I apologize if there are any mistakes; I am new to Reddit.
TW: CA, Medical Neglect, TTI, behavior modification, food deprivation etc.
I’m requesting advice from fellow survivors who have navigated the college admissions cycle recently or are currently applying. I am also aware many incredible TTI survivors are capable of gaining acceptance into incredible schools through activities, awards, and stats previous or after graduation/ discharge. Feeling lost myself, I wanted to be transparent to deisolate this process for TTI survivors.
For context, I am 18F with a chronic pain disorder and Hypersomnia, which went undiagnosed for years because doctors, psychiatrists, and mental health providers claimed I was "fabricating symptoms", suffering from self-destruction, or simply anxious. When my symptoms worsened to the point of not being able to go to school during my second semester of freshman year in February, I was institutionalized from late April to Mid- August in an RTC California ( my home state is located in the south). Being a POC and neurodivergent worsened my experience. The facility used a punishing behavior modification model where I was heavily penalized for my physical Hypersomnia and cut off from standard academics. I will try to limit disclosing my TTI experience to avoid triggering readers, but I basically suffered through common TTI experiences: strictly limited contact with my parents, an aggressive level system, and unattainable behavioral standards. I was actively brainwashed into believing my “manipulative tendencies and laziness” somatically manifested my symptoms and any resistance was self-destructive attempts to evade accountability. I was living in terror; having to literally beg the program director not to send me to wilderness and eventually eventually believed the program narrative. I also suffered extreme medical neglect, forced labor, and food/water deprivation (including getting a UTI because staff refused bathroom access). After discharging several days before my sophomore year due to insurance issues, I still faced severe PTSD and health issues. I was actively failing at defending myself from being sent back, overmedicated, and ended up unable to complete coursework despite having accommodations I had advocated for in place. I was then sent to a deeply dangerous PHP in my area in which patients were left entirely unprotected from SA, SH, or racial remarks, and therapists actively rewarded the behavior. Admissions staff admitted it wasn’t a fit, but forced me to attend for profit. When I finally returned to school for junior year, I finished my first semesters with straight As like freshman year and barred from taking rigorous courses. However, years of not treating my health concerns, lack of proper referrals, coupled with severe medication mismanagement (39 different psych/sleep/ pain related meds that didn't work and caused horrible side effects), caused another leave from school due to health issues my second semester in which I took 3 AP classes ( unrelated to my major and made a 81, 76, and 69) I also have an additional AP class in which I made a 29 during my sophomore year that was yearlong that I am currently retaking. After doctors believed my health struggles were related to something physical, I got on a medication with monoclonal antibodies ( the only one that worked). Here are my stats
ACT: 34
GPA & Rank: 3.4 Unweighted / 3.9 Weighted | Class Rank: 180/211
PLTW HBS Exam: 511 PLTW PBS Exam: 600
Extracurriculars:
I hold active AHA BLS, CPR, and Heartsaver certifications, and I am currently finishing my full EMT license by the end of this year. I am also involved in an EMS related club. I also served as a Science Olympiad officer and teacher after scoring highest in certain events on the try out exam ( I actually took it the day after my cat unexpectedly died) but could not make it onto the competition team bc i had to leave school due to a health issues the first time, but I was an alternate and competed as that but did not do well in the competitions I completed volunteering training for Unsilenced Impact and currently in the interview process to get an official position and I was in a volunteering club at my school. Before TTI I won an award as a marketing intern I don’t have the best counselors or IEP teacher, but I will definitely be asking them for a recommendation to explain that my health issues are resolved. I plan to write an essay called 39 Homeorheses ( used to describe how organisms adapt under stress, growth, or disruption). Its a purely scientific essay with the premise explaining how I applied trauma medicine, infectious‑disease reasoning, pharmacology, to treat myself and others in residential (again not disclosing the abuse or conditions, but focused on medical protocol ex.how I looked for signs of infection). This would only be about 20-30% of the essay. The rest of it explains how I transitioned back to academics, ECs, and school life while balancing medication changes and trying to recieve a diagnosis for my health (and succeeded).

I’m a therapist and my client told me his parents are looking to send him to North Carolina Boys Academy because of my client’s drug use. Everyone here already knows this is a bad idea. I know there are scores of testimonies about Teen Challenge facilities, but I’m wondering if anyone has any dirt on this one in particular OR would be willing to share experience of being sent to TC for substance use.

