Peaky Parents / Kactus Kids - formerly known as Your Child Freedom Programme (YCFF) and other previous names - Child anxiety programme

[Daaxy]

My son was showing signs of anxiety and I was looking for help for him. I came across an ad on Facebook - Kids Anxiety Disorder Solutions. I watched an hour long webinar and then had a lengthy telephone appointment - this was the point that Peaky Parents was introduced.. The programme comes very close to guaranteeing that your child will be cured within around 8 weeks. it costs either £2500 or £5500 depending on the level of support your child needs. Some aspects of the engagement/sales process with Peaky Parents made me feel uncomfortable - I wanted to do some research on the company before signing up. I came across the link referred to at the start of the thread which has lots of views and information about YCFF, now Peaky Parents.

I would not have come across this information if at the time I had just been researching Peaky Parents. I do not know the reason for the name change.

Radio 4, File on 4, is broadcasting a programme on 21/9/21 at 8pm called Mental Health Profiteers - based on this organisation I believe.

If you are thinking of signing up with Peaky Parents I would suggest you look at the YCFF thread before making a decision.

Concerns expressed about Peaky Parents on the YCFF link include:-

high pressure selling to vulnerable people - specific aim to create a 'marketing machine' to sell this online programme

encouraging vulnerable parents to put themselves under financial pressure to raise funds for the programme

bold statements, approaching a guarantee, that the programme will work, with no evidence to back this up

blaming parents for the programme not succeeding for their child
lack of qualifications held within the organisation

young people giving personal video reviews

lack of professionalism - emotive language designed evoke guilt

criticism of other professional services

no regulation

We had an absolutely horrendous experience with these people. Please do not go with them. Please look at all the other resources you have because these people are in it for the money. They do not care. They are not professionally trained. They do not have the temperament.

They’ve come up on Facebook adverts recently too called something else. Something to do with school avoidance. So they’re still going and rebranding.

Yes, came up on my Facebook as an advert a few times too. I clicked ‘report’ to Facebook as a scam, as there wasn’t a more suitable topic, but they still appear.

They are persistent, I’ll give them that.
Damaging and dangerous, morally questionable, but persistent.

I can never quite believe that she’s still going!

And always a new name because they are in trouble with trade standards and won’t give people their subject access request. And they adopted the email Themumsnet as well.

Haha, did they do that with the email? That’s so weird.

Yes. And they had a website too. Weird it is. Manipulating as people would find it in their search and it looks associated with this site.

Currently in the USA, we have a political party that fear mongers and always uses phrases like “you can’t trust them or anybody, just me.” That is the fear tactic of this ugly organization. You can’t trust doctors, or schools, or therapists, or psychiatrists. You can only trust us.” The Us is two unqualified, uneducated individuals who took a Facebook marketing class and tried to find an area of need during the pandemic and aftermath.
Nobody can or should trust these people. The only reason we paid what we did is that they GUARANTEED money back. What they do not mention is that then they will throw all of these qualifiers about what “healing” is and tell you that you didn’t do the work. They love to blame parents. As others have mentioned, if you need more support or adaptation they get angry. I think for me, I challenged what I saw that did not make sense it was not effective or was lacking. I asked that they send a text or email reminders for us with ADHD for the weekly appointment. When you have questions, they shame and blame. These people should not be anywhere near families struggling. Sam does not like to be challenged because she is the Emperor with no clothes and as people ask questions, the charade is revealed so she gets defensive and angry and blames. DARVO is her go to response to protect her farce. She wants obedient sheep that see her as the all knowing Guru.
They were unwilling to send a simple text or email reminder. The tech was clunky and hard to use. Sam has not put all of the points of the program in simple terms , it is video after video of babbling and then they send even more videos so you can never catch up. The mentors come and go without warning (anxiety producing for our daughter). You can tell how angry I still at myself for paying to have someone add more stress, more drama, more difficulty to our lives. Go out for ice cream once a week with your child with no phones and talk and then walk in nature. And look at Charlie Waller and others mentioned here.

Reputable companies don’t do this kind of thing.

That’s so odd! No doubt they’re still suckering some parents in with their school anxiety programme.

Looks like Young Vibes is still going. youngvibes.co.uk/blog/

Just got a new email with a new name too.
Anxious to Awesome is the new name.

There is another company called anxioustoawesome but I dont think they have anything to do with Sam. One of her books has this title though.

This is them. They go by Satsie Thomas too. They changed the name to Satsie Thomas after we joined Young Vibes. Same group!

We bought that book from them too. Same group. They just go under so many names to “avoid capture” metaphorically speaking.

Yeah Satsie Thomas is Sam. Slippery isn’t she?! Like a fugitive.

That’s the book I bought - incredibly basic advice. Nothing a parent wouldn’t have already tried.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/feeling_depressed/5184606-a-warning-about-anxious-to-awesome-sam-and-martin-robbins?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share