The Wave Clinic review: Teenage rehab & addiction treatment ( 3 comments)

I agree with this. I was there and it gave me severe PTSD. I would never recommend it, my experience was traumatic. They supervise all communication and read / destroy letters that families and clients send. They keep you for longer for unknown or untrue reasons to make more money. I thought I was alone in feeling this way because everyone stays quiet about the wave but I have recently spoken to dozens of people who have also had negative experiences. Message me for further information.

We had a very similar experience with our daughter at the same clinic last year. It has been traumatic for our entire family. Monday, we received the same threatening letter demanding a retraction of my daughter's review of her time there and demanding $48K(USD) within 48 hours. We have not even dignified them with a reply. They are frauds and bullies. I'm genuinely stunned they have been able to remain in business for so long. Additionally, our insurance company at the time, CIGNA, had given us pre-authorization for our daughter's admission to the clinic. Not long after she was there, our insurance inexplicably stopped making payments on our behalf. They gave us the run around for a couple of months as the clinic kept threatening to kick our daughter out for non-payment. CIGNA flat out lied and deceived us while we were requesting them to substantiate their actions. We later learned that unbeknownst to us, CIGNA had been conducting their own internal investigation of the clinic during that time. CIGNA came to the conclusion that the clinic was not properly licensed, had been making fraudulent insurance claim charges and that they were no longer paying any benefits to them on our behalf, despite us having a preauthorization. The fact that they allowed our teenage daughter to stay in a facility that they deemed to be operating illegally and fraudulently during this time is completely unethical in my opinion.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT SEND YOUR LOVED ONES TO THIS PLACE.
I was sent to the wave clinic for an extended period of time (well over a year) and it has completely changed the trajectory of my life (not in a positive way).

I am very cautious of sharing too much information about my stay and experience as I do not want Fiona and the wave team to take legal action against me and my family.
The Wave Clinic is a rehabilitation centre for addiction, eating disorders, BPD, trauma and many other problems people suffer from for teenagers and young adults.
Firstly, let me start out with SOME positives:

- The team seem to genuinely care and want to help, despite the ways they may go about it, ultimately this is a rehabilitation centre and many people HAVE benefited from this place, unfortunately not everyone gets this experience. And I believe deluded

- Many clients worked with a range of therapists and did a range of evidence based treatments

- Many clients (self included) completed my treatment and discharged "the right way" by moving through and completing all stages of treatment

- Many clients had many good times and made many friends and formed very strong bonds with them

- They were very diverse and inclusive of all sexualities, genders, race, religion etc. celebrating all different types of holidays

- Gives you structure throughout your day

The houses:

There are 3 stages/residential houses in which you are placed in either the 1st house, the Main house (now supposedly called the garden house), Pool house and finally the Park house. As I understand it these houses were meant to show you how far you've come in your recovery, starting with the Main House in which there are more recovery coaches, nurses and security around the house. You are heavily monitored and many restrictions were put in place, especially when things were abused, privileges, such as having a couch, would be removed. In this example, the couch was removed due to people resting and falling asleep during the day in the downtime. One client was even told every time they were caught falling asleep, another day would be added to their discharge date. The couches did not return in the main house for almost a year. There are stages within the Main house. If you are biologically female, you are immediately put in "Indigo" which is the biggest room consisting of 5 beds. While in Indigo you are under 24/7 surveillance, under bathroom and shower observations by both MALE and female nurses/recovery coaches. There were cameras most bedrooms at the main house, unless if you were in a bedroom by yourself, as this was a sign of you making progress and gaining trust with the team.

The Pool House was the 2nd house in the program. This was still a Primary Care house, however you had more privileges such as being able to make your own breakfast, having less staff around (one staff member would be present in the house), having potluck nights where the house would cook dinner as a community. However, one by one these privileges were taken away and the pool house was left almost identical to the main house, with very minimal differences and people had ended up moving houses simply for the sake of allowing space for a new client. The pool house had horrible air conditioning, many of the AC units in the bedrooms would not be working and clients would be forced to sleep in the heat. The shower pressure was absolutely horrible with only freezing cold water which made showering borderline impossible and I was told this was not an excuse to not shower as this would go against my treatment plan, forcing me to stay longer.

