Eating Recovery Center (ERC) is a national treatment center with a number of locations across the country. This page is for their Ohio location.
ERC provides all levels of care across their many locations, from inpatient, residential, PHP, IOP, transitional living, and virtual treatment. They are unique for offering every level of care, and are known for their intense specialty track called BETR that treats Binge Eating Disorder separately from the main ED track.
Some ERC locations also have a separate PHP and residential treatment program specifically for mood, anxiety, and trauma through their partner treatment center, Pathlight Mood & Anxiety Center.
Eating Recovery Center (ERC) Ohio is located in Cincinnati, and has PHP, IOP, and Virtual IOP levels of care. They treat adults, and adolescents aged 16+.
ERC also has residential treatment programs in Colorado, Chicago, Texas, Seattle, and Maryland. Here are the separate review pages:
- Eating Recovery Center (ERC) of Denver
- Eating Recovery Center (ERC) Chicago / Pathlight Mood & Anxiety Center
- Eating Recovery Center (ERC) of Texas
- Eating Recovery Center (ERC) of Washington
- Eating Recovery Center (ERC) Maryland
Any reviews or information? Please post in comments below. You can check out the FAQ and Guidelines for suggested questions to answer in reviews. Thank you!
I admit to adult PHP quite soon, quite nervous. I will write a review when I finish up. I’m not from Ohio so besides normal treatment anxiety I’m quite nervous to be so far from home. If anyone has any sort of recent experiences on the adult PHP I’m all ears. Hoping this’ll heal the mental hangups I’ve had in recovery
So. That ended up being really short lived, but I’ll still try to do this review in the least saltiest way possible.
Level of care (IP, Resi, IOP, PHP, etc):
Adult PHP
When were you there?
First week of May 2025
Is it wheelchair accessible?
Yes, and you use an elevator to access the unit.
Is it co-ed?
I believe so? But I didn’t see any male patients while there. I did see non binary people.
Do they support the gender identities of transgender and nonbinary people?
They seem to respect pronouns, but I am a cis female and can’t really speak on it from a trans/nonbinary perspective.
How often do you see a medical doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist (therapist), nutritionist, nurse, etc?
You get therapy three times a week. You can choose to have one be a family session and they’ll encourage that but you don’t have to. Psychiatrist I think once, nurse took vitals and weights three times a week and they will pull you if they have something to chat about. Dietician sessions are twice a week.
How many patients were there?
Averaged at about 5, as there was turnover even in the week I lasted, but they were gonna admit 4 more so I think it can go to 10 ish? I would say staff to patient ratio was pretty good though.
What was the admissions process like?
It was actually pretty thorough. You do an initial 15 minute call where they gather insurance and schedule the full assessment. Then you do the assessment and once they recommend a level of care and a location you will be put in touch with the location’s admissions coordinator. They do offer financial aid but you need to ask for a form, and the form is very simple just list all household members and their income. They will help schedule flights and such as needed.
Describe the average day:
On weekdays you arrive at 8:30 and I believe weights and vitals are every other day? You do a check in before breakfast. After that your groups will start. There are usually 15 minute breaks between groups and meals but I never really got a feel for the schedule. You are there until 6:30 and you do each meal at program except for evening snack. Weekdays are when your team can pull you for individual meetings, they aren’t there over weekends. Weekends are very similar except you leave at 4:30 and need to eat dinner and evening snack at home.
What were meals like?
You got 30 mins for meals, 15 for snacks. If you need to supplement you get boost and it’s 5 more minutes. You can’t have your phone or anything else in the dining room with you at all. There are fidgets on the table and staff and patients to talk to but it gets boring. You have to stay the full duration unless you’re phase 3. You will plate breakfast yourself but the rest is plated for you, except I think lunch on Monday?
What sorts of food were available or served? Did they accommodate for dietary needs or vegetarians/vegans?
I can’t say for sure because nobody I was there with had dietary restrictions. Food was basically only stuff that could be catered in, otherwise it’s things you can microwave, toast, pull out of a fridge. They don’t have a proper kitchen to cook anything in.
Did they supplement? How did that system work?