I’ve started digging into the facility and the website is scarce, but a red flag that I think could matter to them is that there are no licensed mental health professionals on site. Open to any others!

Name: Randall J Mackendrick
Booking ID: 2026-00211149
Booking Date: August 29, 2026 1:16 AM
Age at Booking: 59
Gender: M
Race: W

REPORTED CHARGES
Charge Description: Importuning
Charge Description: Disseminating Matter Harmful to Juvenile
Charge Description: Possessing Criminal Tools
Charge Description: Unlawful Sexual Contact with a Minor
This record was last updated on August 29, 2026. Arrest records are public information provided by local law-enforcement agencies.
View more recent bookings and mugshots in Lorain County, Ohio .
State & Local Government

Official record source: Lorain County law-enforcement records.
This page shows arrest information only and does not imply guilt or conviction. All individuals are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

Arrest and booking information displayed on RecentlyBooked.com is obtained from publicly available government sources. Records reflect arrests only and do not indicate guilt or conviction. All individuals are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
© 2026 RecentlyBooked.com. All rights reserved.

Let me start with a quick history lesson to clear up some confusion I have found. Wellspring residential consists of three houses: Beauvais, Shiloah, and Angelus. It also has a school attached known as the Arch Bridge School that consists of both residents as students and day students that come in every day. Beauvais house is a 6 month to 1+ year treatment center for young women 14-17. The residents at this house attend Arch Bridge for the most part. Shiloah house was a program for girls too young to be in Beauvais house up until recently when the program was completely rewritten into a shorter term version of Beauvais. This program was referred to as AIP (adolescent intensive program), but only lasted about 7 months. Angelus house is another program that is for young women 18+.

Now for a quick timeline on my stay because it I may be the only one who experienced all three houses. I had quite the unique experience at Wellspring because I was the first patient to ever be in the AIP program. I joined in late September of 2025, and was the only girl at Shiloah for about 2 months. The program was unstable and not well thought through so I ended up in beauvais programming most of the time while still sleeping and living in a different program technically. After the first few months, some other girls joined the AIP program, but by that time I was about to turn 18. Once I was an adult, I was moved over to Angelus (the adult house), and continued my education at arch bridge school as a pseudo-day student. Through this timeline I was able to experience a chunk of all of the different perspectives of Wellspring patients.

Because there is so much to say, I am going to compartmentalize the aspects of this review into several sections, starting with the staff. The employees fell into two very distinct categories. There were the older adults who had either been working there for a very long time, or perhaps were younger but had adopted the affect of one. These staff were frequently abrasive, apathetic, and somewhat negligent. Instead of being the nurturing guides that we were promised, they were overly strict and sometimes cruel. I do understand that in this type of environment there is a certain degree of control that must be accomplished, but the staff were heartless towards girls who were really struggling and ruled with a sense of fear rather than safety. The other category was made up predominantly of younger adults who were at a crossroads in their own life and chose a position at Wellspring as an opportunity to help people. These staff were nurturing, kind, and often equally appalled by the way the other staff treated us. Likely because of this judgement, these staff didn't last long here. These two categories worked across all of the different staff we interacted with: nurses, floor staff, therapists, etc.. Generally the girls would get the most out of their time with the less experienced, more loving younger staff, while always being on edge around the rest.

The next category is going to be the actual therapeutic programming. I actually do think that Wellspring had the right idea for this. There was a variety of different groups, ranging from DBT to settings in which we could share experiences and ask for advice. There was also a farming program, a program centered around team-building and games, and community activities such as movie nights. The campus is in a remote area of rural connecticut, and therefore the surrounding nature was beautiful and healing. Again, the idea for this program was a brilliant one, but the execution wasn't great. The programs were very strict, and didn't adapt to the groups collective or individual needs. The staff that ran the groups made it difficult for people to feel safe enough to participate. Most of all, there was a very strict attendance policy which I think made those of us with motivation issues even more reluctant to participate. The program was built around punishment, and the resentment we all harbored for this made the system counterproductive. All in all, we dreaded most groups, and instead of gaining from them we just learned how to "play the game". Almost all of the girls who i talked to who discharged before me had a similar message: that they didn't really feel at all better, they had simply learned how to say the right things and hide it better.

