Opal Clinic for Eating Disorders – Seattle

Ideal for the stereotypical anorexic: thin, white, female.

I've been to Opal three times over the last few years and each time my opinion of the program decreased. In my opinion, Opal is designed for a very narrow window of clients. If you are white, struggle with a restrictive… ED and/or exercise addiction, and aren't "too complex" (SI, BPD, co-occuring disorders, etc.) Opal could be a great fit. They preach a philosophy of flexibility and openness for their clients, but the program itself is incredibly rigid. Sometimes this is what you need, in which case, yes, go to Opal! However, I knew multiple clients who were put on "contracts", meaning that if they struggled "too much" they would be kicked out of the program. In my experience, they are rarely willing to tailor their treatment to individuals' needs, following a predetermined structure that offers little flexibility. Again, if you are the "ideal" client, this structure could work for you, in which case Opal has it down. Something I liked about Opal is that they offer a lot of experiential therapy groups. We had the opportunity to engage in various types of exercise with a therapist, go grocery shopping as a group once a week, and go out to eat. I also appreciated their gradual step-down structure (10 hours to 6 hours to 3 hours) as opposed to most other programs which have only two levels of outpatient care. When I was there, they had an OCD specialist, which was helpful as many people with eating disorders also struggle with OCD. Unfortunately, there was an incredibly long waitlist to see them and many clients didn't get the opportunity. Obviously, this is just my experience. I know people for whom Opal was a great fit. I will also say, it's nearly impossible to find a treatment center that's perfect. This is also NOT to discourage anyone from seeking care. Treatment saved my life and I can say that Opal (even with it's flaws) was better than nothing. Finally, if you are someone looking at these reviews to consider if you should pursue treatment keep in mind that the people who DID have five star experiences (at any treatment center) are less likely to write reviews. This skews reviews towards the negative and is not normally an accurate representation of the treatment center. So take all reviews (including this one) with a grain of salt!

There is a lot that was really good and a lot that was really bad. I want to show both in this review as candidly as possible. My experience was heavily influenced by the fact that I’m a person of color, and also by the… clients and staff that happened to be there at the same time as me. My time at Opal did help me immensely, and I am incredibly grateful for it. I credit this largely to the connections I formed with several of the other clients I overlapped with, and to my therapist and dietitian, both of whom were wonderful. Several of the other staff were also amazing and supportive, and I’m incredibly grateful to those individuals. I think a lot of this is left to chance, of who happens to be there, rather than an effect of any efforts on behalf of Opal. Opal claims to be a very progressive space, a “safe space” where micro-aggressions are called out and all identities belong. At best, their attempts are performative; often, they are harmful. In the five months I was there, no staff ever called out a micro aggression, and a frustration with this was voiced by nearly every client of color I overlapped with. The space is overwhelmingly white, and any time I brought up my skin color, the anxiety in the room—from both clients and staff— was palpable. In the beginning, I was often told to take my concerns to individual therapy. While they eventually stopped saying this to me, the uncertainty with how to “deal with me” when I brought up race and culture never went away. The idea that there would be a nuanced conversation about race beyond “white vs black” is laughable. I had to advocate for myself on several occasions to be “allowed” to honor cultural practices around food (i.e. using chopsticks, tearing a piece of naan). Some staff were rude and dismissive, and while there were attempts to rewrite policies in response to my feedback, change felt superficial. Opal wasn’t ready to do the deeper work needed to commit to being anti-racist. That being said, both my therapist and dietitian were people of color, and that helped tremendously— to know I wasn’t going crazy, my requests weren’t absurd, and the things I was dealing with were in fact racism. They were able to help me advocate for myself, and I worry for clients that may not get that support from their team. I would never say the good outweighed the bad. And, at the same time, I don’t regret going to treatment. Based on what I heard from others, Opal is largely better and more responsive to feedback than other treatment centers. Still, that doesn’t give them a pass to stop learning and improving — they have a long way to go and I think they need to take a really close look at how the solutions they provide are superficial and don’t result in any meaningful change. Often, my hope while there was that advocating for myself would mean future clients of color wouldn’t have to. I unfortunately realized what a naive belief that was. I was at Opal during the first half of 2024, though I feel doubtful that my concerns have been addressed adequately since then. If you’re a person of color, I think this is important context to have in order to make an informed decision to get treatment here.