There were bedsheets with unwashed period bloodstains.

The Park House, formerly known as Secondary, was a Secondary care house where you had a lot more free time throughout your day, as you were not required to attend all groups. This free time was spent by volunteering an orphanage, a soup kitchen, an animal shelter and a teaching at a school for child refugees; doing therapy homework; cooking meals; or working on schoolwork. The Park House had a lot more freedom and was meant for those over 18 as there was no staff present besides a security guard at night, however I have heard that younger people are now able to move to the park house which I can only assume means more restrictions have been put in place.

The schedule often starts with a Process group (except Wednesday and the weekends), this offers a place for clients to express their concerns within the community or struggles they are experiencing. However, a lot of these groups turn into "What the community is doing wrong" and reoccuring themes of "gossip", rule-breaking, and general lack of effort in the community. The groups such as DBT, psychotherapy, Sunflower (BPD), Tulips (Social skills), Eating disorder,fitness, yoga were often very underwhelming as the majority of clients had study slots or sessions during that time, leaving only a few people to end up attending. The groups that were facilitated by the recovery coaches were very half-assed, poorly run & very amateur. The only groups that felt genuinely useful was when they were run by an ACTUAL therapist, of which there were TWO.

The Wave was also severely understaffed, leading to lack of sessions and many things on the schedule being missed, especially sports, where we would only get to play 10 minutes of basketball. This also resulted in so many of everyone's belongings being lost, including clothing. And you aren't even allowed or are given half the stuff from the packing list.

They go by the 3:3:3 rule of an eating schedule, which includes 3 meals, 3 snacks, each 3 hours apart. EVERYONE is to follow this rule, even if you do not have food and body problems, you cannot skip meals or snacks, no excuses. If you are on a plated meal plan, and do not finish your meal within a specific timeframe, you will be supplemented. The snacks were very heavy snacks, such as cake and fried foods. Clients have been tube fed by a nurse who does not understand english and they would express their discomfort while the nurse would do nothing and continue.

Encouraging underaged Smoking:
The Wave would buy vapes and/or cigarettes for any client, regardless of age, every 2 weeks, with approval from the parents. I have seen numerous 14 year olds be bought vapes and allowing others to hit their vapes. It is illegal to buy vapes or cigarettes for anyone under 18 years of age. There was an instance where a client was not allowed to stop vaping as "it would interfere with their treatment plan."

Lying to immigration:
- I was told by the psychiatrist at the wave to LIE at immigration during my leaving flight telling me to tell them that I "went to Singapore with my doctor". I was meant to be in Malaysia for 3 months, legally my visa was for 3 months. I never taken to immigration during the rest of my time at the clinic.

2 of the therapists I worked with were completely unqualified and were said to be "therapists in training" and this was very apparent working with them. 1 on 1 sessions scheduled with them were constantly delayed and cancelled. They would go through very basic worksheets with you, often using their phone for guidance. You could not complain about this as this was seen as unhelpful and you were told that 90% of your work should be done through group sessions and engaging with the community. Many of the therapists were often extremely unprofessional. This could be excused as them trying to be more friendly and build more of a bond with their clients however some things that were said or done were outright rude and out of pocket. For example, a client was informed that his relative had passed away, the client didn't know how to react properly and the therapist said "Maybe I should just tell your family you don't give a [censored]." Things like this cross boundaries that should be maintained by the therapists themselves. Another therapist would often give clients very stern looks and would "not appreciate" some things that were said to them and would often tell the client to "reflect on themselves" rather than showing care and compassion. There was even an instance where a client was forced to clean up her own vomit off the floor even if the client did not intentionally try to throw up. Zero Empathy.

