Trinity Teen Solutions sues former residents

[Oscar]

Trinity Teen Solutions sues former residents if they are not happy about their stay and tell others about it:

Owners of Clark treatment facility sue detractors for libel
By CJ Baker, June 7, 2016

The owners of a Clark facility for troubled teenage girls are suing three former patients over disparaging remarks they’ve made about the business.
Trinity Teen Solutions owners Angie and Jerry Woodward say the three young women’s repeated criticisms — mostly made in negative online reviews — are false.

“The defendants appear to have conspired and worked together in a concerted effort to destroy (Trinity Teen Solutions’) business and to recruit others to their misguided cause,” says a portion of the Woodwards’ complaint.

The suit was filed in March and accuses Florida residents Claire Malone Matson and Mollie Lynch and Chanel Plander of California of having developed a plan “to wrongfully cause the parents of troubled teens to look elsewhere for residential treatment facilities.”

The Woodwards say the postings include “wildly false statements and innuendos” that the women know are not true.

The three women have admitted to writing the reviews and statements that Trinity Teen Solutions is complaining about, but they deny the postings are false or defamatory or that they were part of a conspiracy.

Matson, Lynch and Plander have said in their responses to the suit that their intent was to share their experiences with potential Trinity Teen Solutions patients and their families and to reconnect with and support other former patients.

Founded in 2002, Trinity Teen Solutions is located on a 160-acre ranch off of Road 8RA and surrounded by the Shoshone National Forest. It provides faith-based treatment to girls between the ages of 13 and 18 who are “dealing with addiction, substance abuse, depression, academic failure, sexual promiscuity, and other issues related to poor mental health,” according to Trinity Teen Solutions’ website.

The business describes itself as a residential treatment program and Catholic boarding school that’s “more like a long-term youth ranch than a wilderness treatment program.” Documents included with court records suggest most patients stay for around 18 months and are charged upwards of $195 a day — making for total bills that can apparently approach or surpass six figures.

In addition to the owners, 13 full-time staffers work at Trinity Teen Solutions to help oversee as many as 14 girls. The Woodwards are currently expanding the facility to accommodate as many as 18 girls at a time. Park County commissioners unanimously signed off on the expansion plans last month. The commission granted a special use permit that allows the Woodwards to add new offices and school facilities, a larger dormitory for the patients, a chapel and a multi-purpose building that will include an exercise room, game room and lounge. The Woodwards said they were asked to expand by the Wyoming Department of Family Services because of increased demand.

Trinity Teen Solutions’ website says it has a “drastically higher long-term success rate” than other facilities.

“A full 96% of the girls who come to Trinity and complete their stay effectively overcome the struggles in their lives,” says a portion of the site.

Matson, Lynch and Plander have been telling a different story — warning parents not to send their daughters to Trinity Teen Solutions.

In postings to Yelp, Facebook, Google reviews, the Better Business Bureau and on a since-deleted website that was called “Trinity Teen Survivors,” the women have given detailed accounts alleging they suffered traumatic mistreatment at the facility. They describe punishments that included being tied to animals or being forced to sit and stare at a wall for long periods of time; they also say they were not provided good food or allowed to tell their family members how unhappy they were.

Lynch wrote in a post on the now-defunct “Survivors” site that the Woodwards were running a “work camp” where “they get paid for your kids to be shamed, belittled, and work for them.” Matson — who was at the facility between 2004 and 2005 — described herself in a Yelp review as having been a “prisoner for profit” and said in a Google review that girls tend to “love” Trinity when they leave “but in a year or two the haze of the brainwashing clears and they realize it wasn’t so great.” Plander, meanwhile, has said the living conditions were “terrible” with “horribly abusive staff” who denied them things like showers and medical attention.

While there are similarly negative online reviews from other former patients, other young women and their parents have described Trinity Teen Solutions as having been a positive and even life-saving influence.

“It is hurtful to see all these poor reviews when all we are trying to do here at Trinity is help people,” Angie Woodward wrote in one response posted on Yelp in November 2015.

To back up their contentions that former patients’ complaints are untrue, the Woodwards have noted that Lynch and Plander previously had positive things to say about their experiences at Trinity Teen Solutions.

Lynch wrote a glowing five-star review shortly after leaving the program in 2012. The then-18-year-old had called the program “a true miracle,” praised its “wonderful and extremely patient staff” and said “every moment on the soil of that Wyoming ranch was exactly what I needed to live my life the way a young woman is truly meant to live.”