I hesitate to give a bad review, since Opal is one of the only non-corporate ED treatment centers in the area and they do handle exercise addiction. But as someone who received treatment there twice, once in their early… days and once in the last couple years, they've gone downhill. A lot. The quality of care has deeply diminished while the facility has gotten a beautiful facelift. A prime example is that the milieu all used to be actual LMFT/LMHCs, and that provided upward mobility. It's no secret the therapists leave from centers like this to create their own practice. And having milieu staff ready to fill those roles and take on new clients worked brilliantly. My second time around I had to stop a milieu therapist from creating a super toxic situation because they clearly weren't educated on conflict resolution. Now here's the worst part that actually harmed me. I had a pretty predatory therapist who broke all the boundaries. She had the A-associate on her credential and she was not monitored at all by Opal because she had a mentor elsewhere (I think common). She broke multiple boundaries and proceeded to try and be my friend after leaving Opal. To be clear she no longer works at Opal, but she's no the only therapist there who has done this. Another client experienced very similar things with a separate therapist. This isn't an indictment on Opal therapists as a whole, but maybe the management on them. My first therapist was a gem who I'd trust my life on. I truly had some of the best and worst treatment there. I would just say they need to supervise and support the talented, but often young, inexperienced therapists who need the most support to thrive be great. When I was at Opal there was essentially a mass-exodus of staff, both tenured and newish employees because Opal had done the opposite of what they'd pledged in the face of June 2020 BLM protests, etc. IMO they had the perfect opportunity to tackle the problems with ethnic diets and wellness culture, etc, etc, but they didn't. Opal is a super privileged white space and it honestly reflects. Their mission statement is admirable, but they need a huge overhaul to hit the mark.

The leaders are passionate about having the best treatment center available. They even advocate to Congress for better laws for mental health.

One of the worst places for binge eating disorders you could ever go to. Opal is not a facility for eating disorders. It is an ultra radical liberal group that will demonize you for even considering any kind of diet,… exercise, or life changes in general. Opal was one of the worst decisions of my life and is a huge waste of money.

I got so much out of my time at Opal. I have struggled for a long time, and this was my first treatment experience. It was difficult for sure, but my experience there and the things I learned and discovered really… challenged everything about my ED. I also benefited a lot from the exercise/movement components. They also do a great job of fostering a community that is SO supportive - I wish I could take my Opal family with me everywhere.

I am appalled at Opal's treatment of their clients who are fat and/or have marginalized identities. Opal is a performative organization that mistreated myself and one of my very good friends. I was gaslit by both… leadership and my individual therapist, had my concerns about my treatment swept aside by my nutritionist (I'm diabetic and openness and awareness around food is SO important for my HEALTH condition) and was really underwhelmed by their scripted apology for doing harm. I am beyond disappointed in their treatment of both clients AND staff who are not white, cisgender, straight, and thin. Opal claims to be HAES aligned but will not take your feedback into account when you complain about their space being non-inclusive. Their staff is a bunch of straight white thin women and they aren't aware of the harm that they cause to folks that aren't of that identity grouping. Opal caused SO much harm and took so much of my time away. I'm STILL in therapy processing the harm that I experienced at Opal. A couple months ago, I found out that Opal deleted all of their social media. This felt like they were dodging the accountability that their clients so desperately needed. Opal really failed a lot of their clients, including myself.

I have been to treatment at four different eating disorder programs, and Opal is the only one to which I would go back, should I need it. They approach eating disorder treatment from a compassionate, holistic, social… justice perspective that promotes lasting change. I cannot stress enough that Opal is the only program worth considering in embarking on this important recovery journey!

I could not have chosen a better place to seek treatment than Opal. Their programming is comprehensive; in addition to the standard treatment team approach (psychiatrist, dietician and therapist), they also include a… wide variety of groups (e.g. Shame and Play; Facing Fears; ACT; Nutrition Ed; Body Image; Art Therapy; Yoga; Rethinking Exercise, Sport and Movement; etc.) They are well-staffed, so if you need extra support at any given moment, there is always someone available to check in with. The staff are all warm, kind, supportive and passionate. And a lot of care and consideration was given to the feeling of the physical environment as well (which is an important factor for some of us who are easily impacted by our surroundings). Once again, Opal is THE place to go if you are in the greater Puget Sound area and have arrived at the place of accepting your need for treatment.