Find Your Right-fit
Eating disorder treatment at Milestones
There is no one-size-fits-all approach
to Eating Disorder Recovery
Where there’s a compulsion, there’s a solution. And that solution starts here, today.
Real World Approach
“If I tell you something, you’ll forget it. If I show you something, you’ll remember it. If you do something, you’ll live it.”
Our approach centers on quieting the negative noise around food and the emotions that come with disordered eating. We teach you how to continue experiencing results in your ‘real-world’ environment.
Milestones works because we believe that the last day of your treatment should look like your first day in the real world.
Real Solutions
Our focus is on preparing you to return home, one step at a time.
Unlike other eating disorder recovery centers, when you arrive, we are already thinking about the life you are going back to. We make sure you are equipped for life’s triumphs and challenges beyond our doors.
Quiet the Compulsion
“I am just so grateful for finding LIFE through Milestones. Not just a food plan or a “diet” that I was hoping I would get and lose some weight, not just recovery, not just serenity and peace of mind, but LIFE and meaningful relationships.”
-A.
Real-Time, Practical Experience
“I cannot thank you enough for the improvements I have seen in my daughter. Every day she seems to be getting a better grasp on her issues. Your program has not been “kind” to her …you have seen and heard all the excuses she has told herself and us,
and you have called her out on them-but she is healing. I am forever grateful.”
-J.S
Navigate a New Rhythm
"However, my treatment & what I learned and reprogrammed at Milestones stays with me… I feel physically, emotionally and spiritually well. It’s all part of the recovery process."
-S.F
Who We Treat
Milestones In Recovery treats eating disorders and their accompanying emotional and physical issues.
We only consider individuals with a primary or co-existing eating
disorder diagnosis for admission.
Many, if not most, we serve have co-occurring diagnoses such as mood disorders
and substance use issues. Such people are well suited for our program.
Your Recovery Success Team
Each recovery journey is as unique as the patient.
We treat anyone who is willing to get better.
Our psychiatrist, nutritionist, physicians, and treatment team are here to work with you to find the best pathway for your recovery. As your potential home away from home, we strive to provide you with the best care and support to reach your milestones in recovery.
You belong here.
At Milestones, we offer both live-in residential treatment and outpatient day treatment programs in the heart of South Florida.
We are fully accredited by the Joint Commission and licensed by the State of Florida. As your potential home away from home, we are proud to offer you a state of the art facility where you can focus on recovery.
Frequently Asked Questions About Milestones
History & Credibility
Milestones has been open for 25 years. What was the original vision when the program started, and how has it evolved?
Milestones opened in 1999 with a clear goal: to offer eating disorder treatment in a warm, real-world setting rather than a cold, hospital-style environment. The founder, Dr. Marty Lerner, had been working with people who have eating disorders since 1980 and saw a big gap in how people were being helped.
From day one, Dr. Lerner was not alone in building that vision. Nikki Glantz, known to patients and families as "Nikki the Nutritionist," has been at Milestones since the very beginning in 1999. For the first 17 years, Nikki served as the lead Nutritionist and Dietitian, helping shape the way Milestones thinks about food, recovery, and real-world eating. Over the last 9 years she has also taken on the role of Chief Operating Officer. Together, Dr. Lerner and Nikki represent over 50 combined years at Milestones — a level of continuity that is rare in this field.
Over 25 years, the program has grown and improved, but the heart of it has stayed the same. The goal has always been to make sure your last day in treatment looks like your first day back in the real world. From the very beginning, Milestones has focused on teaching people how to live — not just how to follow a food plan.
What accreditations and licenses does Milestones hold, and why should families consider those important?
Milestones is nationally accredited by the Joint Commission and licensed by the Agency for Healthcare Administration in the State of Florida. These are two of the most important quality benchmarks a treatment center can have.
Accreditation by the Joint Commission means an independent outside organization has reviewed Milestones against strict standards for quality and safety in patient care. When a center passes that review, families can feel more confident that patients are being cared for the right way — not just whatever the center decides is good enough. Being licensed by the State of Florida also means the state checks up on Milestones regularly. It is not just a one-time stamp of approval — it is ongoing oversight that protects patients.
What makes Milestones different from other eating disorder treatment centers in South Florida?
Milestones stands apart from other eating disorder treatment centers in several key ways: real-world living skills training, whole-person treatment, a discharge-first mindset, and 25 years of proven results in the same community.
It feels like real life. Patients live in apartment-style housing, go grocery shopping with a dietitian in the community, and learn to cook their own meals based on their personal food plan. Most treatment centers feed you and send you home. Milestones teaches you how to do it yourself.
It treats the whole person. Unlike most treatment programs, Milestones addresses both the emotional side and the dependency side of eating disorders. Food is part of it, but so is stress, feelings, trauma, and daily habits.
It is focused on going home successfully. From the moment you arrive, the team is already thinking about the life you are going back to. Recovery does not stop at the front door.
It has been around a long time. 25 years in the same community, with the same mission, speaks for itself. Many treatment programs come and go. Milestones has outlasted them because the approach works. The staff has seen thousands of people walk through the door, scared, tired, and ready to try one more time — and they have seen what happens when someone finally gets the right kind of help.
Our Staff & Expertise
What should families know about the clinical team at Milestones? What credentials and experience do your staff bring?
The Milestones clinical team includes a psychiatrist, an internal medicine doctor, registered dietitians, and licensed therapists — all with deep, specialized experience in eating disorders. Many staff members have been at Milestones for years, and some for decades.
That continuity matters when you are doing the hardest work of your life. Every piece of your care — physical, emotional, and nutritional — is handled by someone who focuses specifically on eating disorders. This is not a general mental health facility that also treats eating disorders. This is all we do.
How does Dr. Lerner's research on food addiction directly shape the way patients are treated at Milestones?
Dr. Lerner has spent over 40 years studying food addiction, compulsive eating, and eating disorders, and his research is the foundation of everything Milestones does. His core belief — that eating disorders are compulsions and must be treated that way, not as simple bad habits — shapes every group, therapy session, and food plan at the facility.
He has published in professional journals and has been featured in major outlets like USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, as well as national programs including 20/20 and ABC Nightline. Dr. Lerner has also become highly experienced in the use of GLP-1 medications as an optional tool in treatment, and his ongoing work in this area guides how Milestones thoughtfully and safely includes these medications when appropriate.
When you come to Milestones, you are not getting a trend — you are benefiting from a lifetime of research, real-world experience, and a program that continues to evolve with new learning.
Nikki Glantz created the Freedom Food Plan and has been with Milestones for over two decades. What does her involvement mean for a patient's day-to-day experience?
Nikki Glantz created the Freedom Food Plan and has spent her entire career at Milestones refining it based on what she sees working with real patients, day after day, year after year. Every patient works with a nutritionist trained personally by Nikki to create their personalized Freedom Food Plan.
What that means for you is simple: the person guiding your nutrition program is not reading from a textbook. She has sat across from thousands of people who felt exactly the way you feel right now. She knows the fears, she knows what gets in the way, and she knows how to help you move through it. That level of personal involvement from someone with her experience is rare anywhere.