“If you want to give your daughter her life, Trinity is the way to go and I can say with confidence that it is a gift you will not regret giving and that she will be happy to have received with time,” Lynch concluded.

In last month’s response to the lawsuit, Lynch said her 2012 review was not accurate and did not reflect her actual experiences at the ranch.

Plander, meanwhile, wrote a testimonial for Trinity Teen Solutions toward the end of her 2007 to 2010 tenure at the facility.

“Now I have a light in my life and more than anything, I have hope,” she wrote. “Trinity has given me the chance to live and move on with my life.”

Plander now says she wrote the testimonial while still at the facility and “under duress” and that it “did not truthfully relate her experiences.”

The Woodwards say Trinity Teen Solutions has lost business, goodwill, customers and time and energy because of the former patients’ defamatory statements. They’re asking a judge to have Matson, Lynch and Plander “restrained from posting false information,” “required to remove all false and disparaging they have made” and ordered to stop contacting employees and potential customers of Trinity Teen Solutions.

Matson, Lynch and Plander, meanwhile, have offered up numerous possible defenses, including that the statements “were and are true,” “were merely statements of opinion” or constituted “fair comment.”

The women’s attorneys have said the case will “necessarily be an extremely fact-intensive litigation (as truth is a defense to libel claims) that will involve discovery, testimony and/or affidavits from Plaintiff’s (Trinity Teen Solutions’) staff, Defendants, and former residents of Plaintiff’s facility” that could involve tens of thousands of dollars of legal fees and costs.

Matson, Lynch and Plander are being represented by a team of five lawyers — including three from a New York firm that specializes in intellectual property cases and two from Casper, court records show. Trinity Teen Solutions is being represented by attorney Joey Darrah of Powell.

Because the dispute involves citizens of different states, the civil case is proceeding in Wyoming’s federal court.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Freudenthal has scheduled an initial pretrial conference for July 12 in Cheyenne.

[Oscar]

This is some of the reviews, Trinity Teen solution is fighting against

From Google Maps:

daughter went here. Reported accounts of abuse. They also lied to me and my husband about what was really going on with our daughter. We sent her here because we were desperate. Our daughter came back resenting us and if we could awe would've looked into other places. Also the a person related to the owner, Angie owned a similar "treatment" program for boys. The facility for boys was investigated for sexual abuse by staff! please look elsewhere.

Spent 6 months here. I witnessed lots of abuse and women who were well over 18 were forced to stay here and had no contact with their parents. It was absolutely illegal. Of course they gave them the option of leaving. by leaving I mean if they wanted to walk to the nearest airport (miles and miles away through the mountains) and beg for a ride or a ticket home then they were welcome to. But parents wouldn't be notified. Just completely unacceptable and satanic. Save your money and your daughter life; DO NOT SEND HER HERE.

After years of not being in this horrid place, I still think about it on a daily basis. They had me clean profusely and I had to sleep under supervision privacy of showering was invaded as well. We had to get to a certain level before we could shave our legs and other grooming procedures. Trauma at its worst, I had made a mistake with the food and had to run up the side of a mountain up and down in less than a minute. Please shut this place down I feel bad for any young lady that has been sent here and bad for the parents that waste their money.

My name is Kaylee Barth and I have been out of trinity for almost 5 years now and if I was able I would rate that place a zero because all of the trauma that I was put through along with the batch of girls that was there. The girls & I are all in communication till this day and the amount of PTSD that has come along with their program has given not only me issues but a lot of the other girls. Those people don't help you at all. For one the online schooling that we are forced to take doesn't count for any of our high school credits, the amount of physical labor as well as the stages we go through or inhumane. My honest opinion that place needs to be shut down and those people given the proper punishment. because none of us deserved to be treated the way we were and that's just straight facts.

