All rights reserved. They didnt get me any food because they told me they couldnt go out of there way to take care of me. if you started crying when they gave you negative points, they would progressively increase the number you got. Within the past ten years, researchers have found a strong connection between the rise of teen depression and social media. Because it is unbelievable it's unbelievable that this is going on in this day and age., Hopefully, it wont be going on for much longer. Another friend that left while I was there is suing for child abuse and neglect so there is definitely shit going down with this program and it is just a matter of time but dont believe the fake shit they try and say on their website about the art and the music.its a crock of shit because most of the time you cant even finish your art because of therapy or family therapy and youre always rushing because its anxiety central Just existing in that environment and forget music lessons because if you want those they cost money and they take away from school and you are forced to practice whatever instrument it is every other day and if you actually enjoy playing well then you have to have your fucking privileges I want to start a hate blog on this place so badly because I am about to graduate this amazing program for adults that has changed my life and was in no way similar to Eva Shitshow Academys approach for good reason. I came to this residential treatment center after completing a wilderness therapy program and this was supposed to help me deal with my feelings and emotions in a positive way during my last year of high school. I went to this residential treatment center for adolescent girls called Eva Carlston and if you dont want to read the rest of this post just DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT GOING THERE! Believe it or not there was a lot I couldnt even cover because Im typing on an LG tablet and the autocorrect is driving me too crazy to go back and edit and add more for now u/RosesSmellNice (Reddit), 4943 Wasatch Blvd, Salt Lake City, UT 84124, . Anyone who attended, I am so deeply sorry. but the other outings we went on were going to symphonies, art galleries, walking around the ginormous mormon church in downtown salt lake, and sometimes if we were lucky going to hockey games. The program manipulated my parents into trusting them over their own daughter. I often cried myself to sleep at night out of fear. Thank you for posting this review. There are many more examples but I hope this movement keeps happening where other girls and parents speak up about the real truth. , Hi, Im previous staff at this institution. Treatment always works better when its integrated with real world situations. Ill post a shorter version of it again because I think its crucial that people who care about their children know that this place is traumatic, abusive, and does nothing for the well-being of children. We seek to raise awareness and to change the law to protect the teenagers in these programs from harm. The educational component is mediocre. also I would never ever be the person I am right now if I didnt persevere through all of that bullshit. I was in a juvenile detention center before ECA and I can honestly say I got treated better there and had more rights. the first night at Eva I started having persecutory delusions. Girls are not allowed to speak about anything relating to struggles or injustices ever. i was so brainwashed by the end that i would habitually thank the staff for punishing me because crying is apparently manipulation that had to be beaten out of me. We were told to change the topic if it sounded like we were complaining or being negative. We were given points every day and the amount of points you could earn from doing positive things were so low in comparison to the severe negative consequences you received (usually -5000). Address: 4943 S Wasatch Boulevard, Salt Lake City, Utah 84124 is the Clinical Director of Eva Carlston Academy. oh story time, so a girl got on focus system which is like a major consequence. then I told my therapist I was experiencing these things and she gave me the same look everyone else was giving me. There was no follow up with our parents after therapy appointments so they had no clue about our medical/mental health. Although Eva Carlston Academy did not respond to Refinery29s request for comment about these allegations, Kyra has this to say: Theyre telling me that Im lying and defaming [them] and I know what I experienced, but I just took it down because I cant afford a lawyer. There was a significant focus on negative consequences where punishment was the cornerstone; this is not the type of program a depressed and anxious child should be subjected to. All members will develop their own relapse-prevention strategy. . When I first got there, there were groups held to basically bash a girl who was not ready to do her work. you earn a -2,000 points. #fyp. Eva Carlston Academy reviews that a mental health condition doesn't just mean sadness, anxiousness, or