The therapists and psychiatrists are very good at what they do, despite the fact that they all still cling to the marginalized theories of psychodynamics (derived from the theories of Freud, who is himself a marginalized figure). IMO, psychodynamic theory is great for diagnosis. But as for treatment, I'm not sure if CBT is superior or not. Sadly, the front office has decided to lie (by omission) to all new patients. They will tell you that the average person stays for 3 to 6 months (or something like that). But they fail to tell the truth, that the average length of stay for A PERSON STAYING AS LONG AS THEIR THEROPIST RECOMMENDS is more like a year or more. The 3 to 6 months figures include people who dropped out early (usually because they can't afford it). So, if you plan to go to Austen Riggs and stay as long as the therapists will recommend, plan to be there for about a year and plan to pay about HALF OF A MILLION DOLLARS. (that's approximately $500,000), assuming you're not lucky enough to get insurance to help out, or if you can get a financial need discount. read more

I spent 3 years of my life here. At the time, I could have given a laundry list if everything I thought was wrong or unjust with the place. But in reality, this place gave me the opportunity to save MY OWN life. It was because I understood that after a long history at countless facilities throughout the US, no one, no pill, no magic method could do this for me. I had to want it. I wanted to be better, I just didn't know how to not want to die.But by the time I got to Riggs, I was ready to put in the time, ready to get uncomfortable, and ready to work my ass off. And it sucked. A lot. Most of the time. But I would absolutely do it over and over again. I have a life now that I don't want to end and a future I never thought I'd want. To me, that's worth every second. (I can only bring myself to give 4 stars because the mismanagement during lockdown and covid was extremely difficult and downright irresponsible, specifically to those patients such as myself, who were no longer living on site and were essentially an afterthought for several months. This highly impacted my psychiatric well being during that time.) read more

Although it has been several months since I discharged from the ARC, the trauma I experienced during my stay is burned into my memory forever. I entered Riggs hopeful, optimistic, and confident they truly wanted to help me at the lowest point in my life. This facade, however, quickly and alarmingly devolved once I began to settle in. Austen Riggs allows unspeakable things to take place here under the gilded guise of their once-renowned reputation. Due to their lack of genuine concern for those in treatment, I saw numerous men and women physically and mentally traumatized by the careless environment cultivated by Riggs staff, and more particularly by their leadership. In between treatment sessions, it was common for peers to nervously congregate and ponder whether anyone who came to this place ever actually improved. More often than not, individuals left much worse-off than when they had arrived. Relationships, drinking, bullying, and gossip are mainstays of your treatment at Austen Riggs. For those patients who are wealthy enough to afford long-term treatment at the center, staff conveniently turn a blind eye to these behaviors in favor of making more money. This creates a nearly impossible environment to get well in, and leads to much of the physical and mental trauma I previously mentioned. In addition, ARC has garnered a reputation for dismantling the family dynamics of those who seek treatment. I have seen countless families that are irreversibly damaged by their treatment strategy. Instead of mending family dynamics to achieve successful and lasting long-term outcomes, they devise ways to keep patients at the center longer than necessary to milk the most money out of every individual. By pinning patients against their parents, spouses and other relatives, they aggravate and weaponize familial guilt as a means of pushing patients and their loved ones to spend FAR more money, and time, than is necessary to get better. There is a reason you are unable to find any genuine, honest reviews of this center anywhere else online. Instead of focusing on how to improve and evolve their apathetic and archaic approach to treatment, Riggs dedicates much of its time to sanitizing the internet of any reviews which expose its perverse, money-hungry and exploitative underbelly. For those who have survived a stay at ARC, I hope you are one day able to share your stories and experiences. You deserve to be heard without the fear of being silenced. If this place does not change, it should seriously be shut down for the health and safety of the vulnerable patients it claims to 'treat', and instead preys upon. read more

