What Happened at the Guidance Center in Flagstaff, AZ

Between 2024 and 2025, I experienced serious harm at the Guidance Center in Flagstaff, AZ. In my view, what happened was not a series of mistakes — it was a pattern of ethical failures and legal violations that nearly cost me my life.

The harm included:

• Violations of my rights as a service dog handler under ADA law
• Two psychiatric holds issued without proper risk assessment — ideation alone is not sufficient legal or ethical grounds
• Physical restraint without justification
• Denial of medical care when I reported chest pain with dangerously high vitals
• HIPAA violations
• A diagnosis entered into my records that was never disclosed to me
• Retaliatory termination of care after I filed complaints
• Clinical documentation that was dehumanizing and dishonest

This is my account.

It is worth noting that from 2012 to 2024, I had zero hospitalizations for mental health issues, and while I had signs of PTSD and panic attacks, I usually recovered quickly and mostly functioned okay during this period (except for work environments where I frequently struggled). I also did not take, or need, psychiatric medications in this period except for sleep aids.

Late summer of 2023, I was evaluated and subsequently declared SMI (seriously mentally ill) according to Arizona rules. In theory, this designation is supposed to give access to further mental health services — I say “in theory” because I have not seen any signs of that.

In the fall of 2023, I applied for disability and stopped working entirely; this was done with a high degree of encouragement from my former therapist at the Guidance Center (TGC). In the first couple of months of 2024, I asked to be evaluated for ADHD, and TGC did the testing. At the end I was told I was in the top 10% of people with inattentive ADHD; only to have several providers then turn around and claim that “it wasn’t really ADHD, but rather PTSD,” despite my assertion that the ADHD symptoms were present before PTSD made itself known.

Throughout early 2024, multiple medications were attempted to help me specifically with my symptoms related to ADHD, and not surprisingly, the focus was on non-stimulants; an approach that I agreed with. Why should I go on stimulants if other medications worked as well? I tried several medications, and not only did they not help me, they made everything so much worse. It came to a point where I was done with this approach. The medications that were not cleared for ADHD did more harm than anything else. Strattera, which is the only non-stimulant on the market, showed some promise but didn’t quite do “enough” to help with the executive dysfunction which for me is severe. Not surprisingly, the providers switched to blaming me for “not doing enough on my own,” as if they had any clue about the distress and ongoing struggles I’d dealt with for a lifetime.

In the spring of 2024, I was financially in a very difficult place. I was severely food insecure, frequently hungry, and overwhelmed with the legal aspects of applying for disability, and the struggles with medical providers at the Guidance Center became the last push for me to become suicidal for the first time in 12 years. I disclosed the suicidal ideation to my former therapist.

With absolutely zero assessment for risk, i.e. plan/intent, my former therapist decided to issue a 72-hour hold and send police to pick me up.

I was taken to the Guidance Center PAC (psychiatric acute care) unit for evaluation, and I brought my service dog with me out of necessity. It was late in the evening, I was alone in my van in a dark forest when the cops found me, and frankly, I was terrified. Law enforcement is dangerous for someone like me — someone who lives nomadically, in the forests; and someone with my political stance. For people with more privilege, that might be difficult to comprehend, but someone like me is as likely to get a “blanket party” as we are likely to be taken somewhere safely. To me, my former therapist had chosen to put my life at risk by sending law enforcement. To be clear, service dogs have legal rights in hospitals, including psychiatric units.

The next morning, it was decided to remove my service dog in a way that violated ADA laws, and I decided to make all efforts to advocate for myself and my dog. At the very least, I wanted access to my phone so I could ask friends for help to care for my dog while I was inpatient; this was denied, in full violation of my rights.

What happened after this was a full ethical and legal breakdown — and to me it was assault. I am still dealing with the aftermath of this.

Seven people entered my room and piled on top of me to remove my dog, including two animal control officers who were admitted to my room in violation of my HIPAA rights. Staff had interacted with my dog enough times to know she wasn’t dangerous and the officers were not needed in my room. I was sitting on the floor, wearing a hospital gown and holding on to my dog. I was not a danger to myself, I was not a danger to them, I was not verbally confrontational or demeaning — and I certainly was not threatening. I knew that my dog and I were in danger and I was doing my best to avoid the assault I knew was coming.

After the assault, I collapsed on the floor and cried for several hours. That night my vitals were off the charts (blood pressure and heart rate). I was 100% in stroke and heart attack territory. In the late evening, I reported chest pain to my nurse; her answer was: “Well, since you won’t take your medications, I can’t help you,” thereby denying me safe medical care. I was afraid of what other laws they might violate and refused the medications out of fear.

Let there be no doubt, the fact that I did not die that night was luck — but the Guidance Center has had someone die in their PAC before. In 2016, a developmentally disabled man died in the PAC; it is believed he was not checked on sufficiently. If the Guidance Center saw any consequences from their negligence, then it has not been published; it is my suspicion that they did something small like firing a psych tech, and moved on with their day.

