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

Hi everyone. The same people have set up under a new name "Young Vibes" www.youngvibes.co.uk. This is the same company / program as Your Child Freedom Formula' and Peaky Parents

They are using the Trustpilot reviews from Your Child Freedom Formula www.youngvibes.co.uk/written-reviews

YCFF Trustpilot - uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.yourchildfreedomformula.com

Peaky Parents Trustpilot - uk.trustpilot.com/review/peakyparents.com

The video testimonials come from the YCFF and Peaky Parents sites.
www.youngvibes.co.uk/video-testimonials

Oh man!! Can’t believe they’re starting up again under a new name!! How many name changes is that now?

They also appear to be now selling T-shirts on Amazon. With the same logo. Not quite clear why - new money making idea, Sam?

It’s the same old crap repackaged, I wonder if their trading through a US company still as the UK trading standards weren’t happy with them.

It is the same old shit. Don’t get the T-shirts tho. They mention safeguarding and GDPR now too. Weren’t those our ‘tips’?? Seem to have extended it to 20 weeks recovery now too.

They also seem to be running an import business? www.tomwill-holdings.co.uk/

That was the name of their registered company YCFF was linked to, it used to just be the companies house name. I just took a look, it look likes a pointless pile of words and pictures, you can’t contact/book/buy or connect to anything or anyone.

find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11061956

Tomwill Holdings Ltd was listed on YCFF site and named in their customer contracts

Yeah I remember that about Tomwill Holdings. The website is all so weird, just a load of stock photos. Their webinar has been updated.

I really hope that new people aren’t signing up, paying and then finding out that it’s nothing more than being told that anxiety is caused by adrenaline.

There’s a new fb page too. Stop Adolescent Anxiety or something. But also the ASA ruling comes up when looking for YCFF/Peaky Parents so that’s good.

Is the Young Minds logo one that they’ve designed or did they take it from the T-Shirts?

Mibb2 I really hoped they had moved onto something new.
Do we need a new MN thread with their new name in the title so people searching find these threads and not get sucked in can make up their own mind?

In the meantime, my DD's recovery is progressing, albeit slowly. She's attending college, more energised, and much much happier than she was.

That’s great teen I often think of her. (I’ve also name changed btw and had wondered if it was you on other threads) Must be such a relief for you.

Never heard of them but instantly dislike 'Cactus Kids' ss a name. What are their methods that are so different and life changing so quickly?

No one quite knows. All the people who’ve been on here to say they’re using them say it’s too complicated to understand or they can’t explain it. There was a Radio 4 programme about them that looked into them too. The one time the owner, Sam, did come on, her first post got deleted for breaching mn guidelines. Because she was posting as herself but also posting under diff usernames pretending to be satisfied customers. Which happened quite a few times with various other posts getting deleted for the same reason. I can’t quite believe they’re still going.

Here’s another name for them and website. www.stopadolescentanxiety.com/written-reviews

With this claim on it in red writing at the top of main page. We Fully Recover Children from Anxiety Disorders Which I thought they were banned from making by the ASA when they were calling themselves YCFF and Peaky Parents.

Thanks LittleSnakes. I actually replied earlier but must not have pressed post.

From www.stopadolescentanxiety.com/copy-of-faq-s GAD-7 Clinical trial?

I wonder how true that is. I wonder what research organisation is overseeing this, etc etc.
And surely you should have to agree whether or not you want to be part of a clinical trial?
Ethics issues again.

They're not conducting clinical trials! Thats dishonest language used to make them sound more official / professional! It's so frustrating that they're still doing this.

The GAD-7 is a 7 point questionnaire that can be used alongside other assessment tools, to determine the severity of Generalised anxiety disorder.

There's some more information about it here:
www.corc.uk.net/outcome-experience-measures/generalised-anxiety-disorder-assessment-gad-7/

Don't quote me on this but I think the GAD 7 would normally be used as a tool by GPs, Psychologists or Psychiatrists, not normally by psychotherapists, as therapy would be a treatment that may be used once GAD has been diagnosed, rather than part of the assessment?

I'd say this is completely meaningless, given that they have made it very clear that they don't accept that anxiety is a psychological condition?

Kids do get a free t shirt when they've answered the 7 questions though!!

They've also been reported to Truspilot for misusing the Trustpilot brand. The Trustpilot reviews on their websites are taken from the Your Child Freedom formula Trustpilot which has been removed by Trustpilot. Companies who do this reduce people's trust in review sites which make them meaningless, so hopefully TP will do something about it.

I was wondering about the GAD7 too. I think they’ve said that they’ve got a child psychiatrist working for them now? Or psychotherapist maybe.

What I said earlier, isn't quite right: "The GAD-7 is a 7 point questionnaire that can be used alongside other assessment tools, to determine the severity of Generalised anxiety disorder."

It's actually used as a screening tool, mainly by GPs, to help them decide whether a patient should be referred on to a psychiatrist / other mental health service.

snakes yes, they say " integrated child Psychotherapist". I think they know very well that people tend to mix up psychologist, psychiatrist and psychotherapist and they're using that to their advantage. It's so dishonest.

I wonder who the Child Psychotherapist is.

They are so dishonest. I’m particularly annoyed about the claim about curing because that is specifically what they had to remove from previous website.

It's all very mysterious. Normally an organisation offering this sort of service would be at pains to list their staff and their relevant qualifications. Instead we have vague claims about them being "GDPR certified" (what would that even be?!)

More dishonest and confusing language designed to give the impression of integrity and professionalism without actually having to give any details.