Clients were encouraged to call people out on absolutely everything under the guise of coming from a place of love. Taking feedback was a big part of community and group work. This often lead to people holding grudges, gossiping and a general horrible feeling around the community, especially when 1 person is the source of all of it, triggering a domino effect throughout the community.

In primary care, you would either volunteer at a school for refugees, where they wouldn't even bother getting you the teaching certificate at first, or volunteer at the animal shelter where you would either clean the litter or walk dogs for half an hour, barely doing any real work. And when clients brought this up, we were taken to a horrible shelter with dog[censored] smeared all over the walls and dogs stuffed in tiny cages.

The differences between the 3 houses slowly became less and less to the point where all the houses were practically the same with the same rules and same number of staff around the houses. Leading to a lack of feeling of accomplishment after "moving up a house".

Like most therapy, the effects of this form of treatment are completely temporary and fade away overtime after being away from the place for a while. While there, you develop a love for the place you cant explain, almost stockholm syndrome, because once you leave, the world is exactly the same as you left it, if not worse. All you come out with is a few more breathing tools and different perspectives which is useful but absolutely not worth both the time and money put into the treatment.

Higher Level of Care (Eve):

The step above "Indigo" was Eve. Eve was a psych hospital and you were taken there if you had been deemed too high risk to be around the community. I, myself, have never been to Eve but I have heard of people having many unpleasant experiences there. The decision to be sent to Eve is left completely up to the staff and could be for something so little as saying the n word too much (this actually happened).

I have had to remove my personal experience as it reveals too much information.

Scamming Controversy:

Fiona Yassin (formerly Fiona Markham) is the clinical director of The Wave Clinic. Fiona and her former husband, Alistair Markham, ran a scam company called "Migration Advisory Service" or "Emigrate Australia" (I will shorten this to MAS for the sake of convenience) around [protected]. MAS promised to provide customers visas to Melbourne, Australia within 12 months. MAS deceived customers by using virtual offices which they pay for to pose as if they are based there, when in fact they are not.
These are claims made anonymously through the site "Complaintsboard.com". There would be no reason for anyone to lie about these things, especially with so many people experiencing the same issue. This is the link to the claims, in the comments Migration Advisory Service — Visa scam . I can confirm that Fiona Markham is Fiona Yassin as the pictures found in the comments match the pictures of her now.
https://imgur.com/a/SeafgfK
The names on the first photo are the names of the people hosting the event, you can see here that there are plenty of other photos of different people, with the same names on the picture.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=624352320912035&set=pb.100063463304265.-2207520000
The post also tags Alistair Markham, Fiona's ex-husband.

I am currently looking for more information on this so if anyone has any further details PLEASE contact me @ kikiw13065@rograc.com

Conclusion:
My time at The Wave Clinic was long, difficult, and—despite a few positives—ultimately damaging to my wellbeing and future plans. While the centre provided structure, diversity, and opportunities to bond with peers, I experienced serious issues with privacy, staff professionalism, treatment quality, and ethical standards. Some practices I witnessed—including the handling of minors, medical decisions, and basic living conditions—left me feeling unsafe and unsupported. I share my experience not to dismiss the benefits others may have found there, but to warn families to research carefully and demand full transparency before considering this facility. I do believe that the wave has good intentions, however I am deeply disturbed by the history of scamming and by how the facility is run.

I believe The Wave Clinic is acting in good faith, however I STRONGLY advise you to assess your options before making your decision.

Helpful links/other reviews:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/myhappypill/comments/1gb4slm/comment/mzutt6l/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/myhappypill/comments/1gb4slm/comment/mzv9tif/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/myhappypill/comments/1gb4slm/comment/myuuef8/
- https://share.google/Bo1ojK5dQDu7lqUEN
- The Wave Clinic — Teenage rehab & addiction treatment
SCAM LINKS:
- Migration Advisory Service — Visa scam
- Migration Advisory Service — Visa scam?page=2