behavior of lashing out. If we didnt make a certain amount of points a day we couldnt talk to people really for 24 hours and we had to sit and write essays. I found it very strange that we were not allowed to wear slippers in the house unless you had a medical problem, even in the winter. However, I doubt anyone there currently will tell you the truth because you get in trouble for doing so. [edit] honestly, i downplayed the stuff about lgtbq+ clients. Eva Carlston Academy in Salt Lake City, Utah serves 45 students in grades 6-12. My stomach was constantly grumbling and I lost maybe 15 pounds while I was there. I am in no way shape or form exaggerating about this stuff. In this family-style setting we were told the girls learn a strength-based approach to skill building, problem solving and emotional regulation, social-skills development, and preparation for independent living. this place is psychotic. They locked it in a closet and never let me use it. We are a community based program that focuses on the fine arts as a tool to help girls realize their potential. When we originally researched the facility we believed the intention of the program was to give girls an intimate sense of home as well as access to the cultural resources and opportunities of a large city. All correspondence and conversations with family are monitored heavily and any complaining to parents leads to a heavy negative consequence. okay so all in all. You have to make 10,000 points day. The other girls had to do that as well., Refinery29 emailed a spokesperson for Eva Carlston to ask if theyd like to respond to either of Rayburns claims; they said they were unable to do so, citing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and saying that this and analogous principles of confidentiality prevent Eva Carlston from divulging protected health information regarding its patients. These are the things that will sustain healing and growth for a lifetime. i am also queer and anyone who was LGBTQ+ there was not allowed to talk about their orientations because it wasnt appropriate to discuss it outside of individual therapy, apparently. These are just a few examples of what happened to me while I was there. Rick Jackson worked as a Psychiatrist at Eva Carlston. You needed to make 10000 points by 5 pm every day.do the math. It was verbally attacking your peers, and if you were doing the attacking you were getting rewarded for it, Rae claims. Teens on the LGBTQI+ spectrum and as well as teens of color are especially affected by mental health issues. While at ECA, I was shamed for my drug addiction and forced to read aloud to a group of girls the details of my rape and sexual abuse. I remember I had terrible eczema while I was there (due to high stress). everyone was punished for crying, especially if you cried when punished. the whole ass welcome comity was there and made it looked perfect. you wouldnt be allowed to speak to anyone, read a book, write in your journal, or do anything except silently work on assignments and ask for more. To meet the needs of our families, therapy can occur in a variety of forums including conference calls, in-person sessions, family seminars, multi-family groups, and Skype conferencing. When I left ECA my eating disorder had never been worse. They suffer from severe PTSD, drug use, depression and eating disorders from the abuse at the hands of Eva Carlston. But while the Troubled Teen Industry is getting a lot of attention right now, its roots can be traced back decades, to an organization called Synanon that ostensibly started as a rehabilitation program in 1958, but revealed itself to be something quite different: a cult. We were referred to this program by a highly-experienced and well-regarded educational consultant. throwing desks, screaming, throwing a vacuum at someone, throwing pots and pans and telling people to shut up when that is not her place. also with girls there with severe eating disorders, they need the proper food intake. After months of begging, they finally said they would take a picture and send it to my mom. It was supposed to be my golden year, I had missed junior prom to go to wildy, I was about to have my 18th birthday, finally go to prom that I had somehow missed every year, and soak up all the final moments with my best friends before heading off to college.HAAHA what a fucking joke. It was shameful and miserable. The therapeutic portion of ECA is functionally separate from the daily living milieu and its Family Teaching Model, resulting in a treatment model this is highly compartmentalized. Staff are manipulative, condescending, and power hungry. they constantly left me and went into the other room and sometimes even got mad at me for not following me even though I didnt know they were leaving me and it was there fucking job to watch me not my job to follow them around. so Im going to start from my first day at eva. Kay recalls that one of the most insidious parts of her time in the program centered around eating. as low as 10 serving size or 13 is NOT ENOUGH FOR 16 