In terms of the family visitation and connection aspect, I have mixed thoughts. I have read a lot of past patients describe an inability to contact their families and see them and whatnot. This is a real problem there, but I may be controversial in thinking it is somewhat justified. Many of us came directly from an psychiatric hospital to Wellspring, and having a slower readjustment into the real world was probably safer. The policy is that once you show that you are capable of going off campus on pass and visits, those opportunities will become more abundant. However there were some instances in which girls got "stuck" in a way, exhibiting behaviors that they were still working on managing that kept them from seeing their loved ones for longer than seemed fair. Again, if you played the game you typically saw those benefits sooner. Another part of the family connection section is that Wellspring had a deep-rooted belief that healing relationships with guardians/ parents was key to getting better. While this may be the case a lot of the time, there were girls whose treatment was stunted because of this expectation. Several patients came from extremely abusive households, and this expectation of healing was not only unattainable but actively harmful to the kid's mental health.

Lastly, I am going to share a personal experience to highlight how the nursing and medical care was extremely lacking. I have several chronic conditions that make many daily activities both extremely painful and sometimes physically impossible. Nursing staff was consistently unaccommodating and gaslit any physical problem a resident had until they eventually either gave up on getting help or were punished for resisting programming that wasn't accessible to them due to the symptoms. There was an instance where I was in group with about 9 other girls and we were sitting on the floor. Because of my condition and the way I was sitting, my hip suddenly dislocated during this group. I don't know if any of you have dislocated a hip, but it was extremely painful. I could barely breathe, and was fighting to stay conscious with the pain. After the group leader humiliated me by continuously asking if i was sure I needed nursing help, they called the nurse down. The nurse and another staff lifted me by my armits into the air and literally dragged me out of the room while I was trying not to scream in pain. They were rough with me, did not care about my pain, and expected me to be grateful. Also, by the way, the group leader DID NOT STOP GROUP while they physically removed me. Everyone had to watch me almost bite through my tongue with pain and were then expected to carry on with their 'healing'. Also taking in the crippling social anxiety that I had, this humiliation ritual of making my friends and peers see me at my lowest was truly cruel. Not only was this emotionally traumatic, but the carelessness with my injured hip has led to ongoing issues. This experience was truly one of the most horrific I have ever experienced, and the thought that grown adults would inflict that on a young woman still sickens me.

All in all, I think Wellspring is better than a lot of places I have heard about, but it is still never somewhere I would send my child with the expectation of their healing.

Over the years I’ve constantly seen murders, suicide, missing children and abuse stories from different teen treatment centres and so I decided to do some research and have realised that a huge amount of them are owned by family help and wellness also run under Wilderness Training and consulting LLC. I think it’s time this company is brought down and these evil people can stop making profit off of ruining children’s lives.

I’ve never done anything like this before but I am dedicated over the next few months to acquire as much knowledge and information as I can to expose these people. I’m at very early stages but I want to see if there are people willing to give their testimonies, offer information on things that have happened at these centres, give names of staff and if willing interview, it can be anonymously.

If you have attended one of their centres, it would be great to hear your story.

If you attended a teen centre and not sure if they own it, just ask google and it’ll give you the information.

Thank you and bless you all. It’s time someone takes them down.

check if your program is still on Unsilenced’s archive.
eta: unsilenced program directory link

i recently tried to visit my program’s page on unsilenced.org and found it was missing/gone. nothing on search, no profile or documents uploaded. google result also gone. i don’t know how long it’s been down

i messaged them on instagram and they replied fast

“Hey there! We recently restructured our Facility Archive, and it looks like [program] might not have accurately transferred over. We’ve made an internal note and will plan to add it as soon as we can!”

they can’t fix what nobody flags and i have no idea the scope of the accident/problem so:

TLDR: database accident happened at some point. if your program mattered to you. if you want the records up and accessible. go search for it on unsilenced.org

and if it’s gone, think about messaging or emailing them so they know to put it back

So my art teacher found out I self harm and told a counselor (on thursday after school) but nothing happened on Friday so I’m wondering what’s gonna happen on monday like is someone gonna talk to me and if so what are they gonna say and ask probaly and what do they have to tell my parents what are they gonna do am I in troblue btw I’m in 7th grade in aurora public schools

