Tough Love by Lillian Speerbrecker

Tough Love:  Truth Behind The Troubled Teen Industry, Lillian Speerbrecker.  Munich: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG, 2013.  e-book, 38 pps.
website:  http://safeteenschools.org/home.html 
twitter:    @SafeTeenSchools


Lillian Speerbrecker was a teen living in Michigan with her father and her step-mother.  She was taken by two hired "escorts" from her home to a WWASPS facility in Mexico known as Casa by the Sea at the end of May in 2004.  After that facility was shut down by the Mexican authorities, she was then taken to Midwest Academy [MWA] in Iowa.  The author was one of the "lucky" ones.  On February 11, 2005 she got expelled [!] and her dad took her back home to Michigan.  Unfortunately, her father to date of publication had never come to terms with the abuse that she suffered at the hands of the WWASPS program staff.

sapphoqreviews says:  Yet another book by a survivor of the culture of abuse at WWASPS.  Tough Love confirms-- once again-- that during "group therapy" sessions and/ or seminars-- teen girls who had been raped before arrival at a program were called sluts and shamed because of their rapes.  Another item that the book confirms is the overuse of isolation rooms for days on end with those punished being made to sit in certain positions all day except for meals.  It was also mentioned that a staffer at MWA had actually been a detainee at Tranquility Bay but had bought into the ideology so well that she was given a job in Iowa.

I was ecstatic to discover that Lillian Speerbrecker has created an organization called Safe Teen Schools which can be found at: http://safeteenschools.org/home.html  and on Twitter at: @SafeTeenSchools.

I have said this before and I will say it again:  I believe the survivors who have reported horrific conditions and abuse.  Period.

Help at Any Cost by Maia Szalavitz

Help at Any Cost, Maia Szalavitz.  New York: Penguin Group Inc. [Riverhead Books], 2006.  e-book. 297 pps.

I happened upon Help at Any Cost while doing some research on the troubled teen industry.  I saw some names I have been becoming increasingly familiar with-- Robert Lichfield, Ken Kay, David Gilcrease, et. al.  Maia Szalavitz found the one staffer who worked at W.W.A.S.P.S. who in my book is a true hera-- Amberly Knight-- a former director who complained about the conditions at Dundee Ranch to the authorities and quit.  Chapter Five is very thorough and dedicated to all things W.W.A.S.P.S.  The other chapters flesh out the history of Synanon, Seed, and KIDS.  Maia Szalavitz also discusses how group treatment went among the original tough love crowd, exactly what was wrong with the whole tough love movement [something which I myself did not know, and from my background I really should have], lawsuits and court dates, and the difference between abuse and addiction especially as how that difference pertains to teens.

sapphoq reviews says: Help at Any Cost is a valuable addition to the discussion of the troubled teen industry.  The historical background is one that I much appreciated.  The whole idea of love being a commodity to be earned if one behaves is repugnant.  An easy read that is highly informative.  This book should be read by any parents considering sending their teens off to a behavioral modification residential program as well as by professionals who work in any addictions fields.