You get five extra minutes after meals and snacks to drink boost if there is anything left. The amount will vary based on how much you completed. They have chocolate, vanilla, and sometimes strawberry. You get five extra minutes if you have Gatorade you’re supposed to drink too.
What is the policy of not complying with meals? Do most people complete their meals/snacks? They will encourage you to supplement and make you sit the five mins for it. If you refuse that, not much happens immediately. If it’s a pattern I’m assuming you’ll get discharged or stepped up. Staff tries to redirect table behaviors and triggering talk but I found a lot of it slipped through the cracks.
Is the program trauma-informed? Uhh I mean they offered to let me work on my trauma in therapy.
How do you earn privileges? Complete meals and participate in groups and sessions. You do have to spend at least a week in a phase before you’re eligible to level up. I have a copy of the guidelines if wanted. Also, they didn’t seem to like displays of anger or annoyance during individual sessions so probably limit that.
What is the electronics policy (e.g., cell phones, iPods, Kindles, laptops, tablets)?
You’ve got electronics privileges any time except for meals. And if you’re an adolescent I believe you can’t have your phone at all.
What support do they provide outside of programming hours?
oh, this was very lacking. The apartment is in a regular apartment building with regular residents, no staff member present. They provide you with crisis lines and that’s literally it. Using it hurt my case. It put my roommate in a very uncomfortable situation having to call someone for me, and that is a big oversight here.
What privileges are allowed?
Passes and the ability to leave the table once you’re done eating
Does it work on a level system?
Yes, you start at phase 1, then there’s 2 and 3, then 4 which hardly anyone gets and you end up needing to lead a group at that point. I do not know much about the privilege differences between phases 2 and 3
What sort of groups do they have?
ACT, DBT, I think one CBT, RO-DBT, ERP, book club for a recovery book of their choice, process groups, study halls. And some various other groups like shame and resilience, relapse prevention, etc. I can email the schedule if requested.
What was your favorite group?
Tbh any group led by N was great and the few moments I smiled
What did you like the most?
I really loved most of the MC staff
What did you like the least?
Nothing to do during meals. I didn’t get along with my team and found our interactions cold. Also, their seeming inability to handle mood disorders. This is where things get a bit personal, but they decided the program wasn’t a good fit for me after a week of being there because of my ever persistent depression. I don’t want to air my dirty laundry all out here, but I’d give it some thought if you have any other severe co-occurring disorder, especially if you aren’t from Ohio. Again, I can email if anyone needs to know specifics.
What level of activity or exercise was allowed?
It’s on an individual basis. They discourage walking to and from program
What did people do on weekends?
We still had program, but like a more boring version with a lot more “down time”. You can technically do whatever you want when you get out I guess, but you have more rules if you live in the apartment.
Do you get to know your weight?
They don’t go out of their way to tell you but they told me mine. Also, weights aren’t done blind.
How fast is the weight gain process?
I believe they try to do a few lbs(don’t know if I can put the number) a week. I apparently didn’t need to weight restore while there so I can’t say besides what I’ve heard from others.
What was the average length of stay?
They’ll tell you it’s 6 weeks, it can be anywhere shorter or longer though too. Also if you end up doing IOP you will be joining the PHP group in the evenings you are there, so technically you are stepped down but still in the same building and same room.
What was the average age range?
Like 19-22. I only met a few people out of that.
What kind of aftercare do they provide? Do they help you set up an OP treatment team?
I think they generally try to help you plan OP, but this didn’t happen for me. I was told I’d get “referrals” for mood disorder php and I’ve yet to see anything.
Would you recommend this program?
Personally, I can’t. I found it quite strict compared to the other php I’ve been to and you don’t get a ton of practice plating your food. But my main reason I’d say no is that they seem to be unable or unwilling to help with co-occurring disorders, which many people with EDs have. I felt very disrespected throughout the process. Also if you may have difficulty keeping yourself safe, the apartments aren’t monitored hardly at all, and that ended up being an issue for me. If you think the ED is the part you are struggling with MOST and you’re out of options, they will probably help you out. But personally I regret this entire experience and lost my trust in providers. I don’t want to say this to be salty, but I don’t want anyone to go through the stress and loneliness and fear I went through here if they also have a moderate to severe mood disorder alongside. If you don’t have a strong history of SI or substance use you should be okay. The program is average I’d say for its intended population.
