Center for Discovery – Fairfax

I have recently gotten discharged from discovery, I stayed there for around 2 1/2 months. I'd recommend it, of course it may be hard to be separated from friends and family, especially if you don't live in the area, but… the home-like setting makes it actually way more comfortable. And I heavily did enjoy my time there, except for a staff threatening me..wow (she's fired dw) The program director and staff offers support, and even supplying you with items that you may not be able to get through parents. I also would like to thank Jenny and Ava, as they did engage with activities with us and didn't completely leave us to entertain ourselves Okay the point is that it's a good place. OKAY

Our teenage daughter received treatment here July - August 2026. The program offered an array of therapies, challenged her ideas about food, and enabled her to build a healthy relationship with food. The duration was… just over 6 weeks and over that time we saw healthy habits being formed. We especially appreciate Jenny and Ava, who were welcoming and accommodating when we visited and always supportive of our daughter’s needs. The medical staff were professional and understanding of their role in supporting her progression while keeping us informed. Mary the dietitian and Heather the therapist kept us in the loop and prepared us for the transition home. Ainsley provided structured education activities throughout the program. The ultimate decider for our family was how accommodating Center for Discovery was with our daughter’s food allergies. She had separate small appliances, pans, refrigerator, and dry storage space to prevent cross-contamination. During outings, the staff ensured safe options were available and taught our daughter ways to approach eating at restaurants with significant allergy considerations. We would absolutely recommend the Center for Discovery to any young person struggling with an eating disorder.

I was a previous patient at CFD a couple months ago, there were a lot of ups and downs throughout my journey however I just want to give a huge shout out to techs Sarah and Ava, truly one of the most kindest supportive… techs ever. I personally believe their approach and light heartedness and humor genuinely made my experience better, everyday I looked forward to seeing them. Clearly the techs are the backbone of CFD, they spend the most time with us and it isn’t an easy job watching over a group of teenagers plus cooking for us so I sincerely applaud them for staying kind and supportive through the clients recoveries. I also liked the way CFD did the meal plan format, I found it very comprehensive and recovery focused. Now I do have a couple slight issues, I found sometimes the treatment team could sometimes inadvertently cause a setback in my recovery, for example one time while discussing my pass I attempted to challenge myself to have something outside of my meal plan, a drink, now this drink happened to have a cows milk substitute, even when I explained to the team this has been my taste preference for awhile they convinced my parents that this was my “ed talking” which I understand why they have to take precautions but I felt a bit upset because even when I told them if it were to count for a snack I would choose whole milk but since I’m challenging myself on consuming something outside of my meal plan I would rather have something I prefer. I felt a bit hurt that my feelings and preferences were disregarded and to be honest a bit ashamed of wanting to have an extra component. In CFD you will find many posters tacked on the wall proclaiming; “All foods fit!” Or “There are no “bad” foods!” All notions I agree with of course however I found their attitude in the situation above being a bit contradictory to their message. I just want to put this down; just as there are no inherently bad foods there are also no inherently disordered foods either. However I do believe this stay at CFD was actually beneficial and I truly believe that the dietician, therapists are very well qualified and insightful. I’m currently in IOP now and recovery was the best choice I made! Edit: now that I have had more time to reflect and talk with a previous client I have come to the conclusion that the staff excluding some techs are completely unprofessional and downright rude sometimes, ex. Being sloppy in protecting the clients privacy, I myself have experienced them just having the patients records just on their computer with no screen protectors or anything of the sort, even worse they are sloppy about doing blind weights I myself during my stay have heard of patients weights being seen, I also think some of the therapists have very little compassion for the clients for example when I was struggling and I really needed to talk to my mom I went up to a therapist and asked with tears streaming down and clearly in a bad mental state if I could my mom. The therapist looked at me with annoyance and said to me in a condescending tone ; “Can you wait until your scheduled phone time?” I, feeling alone and embarrassed said “Okay” and she then responded with “Yeah” then promptly turned her back and ignored me instead of asking if I needed to talk to anybody or if I needed support, I was simply met with cold indifference, the worst part is she was the only therapist in the house for that period of distress and I could have been in crisis and she didn’t even tell anyone else that I was struggling, that moment made me feel like I was nothing and made me want to be nothing, my personal question to CFD is what makes you want to employ people who clearly don’t care to the point where they are calling CHILDREN little shits in a group chats for staff of a residential for mentally struggling children?