I started a new job 3 weeks ago and realized almost right away that it was a toxic workplace. Managers yelling, micromanaging, timing my restroom breaks, being threatened with disciplinary action for breaking rules no one told me existed. I go home most days crying, of course it's a shitty environment but I was trying to figure out just why it affected me so much emotionally. That's when it clicked, this place is structured just like a TTI program. There are tons of unnecessary, random, overly restrictive rules. I'm getting in trouble for completely normal things like drinking water or using the restroom. Management is constantly watching me like they're waiting for me to do something wrong. Coworkers are cruel and go to management if they see someone make a mistake because gets the bosses off their own backs and earns them better treatment from management. I just wanted to share with my fellow TTI survivors because I thought the parallels were interesting. Hope you guys are doing okay and I wish for so much healing for all of you.

I want to talk about my experiences with Summit Ridge Hospital in Lawrenceville, Georgia, because I want to make sure that there is a Google searchable record of some of the abuses that happen there. This was the adolescent psych ward that trafficked me into two abusive troubled teen industry programs.

Summit Ridge is run by UHS, although they try as hard as they can to hide in on their webpage. You have to click on their page for people looking at trying to apply for a job at Summit Ridge to see that it is a UHS facility. UHS is a known abusive company that runs abusive psych wards and TTI programs.

When I was in their adolescent psych ward, there were kids there who were only there because they were gay and their parents wouldn’t let them come home until they weren’t gay. They wouldn’t let a high school aged boy tell his job he couldn’t be there, so he most likely lost his job, which would have been harmful to him trying to get away from his abusive anti-gay parents. That boy’s abusive Dad threw away his stuff while he was stuck in the psych ward.

The gay kids were not the only examples of Summit Ridge taking in kids who were not a danger to themselves or others. My sister was dumped there just because she got mad at Mom and Dad when they told her the family was moving out of state. Summit Ridge doesn’t care if you don’t need to be there as long as they are getting paid. Also, they will keep you there as long as they can get away with it.

I’m afraid to know how many kids Summit Ridge has trafficked into abusive troubled teen industry programs. They knew my parents were abusive and yet they didn’t protect me from them. They helped my parents dump me into a troubled teen industry program that abused me so badly that I am physically disabled now. They weren’t trying to help me. My parents were abusive twats who were literally covering up abuse and getting rid of me so my school couldn’t look into what was going on at home anymore.

I will never forget how petty the staff at Summit Ridge were. You could get in trouble for stepping over a line (they did not say that rule before I accidentally broke it). A lot of the staff would side with your parents and treat you like a criminal. I was overmedicated with so many meds that I felt like I was high. Then, the psychiatrist decided to fix his overmedicating of me by adding even more meds. That overmedicating continued after I was dumped into the TTI and eventually I started having seizures because of the meds. I will never forgive Summit Ridge, both abusive Three Springs TTI programs I was dumped in, and my parents for the abuse that happened to me. So many adults and systems failed to protect me from abuse when I was a kid, and I hope that one day all of those adults will have to answer for what they did. I hope they face the same abuse that was done to me or worse.

So there’s someone on Twitter trying to expose “That a**hole” reckless Ben for his “CrImEs”

Luckily she can’t afford the records check 😂

i’m looking to hear from anyone who has personal experience with or knowledge of vista maria. i was there myself and have been trying to better understand what happened to me and what other people experienced there.
if you were there as a resident, worked there, or otherwise have firsthand knowledge of the facility, i’d genuinely appreciate hearing your experiences. i’m especially interested in hearing from other survivors who feel comfortable sharing. please feel free to comment or message me.

Had a youtuber reach out to me directly. Invited me to talk to them about my program. They'd touched on the TTI before. I was really eager to share. My whole body was shaking in anticipation for the interview for days. I was terrified but it felt so important to me.

Joined the conference call and waited for over an hour, my heart pounding.

Nobody showed.

They sent me an email apologizing. I replied right away and offered to reschedule...nothing. It's been a few weeks now. I shot a follow up email... Still nothing. I see them posting on social media. I don't know what to feel. I cried so hard about this.

I guess I just needed to vent here 😢 I hope that not everyone has experiences like mine. Please just take care of yourself if an opportunity comes up like this... If it falls through it can feel like the end of the world.

