately administered meds to get the swelling down again, that girl should have been fired, she then scolded me for leaving the dining room without permission. I ADVISE YOU TO LOOK ELSEWHERE!!!!! THIS PLACE IS BAD NEWS!!!!!!

There are good people there however there are staff who are very unprofessional. My therapist and psychiatrist were horrible, talked down to me and were not helpful at all. The nurses and counselors were the ones that helped me not my treatment team. If you are going there request not to have Diana and Dr Hahn in your treatment team. Theyre just awful.

Do yourself a favor and please do not even consider coming here for help. I have been to residential at The Renfrew Center of Philadelphia two times- once in august of 2016 and again in December of 2016. Both times I discharged against medical advice. They are so understaffed at this location. Whenever I was distressed there was rarely anyone there to support me. It was always super crowded (50-60 patients at a time) and the age differences in the groups can be really big. Most of the staff lacks compassion and a lot of the professionals have no clue what theyre talking about. They just want your money. The first time I went and discharged AMA was mostly because I just wasnt really ready for treatment and I was having a hard time adjusting. But the second time I went and discharged AMA was a lot different. I went in feeling super motivated but on my 3rd day there, one of the nurses gave me another patients medication before bed time. I was 16 at the time, THEY DIDNT EVEN CALL MY PARENTS TO TELL THEM WHAT WAS GOING ON. I honestly thought I was going to die because I took another patients medications and a lot of them were really strong and heavy medications. They called poison control and I was going to be okay after the medications wore off but they still wanted to keep a close eye on me. So they brought a cot out and put it in front of the nurses station, which is also the lobby...They made me sleep in the lobby and I wasnt even allowed to go to my room to change, shower or brush my teeth for 48 hours. Before taking the medications I even said these dont look like mine and the nurse ensured me that they were my meds. I was sick for days afterwards and when my parents came to confront the staff and specifically Susan Ice about this incident, there was no compassion, no apologies, nothing. In fact, Susan got flippant with my parents and made them leave. SO unprofessional and just ridiculous. When my parents came to discharge me early, they wrote up an incident report about what had happened and they got so many details wrong. After leaving I was told that nothing happened with the nurse that made this horrible mistake. I completely lost trust in the staff at this program and lost motivation to recover. Theres honestly just so many issues with this place so please please do yourself a favor and DO NOT GO HERE

I went to the center in Brentwood, TN. All you do is eat. Which if thats what you are looking for, then great! But the ladies there were passive. They were unable to communicate with me or my parents, example: I was given medication by the Psych there, and didnt even know what for! Not until several months after Renfrew did I learn from another Psych who read my paperwork that I had General Anxiety and was Bipolar. They were nice, yes, but if you are looking to get more out of a treatment center than just food and round-table small-chat, look elsewhere. The one-on-one counseling is a joke. There needs to be more of what I call emotional boot camp than what I call a sticky-sweet pity party session. Handouts dont work as feedback during a session, advice and reflection does, I wish I could say that Renfrew saved my life, but getting out of there and seeing my own Psych and Counselor was what saved me.

Was warned ahead of time by my doctor that Renfrew has notoriously young, inexperienced staff with high turnover, and that the staff in general is less competent when it comes to treating more complex cases. He was right. One counselor told me she’d ask her professor about depression’s impact on eating disorders—red flag right there. This place could be ok if you’re a teenager—if you’re an adult or someone with a more complicated and/or traumatic history I’d look elsewhere for help. Everyone, and I mean everyone I was in treatment with last year has relapsed by now. That’s why I want to post this review—check out Monte Nido instead. They have staff who have fully recovered who have been there for a long time and can help you make realistic, individualized, and sustainable goals. I have recovered, no thanks to Renfrew though.

This place is the worst residential center! The staff is unprofessional and some of the therapists have no experience! If you are thinking about doing residential treatment please find a different place! I wasted five weeks of my life in this place.

Not good, a lot of people and everyone with different eating disorders are all together. Plus the age range is wide. The staff is more like retail workers.

Saved my life! I wouldn’t be here without Renfrew!

Id put zero stars if it wasnt for Andre

Because it a treatment center, for woman, that dont have a voice...

Abusive staff, good people

It sucks

Horrible