I thought I wrote a review a few years ago but I guess not, so here goes... this is an excellent place to send your daughter if you want her to develop PTSD. The "therapy" I underwent here made me an obedient child for a few months, but it soon became clear that all my underlying issues were not addressed, along with developing trauma that I still struggle with today (many years later). If you are looking to send your child here (or to any residential treatment facility) I urge you to first look into the Troubled Teen Industry and Breaking Code Silence. read more

know that most people reading this are scared parents who want to keep their kids safe. As someone who went here, this is not somewhere you want your child. Therapists constantly give girls creepy compliments like "you're going to make a wonderful mother", "you'll be a wonderful wife" (this is to underage kids) and do not try to address the underlying trauma and mental illness that is causing most of the behaviors kids are in here for. This is doubly true for lgtbq kids, I had multiple girl who were shamed for their sexuality, one girl was banned from talking to her best friend because they were "getting too close", another was forced to sleep on a couch in a room apart from other students because she happened to be gay. I'm glad I was in the closet while here, because an unspoken part of the program was "acting straight." Mormon values are so entrenched in this program, they view your kid as a future wife and mother and nothing else. While here I was forced to run miles until I had an asthma attack (multiple times), was socially cut off from the group for losing items like paperwork or actions like leaving hygiene products in the shower. Once, when my mother flew halfway across the country to see me she was barred because I had left a tube of toothepaste on the counter. This kind of system creates a panic response to any small mistake a kid makes, and the fact that enforcement of any rule varies based on (largely) how much staff like you means that you're never sure what kind of punishment is coming, or how harsh it's going to be. I still have anxiety over making small mistakes, and it makes it hard to take the small risks necessary to thrive. Social isolation is common, group shaming is part of the program, fat kids were made to feel ashamed for their weight, one girl who had slept around at home was told by staff she was "probably going to die from an STD," and if you don't share in group, the staff will encourage the other students to bully you until you crack and spill. Therapy is manipulative and unhelpful. My therapist (Pepper, one of the programs directors) told me he was worried that "if I left early I would get into an abusive relationship." Threats of what would happen if you left early were common, often many going so far as to tell kids that they'd be dead within a year. Also- know all phone calls and communication with the outside world is monitored. So if you do send your kid to this school, everything they tell you is filtered by staff. They will cut the phone lines if a kid complains about the program at all, it happened to me multiple times. In terms of success rates, I can tell you that a fair amount of graduates are doing okay, but it had nothing to do with how well they did at the program. In fact, it's mostly the opposite. The ones who are now dead were often some of the most awarded kids in the program, while the only person I know to successfully run home to LA is now living her best life. If you're looking to find a safe place to give your kids structure and the help they need, this isn't it. This is an unpredictable whirlwind of manipulative and unsanctioned therapeutic practices that will bring your kid out cosmetically better for a short period of time. I still have nightmares about being here. I wish I could recommend an alternative, but every program I know of is similarly bad. Just know that these people want your money, not to help your child. While there are some staff who are genuinely kind and want to help, their efforts are hindered by the program and the people running it. Check out programs through accredited mental hospitals, they have some government oversight and were actually helpful to me when I was struggling read more