PEOPLE!!!! This program left our child with deep scars, and she is currently undergoing specialized trauma-focused therapy to process and heal from her experience. L.M. They never called 911, because they weren't allowed to. A spokesperson for Eva Carlston declined to comment on these incidents, citing HIPAA laws. At least some of the programs seem intent on maintaining the silence that allows the Troubled Teen Industry to thrive. They are sometimes prohibited from speaking to anyone or from using the bathroom at times. *Rae and Kyra have both chosen to keep their last names private. If you so happen to make eye contact with a random boy, youll be forced to write essays in the basement about it for weeks or months. During group therapy, girls learn leadership skills, acquire a sense of personal worth, and learn to sustain reliable and predictable relationships with other people. What the fuck? , if you didnt make enough points in one day (generally either 10,000 or 5,000 depending on level in the program), you had to sit in a silent room working on essays such as the importance of managing anxiety and the importance of accepting no or making what were essential pro and cons lists on dealing with inane situations. Based on our family's experience, our educational consultant says she will no longer refer families to this program. In a way t was emotionally damaging. And, our family is undergoing intensive family therapy for the same reasons. oh also on saturdays we either did photography, acting at SLAC, or volunteer work(shoveling, intense cleaning, taking down christmas lights. My mom kept calling the program begging them to take me to a dermatologist. programs. EMDR has been recommended to treat PTSD by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Psychiatric Association (APA). There's nothing more that we're afraid of than not being believed after everything we've went through, Rayburn says. Letters and phone calls with family are strictly monitored, by rule, and the girls are reprimanded for complaining to parents. so yeah. The website and brochures are misleading and the program is not as described. It is very scary forced to increase powerful psychological medications for expressing feelings or having a bad day, not for diagnosis purposes. I left ECA with scars on my skin from this. They put so much shit on our shoulders that we cant take. I would get sick and throw up all the time because I would be stuffing my face with food when I was full, she remembers. We encourage students and alumni to speak freely with us about their experiences and welcome the opportunity to help educate the public about the importance of young women having a safe and appropriate place to heal. Our team provides opportunities, challenges, and mentorship to help girls overcome these restrictions so that they can discover their own preferences and passions. But, the program used various problematic tactics, such as isolation, sleep deprivation, and manual labor. Among these allegations include claims of emotional/verbal abuse, attack therapy, forced manual labor, isolation/solitary confinement, humiliation techniques, and more. so I went into Eva with depression, anxiety, ptsd and a tiny bit of substance abuse. those that toed the line) and they did so out of pure fear. LeadCandy provides Full Profile, verified Email Address, Social Profile links, and Mutual Contacts of Eva Carlston Academy employees. 6 months later I finally talked to my mom about it on a phone call. Our dedicated staff ensures our urban-living spaces are safe, secure, and supportive. Our students may have experienced devastating trauma, clinical depression, loss, anxiety, or personality disorders. Whether or not the Troubled Teen Industry can be reformed and remodeled to get to a good place, is a different question. Save a life from abuse from Eva. we all had to keep our mouths shut in order for anyone to stay safe. 2 talking about this. I wish I had. It is worth noting that many of the positive reviews are from parents, written shortly after their daughters discharge from the program. I once lost the right to free time, hanging out with friends, and talking because my pant zipper was down. Staff promised that they would get me a smoothie after my surgery. I only lasted about a month because of how absolutely awful it was. In order to refrain from receiving these negative consequences our daughter felt she had to hide her feelings and couldnt open up and be honest about her emotional state. We utilize a wide-range of clinically validated interventions to help students try new activities, develop new skills, get involved in their community, and increase problem-solving skills and independence. I had lost about 10 pounds since wilderness and Ive never been overweight, always stuck to a solid 116 give or take a few pounds but after Eva Carlston I was 108 pounds at 51. There are hundreds of other highly profitable institutions, schools, boot camps, and facilities across the United States, many of which have been accused of employing physically and emotionally