Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Facility Question and Answers

Outback Therapeutic Expedition /Second Nature

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glaceau:
My ex-wife has a lot of money. She has a psychiatrist and at least 5 psychologists involved in this case. Although, of course, no psychiatric evaluation was ever done on my son until he was in the wilderness program for a month, and even then his diagnosis came back as Depression NOS and Parent-Child relationship problems, neither of which are recognized as valid diagnosis for residential therapeutic treatment.

Her basis for putting him in Utah is parental alienation syndrome, that I have made her kids hate her.  She ignores the fact that her kids didn't start hating her until after she sent her son to Utah. She used PAS as an excuse to send her son to Utah even though he had never committed a crime, was passing in all of his classes in school, had never been violent toward anyone, and was obedient to her reasonable orders. In reality, she sent him to Utah because he does not want to live with her, and in a child custody dispute sending him to Utah is the only way she can keep him from being able to live with me. Otherwise, at 15, he would get to choose the parent he wanted to live with.  As it is, she has kept him from having any contact with me or his sister for six months  now in spite of two court orders so far to the contrary.

As far as the court putting her in jail, that is unlikely. She is claiming that she is acting in the best interest of the child, and the court has to wait until it has facts to the contrary. The court ordered an independent psychological evaluation of my son in June and it has not yet been performed due to my wife's and the facility's continuances and delays. She has 3 lawyers working for her on this case.

The best that I can hope for is that my son gets brought back home sometime in the next 3 or 4 months. I will have to put up with more of this crap until he turns 18.

cooltherapy:
I have barely skimmed this thread - am usually over at the carlbrook thread.

while i HATED carlbrook with every inch of my being... I would go back to second nature any day. I was well taken care of, my therapist and staff supports actually paid attention to me - i never felt as if i was being punished... i was healthy, fed well, was in shape and whenever anything went wrong was immediately tended to (ex... had a rash and saw a doctor the next day).

they bring birthday cakes from the grocery store out for birthdays, the staff help make living in the wilderness fun.

i was there for four months (which is much longer than most) and have nothing but fabulous things to say about the program.

i was never pushed past my breaking point physically - they took into account my size (tiny) and my pack was the appropriate weight. never too much hiking, but enough to push myself and feel good at the end of the day.

I went on an outward bound trip for three weeks the year before and I enjoyed Second Nature far more.

Still am in touch with two of the girls who were with me.

I was in Georgia so I can't say anything about any of the other places... also haven't been for 3 years.... but it was the best.



My one complaint is their support in the long term "therapeutic boarding schools." My therapist talked my parents into sending me off which was awful. If there were a way to extend the length of the wilderness programs with stages like... wilderness, village, city or something... i would be in support... assuming the right people were involved. 2-3 months is definitely not long enough to get an extremely self destructive teen to step away for a moment...

I don't think that sending a child away is necessary unless their behavior is life threatening... I was sent away after my best friend died of a heroine overdose, a good move on my parents part seeing that of the other two friends that I spent time with, one is in prison for god knows how long and the other has completely disappeared. Had I hung around after my friend's death, I would undoubtedly be in a similar situation.

Che Gookin:
I've heard of alot of similiar likes and dislikes of the place. The very fact that you were fed into a long term facility on the reccomendation of your therapist is sadly telling.

Glad you feel you had a decent time there. Some of my favorite moments working in the woods was on long treks in canoes or backpacking.

Hard to classify it as therapy, but it was definitely far more interesting than sitting around on your kiester staring at four walls all day long.

My only objection to Second Nature isn't so much the way they are run but has more to do with the nature of student's rights being stomped all over.

No due process in most of the kid's cases.

cooltherapy:
that's a good point. all rights are taken away. i imagine that i was more frustrated about that at the time rather than now. there was a student who turned 18 while i was there and she was driven out to the airport when she requested to leave. she was given her identification, etc. back.

but rights for folks under 18 are limited anywhere, unfortunately.

Che Gookin:
yeah that is sad.. but on the otherhand you ought to look into that law in Washington state that allows kids to "just say no" to unwanted treatment. not sure about the full details of the law but it does look promising.

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