I don’t know if this is the right place to post this, but this location seems to be closed now
Any recent reviews of Adult php?
any recent reviews of adult php?
they sent me to residential so quickly, it was honestly terrifying. they had a wrong weight range for me and estimated my LOS was 15+ weeks. like what??? that’s wild to me. i’m glad i left even if it meant going back to IP and res 🙁
I just wanted to say I am here right now and the staff is so much better than other erc locations i’ve been to. they are caring and down to earth. i highly reccomended erc ohio now. no lie it used to be pretty eh, but now i think the staff members are all pretty great and that makes it so much more tolerable!
That’s awesome!! Thank you so much for posting this update here.
hey, I’m looking at erc Ohio and this is great to hear! do they seem lgtbq friendly/accepting?
for sure. i would say 70%+ of the patient population during my stay identified as lgbtqia+ there was always pronouns being respected and people seemed to feel comfortable talking about things lgbt focused. poly patients also seemed respected from what i witnessed
Are there any recent reviews of this PHP program?
I got discharged from 2 months of their ERC Cincy’s virtual IOP about a month ago. They started off amazing, a great assessment, an immediate assignment to a caseworker who facilitated so much, pre-admission meetings set up with my assigned therapist and dietician. They found a way to help financially which enabled me to do it.
They did what they said they were going to do: I actually had a session each & every week with both therapist & clinician; we actually did a cooking group every other week; there actually licensed therapist-run groups a full 3 hrs, 3 days/wk. Compared to where I was, prior, Toledo Center, I blown away just by the fact that they did what they said they were going to do.
This should be expected, though.
The therapist who did the most group work and spent the most time with us was incredibly intuitive, hitting the nail directly on the head of whatever issue was going on, which was quite upsetting to patients who were unready or unwilling to deal with their issues (in a virtual program that should be expected, for if they’re not there yet they should be PHP at minimum.) This therapist knew EDs backwards and forwards so well that she was able to literally create groups for us that we requested to do over and over because they were so challenging to our EDs and so helpful. She was the only clinician that made any real difference for me during my treatment there and seemed to be the only one with enough experience – both in general, and, in treating EDs – to actually be working in any higher level of care. And then I learn they laid her off, & a bunch of others, about a month after I left.
My discharge was also really abrupt and took place at a ridiculous point, just a week after getting a new meal plan. Apparently it is an 8-week program regardless of what state a patient is in when the 8 weeks are up – I tried in multiple emails to multiple clinicians in multiple levels of authority to get some answers and no one would give me a straight one, so that’s my conclusion. On the way I did some research and learned that they, too, are owned by an investment firm (a company that has no product, it exists to buy other companies to make money for it’s owners).
Ultimately I regret going & wish I’d had more patience to search for a private clinic or one run by a hospital. These corporate-owned facilities seem to have debilitating and exceedingly high turnover rates and are hiring whatever clinicians they can get their hands on – when EDs require – if nothing else – experience and highest skill levels – because they have a risky physiological aspect & statistically high levels of trauma and suicide. Not stuff for the young, inexperienced, fresh out of college counselor.
Plus the administrators of these places have demonstrated to me, at least, that they don’t give a flying hooey about patients. Just moneymoneymoney.
Thank you very much for your thorough review. I am sorry to hear that you had a bad experience there and regret your decision.
Level of care (IP, Resi, IOP, PHP, etc):
PHP (they only have PHP and IOP which are basically combined)
When were you there?
October 2016
Is it co-ed?
In theory, yes. I was the only one who was not cis-female which was awkward. They had one male adolescent in adolescent IOP.
How many patients were there?
When I was there, it started out with 6 then got up to about 10-12 combined IOP and PHP. They had no adolescent PHP due to low census, so combined the one adolescent patient with adult PHP. I will say 10-12 was way too crowded for this ERC, and there was not space to accommodate. So I imagine that is about the max in terms of number of patients they have at once.
What was the admissions process like?
Unsure, I transferred from another ERC.
