Fred at Second Nature Wilderness program

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go the original author Fred

They took off my pictures like many other people here I got PTSD from going there along with acute intermittent porphyria. A 1:100 disease for life. I throw up blood regularly I go to the bathroom and see blood in the toilet im now on 10 pills just for anxiety and sleep and 15mg a day of oxy.

This place gave me nightmares and health problems for the rest of my life. I moved out never spoke to my parents again. I had pictures that were taken down part of porphyria is you get sun blisters my face back and chest have scars from the sun sores that will never be healed or covered up. I experience pain everyday I've had seizures as a result of the PTSD my last seizure dislocated my shoulder and tore my rotatir cuff.

I came out worse than I went in. They refused to bring me to the hospital and I was told if I didn't stop throwing up i couldn't go home. I was so sick there from the salmonella I was throwing up daily one night I was so dehydrated I passed out half way to my tent and passed myself. Sending your kid here could kill them my doctors told me im lucky to be alive and what I have (porphyria) could be passed onto my kids. It mutated my gene. Screw them if you send your kid they will hate you. Im not the only one who came out worse than when they went in. If I got sick I was supposed to carry extra weight while hiking to metaphorically reflect the weight the group had to carry from dragging me by my backpack while I was unconscious on hikes. Luckily the staff although they were told not to bring me to the hospital they atleast didn't force me to carry extra weight after they found me unconscious when I passed out and passed myself. They knew I want faking but the therapist believed I was.

I was also mocked because I read the bible cause I knew I was dying. I debated hanging myself while there because I knew I was dying I wanted to go out on my own terms. I had my will written inside my boots telling my parents to get an @autopsy done. I also told my friends in my group to tell my parents what REALLY happened to me and why I died. I HOPE THIS PLACE BURNS TO THE GROUND. Therapist lu vaughn was my therapist. The staff I had knew something was wrong but they were helpless because of her orders. I been to jail and jail was better than that place. Imagine sending ur child somewhere worse than jail they will never be the same. I don't trust anyone and cut off my entire family because of this place. Look at the other reviews more ppl left with PTSD I wouldn't wish PTSD on my worst enemy

Sources:

• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 327. Second Nature Wilderness program (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

A mothers testimony about SUWS

This testimony by a mother was found on Yelp. All rights go to the original author Maria

Outrageous...I wouldn't send my worse enemy there. They said they worked with kids with anxiety disorders. Absolutely, not so much!!! My daughter was me never in trouble not even once. I'm not saying this because my daughter walks on water, she was a typical kid.

She said she didn't sleep till the last night when they had to stay by themselves. Sleep deprivation, one of her anxiety issues. She had to use raw safe found in the hills for toilet paper. She said there was a boy there who had bipolar disorder and they had no idea how to work with him. She said he struggled greatly and it wasn't behavioral. I can't believe how much money we spent for nothing. She came home just as anxious as she was when she left. She has gone to school, now works and works through her anxieties the best she can. I almost forgot. She said one of the girls caught her hair on fire. The therapists said the kids had to help and didn't offer their own. This is only one of the horror stories.

My daughter has not complained once and said she was/is not angry. She's said many times we had to do what we had to do. She's a hell of a lot more forgiving than I. I'm disgusted with their false advertising. I hope whomever is looking for help takes heed and does an in depth search.


Sources:

• (The original testimony on Yelp)
• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 140. SUWS (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

John at Second Nature Wilderness program

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go to the original author John

I attended SNBR during the summer of freshman year (I'm 19 right now). I was there for 84 days or 12 weeks before I came home. Unlike some of the other negative reviews, I'm doing great. I just got accepted into a top university and my future is looking bright. So why the one star review? Well let me get into my rant. I was sent to SN mainly for my relationship with my parents. Yes, there was a little bit of drug use and drinking sprinkled in there, but nothing that I would classify as abnormal for somebody experimenting during high school. I was extremely honest with my parents with my drug use which caused much of the problems in our relationship that culminated with me being sent to SN. Anyway, I firmly believe that although our relationship wasn't perfect, at least it was honest. After being sent to SN (I didn't attend therapeutic boarding school after) I didn't tell my parents anything, and now our relationship is extremely fake. I feel like I can't talk to them about anything.

I don't think I had a problem when they sent me, however the program created one. I would find myself admitting to things that I never did just to appease the therapist or else she would continue to berate me for lying. I actually thought there was a mistake when they sent me, I thought they didn't know what they got me into, and they wouldn't let me call them. So I decided to run on the first night to contact them. However when I turned myself in my therapist diagnosed me with a slew of conditions. I thought of myself as a pretty happy kid before I was sent, but I started having suicidal thoughts during the program and they still continue to this day. I felt like I couldn't talk to the therapist about it because another kid in my group did this and was put on "safety watch"(not fun). Anyway, I spent most of my time there feeling terrible because showing any sign of weakness would be overanalyzed to the point where it would only exasperate what you were feeling.

