Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Aspen Education Group

My son is currently at Aspen Ranch

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TheWho:

--- Quote from: ""Guest"" ---
--- Quote ---most of these kids are better off in a behavior-modification program then with their neurotic parents who are more concerned with money and plastic surgery then raising their own children.
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Well, our daughter is close to graduation, so I thought I'd see what other bullshit is floating around here.

That quote is another laugher.  You don't need a tinfoil hat, you need a friggin' straightjacket.  If you were able to attend any of the parent weeks, you would find a mix of folks...most of whom are not wealthy...who are working hard as hell to keep their kid's *alive* - and the AR program is only part of it.  There's a tremendous amount of aftercare information and discussion, both with parents and entire families.

I've encountered I think one slightly neurotic mom, but she was the exception rather than the rule.  There have been no upper-crust "Lance and Buffy" types at all, just normal parents struggling with kids who have a variety of issues.  NOT ONE *wanted* their child to be there - for most it seems to be the last resort; personally, I wish it wasn't and people could get their kids in much sooner.  I wish we had.

But to me, the important thing is the place has...without a single doubt...saved our daughter's life.  TO sum up some of the other things:  She's graduating from high school a year EARLY, and home-district had her do testing (plus she had a great SAT score) so it's no fluke, and she gets a DUAL diploma from Utah and our home state.  She's happy, healthy - recently had another home visit that was totally without issues.  She has direction in her life, and although she will have on going therapy for some time due to the trauma that triggered her particular problems, she understands it and is dealing with it from a healthy perspective.

A side benefit is she already has a part-time job (while she goes to college) working for a horse trainer...which is good, because the downside (if you can call it that) is she/we are in the process of buying a horse!  But, since she's no looking into equine-related veterinary medicine, that's really a benefit.

I'm truly sorry a lot of you just do not understand the program, but it seems you're just going off the slanted "Brat Camp" stories, and piling on based on crap posted by people with NO facts, who've never been there, and have never spoken to a student or parent who has.

In fact, I wonder how many of the crap-flingers are even parents?

Regardless, I'll try to remember to come back in a few months and post an update on how she's doing.  If things go awry, I am not afraid to post that either.  However, based on what I've seen, on what her local therapist has said, what the local school people plus some adult mentors have observed I don't anticipate anything other than normal 17-year old daughter stuff.

I sincerely hope these posts help someone and help cut through the lies and unqualified judgments.
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Your experience is in line with most parents and kids who finished (as well as my own).  Good luck and congrats to yourself and child.  
The problem with the TV shows about these places is many of the kids want to be the ones acting out the most so they can get more air time and attention from the crew.  So it is difficult to decifer what is real and what isnt.

Anonymous:

Oz girl:
I find the idea that parents get excited about their kid finisihng school a year earlier when they also have an apparently long history of wild behaviour oxmoronic.

I am sure any kid could shave a yr or 2 off school if they attended a place without any holidays whatsoever. it does not mean a higher standard of education just a more condensed one.

But why would you push for your "out of control" kid going to university a year early. Afterall first year is often spent in the tavern or on the university lawn amassing vital non academic life experiences  :wink:
If a kids debauched past is such a concern then perhaps waiting a yr or 2 for college is a good thing

Anonymous:

--- Quote from: ""kk"" ---I brought my son home because, as I stated in the first place, I was not really happy about Aspen Ranch.  My son was not being tortured there, but he was in a behavior modification type program that was a one size fits all.  I thought I was spending all this money sending my son to the "best Doctors and Therapist" and he would get specialized one on one help, and it was a bunch of bull.  Aspen is just a money making cattle ranch.  His therapist was trying and there were some people trying but overall, it was like just rope in a bunch of rich drug doing kids and will take your parents money and we will keep you here and teach you a lesson and you won't ever want to do drugs again because you won't want to come back here.  My son didn't do drugs, he really was not a bad kid, the whole pissing on the picture was just a prank, he had some anger issues, but he was diagnosed with high functioning autism, anxiety disorder, OCD not ODD that is what all the kids are labeled at Aspen. He also has a verbal I.Q. of over 140 that was being wasted at a place that does not really care about academics. Anyway I am rambling.



The reason it took this long to write back is because I have been very busy I have 3 other kids,

and just keeping my son on the right meds and at his therapist appointments and he is studing for the ACT's etc.  I just have not had time to let everyone know that I pulled him out.



