Pathlight Mood & Anxiety Center Seattle - Madison St. — Mental health service in Seattle, WA

Pathlight provided great care and treatment for our family. Everyone there is in the midst of something difficult, so tensions are understandably a little fraught, but the staff are kind and respectful, and the clinical care was excellent. I recommend them to others, and would use their services again.

I normally don’t write reviews but I have been to 6 different facilities and this by far has to be the worst one. I was there for 2 weeks about 3 months ago. The lack of communication between the staff is poor. The nurses dismiss almost every problem you bring up (blame it on anxiety) and lose things. The therapist I had seen never worked on any skills just did assessments and a safety plan then pushed me out of the door. They also never talked to any of my outpatient team before I discharged. The psychiatrist would see me maybe 10 minutes a week ask all the legal questions they have to and not do anything more with meds. The dietitian did the best she could, she saw me when she was busy and figured out solutions. The only people that listened were the BHT’s and MC’s which helped with more skills in time of distress than any of the team there did Thank you to them . I now see a dietitian and therapist once a week , work a job (which I was told I wouldn’t be able to do there). I feel so much better than I did there and haven’t acted on any behaviors.

Intermittent hot water access, poor shower drainage, ergonomically painful furniture,, insufficient medical support, contradictory expectations, and was expected to lay on dirty, carpeted floor in the “quiet room”. These slippers were purchased brand new and worn only inside the facility for approximately 3 weeks. I wondered if the marks were dirt or from rubbing. Second phot is after washing and the dirt was removed. Judge for yourself. The Direct Care staff (BHT, MC, nurses) were kind and caring and, honestly, amazing. I learned a lot from them and I’m grateful for them. They are the reason for the second star.

We have had a great experience and outcome for our family. We highly value the team at Pathlight and the programs they provide.

My teen son (dx: mood disorder/presumed bipolar disorder, ADHD, ASD, etc.) recently did the residential program at Pathlight Seattle for a month. Unfortunately, it was an incredibly disappointing experience. I would not recommend it. The program is in an upper floor commercial space, and they usually only went outside the front entrance twice daily briefly for "fresh air breaks." There were supposed to be weekly outings, but they were revoked. This was very upsetting to most of the youth, who pleaded to go outside more but were dismissed, and who even met with the patient advocate and wrote a letter themselves to management about this. There was no gym or way to get any movement, and they couldn't run around at all when on the short breaks. There were various therapy groups throughout the day, which my son did not find helpful. Some were just listening to music, watching kid movies, or drawing on their own, while watched by regular staff. Likewise, I did not find parent groups at all helpful--extremely basic and general info, and I did not think the staff leading the parent groups were very skilled. The positive part was that their psychiatrist seemed excellent. Unfortunately, though, I believe he is only on staff there part-time. He also was out of the office for a chunk of my son's stay, and the one and only time I was able to speak with him directly was after my son had already been there for ~3 weeks, and only after that did he receive a recommendation for medication. He was reluctant to take it, and this wasn't enough time to persuade him to try it before he left. Note, there was also a physician assistant, but whom I also found disappointing for various reasons. Seemed to me nowhere near the skill level as the psychiatrist (and per their bio graduated just ~2 1/2 yrs ago), and I also did not hear from them after intake day except for when they responded to an email I sent (because I was concerned that a med contraindicated for BD may have been brought up to my son as an option). A patient with complicated, severe mental illness like my son required the knowledge/training of a psychiatrist. I had little communication with anyone from Pathlight after the intake day, when I was able to meet with several staff (but not the psychiatrist). The communication was generally just from my son's therapist, but this was during the weekly family therapy session. In reality, since this was the time to talk about my son and how he was doing, that is what most of the session time went towards. There was also not a way I could call my son or easily reach staff by phone; I had to wait until my son called me during limited call times they had. There is supposed to be a care coordinator, but I only heard from her when he first started there, when she emailed me a quick intro and directed me to complete a survey. Nothing since. We are left particularly soured from his quick exit. He was suddenly kicked out early due to minor misbehaviors, and I needed to get him on very short notice. He told me another teen there was also suddenly kicked out for minor misbehavior on the same day he was (plus I am aware of a third teen discharged early for minor misbehavior from around the same time). He said the other teen found out when staff, while laughing, told them to start packing. That was 1 1/2 weeks ago, and I never heard from anyone at Pathlight since. To my disappointment, I was not able to have a final/second conversation with the psychiatrist first, which I really wanted to ask about recommended medication, etc. When I had let the therapist know that I would have really liked to have been able to have a final conversation with the psychiatrist, he said he would ask him to call me the next day, but that didn't happen. When I arrived to pick him up at the agreed time, he was just brought out by a nurse--no final contact with anyone on the treatment team. He was just dumped out, with no apparent improvement from anything there, then silence. I also think his physical health was worsened from the month indoors without movement, etc.

