Kristopher's testimony about Telos Academy

This testimony was found on Google Maps.

To any lazy parent looking at google reviews to decide where to send their "troubled" child.

First thing you should know. If you send your child away for 1 thing, the Telos staff will find $250,000 worth of problems the day they meet your son.

I was held at Telos RTC for 11 month. During this time all i did was agree to fake issues that my "therapist" mentioned because they could never allow a student to finish his "treatment" before Telos breaks even on the cost of having him there. Telos therapy is a scam. The people working there are simply doing things any therapist can do, but because there patient cant leave until they tell there parents the therapist did a good job, they think if they just lie it will go faster.

Another thing that should be noted is how little parents are informed on the process. I came home after my time at Telos to learn that my parents had next to no idea of what Telos was like. They spruce everything up for parents weekend and make them think everythings great when in reality people are miserable.

Next is the school. I was forced to be at telos for 11 months. During which i was taking classes that didnt meet any standards and had no educational value. In addition to that, a few courses i took had no value. I took an online course for a full year of credit only to find out that because Telos didnt offer the spanish credit i need, i cant attend any UC schools. A big opportunity in my life gone because of the shabby basement telos calls a school.

All the professionals ive encountered here at home have agreed that based on my reveiw of telos, they no longer recommend this establishment to the parents they work for.

Source
The original testimony on Google Maps

For 10 years this blog only reached a marginal part of it potential audience

This blog started a decade ago. The team behind has collected testimony after testimony from adults who were traumatized during their teenage years.

Fact is that there are a lot more who suffer in similar way. The human brain tries it best to hide unpleasant memories because they can destroy a person if they are brought into attention. For many the only part of the past are the nightly nightmares, where they relive the horror night after night.

It is not helping that the so-called professionals who lied to the parents hoping to score a little referal fee or the so-called caretakers hired for their muscles more than their knowledge of the often complex psycological problems the teenagers arrive with, are not brought to justice. Too many owneers of such facilities have never been forced to repay the families for their scam. Too many victims of assaults inside the residential programs have never seen the employee convicted of assault.

That is the reason so many people never have spoken out against the violence or abuse they were subjected to.

Maybe it will change.

Paris Hilton has decided to deal with her past and reveal how awful Provo Canyon School were for her. Of course the present management state that it happened under former owners but lets see in 10 years if present patients do not step forward. What she were put through was not uncommon at Provo Canyon School while she were there. An organization like HEAL-online is very much established because victims of abuse at Provo Canyon School decided to argue for a stop of the abuse.

It has created a whole new kind of press coverage of abuse in residential treatment facilities and boarding schools.

Maybe now the many testimonies collected for this blog will be read by families so they know that they have to look for more local treatment and realize that outpatient programs are very much safer so children who didn't belong in residential programs do not end up there for a few dollars in referal fee to local medical staff or educational consultant.

Trinity Teen Solutions survivors testimony

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights goes to the author.
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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.

Source:

• The original testimony on Yelp