Monte Nido – New York

Worst place ever

My experience at Monte Nido Manhattan was almost great if not for a relatively major issue. The team at the center is made up of several RC’s to help with tasks around the center, a few therapists and dietician's with… one of each assigned to each patient, and finally an NP and one psychiatrist that sees everyone. The current Psychiatrist, Dr. Gupta is completely unfit to practice on patients with eating disorders. He has no understanding of the sensitivity needed to work with these groups and has said absolutely appalling things to several patients myself included. On top of this, he is seemingly insistent that everyone he sees is showing clear bipolar symptoms despite many having been cleared by professionals for years. The rest of the team at Monte Nido is amazing, and outside of my raised issues it was an extremely helpful experience, sadly I cannot recommend the program at this time.

I wish I read reviews and did more research before contacting them. As others have said, they are greedy for money. They charged $425 for a consultation to see if it was even the right fit. Haven’t heard back from them… since and it’s been over 2 weeks. I called and supposedly they’re negotiating with my insurance, but I haven’t gotten any updates. I contacted other organizations that looked at me like I was crazy when I asked how much for the consultation, which let me know Balance ripped me off. Monte Nido charged nothing for the assessment and took my family member right away (3 days later).

This place seemed alright at first. After the first day or so, my therapist Zoe decided to meet with me and have the clinical director, Kelsey, in on the Zoom meeting. This was not brought to my attention prior to the… session which was annoying. I like to know who will be in on my individual sessions. I told them both that I was afraid I would be kicked out of the program if I needed a higher level of care and I can still hear Kelsey saying "we don't do that here" Not even two weeks later, we're all having lunch and at the end, I am put into a breakout room with my therapist Zoe and the director Kelsey. They ask me over and over if I know why I'm here. I told them to just tell me what's going on. First, there was a situation at the residential center I was at in Irvington, NY where I was being falsely accused. Then they told me they were discharging me THAT DAY, with TWO HOURS left in the day and said there was a bed for me at the Glen Cove location for residential treatment. This was completely out of the blue. I even had a session with Zoe the morning before and it was trauma-related. This woman did TRAUMA WORK with me KNOWING I was going to be discharged the NEXT DAY. Not to mention the fact that I had been tested for COVID earlier in the week and had not gotten back my results yet. They wanted me to go to a residential treatment facility KNOWING that I had COVID symptoms and was awaiting results. I couldn't just go back to residential treatment. I had to return to work. I was the only one earning income in my family. I didn't have a choice. I ended up losing my job due to COVID a few days after all of this. I have a few weeks left with my insurance. They KNEW all of this. They KNEW I had to go back to work. They KNEW my short term disability benefits were running out and I that I needed to get paid again. They KNEW all of this and still treated me this way. This has been such an awful experience. I, as well as the other therapists I have consulted in this matter, am appalled at how unprofessional the treatment is. How do you just drop someone who needs help? Further, how do you do it completely out of nowhere? This is how you help people? Unfortunately, I am not alone in being poorly treated. Stay away, there are other places that actually care about their clients.

Was ok in the begging. Then rules that they supposedly put into place were never reinforced at all. They say that you are not supposed to be drinking out of cups that are not clear but other clients as well as staff… were and they seemed to only target me. The director, Kelsey, and my therapist Lauren were not understanding or empathetic towards me at all. They said many things without thinking when I mentioned in the very beginning of treatment that I would be having a full time job and working. They constantly asked me in a blunt, non nurturing matter to switch my shifts when I asked for many extensions at work. I couldn’t switch in the snap of a finger. When I tried to compromise with them to allow me to drive to work during the break- mind you this is a virtual program and my store is 10 minutes away- they wouldn’t let me. They never apologized for making me feel targeted rather than supported by staff. Being targeted is a big trigger in my eating disorder. Also if I ever came late due to uncontrolled circumstances I would get pulled into a breakout room and be scolded meanwhile they are allowed to come 5, 10, even 40 minutes late to sessions and also I would be subject to a fee of 200 dollars which I don’t have laying around for multiple payments, I mean they should have things put into place if these rules are supposedly enforced. But apparently not. As for the coffee- I explained I get really bad headaches and coffee kills the headache- I was supposed to get approval from the NP and the director, Kelsey, was supposed to tell her about that. She never did. She never responds to emails either and she just non chalantly replies oh I forgot or I don’t read emails after a certain time. So unprofessional and rude in terms of being a director. Also another therapist started targeting me about drinking out of a mug in the zoom chat and I explained I felt targeted in the chat. I was frustrated and tried to imply that by responding back and she explained that I should be discussing this in individual rather than group- when she start in the first place. If they want rules they should be inflicted on everyone. Despite me telling staff 3 days ahead of time about an emergency broiler repair, surprise they didn’t listen and wanted me to violate other people’s privacy and Wanted me to have the repair man listen to the zoom session and because I didn’t do that I was discharged from the program because I missed a session that I was supposed to have that I didn’t even know about. They gave me a contract and it say I can only have 2 abscenses I did have 2 the contract said nothing about missing individual sessions. So unprofessional, so privillaged Also left a message about these issues to the regional director and I never got a call back. Will be making calls to my insurance to request charge backs what a waste of time, so much for going to a place where u are supposed to be validated and understood - they also just kicked me out with no after plan too 11-1-20- Edit after response from Monte nido: Why would I attempt to contact you if you had multiple chances to respond and never did and now because of a public review you wanna make it seem like you care. You know who I am and you can actually return one of my phone calls or emails.

My primary therapist, Lauren H, hands down made the difference for me. I would recommend this program to anyone that needed treatment. The environment, the staff, and the clients are all pro-recovery. The groups and… assignments that are given to us are truly helpful towards recovery and looking at what's behind the eating disorder.

My 1:1s with my therapist and the friendships I made with other clients when in-person made a huge difference in recovering. The staff were knowledgable and always made me feel safe. Absolutely recommend.

I loved the group sessions where we were on the phone with family. It was impactful to hear how the ED affected not only my family but other families as well. I really think this place helps a lot with coping skills and… relapse prevention.

I would recommend this program. The RCs were helpful and facilitated meaningful relationships with my fellow clients.

Unfortunately it's not like other MN experiences the staff doesn't really stick to MN philosophy Laurel Hill though wow they saved me!!!