None of my real problems were addressed. I was told I do not have a disorder. Turns out I have autism, and have real problems communicating with other people. I was there for almost two years and did not learn how to communicate better with other people. The reasons I was sent there boiled down to breakdowns in communication with my family. I endured food deprivation, and sleep deprivation. I suffered mental and emotional abuse. Usually, I had no idea why we were in trouble if the entire group was punished for something. IF you want to help your child, I recommend finding a short-term facility or placing them in the juvenile justice system. Studies show no difference in outcomes between patients of long-term treatment facilities and those placed in the justice system. At least in the justice system, facilities have to follow basic human rights such as regular sleep hours and meals. Also, there is a definite sentence. A person's behavior while inside determines if their stay will be shorter or longer. If a person wishes to be out sooner, they will change their behavior. Also, they will not be forced to sleep on a floor, have humiliating interventions (such as carrying around a rock-filled backpack) or be told "we can keep you here as long as we need to." I was also held against my will for over a year after I turned 18. I was told I couldn't leave. The facility told my parents I had chosen to stay. I did not. At no time was I shown paperwork, such as a court order, that stated the facility could hold me against my will. Years later, I am still in therapy for PTSD due to when I went through there, and am learning how to deal with life and other humans despite my disability. Do not give this place your business. Also, notice how so many of the positive reviews are from parents? And what other former "clients" have to say about the place?

Mental, emotional, and even physical abuse. If your a parent looking to send your daughter to trinity I strongly suggest you ask to speak to a girl that has been out a year or longer. I say a year or longer because it takes time for the immense amount of brainwashing to wear off. I was told I would get a head of school, when in fact I became a year behind. I honestly don't know of any girl that didn't get behind. This is because we are there to take care of the woodwards ranch in fact 90% of the time that is what your daughter will be doing. I grew up with ranchers and do believe it builds character and is good although in this setting they are essential using girls. I mean the Woodwards were extremely in debt before they started this. Angie new from her parents that mount Carmel (the boys version) was very profitable and that's how she pulled herself out of the hole her family was in. With the money you'll pay for your daughter to be there they buy toys boats, dirt bikes, four wheelers ect... But they aren't for the trinity girls in fact the girls are punished for even touching the toys that are in the barn where we get the feed for the animals. The working conditions are harsh and Mulitple girls have gotten frostbite, and hypothermia. I personally had health issues regarding hygiene because at one time we went 3 weeks without showers not only is that not healthy it's humiliating. When I first left trinity I had nothing but good things to say about 4 months later it all changed and I was 3x worse and I ended up attending wyoming girls school, and ST. Joseph's children's home. Both whom I am in contact with and consider me a success if I had not been to these two places I would not know how ineffective or wrong trinity is. I am not an anger teenager seeking revenge I am a happy healthy adult who was lucky enough to recieve the help I need from ST. Joes and the Wyoming girls school, Trinity did not try to find the root issue Or help with my problems I got what a hr or less of counseling every other week? The rest was reading self help books or ranch work. I come from an extremely religious family and that's how they were manipulated into keeping me there as long as they did, they used religion as a manipulation tactic to make my parents think it was a good place. It's been about 7 years now and both my parents have broken down on Mulitple occassions apologizing for sending me trinity and not seeing the signs sooner. Lucky for me I was only there for 7 months and my father figured out between the letter editing, and taking phone calls away when I wasn't doing well that this place did have good Catholic doctrine and the work was beneficial but it was not a thearaputic environment and was for financial gain and free labor. I suffered extreme anexity attacks because of Trinity. If your at wits end with your daughter this is not the answer unless you want to feel guilty the rest of your life. I forgive my parents and we have a great relationship now I don't blame them at all but I know they still carry the guilt.

[Oscar]

Here are some other testimonies. This time from Yelp:

I went here for about six months, and while I don't think it was as bad as some of the other reviews here say, it was still pretty bad. For one, before I went there I had never done drugs, never drank, never partied, but when I came back I felt the strongest urge to get into this stuff. I learned about piercings, tattoos, parties, alcohol, and all this other stuff I didn't really know about and being so restrained it seemed so fun! The turn over rate is very low, most girls can take 2+ years to graduate. Nobody had graduated in over a year when I was there Jan-Jul 2014. Most girls either "age out(turn 18, like I did)", or they get pulled out by their parents for whatever reason. Most girls parents don't let them go home when they turn 18, but my mom did because she had been planning on pulling me out soon anyways because she didn't like how regulated and censored the communication between us was, mostly letters.

