Inside the Troubled Teen Industry: Wilderness Therapy, Residential Treatment, and the Harm Done t...

When parents send a teenager to a wilderness therapy program or residential treatment center, the marketing promises round-the-clock care, individualized treatment, and lasting change. Survivors and researchers tell a different story. In this episode, Curt and Katie talk with Dr. Will Dobud, a social worker, researcher, and former wilderness therapy field guide, and Chelsea Maldonado, a survivor advocate and lead researcher for Paris Hilton’s nonprofit 11:11 Media Impact, about what actually happens inside the troubled teen industry, why kids and families keep ending up there, and what therapists need to understand to avoid causing further harm. -- Link tree: https://linktr.ee/therapyreimagined Show notes (including a full transcript): https://therapyreimagined.com/modern-... -- About Our Guests: Dr. Will Dobud is a social worker, researcher, and educator who has worked with adolescents and families in the United States, Australia, and Norway. He is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Charles Sturt University, Australia’s largest social work school, and an award-winning researcher and educator recognized for excellence in research, teaching, and crime prevention. Will is from Washington, D.C., and divides his time between the United States and Australia each year. His research focuses on improving therapy outcomes for teenagers, promoting safe and ethical practices, and investigating America’s troubled teen industry, especially wilderness therapy. He works alongside advocates, survivors, researchers, and clinicians to protect youth from institutionalization and harm. Learn more at willdobud.com. Chelsea Maldonado is an Atlanta-based consultant and investigative researcher for Paris Hilton’s nonprofit, 11:11 Media Impact, and a troubled teen industry survivor. She also serves as the lead researcher for Trapped in Treatment, a docu-style podcast from 11:11 Media and Warner Brothers. Chelsea has spent the last decade working behind the scenes to expose the individuals, corporations, and systems responsible for harms occurring in the troubled teen industry. Her historical knowledge, lived experience storytelling, and investigative work have established her as a credible expert and historian on this topic. She was recently involved in advocating for youth released from the shuttered Atlantis Leadership Academy in Jamaica. In this Podcast Episode: What Therapists Need to Know About the Troubled Teen Industry Key Takeaways for Therapists: Institutional Harm, Power Dynamics, and Working with Survivors -The marketing does not match the reality. Continual high-quality therapy is not the norm. Group therapy is often peer-led, psychiatric care is contracted and infrequent, and treatment is highly standardized rather than individualized. -Restraints, isolation, and medical neglect are common harms. Multiple deaths have been linked to physical restraints, including the killing of Cornelius Frederick at Lakeside Academy in 2020. -Children are routinely treated as liars when they report abuse or medical symptoms. -Adopted youth and foster youth are disproportionately placed in these facilities. An estimated 25 to 30 percent of youth in residential care are adopted. Programs market directly to families dealing with reactive attachment disorder and family trauma, promising change that rarely materializes. -Power and institutional structure are the problem, not just bad actors. Programs deny youth the ability to speak freely, contact family without monitoring, or refuse care. Trauma-informed care requires choice and agency, which institutionalization actively removes. -Survivors are highly traumatized and highly therapy resistant. Because abuse often occurred under the supervision of licensed therapists, many survivors avoid mental health care altogether. -Therapists who understand institutional abuse can play a critical role in creating safer therapeutic relationships. -Reform is uncertain and accountability is unclear. Programs where children have died are state-licensed, Joint Commission-accredited, and staffed by licensed clinicians. The professional associations have largely been silent. Meet the Hosts: Curt Widhalm, LMFT http://www.curtwidhalm.com Katie Vernoy, LMFT http://www.katievernoy.com A Quick Note: Our opinions are our own. We are only speaking for ourselves – except when we speak for each other, or over each other. We’re working on it. Our guests are also only speaking for themselves and have their own opinions. We aren’t trying to take their voice, and no one speaks for us either. Mostly because they don’t want to, but hey. Creative Credits: Voice Over by DW McCann   / mccanndw   Music by Crystal Grooms Mangano https://groomsymusic.com