I am a licensed clinical psychologist who recently sent a child to Engage. I wholeheartedly DO NOT recommend Engage. From what I observed they are not at the professional or clinical level to be responsible for your child and frankly, can cause much more damage than good. Consider UCLA's ABC program, which is very professional with very well-trained clinicians. Our child is much worse because of his experience at Engage and I don't want this for your child. We paid a lot of money for him to learn to curse aggressively, engage in self harm and be more defiant. It's like Engage is a training ground for how to be more difficult rather than less.
1. The program is not very transparent about this like they are supposed to be- the "primary therapists" are not licensed. Your child will be in a therapeutic setting with someone just out of graduate school who is still at an intern level and should not be referred to as a therapist. There are no licensed therapists in the groups; the "therapists" are still in training and new at learning and developing their craft. At the least, every group should have a licensed/ seasoned therapist who can be a guide.
2. We were very concerned about our child being exposed to other clients' issues in the group and learning about things such as self-harm (and mimicking it). Prior to sending him, I asked and was actively told that other clients would be redirected away from discussing details of self-harm so this would not be an issue. In just the one day my child was there he saw multiple scars from self-harm from the other clients, which still haunts him and put the idea of self-harm in his head. The very thing I was assured wouldn't happen. He learned what self-harm is, how to do it, and is actively thinking and talking about it. I would say for this reason alone, not to trust what you are being told when you are assessing if the site is right for your family.
3. The children (our young fourth grader!) are asked to pee in a cup so that they can test for substance use in the group- but parents are not told this! We learned about this while needing to take our child to the bathroom to test him. The "therapists" had already talked very openly to the kids about needing to make sure no one is using substances there- normalizing that they or their peers would be using. This freaked our ten year old out and still haunts him. He was too young to be exposed to this, and it should have been our choice- not theirs. Parents should be told that their children would be peeing in cups to test for substance use at the intake or before and that their using substances would be discussed very openly (teaching them about using substances): This poor judgment is reason for parents to consider avoiding Engage.
4. When we picked up our child up he was defiant, aggressive and unhinged. The group environment at Engage encourages the kids to act this way, including unlimited cussing. He began cussing aggressively. Again, parents should be informed about this when choosing to send their kid. It's genuinely unfair for someone else to choose to put our kid in that situation with "unlimited cussing" as Luke described it. Parents need to make the choice whether that's right for their kids- or family.
Our child is hands down in a worse place because of going and now is refusing treatment because he had such a bad experience here. All of this is to say that Engage chooses to put kids in situations where they should have informed parents in advance and received permission. Families who don't have a clinical background may think they have to submit to this or that's it's ok- it is not.
If you're still with me here, I'll add that we received an email from Jennifer Cuccia that we needed to come in for a parent orientation. My husband cleared the afternoon from work (not an easy thing) and I arranged childcare for my small children. When we were waiting to be called back, Jennifer came to the waiting room and said that Adelina (the clinical director) had an emergency and had to pull a client in and couldn't meet with us. Later that evening when we happened to meet Adelina, she made it clear that there was a conflict in scheduling and we should have been notified in advance. So Jennifer was dishonest with us to cover that she or they had doublebooked. For other busy families, double-check meetings so your time isn't being wasted.
Overall, the professionals running Engage need a higher level of professionalism to run an agency that cares for children. The clinicians need a higher level of experience. We were charged $349/day for our child to be much worse; I don't want this to happen to your family.
My best suggestion is to find a seasoned therapist that you trust and have them do intensive work with your child. This environment is too damaging. read more
