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Austen Riggs Center

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Austen Riggs Center
Austen Riggs Center
(7 Reviews)
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25 Main Street Stockbridge, MA 01262
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Consumer Feedback

(7 Reviews)
Staff
3 star average for Staff
Recommended
2.5 star average for Recommended
Environment
4 star average for Environment
Expertise
3 star average for Expertise
If you have a complex trauma history run don’t walk away from thinking about Riggs as an option!! I spent( wasted) 369 very long extremely painful days there. My gut started screaming at me at about the six month mark that something was deeply wrong with the whole institution but I ignored what my intuition was telling me and bought in to the circus whole hog. The main treatment modality at Riggs is psychodynamic analysts. It is NOT healing for complex trauma! I’ve been home for 14 months and at least 50% of my 3 times a week Therapy has been spent undoing the damage inflicted on me by myself through the use of this outdated treatment modality. I was placed in the hands of a third year fellow who completely missed the boat in seeing what was happening right in front of her eyes. I had dozens of flashbacks during sessions while she just sat and did nothing. This only served to deepen the trauma and did nothing towards reducing symptoms, I went to Riggs with a minor movement disorder that worsened a 100 fold and yet it was completely ignored by staff.
The therapeutic community program is a free for all where anything goes except physical violence. There is no guidance from staff and it became nearly impossible for me to participate in most of the programs. A friend I made there who is still a patient said of the atmosphere there “ it’s like a blakfrday sale here all the time”. I likened it to the lord of the flies book I had read in high school.
This institution knows nothing about contemporary treatment, nor does it care to. The phrase “ trauma informed care is met with a blank stare. Similarly mention the work of leaeders in the field of the care and treatment of complex trauma and you feel as though you’ve committed some sort of offense.
Why this institution has such a high rating I do not know! I think it a case of people not being willing after spending so much time and money to say “ the emperor has know clothes”. Well I’m saying the emperor has know clothes and what’s more could care less that it doesn’t. Do your research before you decide to go to Riggs, I didn’t and very much regret it!
by Tim Sampson xxx.xxx.92.214
June 09, 2018
To my earlier comments, I would add that most, if not all, of the therapists were counter-transference junkies, and really quite useless in that they lacked insight as a result of the veneration of their counter-transference experiences. Omlettes were good, though. As was the German laundry lady back in those days and the wonderful mountains ringing the town. My successes in life are in spite of the place and its therapists. Caveat emptor!
by seamusartaud xxx.xxx.43.101
February 13, 2017
unless you're wealthy, it does not make sense to trust your fate to this institution. it promotes itself as a last resort for desperate patients, but once you are there you quickly realize that you are the only one who can save you... and, yes, that's an important insight, but one you can and will come to in more appropriate settings. put another way, riggs exploits the desperation of patients and their parents, running through family resources without a thought to where people will be when the money runs out.

that said, i must disclose that the year i spent there was pivotal for me. it's an extremely expensive boarding school, but still, it's home to some wonderful people.
by orionoir xxx.xxx.36.109
October 01, 2014
Does this provider maintain a professional appearance?
Somewhat, I wasn't overly impressed
Would you refer this provider to a family or friend?
No, I wasn't impressed
by Anonymous xxx.xxx.113.219
January 30, 2014
I was there forty years ago, given a series of incorrect diagnoses, and urged to stay for two and a half years.

When the insurance finally ran out, I was told I wouldn’t do well because that’s what their final incorrect diagnoses predicted.

Instead of failing miserably, I found a place to live within two days, worked several jobs at a time, finished college at night, went to graduate school at night and established a lucrative career.

All without any financial help from my family or the supposed acumen, emotional guidance, and wisdom from Austen Riggs' therapists.

I could have begun doing the same thing several years earlier after having been there for a couple of weeks.

It was, however, immensely more lucrative to have me stay.

Mediocrity is enshrined there. You only need to read some of the subpar scholarly works on their website.

The food was pretty good, however. It was possible to get custom made omlets most days. There was an old woman who survived the fire bombing of Hamburg, Germany during WWII who did a great job with the laundry. I had a room with a working fireplace and there was great hiking trails in the surrounding hills.

So I'll have to give it half a star.
by Seamus Artaud xxx.xxx.168.72
July 30, 2013
by Anonymous
April 02, 2011
Austen Riggs is a complete fraud. Perhaps at one time they ran a good operation, but that is no longer the case. Over $250,000 was spent on my adult child and we were then told that they couldn't help her after initially being told they were "specialists in treatment resistance" and "they don't give up on anyone". This is total PR nonsense. Austen Riggs is a complete fraud. Perhaps at one time they ran a good operation, but that is no longer the case. Over $250,000 was spent on my adult child and we were then told that they couldn't help her after initially being told they were "specialists in treatment resistance" and "they don't give up on anyone". This is total PR nonsense. The staff runs for the exits at 5PM and they hardly, if ever, return phone calls. The administration is a disaster and unresponsive and uncommunicative unless they want more money.
by austenriggsscam
November 09, 2010
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25 Main Street, Stockbridge, MA 01262