I don't credit SN with how I turned out one bit. I still drink (I would smoke weed still, but I'm studying abroad in a country where the penalty is extremely harsh. In addition, my summer job has random drug tests). I even got into cocaine and messed around with various other hard drugs right after my release and I don't think I would have had I not attended SN.

The other kids in my group were not as lucky, however. The one thing I am grateful for is some of the friendships I formed there. I still keep in contact with 4 of the people from my group. Well 3 now because one died from an overdose. Anyway, one of them is doing well, but his situation was like mine, he was doing fine before he was sent. One is a drop out, and works minimum wage jobs. He was doing well in high school before he were sent, but somehow dropped out of college after graduating from his therapeutic boarding school. And one sells drugs.

Let me address therapeutic boarding school. If somehow you still want to send your child to SN or a program like it, therapeutic boarding school is not the way to go. They will always recommend your child attend one, regardless of their progress. Although SN doesn't directly pay the schools, they aren't impartial. If they send somebody to therapeutic boarding school, when your child flip out at the school because those schools are nuts and create problems that weren't initially there, the school sends them back to SN. Its a symbiotic relationship, where you're child will get the shaft 10/10 times.

So in conclusion, the only thing that really resulted from this program was a superficial relationship with my parents and depression that I'm just now starting to get over. This program creates more problems than it solves. I hope if you're a parent reading my review, you will take into account what I've said. I think I've been rational, I'm not some delinquent that is blaming the program for my problems. I wish you the best of luck getting the help you need from an alternative source.

Sources:

• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 327. Second Nature Wilderness program (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Jay at SUWS

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights goes to the author Jay

Please never ever send your child to this wretched place. As young man I was a little rebellious got caught drinking and smoking weed around 15 and 16 nothing most kids that age ain't doing. Violated my juvenile probation over getting caught with ciggerttes and being out past curfew (which was 6pm) after violating 3 times they sent me off to a rehab program.

Two weeks in I got I a fight with a kid who was bullying me and ended up hurting pretty bad but nothing serious no trip to the hospital or anything. Because of that the folks in charge at the rehab along with my probation officer agreed to send me to SUWS. I was there 3 days before I escaped and then began my time lost in the desert with no food or water drinking my own urine to survive.

Sure it was my choice to run away but you don't know the conditions put on CHILDREN at these hell camps. They make it look like a great life skills building camp where they fix whatever is wrong with your troubles kid. I am 24 years old now and have to say this place did absolutely nothing to improve my life I fact I think I have more trauma from this place than anything.they don't wash your shirt or pants the whole time your there. Only wash your socks and underwear once a week! Only gave me a real shower once my whole 6 weeks there. They did being a field shower once which is just a container full of water you spray yourself down with. Slept in the dirt everyday no pillow just sleeping bag.

Not one phone call to your family not even after I had been lost for 3 days out there near death.It's also a scam where they tell you you'll get out in 4 weeks but then always convince parents they need to stay longer. Never met one kid who left in 4 weeks. So much more horrible things the food, harassing abusive counselors. Place is pure hell. If you love your child never send them here.


Sources:

• (The original testimony on Yelp)
• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 140. SUWS (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Roxanne at Second Nature Wilderness program

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go to the original author Roxanne

I highly doubt that anyone researching programs will look here.. on Yelp, but I would be remiss not to warn parents and families at every turn of this abusive program. Second Nature makes fantastical claims of it's success rates, safety, and the qualifications of its staff but a little intensive research yields the truth: Second Nature programs are no more effective, and absolutely no different than programs like Utah's now-closed North Star Expeditions/Challenger Foundation. In fact, wilderness programs and boot camp-style "tough love" treatments have zero peer-reviewed studies which show they are effective. I am 100% fo' serious (research it!).

I am a former camper, and I ended up swept through the system, and away from home for a bit more than two years. Second Nature refused me my inhaler while hiking despite the fact that I have had documented athsma my entire life (claiming that although I take asthma medication, that I was "lying" about my condition). 2N also espouses isolation as a successful form of therapy (most campers will spend 6-7 days on "Solo," not a single person in sight, completely alone with no idea where staff is located). Please read any literature related to the recent Kelief Browder tragedy if you're curious about whether or not isolation/solitary confinement is an effect form of treatment. 2N Counselors (who hold no degrees, certification, and are often 20-somethings with sleeves or tattoos and no career aspirations) were often incredibly cruel, telling a sick campmate of mine that she was "disgusting," or calling young girls brats, fools, manipulative liars if they were sick, "idiots" and more. Worst of all, the program is recklessly-run and thus, dangerous. Our group was lost one afternoon with no water and no food, and 1 of my fellow campers fainted from dehydration.

