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)

Brittany at Trails Carolina

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

Oh let me start from the top with this place. In all honesty, I cannot begin to fathom where I should begin. Let me start with my experience going thru the program. To protect my privacy, I will not name specifics in regards to timing of my dates. I was one of the lucky ones in terms of having knowledge beforehand that I was going. When your parent or legal guardian enrolls you, the admissions counselor tells them to not inform your child of when or where they are going. They have these little deceptive services they use and the rest of the students called them "goons" They came to your house in the middle of the night and literally forced you to pack your things and to get in the car with them to go to Trails Carolina. I was lucky enough not to go thru this, but everyone else in my squad did. I could tell that Trails did not like that I knew ahead of time because they called my parents and told them that I had contacted them for more information. I have documentation supporting that in case it is disputed for any reason in a response.

What was supposed to be a therapeutic experience has left me with nothing but sheer PTSD for the past years following my graduation from the program. Nightmares ensued and still ensue now even years after. The minute I walked into my first day and I was dropped off, I was sent to a room where they made me strip out of my clothes while someone watched, and change into some kind of uniform. A green t shirt and a red hoodie and these quick dry pants and some hiking shoes. I was there for a little over two months during the winter season. In the North Carolina mountains it can get below 0 degrees with the wind chill at night.

This place is anything but therapeutic. Let me tell you the menu of food we had to eat. By the way, they told us when we could eat. Yes. There were times when we were not allowed to eat. Mondays breakfast was oats which we made using a pot filled with water from the creek which was boiled. Mondays lunch? Oh the same with every lunch. One tortilla with honey. Thats it. Everyday for almost 80 days. Dinner on Monday was rice and beans. They portioned the meals into a green cup that everyone had. You had to eat at least half a cup and a maximum of 2.5 cups which you told the person making it before. We carried the food around everywhere with us. Tuesdays dinner was called mush. What is mush? It's literally everything that you didnt use from the week put into one pot and served .This included sometimes noodles, peanut butter, garlic, and whatever else wasnt used because Wednesday was resupply and we were not allowed to keep any food. Each week each person got a bag of food that was called a "p-bag" inside was a ziploc bag of raisins, mixed nuts, 1 jar of peanut butter, 6 oranges, and apricots. If we didnt eat it all we couldnt keep it. Heres the funny thing my first day, I came in on a Monday, so the next day was the last day, I got my p-bag and I had a full jar of peanut butter and all the rest of the kids were mad. So after I turned in my food bag for the night, the staff opened my jar of peanut butter and scooped out half of it to make it "fair"

So Trails has 5 different stages of the program. The first is called Trailhead, then Waypoint, then Legend, then Barron which is the red book then navigator then guide. I never made it to navigator thank god. Honestly, and I'm not going to lie, I learned nothing during those 70 days, I learned after I left that my parents almost had to hire a lawyer to get me home because the therapist assigned to me, Todd Green would not let me leave. He said that I wasn't ready. I was there for a minor reason compared the rest were there for drug trafficking offenses, and he had the audacity to suggest to my parents that I not return home but instead be sent across the country to a therapeutic boarding school. He suggested that I was doing horribly to my parents. My parents were being told that I was doing horribly. He set me up while I was there to try and get me to relapse into my old behaviors so that he could tell my parents that I needed to be sent away. I will repeat this again.

I have PTSD still from this. I tried repressing it for a long time but I face it now still. I will never forget collecting sticks from the woods in the freezing cold rain and my hands almost frostbitten and if I stopped I would have gotten reported in the blue books that they kept a log in. Once again, I will repeat that I cheated my way thru the program because I didnt think I would ever get out. We had to bust a coal which means create a spark that turned into a fire using a bowdrill. This was really stupid because the whole program was centered around busting a coal or you couldnt go home. I signed several activities as complete myself so I could go home. This place is a mess do not send your child here. I promise you it will be a nightmare. Please feel free to contact me for further info

Sources:

• (The original testimony on Yelp)

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)

Kristen Chase - one of girls who never got back

There are many wilderness program graduates out in the normal society. Post traumatic stress disorder is a term which sadly is all to well-known to them. It is a difficult issue to struggle with. It takes tons of therapy to make daily life happen.

But even more sadly there are also teenagers who never got home.

Kristen Chase was one of them.

In 1990 wilderness therapy was the thing. Many teenagers without issues were exposed to the concept because their parents believed so-called experts that wilderness therapy could fix everything. Even putting amputated parts back on to the body again. It was an insane time.

One of the teenagers who were exposed to the wilderness therapy concept was Kristen Chase.

Her health was far from perfect. Articles state:

. . that Kristen suffered from bouts of coughing up blood, stomach pain, urinary burning and frequency, difficulty running, menstrual difficulty and a knee injury."

Regardless of clear evidence that she never should have been anywhere near a wilderness program, she ended up in one. It resulted in her death.

She was not the first teenager to die in a wilderness program. She was not the last. Today she is just a number in a huge list of teenagers who have died in in-patient programs. For her family she was more than a number. She was a daughter, a family member who never got to live out the potential she had.

Today there are memorial blogs for teenagers like her who never got back home from what was supposed to be treatment. And these blogs grow. New names are added.

Each name is a tragedy, a loss.

When will it ever stop?

We cannot answer this because legislation allowing teenagers to live a good life with friends, beers and parties are not in place.

Here are some links about her:

• Father sues Challenger over daughter's death (Deseret News)
• Kristen Chase - 1990 (Today a child died - memorial blog)

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)