Riggs Review: Function as a Person, Not as a Diagnosis

"If you have the resources and you’re looking for something that isn’t a warehouse with fluorescent lighting and a medication cart, I’d look at places built around depth work rather than containment. I went to Austen Riggs. It’s one of the only institutions that treats adults as complex human beings instead of liabilities to be managed.

Riggs isn’t a behavioral correction facility and it’s not a luxury spa. It’s long-term, psychodynamic treatment in an open setting. You live in the community. You walk to your appointments. You’re expected to function as a person, not as a diagnosis. The staff assume there is meaning in what looks chaotic from the outside. Acting out, withdrawing, intellectualizing, manipulating: none of that gets you punished or numbed into submission. It becomes material. That’s a different philosophy than most inpatient programs.

What made it work for me was that it didn’t try to overpower me. There’s structure, yes, but it’s not coercive unless safety truly demands it. You’re given agency and then held accountable for how you use it. That sounds simple, but it’s rare. Many programs strip autonomy in the name of stabilization. Riggs assumes that autonomy is part of the treatment. If someone is high-functioning on the surface but destabilizes relationally or under stress, that environment can expose the pattern without humiliating them for it.

It’s not cheap, and it’s not quick. It requires patience and tolerance for ambiguity. It also requires that the person in question has at least some capacity to engage. It is not a lock-and-key custodial solution. If what you need is containment, that’s a different category of facility. But if the goal is serious, high-quality, long-term psychodynamic work in an environment that is human rather than carceral, it’s one of the only places in North America that genuinely operates at that level."

If you are a former Riggs patient who benefitted from treatment at the Center and would like to share that experience with others, please contact John Zollinger, Director of Communications, at:  john.zollinger@austenriggs.net or 413.931.5816. Alternatively, you can fill out this form.