Why write a review? Because what I went through at this mormon run institution has had lasting effects on me. Though I have worked through overcoming trauma from this institution, I feel it is my duty to share a review because if enough people come forward about an abusive environment it does make a difference and it will stop others from being harmed. I believe Ryan Pepper is trying to help young girls. However, it is ineffective and in fact harmful for some. This method of trying to break young developing girls into submissive, subservient, cookie-cutter people is wrong. Ryan Pepper asked me in an individual therapy session if I thought he was attractive. He berated me in public displays on multiple occasions to prove his assertiveness in front of the other girls, and it was by no means effective for my self-esteem. Though I believe he has genuine helpful intentions, he is rigid in his thinking, he doesn't believe in homosexuality, he doesn't understand that people may exist on a spectrum and one size does not fit all. Overall, the man running this nightmare projects his repressed feelings and fears onto the young fragile girls who's parents money he's taking. Over the last 10 years have learned a great deal about human physiology and cognitive development- especially in children. Using fear as a means to curb someone's behavior is not effective and can leave people with scars, like myself. I can recognize now after having studied a tremendous amount that my central nervous system was impacted by being at dimple dell. I developed PTSD from their methods of forcing us to clean, yelling at us when it wasn't good enough, punishing us for forgetting small details, body checking us, making sure no clothes could show off our neck or shoulders, reading our private journals and taking them away from us, stealing some of the only things that made us feel free, forcing us to be silent and not speak for weeks sometimes over a month, having large open group discussions where they manipulated the conversation to favor what they wanted, pitting the girls against each other, separating friendships, imposing religious beliefs, placing diet rules on us and scheduling everything we consumed to a T, not allowing us to express our true selves, using shame and embarrassment to break our souls, and convincing us that we were damaged or that something was inherently wrong with us. The PTSD I have developed from Dimple Dell displays itself when I clean; scrub my floors, sometimes it pops up when I turn on light switches, when I shower ( our showers were timed and if we didn't make the time we would get low points on our point sheets and be punished), cleaning toilets, folding my sheets on my bed, there are certain foods that give me flashbacks as well, and I have reoccurring nightmares still after attending over 12 years ago. Many truths can exist at once. To deny my reality would also be denying data. This was my experience here. I am a real person who developed trauma and PTSD from this place. It can become harm to inflict this type of damage on young minds. The mormon values that are pushed on innocent minds is damaging and in my opinion, disgusting. This is a business. They are profiting off desperate parents, and in this day and age most issues with teenage rebellion can be curbed with other methods rather than sending them to a place like this that may potentially cause them life long PTSD. read more

Vista Dimple Dell is an abusive Mormon nightmare. The ten months I was there did virtually nothing to improve my mental health and in fact left me with trauma, as it did many girls I know. My bipolar disorder was left undiagnosed despite clear signs, and I was punished for not being able to emotionally regulate. One of the therapists, Pepper, openly mocked me for crying too often. We had a group where we were made to read our mean judgements of each other aloud, which did nothing but cause hurt and tension. The staff spent much of their time trying to instill their Mormon values, telling us we would grow up to be great wives and shaming girls for premarital sex. We had a group where we went around in a circle and said if we were virgins, and were forced to clap for the virgins. As someone who lost their virginity to rape, this was traumatic for me. The homophobia was not so subtle. Pepper made a point to try and convince girls that they were straight and confused about their sexuality. A girl was separated from other girls for being a lesbian. Girls who got too close were banned from talking to each other, and two girls who shared a kiss at the airport on a home pass were punished by being forced to wear pink scrubs and stand 10 feet apart at all times. This was not an uncommon punishment, girls who didn't score high on their point sheets (we were scored on cleaning and making our beds) or who committed infractions of the rules were forced to wear pink scrubs, no one was allowed to look at them, talk to them, say their name, or acknowledge their existence. They did this to one girl for a month. They did nothing to accomodate my learning disabilities, and I fell a year behind in school. After some months there I was allowed on "Day treatment" where I lived with a Mormon family and was forced to go to church multiple times a week. I got nothing out of my time at Vista but lasting trauma and I failed to stay sober for 5 years afterward. Do not send your children here, they are scammers and will do nothing for your child. read more

