Hi NJL,
I don't think attending a vipasana course is going to help your friend develop a meditation routine, also the vipasana course recommends two hours of daily practice and this is hard for most to squeeze into their life.
I can think of nine friends who have gone and there is a mix a feedback on their experience, three of my friends had mixed feelings, whilst the meditation was good the experience wasn't very pleasant and one of them even tried to run away mid way through. I can think of two friends who really enjoyed it one returning several more times, saying things like, 'you have a whole new fresh view of the world after you go'.
I have had two friends who have a regular meditation practice and who did their own practice there and really enjoy it. I also have a friend who believes she healed her back by doing vipasana and has done quite a few since then. Also have a friend who went and suffered anxiety, she feels mistreated by the leaders there and still suffers ongoing anxiety a year later. None of the people I know who have gone to vipasana even though some enjoyed it have been able to maintain a daily meditation routine using the techniques.
My experience is similar to the last and I would not recommend vipasana to anyone else.
My primary grips with my experience there are as follows.
The way the reatreat is setup it is very difficult to leave- you have to give your phone, car keys and sign a declaration saying you will stay.
I believe the entry process strengthens the tendency for role conformity, ie, I'm the student, Im the teacher. (see standford prison experiment). I felt that even though I knew what was best for me I was still being submissive to the teacher, and then when it become clear the teacher was out of there depth he still would not listen to me and was trying to teach some "lesson".
The concept of grounding was foreign to my teacher. It was even recommended that I stop the grounding activity I was trying to do and return to the practice.
I suffered panic attacks there after warning my teacher i felt I was overloading and being asked to continue practice. The teachers were ill prepared or trained to help someone in that situation both from a medical and spiritual perspective.
I have heard from the teacher the time I went and also my yoga teacher who has done many vipasanas that there is a high rate of attrition, people frequently suffer and sometimes require hospitalization.
Overall I found the experience very distressing. There are no overnight transformations in yoga, even at vipasana and I think it has the potential to be a very negative experience. I wonder if there is some other strain of buddhism that runs a less aggressive retreat in your friends area, they are very common here, maybe three days, talking and grounding activity allowed.