The Dawn Rehab Thailand

During my time here I have gained the insight to address my mental health issues. I arrived thinking I was depressed and that my anxiety was under control. I see now that anxiety and burnout played a much bigger role than I realized. I was told that you will get out what you put in' and I fully agree with that. I can't say what specifically caused a shift, but I participated in the programs and very quickly started noticing changes. My therapist, John, was extremely knowledgeable and was able to identify issues I had no idea were causing me problems. I felt heard and understood and he has really helped me reclaim my life. He provided handouts and videos and books to help me understand what was going on, and more importantly, how to manage this in the future. This was my first time participating in peer groups, and as uncomfortable as they were at times, they were valuable. The facilitators provided little pearls of wisdom' during almost every session that will stick with me. The holistic and fitness sessions helped me feel a sense of peace for the first time in a very long time. The MBI sessions with Amanda were very beneficial. She has a gift that she is generously sharing with the clients here. I am leaving feeling like I have the tools to navigate life.

I have attempted to settle matters privately with The Dawn, sending multiple emails over the last month that were all ignored. I came to The Dawn for binge eating/bulimia/body image issues. When I got there it was completely different than what I was sold and was expecting. For a food addict, it wasn't a trigger-free environment at all. Meals were buffet style and there was frequently free access to food, so I was able to continue binge eating during my stay. I talked to my therapist & she did try to help by adding more structure around mealtimes, but it wasn't enough because I still had free access to food throughout the day. They just weren't equipped to help w/ how bad my eating disorder is. I said I didn’t feel it was a good fit and requested a partial refund. My requests were all denied or ignored. I had used a credit card to pay for a portion of the treatment fee so eventually, I opened a dispute on the credit card transaction complaining I didn’t get the services I paid for. I did this in a moment of frustration over being continuously ignored and feeling like I'd been mislead about the treatment I would receive. I understood it was highly likely I'd have to end up canceling the disputes, since I didn't have real proof they didn't provide the services that were promised. But I never in a million years imagined what would happen next. First, the owner of The Dawn claimed I committed potential fraud— AFTER I canceled the dispute. His reasoning was if you steal from a store but bring the items back, you can still get charged with stealing. The next day, he got police officers to force me off the property. I’ve come across the world by myself in a vulnerable state--and paid an amount of money that could almost be enough for a new car-- for treatment of my mental health issues. And The Dawn thought it was appropriate to pack my bags and have police walk me outside to a car, where they said, “Should we take you to the airport or a hotel?” I had no final session with a therapist or any clinician to process this, no aftercare plan, no referrals to outside providers, & no one from The Dawn has inquired about my welfare. They refused any refund for forcing me to leave early. That The Dawn was willing to force out a paying client from mental health treatment with less than 24 hrs notice, alone & thousands of miles from home without any refund is bad enough. On top of this, they owe me $6000 and will not pay me back. Before this whole incident, I was asked to repeat a bank transfer because the original transfer I'd sent was delayed-- with the promise that any overpayment would be returned. Later, they confirmed they received both the original and new transfers & promised to process the refund of the double payment of $6000 to me immediately. But a couple days later, this incident with the police happened, and since then, they have completely stopped responding to my inquiries about returning the overpayment. So now I am in a battle to get back the $6000 overpayment I made. I did meet people at The Dawn who seemed to benefit from the program for drug/alcohol addictions. It was just a very bad fit for someone dealing with eating & body image issues in ways that I don’t have space to get into, and that combined with their unethical/probably illegal business practices resulted in serious consequences. I knew that coming to Thailand for treatment would probably be a little different than Western centers I’ve been to before as a teen and in my 20’s, but I never expected anything even close to this. The Dawn claims on their website that their program has Western standards but I doubt what happened to me could ever happen at a Western rehab with more regulation around patient & consumer rights. I can't express what a nightmare this has been and am so bitterly disappointed and devastated about my experience with The Dawn. I hope no one else has to go through what I did with this “wellness center.”

A older client gave coke to a minor ! and the rehab did NOT kick him out . This place protects predatory behaviour.