I had an extremely negative experience during my stay at Riggs. I was discharged administratively for a false positive urine test for fentanyl. The week after my discharge I took a hair follicle test through quest labs, which will show any drugs in your system for up to 90 days with a startling degree of accuracy (which is not the case with urine screens, they will only show about a week depending on the substance and are extremely prone to producing false positive results). Of course Everything came back negative. I disputed the results however I was not allowed a follow up drug screen and was given 2 days to get my shit together and clear out. During those two days I was under constant surveillance, was not allowed to leave the premises and was forced to turn my car keys into nursing. Beyond that I felt myself getting progressively worse through out my stay. Was not receiving the help I needed. I could go on forever ranting about my issues with this program but I think it would be more productive to offer some advice to prospective clients. MAKE SURE YOUR TOUR THIS FACILITY. During your tour ask your patient tour guide and any patients you may come in contact with the following: -has the program helped them -what do they think of the administration -do they feel that nursing has provided them with adequate care and do they make themselves readily available -how do they feel about the competency of the nurses on the staff -how do they feel about the lack of availability of nursing during coffee hour and the community meetings ? -what do they think of their analyst -find out which analysts patients like working with + which ones would it be best to avoid -do they find the groups helpful, especially the daily IRPG groups -what do they know about the sexual abuse allegations that surfaced earlier this year surrounding a few older male clients allegedly preying on younger female clients -how did they feel about the administrations handling of these alleged abuse cases It is worth noting that the latter two lines of inquiry would be best suited towards someone who has been at the program for a longer period of time. I would also suggest when talking to the admissions team to ask them the following questions - was there an outside inquiry into alleged sexual misconduct at the facility -if so what was the ruling of that outside inquiry, did they find that Riggs had sufficiently handled these cases -did the therapists and social workers involved, who are by state law mandated reporters disclose the details of these alleged abuse cases to proper authorities ? I could tell you to save your money and go elsewhere but Austen Riggs has a reputation based on its PAST excellence that might lead one to ignore the bad reviews found on Google. I could tell you that The halcyon days of Eric Erickson and his team of brilliant analysts running the top analytical institution in the country are long past. I could claim that this current administration is filled with parasitic ladder climbers, in it for the accolades and the fellowships and that they can't keep their ego's in check when faced with tough decisions. I could tell you from my perspective their team of analysts would rather engage in mental masturbation and silly mind games than do any real analytical work. I could claim that nursing is filled with halfwits who are barely available even though the facility claims to have 24/7 nursing coverage (and that most insurance companies require that coverage in order to pay for the facility even though it is in fact non existent) but instead the best thing I can do is provide you, the prospective patient lines of inquiry that may sway you to avoid this joke of a treatment center and find treatment that can actually save your life. Because at the end of the day that is what is on the line YOUR LIFE and you deserve better than Austen Riggs. read more

We literally spent 100s of thousands of dollars and nearly a year to have this place destroy our relationship with our family member, all of their other problems persist. It's heartbreaking. We fear our relationship will never recover. And now we just watch our family member struggle from a distance. It's unforgivable when a place in which you place so much trust does more harm than good. There seems to be an ethos here that self-centered, goal-less, naval gazing is required for a cure--that family, community, and relationships are the enemy. Like another reviewer mentioned, social worker was the only point of contact and they were condescending, rude and unprofessional. The institution lacks any sense of accountability for outcomes and the damage they do. Please stay away. There are much better places to seek treatment out there. read more

I spent 4 months at Austin Riggs and $200,000 and got absolutely no benefit. I would particularly not recommend this place for people over 40 as most its its patients are younger.The average length of stay is many months. read more

Horrible horrible horrible Scary !! Had relative there for 10 months Was not allowed to speak to anyone on staff except social worker who was rude and condescending. Stay away at all costs !!!! Extremely expensive and many other treatment programs with much more to offer . read more