The next morning the 72-hour hold was lifted, and I was taken to Flagstaff Medical Center ER for medical evaluation. I left their PAC unit on a gurney and in an ambulance. My vitals had stabilized before I even arrived at the hospital, but they had to do a full evaluation because based on my previous readings I could have had a heart attack that night.

My treatment at the Guidance Center following this was nothing less than appalling and cruel. My former therapist maintained that she had done everything perfectly and refused to acknowledge accountability for issuing a 72-hour hold based on suicidal ideation, not based on suicidal risk, which is the industry standard and the ethical approach. For all practical purposes, we had knock-down, drag-out verbal fights about this, and my former therapist started to take out her frustration and anger on me verbally. She made statements such as that my “communication sucked,” that I “couldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” and other demeaning and dehumanizing comments. I cried. I cried and I cried like I’d been whipped. This was a person I trusted, a person I had allowed myself to feel attached to, and during a time when I was incredibly vulnerable, she yelled at me; after having taken actions that, to me, put both me and my dog in severe danger.

I kept showing up, and I appreciate my own courage to do that, but much of the time I showed up and simply dissociated into non-verbal or low-verbal states. I only remember some of the sessions during that time, partially due to dissociation.

Simultaneously, after 12 years without having experienced either, I started to have flashbacks and nightmares; and these were not pretty. The flashbacks spanned multiple periods in my life when I had sustained severe trauma and then overlapped with each other. I had trouble keeping apart what happened and when it happened — one email I wrote to my former therapist at that time goes into detail about the sexual molestations by my mom. I had nightmares that woke me screaming my head off, to the point where someone once called the police to do a welfare check on me. I emailed my former therapist, telling her about the flashbacks and nightmares — and she yelled at me for going quiet in therapy, for dissociating and for my struggles expressing myself. And, despite me showing up, sharing about my flashbacks, and writing about the details of the flashbacks, my former therapist still claimed that I “didn’t trust her.”

During this period, I was hospitalized about every other month due to suicidal ideation with plan and intent; this means I was hospitalized about four times in the summer and fall of 2024. In addition, I had an uncounted number of ER visits due to dehydration, and I continued struggling to take care of myself. All my psych admits during this time were self-admits, i.e. I walked myself into the ER and told them I was suicidal; I also made sure to arrange care for my service dog on my own in each of these hospitalizations.

Eventually my former therapist and I found some level of agreement, even if fragile; and I still didn’t want to change therapists, given that I believed she cared about me. This might have been both stupid and naïve, but my situation was precarious in so many ways, and changing therapists was not something I felt able to do. During this time my ADHD remained untreated as I was focused on PTSD and the flashbacks and nightmares. I also became phobic of going to medication prescribers after my experiences at TGC. At the time of writing this article, I remain phobic of medical attention and have not been to a new doctor in over a year.

In March of 2025, an unlicensed case manager and her unlicensed supervisor decided to issue a second 72-hour hold, again based only on ideation with zero attempts to assess plan/intent. This is when I finally got angry, really angry, spitting, enraged and furious — I am not sure I have words for the incandescent rage I experienced at that time. Suffice it to say, I’d had enough! The hold itself was never enacted. Police showed up at the address where I was staying, which was a house owned by friends. My friends told them to come back with a warrant, and my former therapist got the hold removed the following day — but still, I’d simply had enough of their law-breaking.

It is my assertion that the Guidance Center acts with impunity in Flagstaff, AZ, and that someone needs to step up and hold them accountable. 72-hour holds MUST be based on more than “I wish I could be dead.” Suicide assessments consist of: suicidal wish (ideation), suicidal plan (a realistic plan for how to kill yourself), and intent (I intend to do this plan within 24 hours). This is both the ethical and legal demand — it is not a suggestion; it does not give clinicians the space to just hospitalize because they feel “uncomfortable.” A full assessment must be done: full stop. People with ideation but no plan/intent can be supported to stay home, and that is the ONLY ethical approach unless they choose to be hospitalized.

I filed a complaint directly with the Guidance Center and was given a run-around of fake “empathy” and absolutely no resolution or even promises of training. At this time, I asked simply that their front-line staff be trained in suicide assessment; this could not be promised. I also asked to speak with the CEO or Director of Mental Health, as this is where decisions about training would be made. Yes, I did want to be part of these decisions; as a stakeholder I felt I was owed that.

It took about 45 days, I think, but then I lost my patience and started to file complaints with AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System) and medical boards. Much of this was ignored due to the statute of limitations — but the fact that I started to file complaints became an obstacle in my relationship with my former therapist, and I started to experience multiple hospitalizations again.

During this time, I got my medical records from TGC and discovered that my former therapist had written about me in ways that were simply cruel, as well as dishonest — she also started a diagnosis of PD-NOS (Personality Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) that I was never told about. Essentially, once I started to question her and the clinic itself, the whole tone of her notes changed, she backdated and inserted the diagnosis, and her notes became incredibly dishonest. Meanwhile, I was emailing her and begging her for help with flashbacks and nightmares — none of which was documented anywhere. The flashbacks and nightmares started directly following my PAC stay and were clearly related to that. I believe her changes in charting, and the diagnosis, were entered to protect herself and the clinic. Now they could point to me being unreliable due to this diagnosis.

