Serenity Trauma Healing Center

I have to start by thanking the staff for all the exceptional work they do to help their clients. Serenity Trauma Center is a gem of a program for healing and working through difficult trauma. The staff are some of the most caring and nurturing individuals that I have had the pleasure of working with thus far. From the moment you walk in the door it is easy to feel the serene and calming nature of the center. I was always greeted with a smile and more often than not, Joey, the therapy dog was there to help me feel welcome.
Dr. Mednick is a truly gifted practitioner as she just seems to know exactly what you are trying to say, even when you are having trouble actually saying it. She creates such a safe environment to be in that it really helped me feel comfortable working through my issues that I had previously struggled with. The transition between sessions felt almost seemless as the other therapists were able to pick up right where I had left off in a previous session or knew what still needed to be worked on.
I’m so grateful to have found Serenity and I highly recommend the program to anyone who has trauma they need to work through. It has changed my life and from what I heard, chatting with other clients in the reception area, it has made a huge impact on others as well.
Thank you Serenity Trauma Center!

I do have quite a bit to say about this place, but I’ll keep it as short and sweet as I can.
I came to Serenity Trauma Center in the midst of a crisis that I was going through. I was extremely anxious and was in need of some help. I have seen therapists over the years, some great, and some not so great. Well, this was definitely the latter.
While I respect the fact that therapists use different approaches in their practices, I do not respect or appreciate when the approach that is used is not put forth from the get go. Before I had paid thousands of dollars, I would have appreciated knowing that the therapists here use a spiritual psychology based approach. I myself am an atheist, and (after having studied psychology myself) do not believe in the use of spiritual psychology whatsoever. That being said, after it became evident that this place was this way, it was too late. I ended up wasting thousands of dollars and quite a bit of my own time. And of course, once I knew it was spiritual psychology based, I no longer believed in the treatment that I was receiving and so it did not work for me.
I am sorry to say this, but the therapist that I saw let me down in more ways than that. First of all, she is extremely overpriced at $ 250 an hour. After I left this place, I found doctors from Harvard and UCLA that cost less than that per hour. There is no reason for the therapists here to charge as much as they do. Also, the majority of those overpriced sessions were spent with the therapist wasting my time fiddling around with music that kept switching on and off and disturbing the session (oh, and of course, there were texts and calls coming in during every session!). And lastly, and perhaps the worst… I saw this therapist on an off-​time for an hour and a half, and was subsequently charged $ 600 for that time. I had NO idea it would cost that much to see the therapist on their off time, and if I had there is no way I would have seen that person. I was never told of any costs, actually, until the last minute when the credit card was in her hands. I guess it’s just the assumption that we’re all knee deep in a ton of cash!
I do have to mention that there are a lot of workers at this place– therapists, art therapists, somatic therapists, personal trainers, yoga instructors, and so forth. The only reason that I gave this place two stars is because I actually really enjoyed my time with some of the individuals I worked with that helped soothe me during a really tough time.
I guess the moral of the story is this: They need to (1) inform their client of their psychology approach, (2) perhaps consider dropping their prices considering Harvard doctors are charging less, (3) figure out how to work the EMDR off of something other than an iPhone so my session isn’t wasted or disrupted, (4) let clients know BEFOREHAND about prices, (5) keep the other staff on, because they were really great.