Equinox Counseling & Wellness - Glendale, Colorado

Avani

I would love to say this program helped me as an individual, but it ended up making my behaviors worse. There's the financial aspect and the mental health aspect. It is incredibly expensive and a majority of clients get dropped because they're are not a hands on facility... on the other hand it is advertised as life changeing and can "fix" your kid but you still have to pay an absurd amount. The amount of money you have to pay out of pocket is not acceptable especially for how the clinicians treat you. My clinician was very thorough on the fact of your struggles are just for attention and that's how the staff are trained, which is not appropriate and comes to a result of the clints being extrodiarly unsafe.

abigrace

if you are willing to pay thousands of dollars to put your child in a mental treatment, make sure it is what your child needs and if you can trust the program. Equinox first presents themselves with a filter making you see that they're trustworthy, caring, and fun. As a client of Equinox, I can say that they are not trustworthy, caring and fun. As you start going into the program, they do not care about what you want, they pressure you into situations you are not comfortable. Sure, sometimes you have some situations that are uncomfortable but you get to make those desicions. Of course, everybody has different experinces and different reasons why you are there, but EQ treats you all the same. As an individual, my actions got worse as my time there went on and at the end of everyday i was exaughsted and just spent. I was much happier before Equinox. Eq is a very long program and they say that you will have time for extra things but that is not true.

As to say, be sure you are intuitive about your desicions before making them because if you don't then it will lead you to place where you wish you didn't have to expereince it.

Andrew A.

One of my children has been enrolled here for 4 months. The staff and owners here are amazing, supportive and patient. I can't imagine a place that is more likely to help my child succeed.
They truly treat the whole family through parent coaching, whole family and multi-family activities, and even coaching other siblings in how they can build their relationship and support the sibling that is enrolled.
Some reviews mention a high staff turnover. In the 4 months we've been here, I've noticed one person leave. It hasn't been a problem though. Our child regularly works with several people here and they get to know each other really well.

J M.

I cannot express enough how grateful I am for Equinox. The staff is not only caring but goes above and beyond to create a supportive environment for our child who is in the young adult program.

The positive direction in which my child is heading is noticeable, after only a few months. It's clear that the EQ team is dedicated to fostering growth and well-being.

It is a family-focused approach. The support doesn't end with the individual; it extends to the entire family. This holistic perspective has strengthened our family bonds and contributed to the positive direction in which my child is heading.

When looking for a counseling and wellness organization, every child and family has different needs. Finding the right match can be challenging and is a crucial part of the success for the families. For our family, I believe we have found the right match in Equinox.

Thank you to the entire team for the incredible work you do!

Steve S.

Offering up our experiences and lessons learned for families that might be considering the young adult program at Equinox (18-24 yr. olds). What you will be sold is that the Equinox team has created a unique/successful method to help transition your adolescent into young adulthood where other types of therapy programs may have failed. In this environment your son or daughter will “find purpose and motivation”. They further that vision by suggesting you will see a customized plan where participants will experience a plethora of various treatment styles that teach community, creation of healthy friendships, fitness, school recovery, job skills, and restoration of family relationships. As parents, we bought into the idealism, drank the cool aid, and signed up.
First the Good: The staff are for the most part are genuine, kind, and patient. They buy into the treatment processes they are delivering, even in the face of adversity/resistance from the participant. The focus is behavioral, and compliance based, it is slow, steady, and methodical. Family participation is required, and they deliver solid support in that process. Communication is for the most part fairly consistent.
Now the not so Good: The process follows what appears to be a formula that is delivered in a one size fits all way. Common practice for addressing behavioral compliance is to talk down to these young adult’s vs establishing relationship (imagine an 18-year-old being scolded publicly over and over like a young child, week after week). As frustration builds and treatment resistance increases, instead of finding ways to shift tactics, the program doubles down on its scripted playbook. Little things suddenly become combative infractions and enforcement turns into humiliation and being sent home over and over again.
After completing the first 6-week phase of the program, we sat down with staff to review our son’s progress. Everyone involved agreed things were not working. We made a conscious decision to pull our son from the program as a result and instead of working with us to refund an entire month of prepaid tuition, the management team leaned on their contractual legalese to keep every penny (“we have a 30-day notice clause, you signed it”). Clearly revenue/profit is a major motivation, services never delivered are irrelevant.
In summary, if you have a kid with a noncomplex mental diagnosis that needs more childlike structure to learn how to step into adult learning, I could see how this program might help. If, however you kid has multiple/complex dual diagnosis (mental health and substance abuse for example), proceed with caution.

Sarah S.

I am a local clinician and am sad to say that I can no longer recommend this agency or refer to them. They have harmed clients by abandoning them and have charged clients exorbitant fees unethically. They have very high turn over because they treat their staff in the same unfortunate manner, which is widely documented on Glassdoor and Indeed.

Update with Reply:
Equinox responding to reviews is ethically questionable considering HIPPA guidelines. The defensiveness and inaccuracy of their reply does demonstrate my concern and reason for posting a review. However, I appreciate that they used the term egregious. Unfortunately my experience and knowledge of Equinox is that their actions have been egregious. I also appreciate that they defined "abandonment", as they have dismissed clients for non-emergent reasons and did not collaborate with and support the family with proper referrals. (Since it was mentioned, professionally speaking, educational consultants are not an appropriate referral or a higher level of care. That was one of my concerns and the public may not be aware that such is not within standard practices of care in the mental health field.)

To explain the financial concern, transparency in the contract was not the issue. Equinox charged a client approximately $10K for monthly tuition at the beginning of the month. An extremely high fee as is, but what was agreed upon in the contract. The issue was that Equinox then dismissed the client the next day after charging their card, and did not refund the client any of the tuition and kept the funds.

The staff reviews on Glassdoor and Indeed speak for themselves and are of note because they align with what I noticed and with the treatment of clients that I am aware of. The reviews started many years ago and have been consistent. They are not reflective of the current trends in the market, rather of Equinox and the leadership.

I felt it was my obligation to make these behaviors publicly known in an effort to advocate for ethical services in our field and a desire to protect the community. I do hope that Equinox takes feedback seriously as it stated.

**Equinox removed/edited their original response after I posted my updated reply to them.

Amy H.

I believe EQ saved our family. The staff is amazing, knowledgeable, caring, empathetic and empowering. It is a hard space to be in when your child needs this level of care and EQ was the best space for not only our daughter to heal, and become a successful young adult, but a place for our family to heal. We endured 14 months at an RTC before finding our “unicorn” with EQ.

Cheryl K.

This program is FAMILY centered, which is invaluable and coaches all of us into new ways of communication and leadership. The staff were compassionate, well educated in helping us through our struggles, and kept us on course! My advice for those considering an intervention focused on the family and teaching everyone how to communicate better is to JUST DO IT! 🙂 The time and money was well worth it and I would do it over and over again!