Mental Health Providers in Lake Forest, California

From day one, the techs made me feel welcomed, supported, and comfortable. What stood out most to me was the apartment staff and technicians. Their patience, encouragement, and ability to genuinely connect with people made a massive impact on me personally. They created an environment that felt safe, supportive, and focused on helping people rebuild confidence while transitioning back into everyday life. The level of freedom, trust, and respect they gave clients really stood out to me. At no point did I feel talked down to or treated like a number. The staff treated people with patience, understanding, and professionalism, while still holding a supportive structure that encouraged real growth and reintegration back into society. You can tell they genuinely care about every individual who walks through the doors, and that level of compassion does not go unnoticed.

I lived at the 12 south recovery apartments from May or June 2024 to September 2024. This place had more negatives than positives. To start off, my therapist did not really help me at all. She made a comment and said that all she sees me eating is junk food. I have struggled with bulimia in the past and my therapist knew that but still made those comments. As someone with a history of food-related struggles, I found the lack of eating-disorder support to be a downside. An eating disorder is an addiction. There were also certain staff members who would come to work that seemed completely out of it or like they’ve been using. This wasn’t most of the staff but it was maybe 2 specific ones. I don’t have a problem with a drug addiction but I can see how this environment would make it unhealthy for people in drug addiction recovery to be around that. One time I walked out of a group cause I felt upset and I was screamed at by a female staff member named Brooklyn. I felt ganged up on in that moment. I shouldn’t have walked out of the group but I don’t think I deserved to be screamed at. I am in my mid 20’s and I’m not a child. I’m honestly not even much younger than a lot of the staff. She was saying that I don’t want to mess with her and she had a threatening tone. I felt uncomfortable and felt her reaction was inappropriate. I was also accused of being on my phone during one of the groups when I only picked up my phone once to check the time. I then had my phone taken away by a male staff member and he scolded me. Another thing that was bad about this place was that they had certain clients there for 4 years. One client would not really go to the groups and would make inappropriate comments to the young 19 year old girls there. The goal of this program is for people with mental health or addiction issues is to leave in a certain time period and get back on their feet. So hearing that someone was there for 4 years is confusing because it makes the goal of the program unclear. Some of the groups had good leaders and some of them didn’t. It was very hit or miss. I did enjoy the art groups a lot that were run by Sarah. She mainly did art groups but she sometimes talked about mental health too. I thought she was great and was very engaging and friendly. I’m not sure if she still works there. I also enjoyed Keisha’s groups. On the contrary, there were some other groups where group leaders would say out of pocket stuff like “someone has it worse than you” when talking about someone’s heroin addiction. I’m not sure that there’s a lot of stuff that’s worse than that? Very weird thing to say. I did enjoy some of the outings specifically the ones that were centered around walking/hiking. I liked how some of the staff were helpful with transportation because I needed that at the time. My phone did not have service when I arrived to 12 South so a staff member took me to the phone store and was there with me for 30-40 minutes which I appreciated. Overall, this program had more negatives than positives. It did have a few positives. I am grateful that this place provided me with housing when I did not have any, but I think certain things could be improved.

My name is Elizabeth and my son had stayed for 2 months with Socal Empowered. The staff were great, very professional and specially compassionate about their clients. My son felt safe and relieved during staying there. I recommend your loved ones to send there. You don't regret it !! Special thanks to Mickey and Melina !!!!