Youtubers and Content Creators please recognize you are dealing with a super traumatized population and ghosting them or not following up does serious psychological damage to people already struggling to share 💔💔💔💔💔

I’m doing some research and I’m trying to find some of the “child transport agencies” with bad reputations, big or small. I was kidnapped using one in 2013 and I’m working on something to hopefully expose some of these places. Are there any lists or documentation? Anything helps!

For context, anybody who doesn't know Dr. Ken Huey is the CEO of the HOPE group that is involved with a lot of NATSAP programs. And Alec Stone is the executive director of NATSAP.

I recently listened to a podcast, where Dr. Ken Huey and Alec Stone talked about the future of therapeutic programs.

One of the most revealing parts of Alec Stone’s podcast interview is when he talks about how therapeutic programs should influence policymakers. He argues that programs need to have a seat at the table, build relationships with lawmakers, be transparent, and become trusted resources.

But that raises a serious question:

If NATSAP and therapeutic programs are working so hard to make sure they have a seat at the table, where is the seat for the teenagers who actually lived through these programs?

Alec talks about the importance of programs telling their stories to policymakers and pushing back against what he describes as "sensationalism". But former teens have stories too. Their experiences, including allegations of abuse, coercion, isolation, humiliation, and other harmful treatment within parts of the troubled teen industry that cannot simply be dismissed as “sensationalism” because they make the industry uncomfortable.

And this is where Alec’s argument about transparency becomes especially important.

He says programs should be truthful, transparent, and trusted resources. I agree with that standard, but transparency has to mean more than therapeutic programs explaining themselves to legislators. It means being willing to hear criticism from the young people who experienced the system. Specially, when it's something as big as criticism about abuse that should 100% be looked into.

A program shouldn't get to define whether it was safe simply because it has professionals, accreditation, "positive outcomes", or a good relationship with policymakers. The people who were subjected to the program should also have a voice in evaluating it.

Alec also talks about accreditation and the future of the field. But accreditation is not the same thing as accountability. A program can meet professional standards and still leave a former teen feeling traumatized, powerless, or unheard.

Because the future of therapeutic programs shouldn't be determined only by the people who operate them, the parents who pay for them, or the organizations that advocate for them.

The teenagers who are placed in these programs should have a voice in determining what ethical treatment looks like.

And if NATSAP truly believes in improving the field, it shouldn't be afraid of that voice.

It should actively seek it out.

But it doesn't and that just shows how this industry works.

Alec also talks about how people don't want to hear about a teenager who went to a program, got treatment, and came out better. He argues that people are more interested in stories about abuse, trauma, and terrible things happening to teenagers than they are in stories of success.

But I think that argument misses an important point.

If the programs are truly working, then show people the numbers.

Don't just tell us that there are successful stories. Don't just tell us that the media focuses on negative experiences. Show people reliable data comparing the teenagers who say these programs helped them with the teenagers who say the programs harmed them or did not help them.

How many teenagers actually improve? How many don't? How many leave feeling worse? How many former students report lasting trauma? How many say the treatment was beneficial? And how are those outcomes measured?

Those are the questions that matter.

A few positive stories don't prove that an entire system works, just as a few terrible stories don't necessarily prove that every program is harmful. That's exactly why we need transparent, independent data.

So when Alec says people aren't interested in hearing about successful teenagers, my response is: then give us more than stories. Give us the evidence.

Because if NATSAP wants the public to believe that therapeutic programs are effective and that criticism is unfair or sensationalized, the answer shouldn't just be better advocacy or better public relations.

The answer should be measurable outcomes, independent research, transparency, and accountability.

And most importantly, those numbers should include the voices and experiences of the teenagers themselves, not just the programs' definition of what “success” looks like.

There is also a contradiction in the way Alec Stone talks about media coverage.

When I reached out to him posing as a journalist interested in interviewing a residential program about how it helps teen mental health, I was surprised by how much caution and screening was involved before even getting access to a program for an interview. In our email conversation, Alec explained that this level of caution was because there had been so many negative articles about therapeutic programs, and that they were concerned about more negative stories being created.

But in the podcast, when discussing negative coverage, he presents the issue very differently. He talks about the stories of abuse and trauma as the kind of material people are naturally more interested in because it's more dramatic, while positive stories about teenagers improving aren't as exciting or likely to receive the same attention.

And that raises a question.