The staff are pretty nice, but there is definite favoritism. I've talked to a lot of girls who went there, and the few of them who I've met said they had to kiss major butt to get anywhere. I was only comfortable actually talking to only 2 or 3 of the staff there, many of them are just either awkward or tend to make me feel like what I was saying was wrong. Now, maybe that was the case, but I thought they were supposed to help me open up and learn to see my mistakes instead of making me feel shut down and guilty. All I know is that I had a lot more self confidence going in than I did coming out.

Another thing was the horses. I LOVED the horses. One of the main reasons my mom said she sent me here was because she was really excited about the horses, but unless you are on horse chore you don't get to see or interact with them very often. You go riding maybe once every few weeks if you're lucky, though sometimes at random you'll go like three times in two weeks then not go again for a month. Not sure how that system works, but my mom wasn't very happy with it and neither was I.

The therapy was alright, I loved Bernadette! She made me feel like a normal person and a lot less guilty. Not everything bad is my fault, turns out! The staff though is a bit harsh. I know the point of the place is "tough love", but there's a point where it can go a bit overboard. You can try as hard as you can but it still will not be good enough, unless you meet these standards you feel awful about yourself. I did learn a lot, but I think the "trauma" kind of negated most of it. I have nightmares about the place and I wasn't even there that long compared to most. I was pretty well behaved, so I didn't get in too much trouble, but the punishments for things are very unbalanced. Once a girl freaked out and made us all leave the cabin and she just didn't get dinner, while once I accidentally ordered an extra box of soap and got a hill run. I understand that people need different punishments, but good golly. Some girls would act completely awful and so the staff would coddle them, while some of us got completely ignored. Now this is how I saw it. I don't know the whole story, but all I know is that it made me feel very insignificant and frustrated.

The religion was also kind of shoved down your throat. I am a christian, not catholic, but I still got shut down when I tried to give my opinion during group discussions. If they didn't agree with you, you were wrong. Another thing about the "group therapy", I didn't even know that was supposed to be "therapy". Most of the time we watch videos about a saint or how to react in different situations(videos that were made in the 80's may I add). Those videos are hilarious and none of us take them seriously, they are just too dang corny. They call it "group therapy", but its more just something to keep us occupied for an hour or two.

Now, in my opinion, if your daughter is close to turning 18, has never drank, partied, or done drugs, isn't very religious, or anything like that, this isnt the place. I cant speak for others, but when I came out I think I was worse than when I went. Also if you actually want her to graduate expect her to be there for at least two years. I did learn some stuff though, like that you can put anything on a tortilla! Also patience and people skills because the girls there can be nuts. I love them though and I can't wait until they get out so I can talk to them without being constantly monitored. So anywho, yep. That's my opinion.

I was sent to Trinity in October of 2011 and graduated the program in July of 2013. My struggles were with anxiety and depression primarily, as well as some behavioral issues. I won't downplay that I was having some very serious problems, but Trinity was NOT the solution. Trinity is a catholic based treatment center that uses a mixture of strict discipline and once a week therapy. Some of the "discipline" includes humiliating and degrading "challenges." For example, The Chair. The Chair is simple, you sit on a chair in the corner facing a wall for a minimum of two weeks without speaking to anyone, participating in any activities, or having any form of entertainment other than 3 hours of online classes a day. If you broke any of the chair rules, the punishment would be to eat a bowl of kidney beans and olives instead of a regular meal.
I got very behind in my school work at Trinity Teen Solutions, as did many of the other girls. Which is ironic, because we did school work 12 months out of the year, six days a week. We participated in online school, which served as a very poor education for two years. I had no physical teacher for TWO YEARS. When I finished my time at TTS, I struggled immensely during my last year of high school due to the poor education I received.
I could go on and on about the various things that I experienced at Trinity, but suffice it to say that I'm 23 years old and I still struggle with the memories that I have of this place, and I feel that if I spend too long ruminating over it, I'll end up in a very dark place. I have been diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which was something that I never struggled with before TTS. While I do understand that one needs a predisposition to exhibit this behavior, the expectation of perfection that was perpetuated at Trinity is what caused these symptoms to develop in me. I had to mentally ritualize in order to feel safe. In one particular instance while I was being assessed for their bi-weekly "Holy Cowgirl" assessments, I was so overcome with anxiety that I ended up vomiting.
Being there for so long, I obviously had a mixture of positive and negative experiences. In a way, I was forced to develop a positive attitude, because fighting the system would have gotten me no where. I feel that this review would be dishonest if I didn't at least mention some of the things that made my Wyoming experience more tolerable.
1. My therapist J.D. Although JD no longer works for TTS
2. The Animals
3. It is pretty there
4. We weren't allowed to be friends with the other patients while we were there, but afterwards I talked to these people over social media and have made some really great friendships
I felt that I did what I had to in order to survive this place. I became a different person while I was there, but not in a way that I liked. I hated the person that Trinity turned me into. And when I look back on my teenage self, I try to have some compassion for that girl, because I was doing the best that I could at that time. I needed to please the powers that be, we were constantly reminded that if we didn't behave and change, that we would be held there indefinitely. Before Trinity, I was very passionate about art and drawing, but that was stomped out of me. I was only allowed to draw on some Sundays, and given punishment if I was caught doodling during the week. None of our notebooks were private, so if I did doodle, I would inevitably be caught. So I had to stop. I only draw rarely these days out of some subconscious fear of wrongdoing or punishment. It just doesn't feel safe to me (OCD).
I supposed that I should mention the outcome. Trinity is a very controlled environment, you are not in any way exposed to the real world. We aren't even allowed to talk about our lives pre-TTS, not even in a therapy group. After Trinity, my relationship with my family was more broken than it was before. I had only seen my parents four times in my two years there. My former friends had moved on with their lives, and I've had a great deal of trouble establishing meaningful relationships with anyone. I was told to lie to people at school about where I was. So, within weeks, I had turned to alcohol. I've been struggling with alcoholism for the last five years. Again, I don't entirely blame Trinity for this, but they claim a high success rate, which is simply not true. I'm not sure how they are measuring their idea of a success rate, to be quite honest. I'm doing better now, I sought treatment as an adult at facilities that had a proper understanding of my mental illnesses and addictions, and were able to effectively treat these things. I am doing better now, it is in spite of Trinity Teen Solutions, not because of it.

