Podcast Summary: Something Was Wrong

Host: Broken Cycle Media
Episode: S24 Ep12: Someone Who Believes Me
Release Date: September 12, 2025

Overview

This episode of Something Was Wrong centers on Danielle, a survivor of two controversial "therapeutic" youth institutions: Second Nature Blue Ridge (now Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness) and Carlbrook School. Danielle recounts her harrowing journey through these programs in the early 2000s, exposing manipulative intake tactics, dehumanizing routines, enforced isolation, shame-based methodologies, and the lifelong trauma caused. The episode also features a critical exchange with leadership at Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness, addressing ongoing survivor allegations and the institution’s current public statement.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Institutional Response to Allegations

• Host Tiffany Reiss details reaching out to Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness for comment in light of repeated survivor accounts of abuse.
  • [01:30] Tiffany lists critical questions submitted to Executive Director Danielle Hava, LCSW, including:
    • How does the institution justify its practices amid allegations?
    • Are transport/strip searches performed?
    • What qualifications and oversight do staff have?
    • Is communication with parents/staff ever unsupervised?
    • Are isolation, food deprivation, and corporal punishment used?
    • What justifies profiting from a system linked to lasting trauma?
  • Blue Ridge supplied a lengthy statement (read in full at [04:00–10:21]) defending their practices, denying abusive tactics, and encouraging engagement with allegedly grateful alumni.
    • "Deprivation, oppression or any form of mistreatment has no place in our work and is not tolerated under any circumstances." — Danielle Hava, LCSW ([07:51])
  • Tiffany notes no alumni have actually reached out to support the program ([11:23]).

Danielle's Story: Family, Early Trauma, and Neglect

• Background and Upbringing ([12:01–16:19]):

  • Danielle grew up in a wealthy, image-conscious but emotionally neglectful family.
  • Childhood marked by lack of affection, being scapegoated, and moves across countries.
  • Repeatedly dismissed by parents when seeking help for mental health and eating disorders.
  • Earliest memories involve being unloved, misunderstood, and subjected to fatphobia.

• Memorable Quote:

  • "I think my parents love me because they have to love me. But I never felt wanted." — Danielle ([13:44])

• Adolescent Crisis and Institutionalization ([24:55–32:00]):

  • After several suicide attempts and escalating teenage "trouble," Danielle’s parents consult an educational consultant and inform her of a supposed "three-week summer camp."
  • She is forcibly delivered to Second Nature Blue Ridge, where the reality immediately feels dangerous and coercive.

Second Nature Blue Ridge / Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness

([32:00–42:37])

• Admissions Process

  • Threatened with physical force if she doesn’t exit the car.
  • Undergoes strip search and is denied autonomy from the outset.

• Harsh Daily Living

  • Intense restriction of communication: forbidden to speak or make eye contact.
  • Activities organized under "phases", each with increasing access to basic social rights.
  • Assigned "impact letters", where family members detail her supposed moral failings, to be read aloud for public humiliation.

• Notable Quote:

  • "My 8 and 10 year old siblings had to write how I hurt them and how mad they were at me...I had to read these impact letters out to the entire group." — Danielle ([35:01])

• Physical Hardships

  • Long hikes (8–10 miles daily) with 80-pound backpacks.
  • Food rationing, infrequent showers, and no access to mirrors.
  • Group punishments and collective restriction of privileges.

• Manipulation and Survival

  • Learns to say and do whatever is necessary to “advance” through the program.
  • Deep bonds between students, but forbidden future contact.

• Therapy/Curriculum Critiques

  • Therapists only seen once weekly; focus is on performative change.
  • "School" is unserious; credit gained from trivial, nature-themed assignments.

Carlbrook School

([42:37–70:58])

• Immediate Transfer

  • Danielle is transferred directly from Blue Ridge, without returning home, into what’s sold as a prestigious college prep school.