1. Any program that monitors, censors, or severely limits the contact you have with your child raises a big fat red flag. Your child should be able to have unmonitored contact with you, in the case that they are being mistreated or are in danger. 2N censors written letters written by campers, and phonecalls (which are a privilege granted before one leaves) are always in the presence of 1 or more staff member.
2. A program that deals with frightened, sick, or abused children and teens as "manipulative, liars, entitled brats," and more is also a red flag. "Being immature," is not a reason to send a child to treatment (a child or teen, by definition, is "immature").
3. Programs that do not require staffers to have advanced degrees, and years of experience in the field= red flag. Qualified individuals should be a first-priority of any program which conducts it's "treatment" in conditions as extreme as 2N's.
4. Programs which ask you to waive your power of attorney over to their staff and ask that you not sue in the case of severe illness, major injury, or death= red flag.

Essentially, there are far too many horror stories but the bottom line here is: do your research. Now do more. The troubled teen industry is just that- an industry (not-so-fun-fact: supported by Romney's venture capitalist firm, Bain), and their first and foremost priority is to make money for themselves and their friends at therapeutic boarding schools, "escort services," and "educational consultants." Profiting off a family's vulnerability, confusion, fear, or even worse abusive and dysfunctional dynamic is morally reprehensible. Torturing teens doesn't make anything or anyone better, it makes things worse. In the best case scenario, you will be exorbitantly wealthy and able to send your child to a "therapeutic boarding school," a program which I can only describe as abuse-lite. Parents- you have options! Please, please, please arm yourself with facts/peer-reviewed and unbiased statistics and studies regarding troubled teen programs, and not sales propaganda. Best of luck to you!

Sources:

• (The original testimony on Yelp)
• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 327. Second Nature Wilderness program (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Alli, Melanie and Kathy about SUWS (The School of Urban and Wilderness Survival)

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go to the author Alli

I was sent here 8 years ago for what my parents were told would only be 28 days - this was the first scam, I was not told when I would go home and my parents had no idea when i would come home either, it ended up being a total of 66 days (3 months) before I was released and everyone has varying lengths of stay, 3 moths is about average.

The second biggest scam was after SUWS my parents and almost 90% of the other students "graduating" from the program were convinced we needed further help and needed to go to a therapeutic boarding school (TBS) somewhere else for long-term help. Most of the students stay in these TBS until they are 18, these programs will mess up your kid more than help them, I became agoraphobic after leaving my program because the owners threatened my parents and told them I would have to be put through more ongoing brutal psychological punishment for trying to leave their program early.

If you are thinking of sending your kid away please dont listen to the academic advisors they are being paid by these programs, i am open and honest to talk to you please email me at alliloweart@gmail.com

Allie at Second Nature Wilderness program

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go to the original author Allie

I had a horrible experience in this program. The reason I decided to go is that I had gone through a traumatic experience and I started seeing a therapist who recommended it.

I was expecting to feel supported and get to know the staff and other people in the program. Instead I was treated like a criminal even though I've never done drugs or broken the law.

The staff you interact with on a daily basis are not trained therapists. They were often emotionally abusive. I was told that if I left the program early my parents wouldn't want me back. I have a very close relationship with my family and knew that was bull****. At the time I was on disability at my first job out of college and had moved back home.

We were often bullied and treated with disrespect. We hiked in over 100 degree weather most days . I was on a lot of anti anxieties bc I would get panic attacks which made me extremely tired. Sometimes when I needed a break from hiking (which btw i love hiking and used to do that most weekends before I was mentally I'll) I was told I was lazy and that I could not take a break.

During most of the program I was not allowed to talk to my parents. The therapist kept telling them I needed to stay longer. Btw they charge something like $5,000 per week which isn't cheap so they have a strong incentive to make you stay longer.

Finally in order to leave the program I would just flat out lie to the staff and say everything they wanted to hear. When I finally was allowed to go home my parents were very upset and I was very depressed for months. When I was finally able to communicate with my parents during the program I was terrified to tell them about what the program was like. The therapist was on the phone line and told me what I needed to tell my parents if I wanted to leave any time soon.

I'm happy to say that now I'm doing very well . I'm a full time grad student and work 20 hours a week at a university. If anyone wants to talk to me about my experience I welcome it and am more than happy to answer questions.