It’s been a year since I spent some time here, and I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my experience here. I believe the goals of treatment and recovery here get far more overshadowed by a vindictive, punitive… approach to treating minors. Compared to the adult house in McLean (which I had the fortune to visit), the minors at the Fairfax house aren’t allowed to watch movies, interact with any form of technology outside of monitored, approved educational resources, or use personal video games. The “privileges” (such as going outside) are trickle fed to patients here, instead of being used constructively to make such a foreign environment more amicable to children who are (understandably) quite homesick. I found that it was less an environment focused on recovery, or comfort but more one focused on treating us like we had done something wrong, and making us as miserable as they could without being outright abusive. As the manager of the program used to tell us a lot, “recovery isn’t supposed to be fun.” I have a question for you, ma’am, is any of this supposed to be fun? We’re not here for silly, funny reasons, we’re here because we have severe, life-changing eating disorders, none of it is fun. Watching your body waste away, and feeling your mind become more and more empty as the days go on is not fun. Wouldn’t you say we’ve been through enough? Wouldn’t you say that anything that helps distract us from the reality of it all (without interfering with treatment) is worthwhile?

If you care about your children, DO NOT under any circumstances send them here. I sent my child here a few months ago to combat her severe eating disorder, and in full faith I believed that this facility would be in her… best interest. I spoke with the staff before shipping her off, to ensure that my daughter would be in good hands, and everything seemed okay at first. When she first went, the first week seemed to be going okay, but there were nonstop complaints about grown adults bullying her. In specific, I have had poor experiences as well, with the new program director. She does not follow any morals regarding a mental health facility, and doesn’t handle any situations with proper manner. I’ve heard in the past that CFD was a place of joy, but apparently after her arrival all things went to hell. My daughter would call me sobbing talking about how her as well as other staff would be persistently persecuting and bullying her as well as other kids, which as a mother was astounding to hear from a place where she is supposed to be getting help. I spoke with the staff about this on multiple occasions, to which they seemed to be unbeknownst, yet nothing changed. My daughter as well as the people she has met here have been traumatized from the way they were treated. On a separate note, their program is not at all catered towards curing a disorder. Its essentially a feeding farm. They do not do groups, which was heavily advertised by their website, and were left doing nothing all day, other than eating and being punished with an absurd amount of supplements for not finishing the littlest bit of their meal. The dietician is incompetent, and has no perspective of what a recovering child should truly be handling, as well as empathy. I was told multiple goal weights on separate occasions, that even my daughter’s pediatrician thought was outrageous. My daughter was eating the same amount as a weightlifter, even after being weight restored with no change after weeks. The doctor immediately jumps to conclusions and has no idea of what to do with their children. Please, for the love of god, do not send your children here. Do your research. Do not choose CFD.

they send you to the hospital for engaging in behaviors when your literally there for an ed. clementine is way better, they actually focus on the mental part of it as well as the physical, and they are way more… structured. the techs we had were good though, thank you Katelin, Sarah, and Ester! also the way cfd does process is so dumb bye its just to get kids to argue with each other

Thank you CFD for helping my child with her eating disorder. Thank you Ester, Sarah, Alexis, and the entire staff. It has not been an easy process, but thank you for your patience and kindness that got her to where… she's at today. It is definitely bittersweet now that she's discharged. I know she will miss you guys! I hope you all the very best! Thank you all for what you do!

CFD saved my life I have battled an Ed for 2 years now and since coming here and just leaving my life has been turned upside down for the better. I have learned so much here than I have in any other treatment. CFD… helped me fix my body image issues and helped my exercise addiction and I was able to find other activities to enjoy besides those. All the staff here are absolutely amazing and so kind. I love you Sebastian, Lydia, nurse ester, and Sarah. I had a therapist switch in the middle of treatment but my new therapist was still able to provide an amazing experience at CFD and helped me so much. CFD is great and the treatment is very personalized with your own personal meal plan and after a while you can prep your own meals and go on walks. My favorite thing was going out and going on exposures to help me. All my peers were amazing and always so helpful. The staff is so kind and respectful. You can also go on walks once you reach medical stability. Highly recommend CFD.

