Because it wasn't all bad, I'll start with the positive aspects of Harmony Heals. First, many of the staff are good, caring people, who have clients' best interest at heart. They are willing to listen and give advice, share their stories and relate to their clients on a personal level that approximates support and understanding that many addicts have not experienced in a long, long time, especially with regard to addiction. The iop house manager, the older gentleman who runs 'night groups,' the female emdr counselor, and both yoga instructors all come to mind as the greatest assets Harmony Heals has to offer. These individuals are much more important to the success of treatment at Harmony Heals than the overall programming.
Which leads to the major problems with Harmony Heals. The first thing that stands out is that there's some very shady advertising going on, especially regarding the services provided when in residential treatment. They tout things like massage therapy, acupuncture, and other services, but they don't tell you that these come at an additional cost that's around or over $100 per session. That's a lot of extra money to spend on a facility that already charges around $1,000 per day, and it's troubling to insinuate that these services are included by putting them on the same list as other services that ARE included, such as yoga.
The second thing that stands out is that for all that daily money, Harmony Heals only provides a maximum of two hours per week with somebody actually professionally trained in any type counseling, addiction or otherwise. I say this is a maximum because when Harmony has too many clients, these sessions get cut.
And while these counselors were helpful, they actually aren't even fully licensed yet and instead work as interns. As I said earlier, one of these counselors was extremely helpful to me, however it seems like at its price tag, Harmony could and should employ licensed counselors besides Gina.
Aside from Gina, the program director is professionally trained, but she mostly handles intake and emergent situations, and spends very little face time with clients. The rest of the staff are in recovery themselves and, while many of them are wonderful, committed, and caring people, they really aren't anything but glorified babysitters. This role is of course necessary in any treatment setting, but these are the people who provide most of your treatment, and it's mostly in the form of walking to AA meetings. They have no formal training.
The third issue, and it's a big one, is the services actually rendered for the price paid are meager at best. It's absolutely perplexing, a shared feeling among those receiving treatment at Harmony, that $1,000 per day gets you two unhealthy and repetitive takeout meals, a bed, 0.3 counseling sessions, 0.3 yoga lessons, and 1 (free) AA meeting. That is the extent of the programming. The support staff are not paid enough to make up the difference--not even close. All of this starts to leave you feeling like somebody somewhere is making a lot of money doing the bare minimum to be passable as a treatment center, which inspires a ton of distrust in a company that is supposed to help end the mental and physical anguish of addiction. Seriously, I spent about 80% of my waking hours at Harmony either reading fiction or watching (basic) cable. I read 7 different 400-page books in 23 days I was there, and I attended EVERYTHING offered by Harmony in the way of treatment programming. That is how much free time you have, which is not what clients are paying so much for. And I'm not a particularly fast reader.
The short version of all of this? There are some sketchy business practices going on behind the scenes and you get the sense that even some of the staff know about it, but management has a sweet deal making money off people struggling with addiction. Farid will squeeze every dime that he can out of your pockets, while providing the bare minimum in terms of actual professional treatment. Shame on you. read more