Don't send your kids here. This place was more harmful than helpful to every person I know who went here. My time there has made me fearful of any sort of therapy, especially inpatient and medication. I am not against rules, as long as they make sense, are reasonable, and are for the safety of the individuals and the group. This was not the case here. If you did not remove every single hair from your hairbrush, that was a removal of points (your whole existence was determined by a "points card" which you carried around, and had points removed for "infractions" such as this hairbrush nonsense, not making proper hospital corners on your bed in the 10 minutes you had upon waking, if you didn't eat 100% of your meals, if you failed to clean the entire kitchen as a team in less than 15 minutes). If your points got too low, you got put on "RO" which stood for re-orientation - you weren't allowed to wear your own clothes, only hospital scrubs, you weren't allowed to shower, you weren't allowed to make eye contact with any of the people there, or speak and you could only use a "3 finger communication system" with one appointed staff member. I think holding up 1 finger was for bathroom, 2 fingers was for taking out the garbage, and 3 for for emergency. If you spoke or make eye contact, your time on RO was extended as punishment. We always had to lower our eyes and say "Thank you" no matter what they said to us...for example, a staff member would purposely push food onto the floor and smirk and demand we clean it up (on top of our already tightly timed daily cleaning duties), to which we had to lower our eyes and thank them, and clean it up as fast as possible, and you couldn't be angry or refuse to do it, or again, you lost points. If you speak up you will be punished and penalised and have basic rights taken away from you, or your medication will be increased to make you "manageable", and it's going to get used against you in a way that makes you never want to speak up again. The more you try, the longer you will need to "stay for treatment". The only way out is to shut up and pretend you're getting better, and obey.This place is about obedience and submission and shame, it has nothing to do with helping the people who are there. If your kid went there and "got better" they are likely just terrified of ever being sent back to a place like that, and their issues will almost certainly crop up later down the road, because they have not been taught how to deal with them, only how to hide them better for fear of punishment and mistreatment. Some days our "exercise" was to run around a small room in the basement in tight circles for 45 minutes. Again, you can't stop or you get points removed. There was no privacy, creepy male staff were inappropriate. They read your journals, read every letter that came in or out (when you had "mail privileges", which were of course also determined by your points), and listened to your phone calls to approved people, and they hung up the phone if you tried to tell anyone what was actually happening. Once I "graduated" from the residential program, we went to a transitional program owned by them, and were housed with families who seemed to have zero qualifications for dealing with teens with mental health challenges. We had one family who bought a family sized bucket of KFC for the four girls who lived there to eat for the entire week, while they pocketed the rest of the money and ate better healthier food. No one checked up on us or listened to our concerns. Don't send your kids here, it will not help them. There were many many incidents here that I cannot fit into this space. Girl shamed and screamed at by Ryan Pepper (who owns Vista) in front of the group for having an STD she was already sad and ashamed about, another girl made to wear a sign around her neck saying she was a liar, and wasn't allowed to speak without prefacing it with, "I must only tell the truth", no effort was made to understand why she lied, just shit like this to "stop the behaviour" by shaming people enough to obey and shut up. read more

I received treatment at Vista Dimple Dell as a teenager in 2013. Since then, I have had to do a lot of work to achieve recovery. At Vista, Negative behaviors were discouraged through shaming, guilt, and humiliation tactics, social pressure, extended periods of isolation, degradation, and verbal abuse. Most of the staff interacting with clients on a day-to-day basis had little clinical or therapeutic training, resulting in many destructive practices. For example, on one occasion I was threatened with forcible restraint after failing to move from sitting on the floor. I had come down with the flu and was physically too dizzy to stand up, but my requests to be put on bedrest were rejected. Another girl became so dehydrated with the flu that she had to go to the hospital and get an IV. On other occasions, male staff teamed up to forcibly restrain girls, tackling them to the floor, twisting their arms behind their backs, and pinning them to the ground for extended periods of time. Many if not all of these girls had histories of trauma, abuse, and sexual violence. Even the staff who were licensed therapists participated in harmful and unprofessional behavior- for example, Ryan Pepper, one of the lead therapists, routinely told his LGBT clients that their romantic attractions were illegitimate or stemming from mental illness. During one group therapy session, Pepper described how our future husbands would love us more after we gave them children. Other times, he singled girls out in front of the group and shamed them for their appearance, behavior, or weight. Vista's model put emphasis on obedience and subjugation, and used varying types of isolation and separation between clients to establish control and keep pressure high. Close friendships that arose were labeled as distractions, and friends were often banned from interacting with each other. Clients found to be in relationships with each other were publicly ostracized, socially outcast, and isolated from the group. In fact, most any deviation from Vista's program was punished by isolation and loss of 'social status'. Legitimate therapy and basic skill-building were provided minimally, and when they were, religious ideals and unhealthy power dynamics were deeply integrated. My experience at Vista changed me as a person- and although I have come out of everything for the better, I honestly wonder if I would have been better off not having gone there. What I do know is that much of what I was taught at Vista turned out to be destructive perspectives and behavioral patterns that I had to unlearn in order to become healthier and manage myself in the real world. While Vista did provide a great opportunity for me to step back and look at the bigger picture, learn to make the best of a situation, and focus on school, I would have preferred to accomplish those things without the emotional damage that accompanied my stay there. I have been hesitant to say anything for years, but I feel like I owe it to any family considering Vista to speak out. I want every parent seeking treatment for their child to be able to make a full, informed decision. Many staff responsible for and complicit in the dysfunctional program that I attended still work at Vista. read more

Thank you Megan and Kim for an easy and comfortable handoff of our daughter today. Putting your child into therapeutic boarding school isn't easy, and is very emotional, but you guys made it smooth. read more