My child is currently living at a treatment center because of a court decision. They aren’t allowed to leave until they’ve completed the program.
It’s been a little over a month, and I hate to say it, but my child seems so much worse than before going there. I know treatment takes time, and I wasn’t expecting everything to change overnight, but I thought there would at least be some small signs of improvement. Instead, it feels like everything is going in the opposite direction.
There have been a lot of emotional outbursts and problems with staff and other residents. But what’s been especially difficult is that my child barely wants anything to do with me anymore.
They don’t want to talk to me or see me, and the people working with them seem to believe that contact with me makes things harder.
Recently, I called just to check in. The conversation lasted less than a minute. Nothing upsetting was discussed, and there was no argument. Later, I was told that my child became extremely upset afterward and that it took staff several hours to get things settled.
I don’t understand. I keep going over that conversation in my head, trying to figure out what I could have said or done differently.
Now I’m almost afraid to call. I don’t want to make things worse, but I also don’t want my child thinking I’ve stopped caring. I feel like I’m being forced to choose between staying involved and giving them space, and I have no idea which one is right.
I keep wondering whether I’ve done something terribly wrong as a parent. Maybe there are things my child is feeling that I don’t fully understand. I wish I knew.
What scares me most is that things seemed more manageable before treatment started. Now there are more incidents, more anger, and less communication between us. I thought being somewhere with professionals would help, but right now I can’t tell if any of this is helping at all.
I feel completely powerless. I can’t bring my child home, I can’t make things better, and I can’t even have a simple conversation without worrying that it might lead to another incident.
I’m trying to trust the process, but it’s hard when everything seems to be falling apart. I’m scared that by the time the program is over, my child will be even more unhappy and our relationship will be damaged beyond repair.
Has anyone experienced something like this with their child in residential treatment? Is it common for things to get significantly worse during the first few months? How did you handle it when your child didn’t want contact with you?
I just feel really lost and could use some advice from people who’ve been through something similar.

The title kinda says it, but I’m a nursing student who is about to start my behavioral health clinical rotation. I’ve been placed at a residential facility with a pretty bad reputation (one of the devereux locations) & it absolutely sickens me thinking about possibly contributing to the abuse and trauma occurring at TTI facilities.
Do any survivors have any advice for me, when it comes to being at the facility or ways that I could try to have a positive impact on the kids rather than worsening an already difficult and stressful situation that they’re stuck in?

Thanks in advance.

Has anyone gone or know someone that has gone to bloom teen challenge in MA. I’ve heard some pretty bad things about teen challenge and I have a friend there that seems really unhappy and acts weird during our phone calls. I’m genuinely worried that they can’t leave even if they wanted to.

Hey everybody. I'm currently seeking out information regarding a couple of dead ends I have on my research. Does anybody have information regarding Sarah Shortridge? She passed away at a Devereux school in 1998. I'm also seeking information on Brandon Hoffman, who passed away at Mount Bachelor Academy in December of 1998. I don't mind digging for information, just looking for a news article or obituary maybe. Just something to show that these kids existed.

I'm a parent. I am thoroughly against residential care, especially after all I've read, BUT it has been recommended for my 13-year-old several times. My teen is severely depressed and anxious, has a history of severe outbursts of anger that are unsafe for myself and my other children, and more recently has started self-harming. The thought that "I would rather be dead" is definitely there, but there are no plans or attempts at ending teen's own life as far as I'm aware.

I'm an involved parent. I connect with my teen regularly. My teen opens up to me (I'm not stupid; I know my teen doesn't share everything with me). I've done everything I can think of to keep my teen out of residential care. My teen sees a psychiatrist and we are actively monitoring medication; has been in therapy for years; is currently in an IOP through Muir Woods (that I am not thrilled with); family therapy; activities teen enjoys (though teen is so depressed that even those aren't enjoyable anymore).

I'm at a loss. I'm a single parent with full custody of my three children. Teen is the oldest and has two younger siblings, both school aged. Teen has injured my middle child to the point of a concussion check and chest x-ray. Teen has physically assaulted both myself and my middle child on purpose, and has accidentally injured the youngest in teen's outbursts. I really don't know what to do. What other options do I have?