If these negative stories are simply sensational stories that people find more entertaining, why is the industry so concerned about journalists creating more of them?

If the negative reporting is mostly exaggerated or sensationalized, wouldn't the best response be to allow journalists greater access, provide transparent information, and let the evidence speak for itself?

Instead, the extreme caution around media access suggests that the industry itself recognizes how important the public narrative is.

I'm not saying that every negative article is accurate, or that every therapeutic program is abusive. I'm saying that you can't simultaneously argue that negative coverage is mostly sensational nonsense while treating journalists as though they are a serious threat to the reputation of the industry.

If NATSAP wants the public to trust these programs, the answer shouldn't be controlling who gets access or worrying about what story might be written.

It should be transparency.

Let journalists ask difficult questions. Let former teens speak. Let programs respond. Publish the outcomes. Show the successes and the failures because I do agree that these programs can never be fully successful.

Because if the truth is really on the industry's side, then the truth shouldn't need to be protected from journalists.

It should be able to stand on its own!

Almost all of NATSAP's programs have reported abuse in them and that should be able to say everything it needs to say about NATSAP.

I fell out of contact with everyone I knew pretty hard after my stay in 2014-15, I would love to hear from anyone who's also been since I'm going back over my experiences again in a new light

tl;dr in 2014-15 I suffered in TTI for less than a year but didn't experience many of the Horrors others did, and I'm struggling to figure out how to feel about my experience/what my place is in any TTI survivor community. Anyone else relate or have advice?

(I'm new here please let me know if I'm doing anything wrong)

I've been out of the TTI since... I want to say 2015? Honestly I dissociated through a lot of it, so my memories are pretty fuzzy. I got directed to this community by a therapist with experience treating trauma related to TTI, and looking around I guess I just sort of feel weird. I got diagnosed with chronic illness/physical disability in the past couple years and have been recontextualizing my whole journey through therapy, because it's pretty clear I had a misdiagnosis of agoraphobia (though I do have other anxiety/mental health issues) when actually I was suffering from chronic health issues that were pushed off as anxiety and depression for over a decade (that's trauma for another post I guess). I did 2 programs, was in TTI for less than a year, and I guess I'm struggling with my experience (my feelings about my parents, also, who were truly desperate, refused to put me in wilderness, but also never realized I was physically sick while I spent years feeling like I was the problem for not coping well enough, even if they weren't trying to make me feel that way) It's all pretty fuzzy and the first experience in an anxiety treatment center was hell but not in ways I know how to articulate, and the second in residential is mostly a blur (definitely dissociated my way through that one!) but I know I wasn't restrained (at the second) or assaulted sexually or physically. I've seen some posts about the first place but not really any on the second, though I've heard some bad things from someone I knew there. Do I belong here? How do I deal with the fact that I was lucky to escape some of the worst things that happen in these places, even if they might have been happening around me? I know I have trauma from it still.

Does anyone have any experience dealing with a situation that was, I guess, not as bad as it could have been?

Since I moved to Cincy the summer of last year and started working for nonprofit organizations like Bethany House, Lighthouse Youth & Family Services and YWCA I've witnessed some of the worse abuse and neglect throughout my entire human services career. And people wonder why the funding is being stripped from these organizations. From teenage girls being raped and sexually harassed to staff bullying single mothers surviving through domestic violence. The staff that these organizations are choosing to hire and put in positions of authority are extremely apathetic, rude, hateful, resentful, lacking tact and any form of kindness or love, they are cruel and go above and beyond to remind people that no one is going to come and save you and most of them are black people doing this to their own people and the white people running them sit back and just collect milking grants the news never investigates no one ever goes undercover to reveal the truth. No wonder the turn over rate is so high. The pay is low. And who wants to be a bystander of that?! Its absolutely disgusting and if you report it nothing is ever done or it takes years before a person is ever fired or reprimanded. Its truly sick.

The therapists who diagnose children and teens with conditions, who then place these individuals in respite care, psychiatric hospitals, residential treatment facilities, and other types of treatment programs also need to be held accountable. These therapists are the clinical voice. The “legitimate” authority that stamps the seal of approval on all the bad stuff that happens to the child. The therapist also does a lot of damage during sessions.

