Young Vibes. New company set up by the same people as Your Child Freedom Formula and Peaky Parents

[Hols12345]

Hello, if you're looking for information on youngvibes.co.uk child anxiety program, they are the same people as YCFF and Peaky Parents. They've set up under a new name.

See previous thread for discussion:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/child_adolescent_mental_health/4352676-Peaky-Parents-Kactus-Kids-formerly-known-as-Your-Child-Freedom-Programme-YCFF-and-other-previous-names-Child-anxiety-programme

[Perfectstorm72]

@safethelastdanceforme I agree, maybe we could create a a Facebook group and from there we could respond to their ad’s as a group?

[Sandrose]

@Perfectstorm72 that’s an interesting idea. A private group could be a good forum for discussion too….?

I’d be interested I think.

[Perfectstorm72]

@Sandrose ok I’ll create one and share it here tomorrow 🙂👍🏻

[Sandrose]

Thanks @Perfectstorm72 Do you think it might be advisable to DM the link to anyone who expresses an interest, though, rather than posting it here? Don’t want to be too secret squirrel but ….??

[3xteens]

@Perfectstorm72 @Sandrose please let me know the FB link if you manage to get this page up and running. Thanks for spending time to do this 😊

[Perfectstorm72]

@Sandrose good idea, yes 👍🏻

[Sandrose]

Just to update this thread to say the FB has been set up if anyone else would like to join.

[Sandrose]

Sorry that last message should say ‘FB group’ 🤦‍♀️

[Shoot4TheStars]

We have actually signed up and are on the Young Vibes course now, for our 11 yr old son. I'm not actually sure where all this negatively has arisen from, but I'm so glad I didn't see it before I signed up, because then I wouldn't have! I don't think anyone leaving these negative comments has actually joined the programme, otherwise they'd know what it's really like! They focus on the parents first, as many have anxiety (like me) - you've got to sort yourself out before you can help your child. My social and general anxiety is now under control because I understand it (they key to this and honestly it's a breath of fresh air amongst everyhing else we tried that failed) and have the tools to take control over it. It's not complicated, it's interesting and it can work if you put the leg work in, it's not a quick fix, but can change the way your mind thinks and behaves about situations, forever, thus ridding you of anxiety forever because once you change your perspective and have the knowledge, it's in there forever. Please please do watch Sam's videos on their face book page to see how passionate and knowledgeable she is and get a flavour for the course. It makes me sad that children will miss out on this help because of all the negativity from people who have no experience of the course!? Which makes no sense to me. I'm so glad we found it because our next step was to medicate, but then where did that leave us for the future - stressful decisions. We are doing the 100 day course which was about £400, but so worth it. I believe they did charge a few thousand for another programme, which involved more coaching and 1:1s but we're happy to do the self directed approach. I wish everyone could do the couse and gain real understanding and then be able to deal with the anxiety properly forever. I'm actually quite passionate about it now! X

[TeenDivided]

@Shoot4TheStars I am glad you feel it is working for you.

To cover a few points

• £400 is very different to the £2000 or whatever up front no money back scheme that they were running when these threads started
• There are posters on here who have lost money to them
• medication isn't all bad
• Their advertising is 'better' now because they have been pulled up on various unsubstantiable claims they were making before
• Are they still claiming autism doesn't exist / they can cure it
• I'm not sure Sam has any properly recognised qualifications in this areas does she, it's more like a self help group?
• I can well imagine it can help where the root cause is parental anxiety, but no way would I let an unqualified person loose on my traumatised anxious DD

We've asked before, can you tell us any specific advice you've been given that helped? How long have you been in the scheme? What benefits have you seen?

ps. Why do all the posters who support Sam post in such long paragraphs?

[Shoot4TheStars]

I don't really want to get involved in a back and forth, I really just came to leave my positive experience amongst all the negativity and explain that it has helped us so much and will allow us to recover and live our lives differently and really just wanted to let others know so that they too could benefit, that's my only aim.

Apologies for the long paragraphs! I think the passion just took over and I didn't take a breath!

I can't speak for Sam, I don't know her, she is just a ray of light on my phone every day delivering the self help videos. But I believe she didn't say autism doesn't exist, I think what she said was some traits that could be identified as autistic traits and are sometimes misdiagnosed, are actually traits originating from anxiety. The problem is the misdiagnosis and therefore you head down the wrong road.

I don't believe that in order to understand and deliver information to others you need to be qualified by a University, you just need to understand it and know how to apply it. You just need to be a master at what you do. The information presented isn't complex, once you know it, it's just not what is offerred elsewhere. I soooo wish that CAMHS offerred a similar course, that would be truely amazing, but it's just not the approach they take sadly.