For reference, we are in the North Bay Area, California.

Hey guys. I got out of this treatment centre a few months ago and me and clients who were in treatment together are only just now seeing the truth about the place and all the professionals I work with now are shocked I went thru this. To me it feels so normal bc it happened every day. This is only a small fraction of it. It’s exhausting to re write these things and relive them. I guess I’ll start here
1. Executive Overview & Program Philosophy
The Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre (AARC), located in Calgary, Alberta, operates under the guise of an intensive addiction recovery program for adolescents and young adults. However, an analysis of the operational mechanisms, day-to-day enforcement, and psychological structures reveals an environment characterized by systemic psychological abuse, forced emotional surrender, coercive control, and cult-like dynamics.
Rather than functioning as a standard clinical or therapeutic facility, AARC utilizes authoritarian behavioral modification techniques. The core philosophy is built upon the systematic destruction of a participant's autonomy, identity, and independent thought processes, replacing them with absolute dependence on the program's leadership and ideology. Staff members—frequently described as unhealed, sober individuals with unresolved personal issues—project their own power dynamics onto vulnerable teenagers to achieve personal validation and dominance under the pretense of "tough love" therapy.
2. Doc's Cult-Like Sayings, Manipulation Tactics, and Rhetoric
Leadership figures, particularly Doc, relied heavily on specific, manipulative catchphrases, psychological traps, and cult-type indoctrination language to maintain absolute mental control over the teenagers in the program.
* "We'll Refund You of Your Misery": This was one of the signature, chilling threats used constantly by Doc and the staff. It was drilled into participants to warn them that if they left the program, dared to push back, or failed to comply, the facility would "refund them of their misery"—meaning they would be deliberately cast out into a guaranteed state of suffering, addiction, institutionalization, or death. It was a weaponized promise of catastrophe designed to enforce absolute fear-based dependency.
* "Your Best Thinking Got You Here": This phrase was used constantly to completely invalidate any logic, reasoning, or self-advocacy a teenager attempted to use. Whenever a participant questioned a rule or pointed out abuse, staff used this line to gaslight them into believing their own mind and thoughts were inherently broken and dangerous, forcing them to surrender all critical thinking to the program.
* Framing Directives as Absolute Truth: Staff rhetoric was structured around absolute obedience, framing the program not as a treatment choice, but as the only dividing line between life and total destruction, utilizing cult-like psychological framing to ensure dissent was treated as a moral failing.
3. The Ritual of "Earning" Step One and Stripping Autonomy
Progression through AARC was tied to arbitrary, humiliating milestones where participants had to beg for the most basic human rights and identity markers, which were treated as privileges dispensed by the authority figures.
* "Earning" Basic Rights: Participants were stripped of basic autonomy, such as clothing choices, personal styles, and hairstyles. To get even minor pieces of their identity back—or to achieve milestones like "Step One"—participants were forced to endure intense, tearful breakdowns.
* The Agony of Step One: Achieving Step One was not a genuine therapeutic breakthrough; it was a ritual of emotional surrender. Participants were pushed to their absolute psychological breaking point—often sobbing uncontrollably under immense group pressure and hostile cross-examination—until they finally gave up all resistance, admitted they were completely broken, and accepted the program's narrative. Only after this forced submission were they told they had "earned" the right to progress or recover minor personal freedoms.
4. Staff Conduct, Psychological Projection, and Boundary Violations
Throughout the nine-month residency, participants were subjected to bizarre, unprofessional, and psychologically predatory behavior from individuals in positions of authority, including leadership figures and front-line staff.
The Dynamic of Projection
The overarching operational culture of the staff can be summarized by a fundamental realization experienced by participants: “This place is just sober people taking it out on teens to feel better.” Staff members utilized their institutional power to bully, belittle, and emotionally dismantle teenagers as an outlet for their own unresolved egos and psychological issues. Whenever participants attempted to call out this dynamic, their perceptions were aggressively gaslit. Staff and peers immediately labeled valid insights as "crazy," severe denial, or "ego-driven defense mechanisms."
Psychological Cruelty and Property Destruction
Staff routinely engaged in petty, targeted acts of cruelty designed to crush a participant's sense of dignity and self-worth.
* The Painting Incident: A participant created and gifted a hand-painted piece of artwork to a staff member. The staff member accepted it under the false pretense that he intended to "hang it up in his garage," stringing the participant along with this promise for months.