I will say that I spent from 9 a.m. till 9 p.m. sometimes wondering around every part of Aspen Ranch ,came there without letting anyone know and they were fine with it.  So if you have a really out of control situation it is not bad for a few months, I have to admit just the shock of him being away and seeing all that I think gave him alot to think about.  I have asked him if he felt violated or abused in any way and he did not.



Anyway, if you  have any more questions I will be happy to answer.  Sorry about the punctuation, I am to tired for paragraphs!



KK:)
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bump

Anonymous:

--- Quote from: ""hanzomon4"" ---
--- Quote from: ""Guest"" ---"our society also buys parents off their normal work for a period so they can be at school watching over their child"

That's a wonderful system.  However, it's completely irrelevant here as we do not have that option, unfortunately.
--- End quote ---

Yes you do have a choice, it may not be easy or convenient but it's for your child and well worth the sacrifices...  


--- Quote from: ""Guest"" ---I can speak pretty well for my child - I just spent another 5 days with her, mostly off-campus on a "Utah visit".  She could say whatever she wanted, go shopping, go to movies...and her main topic was how she wants to get back home, but would never have been able to without the Ranch.
--- End quote ---
 

I'm not surprised by your daughters reaction, even in the most abusive programs you will find this reaction common among kids still in the program or a few years out of the program.
Despite what you may believe your daughter was not free to tell you whatever she wanted to. Here's why
* She would face accusations of manipulation if she was to say anything bad about the program. No doubt you would have talked to staff about any accusation and they would deny it, tell you not to believe her manipulations, and she would be dropped a few levels lengthening her stay.
* The nature of the program is one of thought reform. It uses many of the tactic types of thought reform as defined by Margaret Singer:[li] TACTIC 1. The individual is prepared for thought reform through increased suggestibility and/or "softening up," specifically through hypnotic or other suggestibility-increasing techniques such as: A. Extended audio, visual, verbal, or tactile fixation drills; B. Excessive exact repetition of routine activities; C. Decreased sleep; D. Nutritional restriction.


* TACTIC 2[/b]. Using rewards and punishments, efforts are made to establish considerable control over a person's social environment, time, and sources of social support. Social isolation is promoted. Contact with family and friends is abridged, as is contact with persons who do not share group-approved attitudes. Economic and other dependence on the group is fostered. (In the forerunner to coercive persuasion, brainwashing, this was rather easy to achieve through simple imprisonment.)


* TACTIC 3[/b]. Disconfirming information and nonsupporting opinions are prohibited in group communication. Rules exist about permissible topics to discuss with outsiders. Communication is highly controlled. An "in-group" language is usually constructed.


* TACTIC 4[/b]. Frequent and intense attempts are made to cause a person to re-evaluate the most central aspects of his or her experience of self and prior conduct in negative ways. Efforts are designed to destabilize and undermine the subject's basic consciousness, reality awareness, world view, emotional control, and defense mechanisms as well as getting them to reinterpret their life's history, and adopt a new version of causality.


* TACTIC 5[/b]. Intense and frequent attempts are made to undermine a person's confidence in himself and his judgment, creating a sense of powerlessness.


* TACTIC 6[/b]. Nonphysical punishments are used such as intense humiliation, loss of privilege, social isolation, social status changes, intense guilt, anxiety, manipulation and other techniques for creating strong aversive emotional arousals, etc.


* TACTIC 7[/b]. Certain secular psychological threats [force] are used or are present: That failure to adopt the approved attitude, belief, or consequent behavior will lead to severe punishment or dire consequence, (e.g. physical or mental illness, the reappearance of a prior physical illness, drug dependence, economic collapse, social failure, divorce, disintegration, failure to find a mate, etc.).[/li]
[li]Aspen has most likely had enough time to break her, as such she will no longer question the program in a way that could bring any consequences upon herself. This is called survival mode and is present in victims of different types of abuse.
To make it she must fake it and fake it long enough with the right reinforcement:
* parental approval,
* allowed to be part of the group,
* rewards for accepting the group's identity and beliefs,
* etc[/li][/list]
she will believe it with, and with great fervor.
This is obviously demonstrated in what your daughter said about returning home but only because of the ranch

[*]It's not uncommon for victims to become attached to their abuser. It's called Stockholm's syndrome and is a documented fact. Even though you had time alone with her Stockholm's syndrome would have prevented her from seeking escape.[/list]

   


--- Quote from: ""Guest"" ---We spent a couple hours on the computer looking at horse boarding, since she's planning on buying a horse when she leaves (one of the ranch equine therapists came in for several hours on an off-day just so we could ride with our daughter).