PARENTS MUST READ***
When I was sent to this place in 2005 I was terrified, dressed in rags, and broke my back as I exceeded the child labor laws times a million daily. Not saying it was a total negative experience, although most of it was due to MOST of the people running the program. I was there for about 8 months and I had only gotten 2 school credits (this is a fact). Kids and teens get hungry because they are constantly growing; my point is that the girls do not have access to the kitchen so if we are laboring in the heat or the freezing cold we only have water no Gatorade no gronola bars nothing to feed our energy, so now this is why some girls "steal" food (if you even want to call it that since the parents are paying the program more than enough money to feed an army, I shot you not) so anyways when they would do that they would give them ridiculous punishments, such as eating cold oatmeal for all 3 meals for 3 days in a row, yuk. There were all kinds of crazy stuff they did. I personally was told that I had to tie myself to this other girl with a rope and we had to be tied together with a rope connected to our belt loops all day long until bedtime. This went on for 5 months. Then at one time, I had to care for that Saint Bernard dog you see in the pictures, only when bedtime came along I was not allowed to sleep in my bed, they made me sleep on the floor with the dog without a pillow or a blanket. I did not get the sleep I needed during that time and I still had to labor all day, that is if I wanted to eat real food. They ALWAYS use food as a punishment even though it says right there in the cowgirl manual that they will NOT use food as a punishment. These people like to contradict themselves, and if you think for one minute that Angie and Jerry (the owners) don't know what's going on think again because they do know and they don't care. I was upset one night and so I just started running down the dirt road, they came after me in the truck and slammed me down On The ground. Now after this happens the staff preceded to tie up my entire body in a thick heavy rope and threw me in the back of the truck and drove back up to the cabins. I didn't know what the hell was going on and then I over heard them talking about locking me in the shed and they didn't do that because there were nails sticking out of the walls and so they thought I was going to kill myself ( and that's something I would never do, I was simply PISSED) but can you blame me? First of all I already had been traumatized before I went to this place and they just made things worse for me. I'll tell you all something, ANYBODY can go and get a job that's meant for helping people, just to go for the money, and OR to make others miserable because they are miserable. There are a lot of crooked COPS, and many other titles. I really hope I can get through to many parents out there. One more memory is about this thing they put us through called "Pig Shifts" which means; after the mother pig gives birth, the girls are paired up and every pair has a set time each day or night or early AM to watch the piglets to make sure the momma does not crush them. Each shift would run 3 hours at a time. My pig shift was from 2am to 5am mind you that us two girls had to walk across a huge field about a mile and a half long in the middle of the night in the pitch dark knowing that a mountain lion was spotted by the neighbor, and we heard this from staff. Now we were not allowed to go to sleep until 9:30pm each night we had the option to stay up a little later but I was always so exhausted I had wished I could have gone to sleep earlier, especially with pig shifts and then laboring all day. One more thing I forgot to mention is that they like to make us run everywhere on top of the pig shifts, the daily labor, and the lack of nutrition. Another important memory I must share; we went hiking in the mountains (very beautiful) anyways, once we had gotten to Deep lake we were to put our food up into the trees before we would camp for the night as there are REAL BEARS where they bring the girls. So I had put my food in the sack to go up into the tree and we were about to go to sleep and I had forgotten that I had a small Gatorade packet in my pocket ( yes the one time we actually got this type on stuff on hiking trips) so I was worried because I didn't want to get eaten by a bear so I told staff right away and it was a simple mistake but they got mad at me, so then I went to burry it away from the campsite to be safe. Then the next morning because of what happened with me and that Gatorade packet the night before the staff refused to let any of us eat breakfast, and this was the day after a very long and strenuous hike. Thank you God Bless

