Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Troubled Teen Industry

Trinity Teen Solution and their stand on possible molestation charges

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Oscar:
More reviews waiting to be recommended:


--- Quote from: Tess F. ---Horrible horrible horrible. I was a girl there for almost 5 months before graduating and I, 8 months later, still think of the horrors of this place till this very day. First of all, I was NO angel. I went there because i was crazy and out of control, typical teen stuff times 1000.. I come from a beautiful loving family,  so they were desperate.... First of all, the majority of the women here are in their early 20s and very unqualified!! Second of all, in order to get out, you must kiss up to them as much as possible! You are also NOT allowed to talk to any other, or stare or even smile at any other girl there. Snitching on eachother is expected. 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 that usually 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 "wash cabin" where I, 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.  Of course, not before making me walk to the barn to get myself some dinner. However, I was so brainwashed by the crap that I didn't see just how messed up everything was. They have something called "Life Review" ( the name still gives me chills) that is basically you do something "bad", and are forced to sit facing the wall. All 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. A 13 year old girl was on this for over 2 months before she left... She was so bored and lonely that she resorted to self harm & picking the skin off of her hands to occupy her time.. She wasn't perfect but wow I bet she suffered SO much. By the time she left she was pale and even more thin.

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--- Quote from: Elana B. ---If I could I would put this place called hell in negatives. But sadly i'm not able to do that. My names Elana, and I didn't get the help i needed. I stayed there for 5 months trying to kill my self every other week. That should be a sign. You're welcome. Please contact me if you want more details on the experience.

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--- Quote from: Kelsie V. ---I attended Trinity as a teen and have since tried to forget the trauma that happened to me while I was there but have found myself 5 years later, still tortured by the memories. I was your typical rebellious teen- experimenting with alcohol and drugs, defiant, hanging out with older boys, and depressed. However, the punishment I received at trinity for being this way is something I would never wish on my worst enemy. All Trinity did was confuse and lie to my family, and further traumatize me. I was sitting in a car one day after I got out drinking and smoking weed with my old friends 100 times MORE self destructive, alone, and sad than I was the day I went to Trinity. The affects of Trinity led me to be a serious hard drug abuser, something I was never destined to be coming from my loving and supporting family that was only trying to help me. I had no other way to numb the memories and pain. Every other girl I attended with had similar fates- either became serious junkies, or became promiscuous and had children out of wedlock because they were only searching for love and to numb the memories as well. I am being totally honest when I say this- I WOULD HAVE RATHER BEEN IN JAIL.

Why? Many reasons. One, in jail you actually know how long you are going to be there. Trinity is on a "need to know basis." So unless it is information you need to know in a life or death situation, it is withheld from you. The MONTHS never knowing when you will be able to see your family again or be treated like a human being are torture. Two, you can talk to other people in jail and rely on each other for support. At Trinity, the girls are not in any case allowed to be friends or talk to each other without permission. No one is allowed to know why the other one is there. Theyre encouraged to tattle on each other and punished if they do not. This creates a lonely and depressing environment versus having other girls there for support and to share similar struggles with. Three, if you are doing well you will get out sooner and vice versa. At Trinity, no matter what you do, you will be accused of faking it and lying and problems will be made up by staff for you, anything in order to tell your parents you need to be kept there longer. It is biased and decided by unqualified "life coaches" that have simply received an undergrad degree in something like psychology and has no training. I was once told by one of these staff members that I was getting too close with another girl and every time I looked or spoke to this other girl I was tacking on a few months to my stay at Trinity. My final reason is you are given adequate hygiene, food, and clothing in jail. At Trinity, every girl there even though we were all different sizes and body builds were FORCED to eat the exact same portion every single meal and if they didn't eat something on their plate? Punished. This was too much for some girls and never enough for others. Showers were maybe once a week in cold water for 5 minutes. And the underwear, bras, and clothing were reused by girls for over 20 years- it was ratty and disgusting. One girl came back as a staff member 10 years after she had been there and said she recognized her sweat pants and hoodies she wore at age 15. This is pretty amusing to me since TRINITY COSTS NEARLY $300 A DAY. Yet they spent none of this money on clothing or anything else really. Food was ordered cheaply in bulk and the girls made every thing themselves- low cost pasta and rice meals- and if anything started getting used to much and became "too expensive" it was immediately nixed. I was once reprimanded for using the too expensive avocados. 

Angie Woodward, the owner. How that name makes me cringe. She is the lovely lady responsible for harming so many teen girls and scamming hundreds of people into dumping her loads of cash for her multiple homes, vacations, and boats, cars, horses, ATVs, etc. that she parades around the girls and rubs in their faces while they are slaving away on her ranch. Angie's father owns the trouble teen boys ranch down the road and is where she learned all of these shaming and fear tactics for the clients and families. The only difference between the two ranches is that the boys one has been closed for abuse, neglect, and fraud, while Angie's is surprisingly still open! She claims to have years of experience and be our on staff nurse but I think I only saw her twice in the whole year and a half I was there- like I said she was busy vacationing. She hires 24 years olds fresh out of undergrad to carry out the dirty work instead who are too fresh in the world and naive to know they are doing something wrong- although a few figured it out and left and have written reviews here themselves that are negative but have been removed. Ill spare you the details of the abuse and neglect that goes on at Trinity- all you need to know is it is a scam with false advertising, AND YOU SHOULD NEVER SEND YOUR DAUGHTER HERE.

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--- Quote from: Katy S. ---My daughter attended TTS three years ago at a time when we, her parents, were desperately seeking help for our teen who was self-destructive to the extreme.

After 16 months on the ranch our daughter came home. We were no longer living in fear that we would receive a dreaded phone call that our daughter was in jail or dead. Initially we attributed this to TTS.  We now know that any improvement in our daughter was by default, certainly not due to the unprofessional, quack/psuedo therapy administered at TTS.

After three years, it has become abundantly clear to us that in the process of overcoming the former self-destructive behavior, our daughter was very emotionally traumatized by the harsh, punitive treatment at TTS.

As her mother, I had put my faith in the program but had misgivings. I heard of all the "challenges" and "consequences," the critiques at the peer and staff assessments - but where was the balance with any affirmation, or sign of love and caring? I definitely had the sense that my child was living in a fearful, not loving environment, even though I had been assured the girls lived in a loving, healthy, "family" environment.

My daughter is now in intense psychotherapy to deal with the trauma she experienced at TTS. She has been diagnosed by both a psychiatrist and a psychologist with PTSD.  TTS did a masterful job at tearing our daughter and her former ways down but she was not built up in a healthy, caring way, as we were led to believe she would be. No, she was intimidated, afraid to tell the truth, say or do  the "wrong thing".  She now lives in fear of being constantly judged, misunderstood, has nightmares and flashbacks.  Her already fragile self-esteem and identity were decimated at TTS.

For all the time, money, and emotional drain we invested with TTS, I believe we were misinformed, lied to and left in the dark about the harsh reality of our daughter's treatment.

Unless the program makes a concerted effort to balance the "Siberia-like" conditions with some loving compassion - I would strongly not recommend sending a daughter there.

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