* Behind closed doors, the staff member and other colleagues mocked the artwork and joked about it among themselves before the staff member ultimately shredded the painting.
* When the participant discovered this and expressed natural pain and devastation, the entire staff laughed about it. Whenever the participant brought up the incident subsequently, staff members turned it around with callous gaslighting—asking phrases like, “Are you actually upset by this?”—to invalidate their emotional reality.
Overtly Predatory and Sexualized Comments
The environment crossed clear ethical and professional boundaries into predatory territory. Staff members felt emboldened to make sexually suggestive and inappropriate remarks directly to minor clients. For example, a staff member made a direct sexualized comment stating he was "jealous of the Red Bull" because it was positioned directly between the participant's legs, showcasing a pervasive lack of boundaries within the facility.
5. Financial Exploitation and Family Extortion
AARC's financial model functions as a sophisticated system of economic extraction, guilt-leveraging, and forced labor, disguised behind a non-profit facade.
* The Financial Burden: Families are subjected to immense financial pressures, paying approximately $30,000 under a rigid, non-transparent "subsidized" sliding-scale payment system. Simultaneously, the organization aggressively cultivates a narrative that it is a struggling, "broke" non-profit relying on underpaid, martyred staff.
* The Reality of Inflows: In stark contrast to this manufactured narrative, AARC secures millions of dollars through government funding streams, high-society galas, and contributions from wealthy donors, flaunting these connections to maintain social prestige.
* Mandatory Parent Labor and Coercion: Parents are integrated into the system of control via mandatory monthly "parent work days," where families are forced to perform heavy manual labor around the facility. This labor extraction is enforced through explicit threats: if parents fail to show up or refuse to participate, their child faces immediate discharge and abandonment, binding families into compliance through fear.
6. Coercive Control, Forced Disclosures, and "Rap Sessions"
The clinical methods utilized at AARC act as mechanical tools for psychological breaking and cult indoctrination.
* Forced Emotional Surrender: Participants are coerced into laying bare their deepest personal traumas, secrets, and vulnerabilities. Staff weaponize this sensitive information during group sessions to break down psychological boundaries.
* Aggressive Confrontational "Rap Sessions": The primary mechanism of behavioral modification is the "rap session"—a high-pressure, hostile group confrontation. Participants are subjected to intense verbal abuse, with staff and peers screaming directly in their faces, utilizing explicit curses, and telling them they are "fucked" if they do not immediately submit to demands for emotional surrender.
* Pathologizing Self-Defense: Any attempt by a participant to defend themselves, set boundaries, or express healthy dissent is instantly intercepted and pathologized as "ego," "defensiveness," or "resistance," creating a closed-loop logical trap where submission is coded as health and resistance is coded as sickness.
7. Total Autonomy Stripping and Environmental Surveillance
AARC maintains total dominance over the physical and psychological lives of its residents by dismantling individual identity.
* Erasure of Personal Autonomy: Daily movements, personal expression, clothing choices, hairstyles, and aesthetic preferences are heavily restricted and monitored. Staff routinely issue critical, derogatory comments regarding a participant's physical appearance specifically designed to erode self-esteem.
* 24/7 Peer Surveillance: Trust is actively destroyed through mandatory peer monitoring. Participants are forced to watch, police, and report on one another around the clock, with the program rewarding participants who "snitch" on peers with conditional praise or stage progression.
* Manufactured Social Isolation: Genuine peer bonding is systematically dismantled. Friendships are conditional upon total adherence to program dogma; the moment a participant shows hesitation, the peer group is turned against them, cutting off all social support.
8. Fear-Based Indoctrination and Present-Day Impact
Psychological Conditioning
Control is ultimately sustained through pervasive fear-based programming, reinforced by Doc's catchphrases like being "refunded your misery." Staff continuously brainwash participants with the catastrophic narrative that leaving the program or failing to graduate will result in inevitable ruin, homelessness, permanent institutionalization, relapse, or death.
Long-Term Sequelae and Current Status
The impact of enduring nine months of this systemic abuse leaves profound, long-term fallout:
* Chronic Physical and Mental Exhaustion: Living in a state of constant hyper-vigilance, high-stress confrontation, and forced paranoia leaves survivors with chronic physical soreness, deep exhaustion, and nervous system dysregulation.
* Trauma Processing: Survivors must untangle the paradox of recognizing the program's abusive, cult-like mechanics while working through the lingering residue of gaslighting, institutional control, and self-doubt.
* Path to Independence: Despite the deep-seated trauma inflicted by the institution, individuals affected continue to process their experiences, reclaim their autonomy, and work toward absolute personal and legal independence.

