Troubled Teen Industry Abuse with Former Victim Melanie Friedman LCSW

Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan

Dr. Steven Hassan

Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 684 Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2023

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Do you worry about your teenager's safety and fear they could fall into the deceptive webs of manipulative, cult-like groups? Are you a desperate parent seeking intervention services for your struggling teen? If so, you can't afford to miss this interview with Melanie, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a survivor of the infamous Troubled Teen Industry —a largely unregulated web of residential behavior modification programs notorious for subjecting struggling teens to various forms of abuse. Our riveting dialogue focuses on these unregulated behavior modification programs' stark realities and untold abuses. Melanie's mission is to raise awareness and educate mental health professionals on coercive control settings like these. Why is this essential? Because desperate parents might unknowingly send their vulnerable teens into a dangerous commercial cult. Of course, there are legitimate therapeutic groups and settings but one needs to vet them extremely carefully and understand from former victims and experts what red flags to watch out for! Learn more about Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Resource Center. Visit freedomofmind.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Hassan with another episode of the Influence Continuum.
0:10.7	And today we spotlight a multi-billion dollar industry slash scam slash cultic undue influence industry. It's referred to as the troubled teen industry.
0:28.2	I have a very special guest with me today. And we're going to get into this important subject.
0:36.4	Melanie Friedman is with me today. She's a licensed clinical social
0:41.6	worker and she's a survivor of the troubled teen industry. This so-called industry is a system of
0:49.9	unregulated residential behavior modification programs that targets desperate parents concerned
0:57.5	about their struggling teens.
1:00.8	Accounts of physical, psychological, emotional, even sexual abuse are well documented in
1:07.1	these programs.
1:09.3	When Melanie was placed in a so-called therapeutic boarding school in 1998,
1:16.2	she personally experienced physical and psychological abuse,
1:21.2	and learned years later she had been placed in a thought reform program.
1:26.3	Thought reform is what Lifton called brainwashing from his study of
1:30.4	the Chinese communists. Melanie has spent the last 25 years working on her recovery from the
1:37.8	trauma she experienced and has built a successful career where she can help others as a mental health professional.
1:46.1	I met Melanie when she presented at the ICSA conference, the International Cultic Studies
1:52.6	Association, conferences past June in Louisville, Kentucky. So I asked her to come on my podcast, and
2:00.6	she's like, I'd be delighted. And thank you for doing that.
2:04.7	And just to finish up, Melanie, your therapeutic focus has been working with trauma survivors,
2:10.3	but primarily those in or leaving coercive control settings. Your mission is to educate fellow
2:17.1	mental health workers on coercive control
2:19.8	and the troubled teen industry with the goal of promoting prevention and quality support and
	...

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