I was at Alsana for a little over two months.Alsana was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I was scared to leave home, but as soon as I walked through the doors I was welcomed and had all my questions answered by all and any staff. I was deeply struggling with an eating disorder and addiction problems. I was put with a therapist In Alsana 2 and had never had a harder but more accomplishing therapy experience. I felt more cared about and safe then I had in a very long time while I was at Alsana. The staff not only watched over our meals and ran our groups, but they were there to talk to no matter what time it was or what it was about. Big or small, they would take time out of their day and talk me through anything that was troubling me at that moment. Sometimes they would even be able to just read my expressions and know that something was wrong. Every person in Alsana made me feel that they were completely dedicated to my recovery and finding my happiness again. They were always open to suggestions and made sure the house was running smoothly for all the girls in it. My experience with IFS was very emotional but finally let me open up myself to traumas that I had endured previous to coming to Alsana. Traumas that I knew had certainly happened before we even started IFS. IFS let me find all the emotions like hurt, betrayal, resentment and anger that I didn’t even know I had building up inside me. I had completely blocked out my traumas before Alsana to help me survive day to day. But with this denial, I became deeper and deeper into my eating disorder and addictions. IFS and the amazing therapy I received let me dig in deep to the hard things that happened in my life to try to get me to accept, understand and help move past these events. During my IFS experiences my therapist worked hard to find what was truly going on inside of me. Nothing ever felt coached or pressured. There were times I simply would tell my therapist I just couldn’t handle it that day and that was never a problem. My boundaries were always completely respected. Alsana not only cared about weight and calories, they cared about me as a person and all my individual troubles. There was not one set plan to recovery in Alsana. Alsana understood that every person was different, and every person needed their own type of recovery methods. I was never just another client following the routine pattern towards not having an eating disorder. I was set up with a plan of action specially created for me. They helped me work on self esteem, self respect, my addictions, family issues, and the simple fact that I was so unhappy with the way my life had began to turn out. Every aspect of Alsana was useful. This treatment center is one that I would recommend to anyone struggling with any kind of eating disorders and other issues. My only true regret about Alsana was that I left way too early out of homesickness and not being ready to fully deal with my past. These things were my fault and nothing to do with how Alsana was run. If I could change my choice about leaving when I did, I would change it in a heartbeat. But I also know that if I ever needed Alsana again, they would happily take me back with open arms, even though I had made that mistake of leaving.

~S.G.