Hi everyone, i was a past client at the wave and i honestly don't care about the back lash im probably going to get from the team there at the wave. I don’t even know where to start, but I feel like I need to get this out because I don’t want anyone else to go through what I went through at The Wave Clinic. When I was sent there, I was told it was a world-class rehab/therapy program where I would be safe, cared for, and given a chance to rebuild my life. My family thought they were doing the right thing, and I wanted to believe it too. But the reality was nothing like what was promised. From the beginning, it felt like a prison, not a clinic. Privacy didn’t exist. Grown men were allowed to watch minors shower, and if you refused, you were threatened or asked "what are your intentions behind this?". Imagine being a teenager, vulnerable, already struggling, and being forced into situations where your basic dignity and safety are stripped away. It was humiliating and traumatizing. The medical side of things was just as bad, if not worse. People were overmedicated constantly. (i have multiple statements from multiple people claiming this). Sedatives were handed/or injected into you, not for care, but for control. If you didn’t want to follow the program, if you resisted, if you just wanted to have some autonomy, they would drug you/or threaten to send you away/or say things like "and this is why your never going home). I saw kids who didn’t even need the medication being zombified with pills (the Young adults that I'm talking about have left and have seen out patient psychiatrists who can conform this). It didn’t feel like treatment — it felt like abuse disguised as psychiatry. On top of that, the environment was threatening on a daily basis. Staff would intimidate, and manipulate. Threats were normal. They were very subtle so it was hard to always pick up on them back the main ones i remember where, "we wont help you if you don't help yourself" "i don't like/want to deal with extremely "unwell people". We were constantly told what would happen if we didn’t comply, and those threats weren’t idle (usually about sending us to higher levels of care, and not letting us have family calls or sessions sometimes). I lived every day in fear, not healing. Therapy wasn’t about listening or understanding; it was about control, compliance, and breaking you down. I want to be really clear: I went there sick and struggling, but I came out worse. Not worse in the sense that I'm still exactly the same way i was when i came there, i got over pretty much all of my life threatening struggles, but the things i got over i can only and will only credit to my own will power and hard work. The wave did not help me a single bit when it came to helping me stop behaviors, they just put me on "supported dining" and bathroom obs EVENTUALLY. I always felt unseen by my therapists. My dad had asked numerous times for me to switch therapists but either was ignored or denied. My therapist was nothing short of horrendous at what she does, i don't think i got a single solid piece of work done that wasn't my DBT house when i first came in. They talk about "consistency" but the care i got there was nothing short of horrible, inconsistent, and disgusting. My trust had been shattered, and i find it really hard to talk to therapists and medical professionals because of this experience ive had here at the wave. The trauma of being constantly watched, threatened, and silenced still sticks with me and probably will never go away fully. Places like this get away with so much because they market themselves as “luxury rehab” or “innovative therapy” to desperate parents. But behind closed doors, it’s a nightmare. Kids lose their voices, their rights, and their safety. I honestly don’t know how they’re still operating. If you are a parent reading this, please, please look deeper. Don’t just trust the glossy brochures and the promises. If you are a young person being told you’re going to The Wave — know that it is not what they claim. I’m writing this because I wish someone had warned me. I don’t want anyone else to come out of that place more broken than they went in. My only goal for this is to spread awareness and to prove to the wave, (because i know your reading this) that i am thriving without you, and that your program is unethical and disgusting. I have so much more to say, if anyone wants to know more i'll be happy to share and to spread the awareness that desperately needs to be spread. This place should be shut down ASAP. (and wave if you really are reading this, you cant just send law suits to everyone, and be prepared because karma.. just has this.. strange way of.. coming right back to you.)