I was here in 2020 and I left with a worse relationship with food. This place was overly strict, I felt like I was being treated like a child. The force feeding was the worst, If you couldn’t eat the mass amounts of… food you were given, they would make you drink high cal supplements, and threaten to send you to the hospital. Negligent staff, they were always on a power trip and had no idea how to take care of us. I can only hope this place improved since then.

their only good therapist, jenn, left forever ago and they practically fell apart the whole time i was there, (over a year ago). only made me gain weight, mental state was absolute trash and only getting worse, i was… going insane. what did they do to that? keep raising my meal plan even though i was medically okay and was fully weight restored. only liked a couple staff members here too, sarah and esther 🫶🏼. they kept me for about 4 months and never told me an actual discharge date, they just kept me for longer and longer. eventually my parents had to bail me out. i do not recommend this place. if you are in desperate need of good ed treatment PLEASE go to clementine twin lakes, not even 10 minutes away from cfd. they actually helped me and gave me real therapy.

Center for discovery really saved my life! when I was admitted to cfd I was scared, but all the staff were so welcoming and very helpful with answering any questions I had. Most of the staff were extremely kind and so… understanding. Nurse Esther was the best nurse ive ever had an all of my treatment. (im not sure if she's there anymore because its been almost a year since I left). im writing thes review to say thank you all so much for everything you did to help me in my recovery!

They delete reviews they don’t like, but Ill say it again, I was assaulted there and staff covered up the incident, kids who didn’t eat everything when they were supposed to got out on bed rest and weren’t allowed to… speak to anyone, no private communicating was permitted between patients, didn’t permit second languages, there was kids w all different issues going there and no specialized treatment provided, rules were enforced based on how the “counselors” felt in the moment, staff repeatedly brought their own trauma in and would spend countless hours venting to the children, staff would gossip w certain clients about the other patients, some patients were ostrisized from the group entirely , if you love your child spend the money on a psychologist, all this program really resembled was a group of children living w some unqualified daycare sitters and some therapists, these children had a variety of issues of varying degrees(ie some had violence issues, some had eating issues, some w sexuality related things that created problems) not one of the kids were actually catered to, they litterally gave every one of us lithium, abilify, Prozac, Zoloft, klonopin when some of the kids only really were looking for help w minor anxiety or substance intervention, spend your time and money and love for your child to go to a reputable PSYCHOLOGIST if you’re concerned w child’s mental health May I add this was 2 years ago, I only reposted bc I saw a notification stating my comment had been edited

Thank you CFD you helped me when I was at my worst I couldn’t thank you guys enough, staff and patients, for being so kind for the long months i was there. Great house and quiet rooms. Fun and supportive staff. At least… when I was there 7 months ago lol. I hope everyone is doing well! Thank you CFD

Was the best place I've ever been to and helped me so much at my worst

literally would live here forever if i could

Nice staff, nice people, cool structure, good experience

love

If you're looking for a treatment center that teaches your loved one how to eat properly and the importance of food, this is not it. They shove 3,000+ calorie diets on their clients solely for the purpose of forcing… them to gain weight quickly so that they look healthy. They do not care about teaching their clients how to eat properly. All therapy groups are found by staff members on pinterest and are not approved by the company or the licensed therapists. Clients must eat 6 meals a day at a dining room table and are punished for not eating their food by being forced to eat / drink protein bars and boost plus. Frequently, they are forced to drink 12+ ounces of boost plus (Boost plus comes in 8oz bottles) or eat 1.5-2 cliff bars after eating half of their meal. If they do not partake in this, they will either be placed on bed rest (2+ times of refusing the supplement) or couch rest (1× refusal). If you're looking for a good program, this is not it.

Center for Discovery saved my life and I could not thank them enough. I highly recommend Center for Discovery, they are the most welcoming and caring treatment place by far. The staff is very friendly and do their best… to make you feel as comfortable as you can. I would say that if you are looking for a treatment place to send a loved one, Center for Discovery is the one.

This place is absolutely incredible. The staff treat everyone with kindness and respect (and humor) while keeping you on your toes. Would definitely recommend to a loved one.

Dont lol

Very quiet and zen place to be. Friendly and welcoming environment.