Despite Lawsuits, Castlewood Treatment Center Expands to California
Castlewood Treatment Center for eating disorders may expand to California despite allegations of brainwashing from two former patients.
—which faces two lawsuits from former patients who claim they were brainwashed—may soon expand to a new, 14-bed facility in northern California.
Castlewood’s co-directors Mark Schwartz and his wife Lori Galperin plan to focus on the new program in California instead of the Ballwin center’s day-to-day operations, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The firm is looking for a new CEO.
Schwartz and Galperin would convert The Inn at 213 Seventeen Mile Drive, a 14-room bed-and-breakfast on the Monterey Peninsula in Pacific Grove, California, into Castlewood West, the treatment center’s newest branch, according to the Post-Dispatch.
The Pacific Grove planning commission gave the Castlewood Treatment Center West preliminary approval to convert the bed-and-breakfast as long as the California health department gave the center a license to serve as an inpatient center, according to the Post-Dispatch.
Lisa Nasseff, 31, and Leslie Thompson, 26, both of Minnesota, filed separate claims in St. Louis County Circuit Court against the Castlewood Treatment Centerwith similar allegations that they were brainwashed, hypnotized and implanted with false memories about satanic cults, sexual abuse and multiple personalities.