[Oscar]

Another testimony:

So today I decided to stop caring and post an honest review of this business. I was sent here in 2016, and I can easily say this made that the worst year of my entire life. This place changed my life in the worst way possible, causing me trauma and PTSD. This place is not what it seems. It's built on child labor and abuse. If you don't believe me, read all the other reviews, or simply research this place and read about how they are in court for this.

I can truthfully say that I would have rather gone to a prison than here. At least in prison, your allowed to make eye contact with and communicate with inmates. That's right, at Trinity you received physical punishment (example, 25 push ups) for making eye contact with a girl or talking to her without ASKING PERMISSION. You actually received physical punishment for the dumbest reasons; once, I had to do 50 step-ups because I mentioned that I missed Krispy Kreme donuts. Yep. And there reasoning was, "Your not in the here and now." You also could not stand up or sit down from your chair without asking permission. If you did on accident? 25 push ups, or 50, or whatever they felt like that day.

I was forced to eat food even though I was sick and this caused me to become more sick. I had woken up the night before with my stomach in intense pain. I received no medical assistance, and was sent back to bed. The next morning I still felt the same way and refused breakfast. They told me I had to eat and if i didn't, at the next meal I'd have to eat the meal I missed and the new meal. (if you refused many meals, as a punishment they made you eat a mix of cold kidney beans and cold black olives) So I ate the meal, and then projective vomited it outside the schoolhouse. Also, I should mention I never had control of any of the food I ate, and each girl had to eat the same amount of food, despite them all being different ages (youngest girl when I was there was 13, oldest was 19) I remember one girl, who was much younger than me, got so full from her dinner (she had already eaten most of it)and they forced her to eat it as she sobbed, telling them she felt ill.

I was assigned to take care of this horned goat, named Franny. So each night I had to take the goat off her leash/cable tie and put her in a pen, One night I got yelled at for putting her dinner in there so she would walk inside. A staff member decided to watch me to make sure I put her back correctly. The goat became angered with me, and head butted me repeatedly, until i fell to the ground. (The goat had head butted me in the past, which was always scary, but no one ever bothered to help me.) I became tangled in her cable tie, and it wrapped around my leg. The goat trampled me, then started running. When the goat would run, this would cause the cable to become taut around my leg. I don't know the name for it but it was like a piece of wire coated in plastic or rubber of some kind. So when she ran the wire tightened around my ankle, causing me intense pain. It also raised my ankle of the ground so I couldn't get up to free myself. I screamed for help, asking the staff member to help me. She stood there and told me to free/untangle myself so I could stand. I couldn't, I was too tangled, and each time I would try to get up the goat would run again causing even more pain and restriction. I just keep screaming for her to help, but she just hovered above me, watching.  Finally after she watched me a bit longer, and the wire had tightened several more times, the staff member unclipped the tie from the goats neck. My ankle was in intense pain, swollen and deeply bruised. The next day, I asked to be opted out of the run (we have to run from the living cabins to the schoolhouse, about 0.5 mile)since I was limping, my leg was swollen so it was hard to put in my boot, and I was in pain. They said no, you have to run. they told me I would be fine, since "it was just bruising and my actual leg was fine." Meanwhile, a girl with blisters didn't have to run.