• Rules, Shame, and Isolation

  • Instant strip searches and exhaustive rules about appearance and conduct.
  • Public shaming for all infractions; certain students forbidden to speak or socialize ("on bands").
  • Strict dress code down to the type of underwear; body policing.
  • All packages, letters, and calls monitored or censored.

• Educational and Therapeutic Realities

  • Academic rigor is superficial; age-inappropriate classes.
  • Therapy groups are more punitive and performative than helpful — "railing" sessions where staff/students berate others into confessions, often inventing or exaggerating wrongdoing under pressure.
  • Multi-day "workshops" involve cult-like activities, forced emotional confessions, role-played shaming, physical exertion (e.g., digging stumps, pounding fists until bloody), exposure to scare tactics and traumatic film clips.

• Memorable Quote:

  • "If you didn't have something awful to confess, you truly had to make it up or else you'd be called out for it and yelled at." — Danielle ([53:00])
  • "Amongst all this stuff, they had put a picture of me as a little kid. That was such a mindfuck." — Danielle ([61:40])

• Extended, Arbitrary Punishments

  • Danielle describes six weeks of enforced isolation from peers and dependency on untrained student "support", plus nightly physical labor as discipline.
  • Other students subjected to stints of extreme labor or food deprivation.

Aftermath: Reunion, Lasting Trauma, and Recovery

([70:58–81:04])

• Difficult Homecoming

  • Upon “graduation,” Danielle returns home programmed for hyper-compliance, unable to relate to peers with normal high school experiences.
  • Family remains judgmental and emotionally absent:
    • "If you and a skinny person apply to the exact same job...she would get it, not you." — Danielle’s father ([66:12])

• Ongoing Challenges

  • Struggles with assimilation, relationships, and trust into adulthood.
  • Finds eventual peace and self-forgiveness as a parent herself, gaining perspective on her parents’ failures.

• Relationship with Siblings

  • Close bond formed in adulthood, based on shared institutional trauma.

  • "None of those things have been as traumatic for me as surviving the woods and surviving Carlbrook." — Danielle ([77:24])

• Perspective and Hope

  • Danielle stresses that survivors were brainwashed and acting under duress, expressing empathy and forgiveness for her peers, and encourages parents to find ways to help their children without institutionalizing them.
  • "These experiences bring a lot of trauma in my life...Up until this point, I have not had somebody...willing to listen, wanting to understand, to empathize, to believe me...Just the acknowledgment has truly been healing for me." — Danielle ([80:22])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "My parents, before they had kids, they needed to do some work on themselves." ([75:56])
• "What I want my peers to keep in mind is that we were brainwashed. The person I was there is not who I really am." ([78:16])
• Host Tiffany Reiss affirms Danielle’s courage:
  "Thank you for sharing that with me. You deserved so much better. It costs so much to revisit and can be really draining and physically difficult." ([81:04])

Key Timestamps by Segment

• [01:01–10:21] – Host’s outreach and Blue Ridge’s entire official statement
• [12:01–24:55] – Danielle’s family background and early trauma
• [24:55–42:37] – Second Nature Blue Ridge: intake, daily life, tactics
• [42:37–70:58] – Carlbrook School: entry, punishment, workshops, “therapy”
• [70:58–81:04] – Reunion with parents, post-release trauma, recovery journey
• [81:04–81:27] – Host’s acknowledgements and episode close

Listener Takeaways

• Institutional abuse can be deeply damaging, regardless of the intentions or perceptions of programs.
• Survivors’ stories must be believed, as the systems in place often train them to hide suffering or perform “wellness.”
• Recovery and family relationships are often complicated, but other survivors can be a source of support and understanding.
• The healing power of being truly heard, believed, and acknowledged cannot be underestimated.

Next Episode Preview

• Sneak peek into the next survivor story, highlighting protests and family dynamics at another controversial program, Academy at Ivy Ridge ([81:27]).

For more information, content warnings, and resources related to this episode, visit the show’s episode notes.