abusive tactics in the name of rehabilitating misbehaving teens and youth and plenty of them use the traumatic legal kidnapping that Hilton describes when they intake students. We are to young to be doing all of this. My ridiculous plan was to jump off the balcony and injure myself so I could go to the hospital and get out of there. Find your place. The Parent Coaches are highly trained and experienced treatment providers that develop customized parenting plans. Often you would then be late to wherever you were going, which resulted in you receiving a minimum negative consequence of -5000. Rayburn, like Kyra, isnt fully satisfied. Our psychosocial and therapeutic groups are designed specifically for the needs of adolescent girls, and cover the following topics: Traditionally, adolescent females have been placed in addiction programs designed for delinquent boys. Ive seen a lot of girls come in and out, never got better, only worse. My parents and I thought I would be mentored and guided with appropriate therapy so I could grow and heal. I am doing deep trauma work in therapy just to work through ECA. I started to understand that there was something very wrong with what had happened. Girls received consequences for crying or expressing their emotions. The girls cannot tell their parents what is really happening there without consequences. i had the program director herself privately shame me into silence when i said my emotional safety was being compromised by staff. , This review is based on our daughters 12 month stay at Eva Carlston Academy in Salt Lake City, Utah. Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. All residents are fed a highly low-fat diet with strict portion control. However girls who arrive there are emotionally and psychologically abused by staff and directors. (For his part, Lichfield said in an e-mailed statement to the New York Times that he no longer owns any of the schools and that he was unaware of children being harmed.) It should be noted that while they advertise that they are able to treat girls with eating disorders, they cannot. There were 4 phases: Daily-you were treated like the equivalent of garbage Weekly 1-You were treated like a soft serve piece of shit Weekly 2-treated like a 10 year old child Achievement-congrats you get freedom but you can easily fuck it up if you leave your sweater on the dining room table then instead of getting to use your monitored computer time for 20 minutes youll only get it for 10 minutes! Both women claim that they were punished for their attempted escapes. is the Founder and Executive Director of Eva Carlston Academy. They said we didnt have to eat all of our food but when we didnt we got in trouble and sat there until we did because otherwise we couldnt do anything. Charlotte Rayburn, 19, attended Eva Carlston Academy from 2018 to 2019, and also claims she took part in hot seat sessions. linktr.ee/evacarlstonacademybcs. arms is when a staff is key word= SUPPOSED to be arms length away from you at all times. [The classmate] would have these kind of meltdowns, where everything was just a lot for her, and staff decided to deal with that by violently tackling her, Rayburn says. Anyone who attended, I am so deeply sorry. It should be noted that while they advertise that they are able to treat girls with eating disorders, they cannot. going into eva, I had a very normal diet. Oh and even if you werent on sub system if you had to take a midnight piss, you would have to get a staffs attention and ask and wait for a response and then go pee after they felt they were at a comfortable distance to be aware of where you were or some shit. Its disgusting. , I am writing this review as a previous student at Eva Carlston Academy to express how harmful this program can be to a young girl suffering from depression and anxiety. The dietary restrictions they place on these girls is not healthy. But regardless of her struggles, every Eva Carlston student is capable of healing and thriving with the right support. They highly monitor social calls so we had no privacy to express our true feelings with family. That messed with my body so much that I developed IBS and would throw them up.". 262 Likes, TikTok video from HausofMeow (@catlovescats95): "The High Frontier School was shut down after decades of abuse, neglect and seggsual assault on the minors that were there to be helped. The rest of it was not only unhelpful for me but harmful and traumatic. , hi so i went to eva carlston and got pulled my 82nd day. The portions are very controlled, she tells Refinery29. Once, when she was nearly faint for lack of food, she begged staff for a snack - the Family Teacher on shift gave her 3 Wheat Thins to assuage her hunger. my parents had to demand a private phone call with me to find out all the freaky shit that was going on and even during my so called private phone call there was this psycho staff that came in and told me if I didnt hang up that she would physically take the phone from me even though I had permission and yeah that still makes no sense to me.