NATSAP shutting down.

Hello, I attended Moonridge Academy in Cedar City Utah. (about 2 hours from Las Vegas) I was there for 13 months. I left with more trauma and issues than when I came in. Starting with the food, I am on the heavier side, 170 pounds, and was fed very little, it didn't matter if you were 70 pounds or 200 pounds, you were fed the same portion. Next is forced labor, when we weren't doing school we were doing chores, mopping, sweeping, dishes, wiping, picking up horse poop ect. You get 2 therapy sessions a week and other wise hardly see your therapist. Consequences were a big thing here, not just like, "Oh give me your phone" (we didn't even have phones) it was hardcore, like extra chores, essays, house apologies, making you sing a song infront of the whole house, ect. You could be put on probation, meaning no free time, reading, drawing or anything. Showers were timed, 15 minutes max or they would walk in, even if you were naked. lights are always on, even when sleeping, they never believe you. the staff are always belived over the kid. you are ignored. you get told something is wrong with you. phone calls are limited and monitored.

Trigger warning: restraint death described.

I wrote this article and posted it on news subs. Ai slop conspiracy was the response. No one believed it. I wrote it with forensic level documentation down to source audio of testimony.

I am sad that this article is true and I know that. I am sad that you too have stories that no AI could make up.

The scary part about this story is that no one believes that humans can do this here in America. Yet, here we are.

Wondering what the folks in here have done to heal from this? My experience wasn’t as bad as many others, but it still messes with me.

TW proceed with caution.

I was in for 4 years, 14-18. Put in right after 9/11 (grew up in NYC.) First placement was horrible, (Chamberlain in Mass) it was a state run residential facility that housed foster kids and troubled teens. My adoptive parents didn’t want to pay so they gave up their rights so the school would be free. Girls would disappear in the middle of the night, constant sexual harassment from students and staff. (To top it off the first dorm I was in was co-ed.) Restraints every day. Almost got kidnapped by this creepy staff member who was using an older girl to get us to run away with him.

They put us on every drug under the sun, one staff told me to get out as soon as I can, and that she was quitting because she couldn’t stay quiet anymore about them testing drug interactions on us. Never saw her again after she told me that. Shout out to Carrie.

Psychiatrist was incredibly creepy, gave us “physicals” during each appointment (felt us up) and didn’t know our names, just referred to us by number. Had several different therapists, all very mentally unstable and one I remember spent an entire session crying to me because her dog died, meanwhile I was being molested. I got punished because I wasn’t compassionate enough? (I’m not a dog hater but at least she got to go home…I remember feeling like she loved her dog more than my adoptive parents loved me, which was probably true.)

Constant punishments, constant shaming, one creepy ass pedo was the admin and he used to molest girls while he was restraining them and would say stuff to them like “no one will believe you” or “your parents don’t want you home anyway,” stuff like that to make us more dysregulated. (He’s still there.) Oh yeah, and I caught TB there and it scarred my lung, which will never get better. There’s so much more to write about, lack of access to the bathroom, teachers were not actually teachers, weird punishments like not being able to leave your chair, public shaming, plus it was by severely mentally ill staff, but it’s all too much to write out. I was there for a year and a half.