Of course this is only my experience and I know there are ppl who benefit from it. If your kid has serious behavioral problems or addicted to drugs they might benefit. If your kid is feeling depressed or anxious I wouldn't recommend it. It could make their problems worse.

Sources:

• (The original testimony on Yelp)
• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 327. Second Nature Wilderness program (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Rebecca at SUWS

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go to the original author Rebecca

It's been over ten years since I was at SUWS and it still a sore spot between me and my family. I can honestly say I will never forgive my parents for sending me here and will always hold it against them. My parents regret listening to so called experts, who may have been profiting from recommending us.

The experience was horrible and arbitrary. We were made to hike long past our limits and ostracized by our group for being unable to continue. The staff put us in situations made to break us down and were unsympathetic to our suffering. I was misdiagnosed and abruptly taken off necessary medication leading to a break down. I was forced to drink excess amounts of water until I felt like gagging.

The other members in my group did not fare well either. Few viewed the program favorably. The one I stayed in touch with turned more into drugs after the program than before.

As a formed student I urge parents to think about how much their child will suffer if they attend.


Sources:

• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 140. SUWS (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Conner at Second Nature Wilderness program

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go to the original author Conner

Don't buy into the positive reviews, this place is terrible. You are a monster if you go through with sending a child there. What this place does to people is comparable to rape or molestation in the shame and how it outcasts you permanently from ever really feeling back at home again. When you are out there, the staff have no problem letting you know this is a business and that they are using the willingness and trust of confused and frustrated parents with money, and feeding you into an expensive system where therapists and professionals convince the parents that their child needs expensive boarding school, or other "after-care" programs.

I was there summer of 2010 Group4 and I wish this never happened to me. Never have your child kidnapped people. That's what mine did. That's what this program may have you do, many in my group did. They had two huge Richmond gangster African American men burst into my room at 4am and drag me out of my room, threatening to handcuff me if I resisted at all. Others in my group had been beaten bloody by their "escort service" for resisting. Do not listen to the positive reviews. Maybe for a few this might work, but this has made my life hell in unimaginable ways. I'll never forgive my parents for what they put me through with this, and I wish I could organize a joint lawsuit and get together with former "clients" and sue the hell out of this place for the damage they have caused us. You are a monster if you send your kid here.

Don't buy into the recommendations of professionals. This is not how you should treat any sort of problem. You are sending your child to a marching internment camp where they could be eaten by a bear because someone else brought food in their pack to bed. Which there aren't tents here people. Just a boat tarp you string up with paracord, so rats run over you in the night, mosquitos swarm you in the hundreds, so loud their buzzing is what wakes you in the morning. Where if you don't make a fire with sticks successfully, you can't sit by the group fire or eat group food, forced to eat cold tuna envelopes while everyone else eats. Where they make you walk miles without water on "dehydration hikes". Where staff members taunt you that you aren't going home and that the therapist will convince your parents to send you to a boarding school.

I was just a kid with depression who smoked some weed. A psychologist and his recommended "educational consultant" convinced my parents to have me kidnapped the day after I finished my school year and spend my 16th birthday and the next 3 months in the custodial care of this abomination of a program. Please. I beg of you. For your child's sake don't go down this road if you care anything about having anywhat of a normal relationship with your child. I can answer more questions if you'd like.

Sources:

• (The original testimony on Yelp)
• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 327. Second Nature Wilderness program (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Danielle at SUWS (The School of Urban and Wilderness Survival)

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights belong to the original author

Do NOT send your children here. Every single positive review that you read (as you may notice) is NOT from somebody who attended here.

I was sent here when I was 15 years old. I was not a "bad kid", didn't do drugs or party; was simply going through a rebellious teenage phase where I back talked my parents a lot and they were concerned for my future. This place is legal torture. You are not allowed to talk to your peers. At several points, counselors would place bags over our heads to punish us for talking to other girls in our group.

In the 59+ days I spent living in the woods, we were provided 2 baths. 2. For some who are not comprehending this, that is one shower per month. Living in the woods. We were subjected to below freezing temperatures with NO winter clothing. We were forced to lug around bloody pads for a week at a time if you were female. A majority of the group I was in left with multiple physical issues (worms, staph infections, infected wounds, gangrene). Not only this, but all of our parents were lied to about the therapy we were receiving.

I am still in contact with several of the girls in my group, and every single one of us has developed a severe anxiety/PTSD type issue that has affected our lives. I came out way worse from this program than I ever was before. This is not a "camping trip" that the website and camp reps portray. Please understand that parents. Do ANYTHING besides send your child here. Myself and several other are actually filing a class action lawsuit against this place. There are so many other ways to help your child. Please, don't believe that this is one of them.....

Sources:

• (The original testimony on Yelp)
• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 140. SUWS (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)