It's been seven years since my Riggs residence. It's taken a long time to be able to speak/write of the experience without getting re-triggered. I was at rock bottom, depressed to a point where my family and I were willing to try anything & spend nearly any amount of money on my healing (and Riggs is surely one of the most expensive places around). It wasn't really the official therapy regiment I went there for as much as COMMUNITY, as I was so isolated at that point (its own kind of suffering). I arrived after 2 months on a wait list, and was expected to pay for the next two weeks in advance (approx $14,000). My online bank didn't offer personal checkbook checks, so I agreed to file for a check to be sent to Riggs. Thusly I began my residency. Several things were troubling from the start. First, in the middle of summer I was assigned a room without AC. 2nd, my schedule didn't include talk therapy groups, as SOMEBODY decided I wasn't inclined towards groups, despite expressing very clearly that I came there precisely for the group interaction. I only understood their mistake four days in. Thirdly, a huge scandal was unfolding involving a longterm special status resident drugging a fellow resident, sexually assaulting her while she was unconscious, and the ensuing attempts at cover-up. Community meetings were overwhelmed with arguments, justified anger from many of the clients (who were appalled that the guy was not asked to leave by the tone-deaf old guard administration). But nothing prepared me for the following... I was assigned a therapist twice a week, and after 5 days, he began each session asking me about the money I owed Riggs. I would assure him my bank had sent the check, but as the days wore on, he seemed to want to talk about little else but the money. For my part, I was mentally struggling so much that I simply didn't comprehend why he kept asking about it because 1) I never had a problem sending checks through my bank and had full faith it would eventually arrive 2) he was my therapist, and I couldn't comprehend why Riggs management was actually getting HIM to talk to me about payments, rather than the Admission or Finance office and 3) I was obviously being very honest with him about the totality of my life & emotional pain so it was simply inconceivable that he truly thought I was lying. But he grew increasingly adversarial, putting all these absurd pop-psychology angles on it. Eventually I called my bank, confirmed the check was sent, and provided that proof to the Finance Dept (the ONLY time I discussed the situation w/ any Riggs staff besides this very young, dull-eyed therapist). So I just went about my day, trying best to make use of Riggs' offerings, certain the check would arrive any day, and feeling too disconnected/disempowered to actually address my frustration/irritation about the situation. On the 10th day, I was scheduled for my first group "team" meeting (w/ 5 individual professionals who were part of my treatment). I sat down in a chair in a circle, prepared to discuss my progress, and was abruptly told (by a man I never saw before) that I was being terminated by Riggs for lack of payment. This was a complete surprise/shock. Furthermore, this same man (who I NEVER MET) proceeded to describe a person - supposedly me - who was some sort of all-around pathological liar/deviant, using my very real reasons/pain for coming to Riggs to corroborate this sensational account and riot act. I asked if this was up for discussion, if this ridiculous situation could be sorted out. No. There was no interest in hearing me speak. My team (decent but unremarkable people, with whom I'd been very direct/honest all along) remained silent throughout - they either lacked the curiosity or courage to challenge the institutional hierarchy, or had "drunk the Kool-Aid" themselves. I left Riggs 6 hours later, utterly traumatized, in disbelief at this massive violation of trust, the absurdly poor communication skills of these "professionals", the whole Kafkian debacle. My parents called the Finance Dept the next day and were told the check in fact arrived THAT MORNING (the one "positive" bit of this story is that we canceled the check, otherwise Riggs would've easily snatched up $14,000. I was actually getting threatening billings from them for the next month until I directly called the head of therapy and told him that we would be making the case public, and suing, if we received another bill. There were no more bills). There are better options than this elitist, insular, arrogant, old-fashioned, money-grubbing treatment center. "Mental illness" is a tough gig and there's no easy cure for trauma, but here's some things that've have since helped me: Buddhist-inspired meditation and "mindfulness" practice/communities, any version of "12 Step Recovery" (not just for substance abuse), and New Life Foundation (an amazing, super inexpensive community healing center in Thailand). Good luck! read more

A complete waste of money. After 3 1/2 months, I showed no progress. The psychologist was worthless, even at four days a week. I knew more about medications than the psychiatrist. The classes were abstract and bizarre. read more