My suicidal ideation absolutely exploded; the relationship with my former therapist ended abruptly, with no real closure, and I finally attempted suicide — and back in the hospital I went. This was the 7th or 8th hospitalization since May of 2024 in the PAC. I was, however, (thankfully) able to consent to the hospitalization and make my own arrangements for my dog again.

Since then, I have made more attempts to communicate with TGC and request a resolution that I can live with than I can count — it is more than five times that I have requested they engage in resolution, all of which has been ignored.

The Guidance Center is owned by Northern Arizona Behavioral Health Authority; I filed a complaint with AHCCCS for SMI with my insurance. Within AHCCCS/Medicaid there is a special complaint process (supposedly — I haven’t seen it actually work) for people with SMI. We are supposed to get better processing, more access to assistance with filing complaints, etc. It just doesn’t actually happen. First, the complaint was mishandled and not sent as a SMI complaint. When I pointed this out and attempted to convert it to a full SMI complaint, I was later told that my complaint was outside of the statute of limitations; even as I pointed out that I had initially filed within the statute of limitations and they had mishandled it. In addition, only half of my complaint was outside the statute of limitations, there were several incidents that were within the statute of limitations.

It is my firm belief that there is overlap between NARBHA and the insurance, and as such, the complaints were never even looked at by anyone independent. NARBHA are essentially the main non-profit that distribute federal and state money to local mental health providers, and they manage the Guidance Center exclusively (i.e. all of TGC leadership are hired and managed by NARBHA). This creates an inherent conflict of interest where TGC has ended up with multiple local monopolies, among other problems. NARBHA itself is also involved with investigating complaints (both SMI and not SMI complaints) that flow through AHCCCS insurance. In my opinion, it is highly likely that this caused my case to not be investigated at all. They created multiple delays, and then refused to investigate my claims. The delays made sure I was now outside the statute of limitations for OCR and AG filings.

It is also worth noting that the Guidance Center has the only contract for 72-hour holds in Northern Arizona, and they are the ones making money on the holds. This means that when their clinicians refuse or are untrained to do a full suicide assessment, and send someone on a hold to their PAC unit, TGC makes the money on assessment and on hospitalization. Which links back to my initial demand of TGC that they train their front-line staff in suicide assessment — a demand that TGC refused outright. I have also uncovered their tax form 990 for FY 2023/2024 and their training budget is significantly below $20K while leadership gives each other a total of over $103K in raises on already questionably high salaries, and the clinic was over $500K in a deficit.

My last hospitalization was in July of 2025. In the summer of 2025, I was finally declared disabled, and in late fall of 2025, I started to receive SSDI — effectively removing the severe financial strains of providing for myself and my dog. SSDI is not a lot, but it is enough for me to survive day to day.

My former therapist subsequently received a Letter of Concern from her licensing board for her conduct towards me. The charge nurse from that fateful PAC stay in May of 2024 is currently under active investigation by her respective licensing board, and the Guidance Center received a warning letter from the Federal Office for Civil Rights for the unauthorized changes made to my chart. While the rest of my administrative complaints were largely denied based on arbitrary statutes of limitations — denials that essentially meant I lacked the physical strength to file paperwork while still cycling in and out of the hospital — I refuse to let the investigation stop there. I have recently filed a formal case with the Arizona Attorney General’s office, asking them to investigate the systemic corruption between the Guidance Center and NARBHA.

Since taking control of my environment, I have improved immensely. By January of 2026, I was no longer actively suicidal; since then, I have only experienced fleeting thoughts of wanting to be dead, but never with an active plan. Cinnamon, my service dog, and I continue to live out in Arizona’s wilderness, but I now have a reliable truck and trailer to live in. We also added Moon Shadow, my sweet black kitty, to our family in April of 2026.

On the less positive side, I continue to navigate days with severe flashbacks, usually once or twice a week. However, these events are no longer severe enough to land me in an inpatient facility; I am deeply aware of the internal terrain now and manage to care for myself with the vital support of Cinnamon and Moon Shadow. I also manage almost daily panic attacks, fatigue, and situational overwhelm. I remain exceedingly phobic of standard medical care and am still working toward getting myself seen medically. That said, I found it necessary to establish myself with a new, trusted mental health provider, as my symptoms remained overwhelming and scary for a long time.

Ultimately, I have channeled this survival into action by establishing a Mutual Aid organization called “Between Trust and Trauma.” On my website, I document my own and other survivors’ stories of unethical, harmful treatment by mental health providers. By providing direct education on the specific ways providers degrade, dehumanize, and behave unethically, my goal is to give other survivors a collective voice, a shared language, and the precise skills needed to hold these institutions accountable.