Center for Discovery - Southport - Southport, Connecticut

Courtney B.

I saw all the bad reviews and realized that I should probably write a good one. This place saved my life, and it was such an Amazing experience. I was a patient in 2019 at 12 years old, and I don’t think I’d be here today without this place assisting in my recovery journey. I didn’t like all of the staff, but in the end they were all caring people who wanted nothing more than the best for me. When I got home I missed the place, and I made some friends there that I still talk to today. Truly an amazing place with the best treatment around.

Kawaii P.

My family and I had very high hopes for Center for Discovery but were rather disappointed with the treatment that was received. Being a former client myself, I can confirm that this place is no where near perfect. In fact, I wouldn’t even call it decent. For starters, some treatment team members and counselors were causing more harm than good. I along with former clients were disrespected by certain staff members and even feared them at times. We would often be called out and embarrassed in front of others over our actions instead of being spoken to away from the group. Treatment team members often cared about little things too much like cussing, listening to certain types of music, going into each others rooms to talk, etc instead of handling more serious situations like clients talking about or doing triggering things. Since I was a client during Covid, we had to wear masks in the house at all times. Due to us wearing masks and not being able to open windows or turn on fans, the house was super stuffy and dry. We were rarely taken outside to get fresh air, sometimes even because curtains staff members “didn’t feel like going outside”. This made me along with other clients feel claustrophobic and very anxious. Another complaint I would like to address is school time. Everyday, we had about 3 hours to do school work. We weren’t allowed to use our emails so we had to submit our work and talk to our teachers through our tutor who we had on a zoom meet. Often times, there was no communication between the client and their teachers and it took the tutor weeks to finally reach out to my school and explain my situation. Along with that, our work that we would submit to our tutor would often never actually get to our teachers. Over the 2 month period I was here, about half the assignments I completed never got “turned in” to my teachers due to the tutor. There is much more to say about this place and it has many more flaws but overall, my experience was not great and didn’t change my ED mindset a whole lot. My advice for anyone reading is that please do not go to this treatment center. It may work for some but for many others it did more harm than good. I’m very sorry to those who have also had experiences like mine.

taylor S.

Honestly if I could give this 0 stars I 100% would. As someone who’s been myself i can safely say it’s the worst experience iv ever had. For starters they micro managed everything that was totally irrelevant such as what music we listened to, not going into each other’s rooms to talk, not watching movies that had food in it, not playing apples to apples because it was “controversial”, no sweatshirts at the table, wearing shoes at the table etc, instead of worrying about things that were triggering. There were different rules with different staff, and they hardly followed the schedule. We also had very limited time for school. When I went back to school I was very far behind and confused because we had 2 hours of school instead of the 7 for the people in the building. The time we had to get ready in the morning was also absolutely absurd as we had about 15-30 minutes TOTAL. There was only two bathrooms upstairs so 4 of us had to share one and 2 shared the other. This includes changing, brushing teeth, washing your face, showering, and whatever else is in a morning routine. They woke us up at 6 every morning and we were usually all downstairs by 6:30, and had to sit there for an hour until 7:30 breakfast. TV was only allowed on the weekends, so most of the time we sat on the couch and listened to music for hours on end. We weren’t supposed to go upstairs once we were already downstairs until we had to get ready for bed, and you had to be within staff vision at all times. The staff talked negatively about past clients a lot. We had to count in the bathroom, in the shower and whenever you were behind a closed door even if u didn’t struggle with purging and it was very frustrating when the staff would repeatedly tell you to count louder, when their simply just not listening closely enough because there talking to other staff. Often times the staff would confront you about things in front of everyone else. We had process group a few times a week, where the kids would pretty much call each other out on things that were triggering. This was extremely uncomfortable me, the therapists would stare at me trying to pressure me to say something even when i had nothing to say and they told me i need to participate or they wouldn’t move me up. I ended up leaving about a week and a half after arriving. They also refused to have any sort of warmth as the house was always literally arctic and we were not allowed to wear pjs or have blankets. Prior to going here I went to the center for discovery in Paramus and it was much better besides the fact that the staff were rude. And to add the food was pretty rancid. I don’t even want to be in an 100 mile radius of this house. Please please please do not send loved ones here. They truly do not care about you.

Elena S.

First and foremost, this residential facility has significantly benefited my recovery. For example, when I sought out for help during a time of hardships, I was always heard and got the help and support I needed. Additionally, the house was always kept clean and it is generally a safe space to be in. Most of the staff members were one of the most beneficial people in my recovery from my eating disorder, especially all the nurses! The only complaint I have is that staff do not really redirect inappropirate and triggering behavior and speech, even after numerous times trying to camly confront them. One staff member repeatedly repeats triggering phrases and does triggering behaviors in front of the clients without shame, which makes us incredibly uncomfortable. We have told the directors about this, but they ignored our concerns. Other then that, I highly recommend going here!!
(Oh yeah! So, mulitple staff members keeps stealing my "marbles" and does not let me go near the railing for some reason but lets others go. One of the staff members even stole my Recovery Binder. When they do this, I feel utterly invalidated :} )

Jenny S.

As a mother I feel sorry for taking my son here to this place , he was threatened and humiliated.
Management in this place only care about money, they don’t give the kids the treatment they deserve. I DO NOT RECOMMEND this place to anyone be careful . I wanted to post this feedback to alert parents.

Dimitra G.

I went here as a kid in 2012-2013. By the reviews, it’s sad to see nothing has changed.

Christina E.