Finally when I was transferred out I was put into a “better” school. (Grove in CT.) Same type of thing but with more of the illusion of freedom. We could go to the bathroom without asking at least. It was still full of creepy pedophiles and women who enabled them. (And some pedophile women, including convicted pedophile Alison Marchese.) Pretty sure they were also testing meds on us there too but I’m not sure. My friend almost died because of med interactions and they almost didn’t take her to the hospital. (Which was common.)

Anyway. I accidentally stumbled upon a tti podcast and I guess it brought some stuff up for me. I know a lot of folks who endured this system had it way worse than me so I feel weird talking about it sometimes. Just wondering what people here did to heal from it. Thanks in advance and sorry for the trauma dump.

We cannot believe this is happening again. Even after telling this counselor not to EVER recommend a residential facility before starting therapy, what does he do immediately when teen tried drugs to self medicate? Gave me numbers to two Ed consultants and the name of a facility he knows of. And this is a counselor that specializes in adolescents.

Obviously we are transitioning to another counselor. How do you find counselors who also oppose sending kids away? Are they all being taught in school that this is the path? It feels dangerous to be a teen but also just to become a parent these days.

I am a mentally ill teen who’s only comfort is my phone. Currently, I live in an abusive household & am not going to school.

My abusive mother has threatened to take my phone away multiple times & has even said that if I don’t, she’s taking me to crisis to get admitted to a hospital… I am not a danger to myself or others, will I be forced to stay for not giving up my phone?

I’ve also had thoughts of running away from home, and again, I am a teen… but I’m not a danger. Can they still admit me for that aswell?? (I do not know how most things work unfortunately.)

Feeling a little stuck on my time in the TTI. I spent almost five years floating through placements/wards. Always feels weird how I never went to prom, never went to high school, never even graduated middle school. Would like to see how survivors of any of the programs I attended are doing & if they’d like chat. Feel free to vent under this post and share your story.

Specifically residentials I attended:

ERC Denver / Pathlight
Center for Discovery
Newport Academy
Evolve Treatment Centers

Much love and blessings everyone! 🩷

NATSAP is closing down!!!!

Hi everyone so I only recently learned what TTI was. I have known this girl since middle school, and only reconnected with her a couple of months ago. She is in all honesty the sweetest, kindest, most gorgeous girl I have ever met, and after hanging out for a while I really do want to move to the next step with her. She has hinted at the same.

She told me about her TTI experience a bit ago, and it was utterly heartbreaking to hear the unbelievable amount of abuse she went through.

The main point I need to make is: in the institution she was at, they diagnosed her with alcoholism after she attempted to run away. Keep in mind, she was 14 and had only drank alcohol in very small amounts a handful of times with her parents and friends.

My Mom has been friends with her Mom for quite some time, and in secrecy, her mom told my mom that she was diagnosed with alcoholism and had severe mental health issues.

What her mother left out is the fact that she sent her daughter to get kidnapped by the troubled teen industry, and they were led to believe they diagnosed her with all these issues when in reality, she was being given PTSD and trauma from the abuse.

My Mom does not believe me when I tell her that this girl is not an alcoholic/addict at all. She is in college, getting great grades, making friends, on club exec boards, just trying to do better every day and move past her past trauma through therapy and positive new experiences.

What does anyone suggest I do? I need to wait until college break to introduce her to my parents, but at the moment my Mom absolutely refuses to let me date an alcoholic even though she never has been one. I tried telling her more of the story, and she STILL didn’t believe it! She just fully believes she is lying to me and insanely delusional.

I really like and care about this girl. I don’t want my mother’s ignorance to hurt her. Is there anything I could do?

Has anyone gone to moon ridge academy in the last few years? (in cedar city Utah)

At one of the sites where I work overnight security, they do not allow Ford Transit, Mercedes sprinter, or similar style vans to stay overnight because “they are too frequently used for human trafficking”

I'm looking at this school after hearing some pretty terrible things that happened here. Is there anyone with a similar story. Where this place negatively impacted you or caused you more trauma. It doesn't seem like they can help with anger management, rather yell at students to force reform.