ASPIRE - Teen Mental Health Los Gatos - El Camino Health

Emma Haswell
1 Star
i was in this program exactly a year ago and to say that it made me worse is an understatement. These therapists have no sense of authority over group sessions and blame it on the patients when expectations were not met. We had lots of privileges in the beginning of the program and the therapist slowly started to restrict us until I was miserable and didn’t want to be there. (I spent $10 on a drink that they made me throw away the full drink because they changed the rule on us without any information or explanation) My personal therapist that they assigned me during the program was nothing but nice. I wasn’t responding well to the treatment and I received micro aggressions from her my entire treatment. Another thing is they tell us we can’t be friends with each other but it is genuinely the most isolating feeling ever, being told you can’t even talk to the people you’re spending over 10 weeks with is ridiculous. It just goes to show that they don’t care about the kids because all of us felt the same. We ended up texting after every session so they weren’t as smart as they thought they were. I was kicked out on my last week because I was very frustrated with the rules getting switched up and throughout the entire 12 weeks it felt like a bunch of adults ganging up on me. Once I was kicked out, my parents asked for higher ups information to talk to them about this issue and they never responded to her. The staff recommended the 12 week program with a 2 week “prep” course and the regular 10 weeks of sessions for me. We went over the exact same things we did in prep in our regular sessions, so it was a big waste of my time. Don’t even get me started about their form of punishment. First of all, punishment shouldn’t exist in an iop but I digress. One of their favorite forms of punishment was taking away our graduations, which we all saw as meaningful because that place was so isolating. If we relapsed with anything, our graduation was taken away and they view that as a very shameful thing there. There’s A LOT of backhanded shaming in that program. This place is like a money grab, they treat their patients like customers instead of MENTALLY ILL children and young adults. If you want some real help improve your mental health, don’t go here.
Tuesday 28th March 2023

Clara Panelli
5 Star
I was in this program during Covid in 2020. I was at my lowest and my parents dragged me to this place because my therapist said it would help, at first i was pissed they took me here, but now i can’t thank them enough. Going into this program i didn’t have any addictions (i.e substances, etc.) i just didn’t attend classes at school, that’s why my parents put me in this program. Now i know obviously my experience is different from others and it’s probably changed since i was last there but if i hadn’t gone through this program i don’t think i’d be where i am. now almost 3 years later i’ve graduated H.S , had a full time job and now off to college. Of course a big part of this program is you having to want to get better just like every program for mental health out there, these people aren’t magicians they can’t magically heal you, you need to put in the work and it’s hard but if you want to truly get better going to something like this helps. You can’t expect to go into a program like this and get babied you have to work hard . Now yes i did come across the occasional snappy comment from a group leader but the good out weighed the bad. Personally my one note to this program is let the kids talk to eachother and be friends, talking with my fellow peers made me feel connected to them and made me feel less alone because they understood what i was going through, so let the kids be friendly with eachother because it makes them feel less alone during this process. Overall i thank the staff of aspire, especially Sonny who helped me through the process!
Friday 25th August 2023