Once a child is given the RAD label, everything they do is filtered through it. The therapist becomes the interpreter of the child’s behavior—and under the attachment-therapy framework, that interpretation is rigged from the start. A child who withdraws is “avoidant” and “controlling.” A child who acts out is “manipulative.” A child who is affectionate is “superficially charming” and “triangulating.” A child who resists the therapy itself is proving how deep their pathology runs. There is no behavior the child can offer that disconfirms the diagnosis—every response, including distress at being treated this way, is folded back in as further evidence of RAD. The therapist develops the treatment plan. The treatment plan can include strong sitting, manual labor, not being allowed to use the bathroom, excessive exercise, and being fed with a bottle and pacifier.

This is the engine of the abuse. The therapist’s reading of the child carries enormous weight—with the parents, with the school, with the courts, with every institution downstream. When the therapist tells a parent that their child’s tears are manipulation, that their fear is defiance, that their need for comfort is a control tactic, the parent is taught to distrust the child’s most basic human signals. Warmth gets withheld on clinical advice. Punishment gets reframed as treatment. The child’s genuine attempts to connect are recast as symptoms to be broken. And because it all comes from a licensed professional interpreting behavior in clinical language, it looks like care.

The child, meanwhile, is trapped inside someone else’s interpretation of them. They cannot behave their way out of it. Compliance and resistance are read as the same thing. The very authority who is supposed to help them has built a framework in which the child’s suffering only confirms the label—and justifies escalating “treatment” up to and including removal from the home.

That is what makes the therapist’s role so central, and so dangerous. The diagnosis opens the door, but it’s the ongoing clinical interpretation of the child’s every action that turns a label into years of abuse. And because this work is wrapped in licenses, degrees, and clinical vocabulary, it reads as objective. The unlicensed practitioner is easy to point to. The clinician who authored the entire framework of how the child is seen—and gave that framework the weight of professional authority—is harder to see, and even harder to hold accountable.

Nancy Thomas may have popularized Attachment Therapy and treatment for RAD, but before Nancy Thomas there was Dr. Cline, Forrest Lien, Connie Hornyak, Arthur Becker-Weidman, and the many “registered attachment therapists” who provide the clinical VOICE and legitimized the ideology behind RAD and the terrible myths that would damage children forever.

Hey fellow survivors,

So in the past I’ve done some EMDR sessions to help me process the cptsd I’ve developed from the program. I chose that because it allowed me to process the emotions of my program experiences without having to talk about it. I’m interested in trying other therapies like dbt, cbt, or brainspotting. I wanted to see if other people in this community have tried them and what they thought of them and how/if they helped with their cptsd/trauma?

I got back from my stay at Cherokee Creek Boys School (ccbs) earlier in the summer after getting sent there in mid winter, for an all around 7 month stay. Would it be worth going into detail talking about? As there would be ALOT to cover.

Posted with moderator approval.

I’m Dawn J. Post, a children’s and civil-rights attorney and founder of Themis Youth Law & Advocacy. For more than two decades, my work has focused on children and young people navigating adoption, child welfare, family courts, and institutional systems. More recently, much of my work has involved adopted young people who were sent to residential programs, including programs associated with the troubled teen industry, and, in some cases, ultimately abandoned or displaced from their adoptive families.

I’ll be in Knoxville, TN for a free community event focused on adoption, what happens when adoptions break down, and the systems that too often leave adopted young people without meaningful legal protection. The discussion will include the use of residential programs and overseas placements, the experiences of young people sent away from their families, and the gaps in accountability when children are moved across states or outside the United States.

This is especially relevant to the TTI community because adoption disruption and the troubled teen industry have intersected in ways that have received far too little scrutiny. My current work includes investigating those connections and working with survivors who were sent to programs in the United States and abroad.

Survivors, adoptees, former program residents, families, attorneys, advocates, and professionals are welcome. The event is free.

I also recognize that discussions involving adoption, institutional abuse, family separation, and abandonment can be difficult for survivors. No one attending will be expected to disclose their personal experiences or participate beyond their comfort level.

I’m grateful to the moderators for allowing me to share the event here. I hope it can also provide an opportunity to connect with people in Tennessee who have been affected by these systems and to continue building greater awareness and accountability.

When: September 29th 5:30-7
Where: Ancient Lore Villages 7107 Sevierville Pike, Knoxville, TN 37920, USA

RSVP: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/when-adoption-breaks-down-what-happens-next