Overall outside of these events this place is just bad all over. The "staff", who watch you at every hour of the day, have no licensing and often just a college degree. You see a licensed therapist for one hour once a week, sometimes twice. You participate in "Holy Cowgirl" meetings, which is where everyone sits in a circle and comments about how you did since the last meeting, including negative comments. It was really unhealthy. I would get super anxious leading up to the meetings, knowing I was going to be analyzed and picked apart. They also didn't let you look in the mirror, or talk about your experiences, which makes you feel like you have no identity.

I saw Angie, the owner, ONCE the whole time I was there. She doesn't care about the trauma she has caused and is causing to so many of these girls. She actually thinks people are suing Trinity for the sake of money, and not for the fact that she changed their lives in the worst way possible.

[Oscar]

More reviews from Yelp:

Horrible! I was a girl there for almost 5 months before graduating.. I was 17 at the time, now I'm 21 and I still think of this place daily. First of all, the majority of the women here are in their early 20s and very unqualified!! They are definitely not equipped to deal with mental health problems, and punish by giving physical consequences. You are NOT allowed to talk, stare, or even smile at any other girl there. If you get caught doing so without going through staff you will get a hill run,(its NOT a hill) which includes running up a mini mountain with raddle snakes while staff times you... If u dont get up & down in 15 mins you must redo it . Third, you run over a mile a day, up and downhill.... You are given no choice. If you feel sick or are injured they say they don't believe you and force you to run anyway.. Over the course of my nearly 5 month stay, I got a gash in my head that almost needed stitches and broke my tailbone/strained my back because staff forced me to ride on an unruly horse. I was threatened with tacking on months to my stay and being level dropped if I got off, so out of desperation I did what they asked. Sure enough, due to staffs incompetence, the horse steps on sharp wire, bucks up, knocks me off and begins to roll on top of me .... The helmet broke. Just as bad, the woman, instead of calling for help, forced me to walk almost a mile back to the ranch... When we fianally got to the cabins, i was told to go to the bathroom to clean up, where in terrible pain, had to tell the lady there I had just fallen off a horse. Finally, after delaying about an hour, they took me to the emergency room. sure enough, my tailbone was broken..However, I was so brainwashed by the crap that I didn't see just how messed up everything was until I got out. They have something called "Life Review" meaning youve done something "bad", and are forced to sit facing the wall. All day. EVERY day. Thats all you do. You cant be around anyone, you sleep on the floor, cant participate in anything, cant talk to staff, and if u get caught doing something as minor as looking around the room, you get olives and beans to eat. This can last anywhere from a week to MONTHS. I saw girls lose their minds after being on this for months.

Also, they didn't diagnose me with any mental health issues, which turns out I have quite a few, like bipolar disorder anxiety and depression. After getting out, I immediately started cutting, ended up with an eating disorder, and also began to struggle with drug and alcohol abuse, so I've been in and out of rehab. I'm so traumatized by this place. Please, shut it down!!!! It makes teens worse,not better.

Former Staff Perspective: The facility is money-driven and, as a result, will re-admit girls with existing psychological conditions better suited for a treatment facility than a behavior-coaching ranch. The staff will not be prepped on the history of these individuals or properly prepared from a self-defense perspective. The grounds lack supervision and protection, yielding safety endangerment. The staff is underpaid and discouraged from being empathetic towards the girls. The girls are viewed as deceitful, manipulative, criminal-minded individuals. Yet, when you read the journals of the girls, you realize just how traumatized they also feel. When completing incident reports, the owners have no issue unethically instructing staff to edit details that will protect the organization. Many turned a blind eye because "the paychecks keep coming." Staff has been threatened and let go for speaking out against concerns of safety, ethics, and misalignment regarding being "founded on Christian moral principles" and the day-to-day operations. If you are fired, expect to be homeless and jobless within 2 hours (you can no longer stay in the Staff House and they will escort you off the properties). The turnover rate is exceptionally high for staff and therapists alike. Side note: the decompressing period after being exposed to this facility is dragged out and repressed, with additional unhealthy coping mechanisms post-TTS - e.g. pregnancy, drugs/alcohol, PTSD, compulsions, inability to form healthy attachments, etc. It's amazing what places in the boonies can get away with. Ozark, anyone?