Describe the average day:
Get there around 9 (8 on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays), breakfast, check in, group (ACT or DBT), random group, morning snack, group, lunch, group, break 2:30-3 (or 2-2:30 on early days), snack, two groups, dinner, group, check out, leave at 7 (6 on fridays, saturdays, sundays). Schedule was constantly changing as far as groups and nobody really seemed to know it.
What were meals like?
Not good. Like really awful. You do not get to choose food AT ALL. They have no kitchen, so there’s legit only one meat or vegetarian option and too bad if you don’t like it. Meal times were stressful. Staff would ignore when patients were obviously struggling. Patients struggled to talk and to complete meals. Not a good environment. Occasionally they would try to play a game or music which would help but it was not consistent.
30 minutes for meals, 15 for snacks. 5 to supplement.
What sorts of food were available or served? Did they accommodate for dietary needs or vegetarians/vegans?
You can be vegetarian. But the food was nasty. If you’re picky they don’t substitute anything so you’re out of luck and you just get to supplement. You do get to choose breakfast and snacks to an extent, but lunch and dinner were awful and there is zero choice and one option.
Did they supplement? How did that system work?
Yes with Boost. Full meal refusal is like a cup +, 50-99% is another amount, 1-49% is a different amount. You get 5 minutes. Often people would just take a couple of bites and then refuse the rest just to not have the 100% refusal because you know that they go by greater or less than 50% and there’s no in between.
What privileges are allowed?
Passes. There’s one lunch and one dinner outing a week.
Does it work on a level system?
No.
What sort of groups do they have?
ACT, DBT, RODBT, two nutrition groups a week, a lot of craft stuff and killing time groups, Exposure Response (ERP), Process Group, Music Therapy
What was your favorite group?
Music Therapy by far. The music therapist there was seriously amazing and probably my favorite staff member. We got to play instruments, make up songs, talk about music, it was fun.
What did you like the most?
Music Therapy. How nice most of the staff were, that it was a small program so you really got to know staff, and how much 1:1 time you could get.
What did you like the least?
Meals and meal times were awful. The community when I was there was not at all recovery based. How crowded it got when they kept admitting and not discharging. The schedule was not good and way too crammed. Morning snack was barely an hour before lunch, but almost 3 hours after breakfast. Dinner was too early to accommodate for eating all meals in program.
What level of activity or exercise was allowed?
I think there was a yoga group once a week? Other than that it was never talked about other than on an individual basis.
What did people do on weekends?
Programming had a bit more downtime, they’d basically have a lot of the same groups (always have ACT or DBT) but then just turn the tv on for a few hours instead of having other groups in the afternoons.
Do you get to know your weight?
No.
How fast is the weight gain process?
Unsure. Did not know weight. I was also one of the few there at the time who still needed to weight restore, which was rough.
What was the average length of stay?
No average. One person had been in PHP for 10 weeks. Another came in, did two weeks and was discharged. People were constantly stepping up, stepping down, etc due to either insurance or just life circumstances. A lot of people would come for one day and never show up again or not show up consistently.
What was the average age range?
When I got there it was mostly 18-19, with one person in their 50s which was awkward. However they did admit the one adolescent and then some in their 30s and 40s later which helped. So really diverse. 16-60s. At first the young group really was awkward for the few of us that were older. It got better as the group diversified in age.
What kind of aftercare do they provide? Do they help you set up an OP treatment team?
They have IOP and they do step down to 4-5 day IOP. They try to refer you to other programs if you are from out of area, and try to help set up an OP team if needed.
Would you recommend this program?
Ehhhh honestly unsure. It really depends on the person. If I had not been able to live at home while doing PHP there, I’d say staying and doing PHP in Denver would have been better. I’d probably recommend Denver or Chicago to someone who would have to stay in the apartments either way. Just because the larger ERCs there is a lot more flexibility in terms of food and they really seem more on top of things and more on top of keeping the community more positive. That said, if you’re a cis female in their late teens, sure go for ERC Ohio. Though a lot of my experience could be due to the community when I was there, who knows. I’d say to just be skeptical. The staff were super nice and I loved all but one staff member. Most of my issues were with the food and the community.