Jan Craigslist

Review of Sunrise RTC

My daughter, "JS" just graduated from Sunrise afte...

My daughter, "JS" just graduated from Sunrise after 11 months. For privacy, I am using a different name for my review. As a psychologist, I picked Sunrise because I knew that with the issues my daughter had (depression, anxiety, PTSD, and traits of BPD) Dialectical Behavior Therapy was the treatment of choice. Working in the field, I was always terrified of RTCs because I would hear horror stories about the treatment of kids at them. I chose Sunrise based on the fact they use evidence-based DBT and train all the staff in it. I loved that even the girls who wrote negative reviews (I think all of whom had not graduated) did say that the staff were caring and they learned skills. I think it is rare for an RTC to have so many positive reviews. I waited 7 months after finding Sunrise on the internet before actually sending my daughter. I am so glad that she finally got the help she needed. She hated it at first. All the girls do. Most are used to doing what they want and not following rules because their parents have lost control or like me, got into a rescuing dynamic because I saw how much my beautiful girl was suffering and I felt bad for her, so I was inconsistent with consequences. At Sunrise, they use a level/stage system to earn privileges. My daughter learned how to heal from some traumatic incidents in her life and how to stop avoiding everything that was difficult (including uncomfortable feelings such as anxiety). She gained confidence and had the courage to do EMDR with her amazing therapist, Heather. She did not like a lot of the girls at first and would complain a lot about a lot of staff or people not caring about her. The advice we got to let the treatment unfold and "let the cake bake" and consistently make it clear to our daughter that we would not pull her out and that we expected her to graduate. This was crucial. After some early quick progress in months two and three, she backslid and wanted us to pull her as she faced some harder work. We would not and after a month or so of stalled progress, she recommitted to the work and made amazing progress. She also was able to double up on classes and completed high school a year early! She is still a stubborn and intense girl but her moods are much more stable overall and she recovers much more quickly when upset. She is much less destructive, feels more confident in her identity and has much improved interpersonal skills. No RTC is perfect. Sometimes there were issues with communication among staff, but overall, it was much better than I expected. Staff are incredibly warm and caring and many became like family. I felt my daughter was safe and loved the whole time she was there. Oh, and my daughter thanked us pretty early on for sending her and recently told us she truly believes we saved her life by sending her.