She's in an accelerated high school program that's (check it out yourself) highly rated by public and private colleges, ranking with high-dollar prep schools...and is again pulling almost straight-A's.  One residential staff person - one of the supposedly "abusive" people if you look at other sites - asked us to come by her new job to say hi - and she wants to come to our daughter's graduation.  Another staff person brought some puppies to the team for them to play with for a couple days; another bought a Christmas tree and decorations, and took the whole team out for dinner and to a non-denominational church Christmas eve.
--- End quote ---

She is apart of the group now, a trusty, who is now afforded privileges not offered to those outside of the group. This is a two fold thing however, a velvet glove over an iron fist. These privileges reward here for accepting the group think and philosophy, however it also increases her dependence on the group. If she's not lock step with the program those privileges will turn into antagonistic weapons of manipulation to get her back in line with the group's think.    


--- Quote from: ""Guest"" ---Sure, there are a couple staff people she doesn't like, but that's life.  All her teachers she adores, and she's getting great reports.  Her home district did some testing and found her to be far above her "normal" level - about a grade ahead when she SHOULD be a grade behind because of her trauma and troubles.
--- End quote ---
Will her school credits transfer to any school are only a certain few? Did she pick the university with or without the programs input? I believe that your daughter SHOULD NOT have been held back, having "trauma" does not make one stupid. Not knowing the AEG's schools I'm not sure if they go the self teaching route like most programs do. If you have a link to some info please provide it.


--- Quote from: ""Guest"" ---So play with your BS meters and other ignorant crap all you want - it's not a prison, it's not abusive, and it's saved at least ONE life for sure.  We have parents with problems coming to us, and we recommend they check it out along with other programs, as the "ranch" might not be a good fit for some kids.  But we do not hesitate to recommend it, or even to talk to the other kids about it and answer question straight-up.

We are lucky to have her there under a state/school district sponsored program...we could never afford it out-of-pocket, but if I HAD to, I'd find a way...and when she graduates, I willl  find some way to support it afterwards - you have NO idea what it means to a parent when you watch your daughter go from a broken shell to a growing teenager.  She has a long way to go yet, but knows it and is handling it fine.  The telling comment to me was "I like it here - I don't want to LIVE here forever - but I like it."  That and the fact she's alive.
--- End quote ---
Every program parent says this, even Straight,INC parents. I suggest you read the postings of survivors in regards to their parents, I believe you will find it to be quiet reflective.. Nothing short of a video of the abuse will ever make you believe differently, so oh well.....


--- Quote from: ""Guest"" ---It certainly would be nice if we had programs as they apparently do in some countries where parents can take time off and work with their kids in need, but I'm not sure that's enough in the therapeutic sense - parents are NOT therapists...we sure aren't.
--- End quote ---
Neither is the the staff that runs most of the therapy sessions


--- Quote from: ""Guest"" ---Anyway, we're thankful and so is she.  And in all the "meters" and sarcastic "donut" lines, I haven't read a single fact...or educated, knowledgable opinion...that is counter to anything I've related.
--- End quote ---
Really?


--- Quote from: ""Guest"" ---So if you have hard facts...or even an intelligent opinion...I'd be willing to listen and discuss it.  But the bullshit meters and other 8th-grade crap just makes the naysayers look exceedingly incapable of expressing anything intelligent.  You think anyone with an ounce of brains forms an opinion about a program on the basis of a graphic swiped from another site?
--- End quote ---
Tell me what made you pick AEG as the program to send your child too? website, ed-con, parent... Certainly not brains or expert opinions regarding programs


--- Quote from: ""Guest"" ---I'm not saying to take everything I say as gospel...but I AM giving some examples and opinions with actual content.

And I wonder how many of the goofballs are even parents?  Or kids who have been through a program?

My guess?  Zero.
--- End quote ---
Don't be silly this is fornits :lol:


--- Quote from: ""Guest"" ---I respect the European poster who lives with a different system.. That at least has some basis in reality.  But the hit-and-run trolls have said nothing at all so far.
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 :roll:
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