Zero stars. The company and staff doesn’t care about you, only your insurance and ability to pay. Many of my peers were kicked out for being ‘too sick’ and given no resources. Do not come here, listen to the reviews. Go to Newport Healthcare instead, they are INCREDIBLE and TRULY care about your wellbeing.

Our Daughter was enrolled in Pathlight for PHP (then IOP) after discharging from residential treatment at Newport Academy (5 stars). From the beginning, the Pathlight team was overly focused on the 'normative length of stay' rather than setting treatment-specific goals for establishing her level of care. This eroded her buy-in because it seemed like there was nothing she could do but wait it out. It was difficult to reach a supervisor when we had a sincere concern about a member of the therapeutic staff. Once we connected, the site leadership they were responsive. Overall, Pathlight's programming did not meet the standard of what we experienced at Newport or in private DBT classes. Our daughter didn't find it useful or engaging at all, and even though she can be a tough customer, we could really see a difference in her progress and adoption. Pathlight was fine, and we were grateful to have a step-down option after residential. But we saw a lot more progress in other settings.

Absolutely impossible to contact any human there. The phone lines no matter what always go to voicemail even if its a weekday in their regular operating hours. The service itself is good and helps people, but pathlight should be contactable and reachable. If a patient calls you and you miss it, too bad, you can't call the receptionist and ask to talk to them. Want to ask a question about a patient or speak to a receptionist at all? too bad you cant. Being able to reach receptionists and patients is essential especially at places like this.

I just tried 4 days of IOP with Pathlight, what I shared in their mandatory private sessions that same therapist brought up, again, in group. Because, it devalued his own views and opinions on the world, so they wanted to get the rest of the group's feedback. Not only is this, in my opinion, unprofessional, for a therapist to be bringing their own values to a session. I do not mind having differing opinions, but, this was highly uncalled for. I again voiced my opinion against an illogical statement, that has been proven wrong by many professionals after further research. Then, dealing with the staff about my issue, I get barely an apology for this incident. Their resolution was for me to stay with this therapist for additional weeks. So, I was devalued by someone, a mental health professional, working for a mental health company, and their solution was to continue working with this individual. Also, be careful with your HIPAA and personal information with this company. This personal therapist has no issues telling people on the side why other people left the group. He was freely willing to share about others who left, that didn't graduate. I can't highly recommend people to stay away from this company. It's horrible, the way they teach the skills are horrible. Just, horrible.

Please do your mental health a favor by not coming here. My mental health was worse from being there. The staff is not trained accurately and there is no consistency in their guidelines and rules. Having OCD, I am an advocate and have a community on Instagram. I came here as their website said they treat OCD but they don’t! Nobody even knew what all the subtypes are including scrupulously. I was told I need to adhere to others (patients and staff) values but not mine. This place is like a cult because if I did not answer a question the way they wanted me to, I was mocked, isolated, called names and was told I need to be educated. Patients were treated differently. If you were buddy’s with the staff they would let you get away with having snacks and a cell phone in your room. I saw it with my own eyes. Yet that goes against the rules in which I was not allowed to have a snack or have a phone to call my kids. I was told I was not allowed to wear shirts with anything on them and even had my clothes searched, yet other patients had decals that were inappropriate on their clothing. This place is not about treating mental health it’s only about catering to one specific identity. They are not about diversity and they are not all inclusive. Unless you want to feel isolated and treated poorly by being forced to eat in a closet size room by yourself, then I highly advise you don’t have yourself or a loved one admitted here. This place really is dangerous and harmful and should be shut down!