I think my anxiety does feed into my son's, but he has trauma from school (now home ed!) But this has taught us that it's all about how different people's minds deal with trauma differently and thus effects some more than others - playing it over and over and analysing it and reliving it, which is the natural response. But we need to teach our subconscious how to learn new healthy thoughts and behaviours, so that these become our mind's new habits and we can move forward in a different mindset. Often people think they are going mad, but once you have the knowledge you realise your brain is programmed for survival and after things happen to you and often because of your personality type (often creative people, as they are able to imagine all these 'what if' thoughts!) you then live with constant prolonged fear because it's the natural survival response. So it's all about education as to what is happening, to remove the fear, then going forward learning and implementing new ways to think and behave.

Anyway, I just know it has helped us to get out of the anxiety cycle we were living in and completely blind to what was really going on inside.

I hope this can help others. I'm so glad we are on the programme and I just don't want others to miss out on the information as I don't know where we would have ended up without it, that's why I feel the need to come on and speak up above all the negative comments from people who haven't done the course, I just wanted to say that I am doing it and here is my opinion.

Hope it can help another child to move on from their anxiety. X

[Shoot4TheStars]

Oh I just wanted to say that although it is self directed from the daily videos, you do also get drop in zoom sessions with the Young Vibes team if you wish and they can answer your questions, have discussions, provide help and guidance etc.

[TeenDivided]

@Shoot4TheStars Thanks for the long response (and the paragraphs ).

I think you might have missed my actual questions:

• Can you tell us any specific advice you've been given that helped?
• How long have you been in the scheme?
• What benefits have you seen in your DS?

[safethelastdanceforme]

I have been on the programme and it did not work for our family. Needles to say YV blamed us, I’m glad it’s so far working out for you but I hope your case is not so complex.

good luck.

you’ll need it

[Sandrose]

Hi @Shoot4TheStars

I am genuinely pleased that the programme feels like its working for you, because I do know how horrible it is to be in the grip of anxiety within the family, and how hard it is to get meaningful help. I hope the progress continues for you. I can see we are both motivated to try to help other people in what we know to be a really very difficult situation.

I haven't been on the programme myself - though plenty of others on this thread have been, some of whom also felt really positive in the early stages. I have however, spent a number of years working very intensively, with the help of a qualified (private) family therapist, to unpick and heal the roots of my son's anxiety. Like Sam's work, our work also involved looking at the adults in the family and how we needed to do things differently, and work on our own traumas.

I am absolutely certain that someone needs professional qualifications and needs to adhere to professional standards in order to safely do the kind of work we did. That is why there are lots of bodies which offer this kind of regulation and oversight (e.g. those shown here www.hqtherapy.com/professional-bodies-associations-therapy/ - I don't have any links with this organisation, btw, just know it to be a useful page with info), so that families can be protected from rogue traders. And I absolutely believe that this type of work was what we needed to do to help our son long term.

Of course, other families will need different things. But I know that six years ago I could easily have been sucked into working with Sam on the basis of her claims, and I know with certainty that someone without professional experience, qualifications and supervision would not have been able to get to the bottom of my son's difficulties. Tbh I fund it shocking that someone can do this type of work with families without professional regulation, as it can really do harm in the wrong hands.

That of course, is not to say that Sam's work couldn't possibly feel helpful to you, or potentially some other families, in some ways.

My issue is that her business practices are not ethical: in terms of what she (still) promises vulnerable people she can do for them and their children, the ways she is not open about the qualifications of people who work for her, in terms of how she markets her business, funnels people into pressurising sales calls, how she treats families who have not had positive experiences (consistently tries to publicly blame, shame and belittle them), and how she treats anyone who challenges her (however politely or legitimately) on any of the above. She comes across to me as someone who is your best friend whilst you are doing what she wants, and then behaves horribly as soon as you offer any challenge or resistance. Some of the behaviour I have seen myself online and in the radio programme, and heard from other people's testimony, is shocking.

If she really wants to help families she should sort out her business practices; be honest about what she offers, and accept that no-one can 'recover' everyone; then no-one would need to spend their time warning others about her.

I do wish you well, I'm glad you have learnt things that have helped you, and I hope your success continues, but I will continue to warn other families to be very cautious about any dealings they may have with this company or any others run by the same people.

[Perfectstorm72]

@Shoot4TheStars a couple of points. Many of us have been “customers” and some have not, such as myself but I am now supporting parents who have been and who have paid £5,000 to find themselves left with an even more mentally unwell child. Camhs do offer parent led cbt programmes on the NHS, I am qualified to run them myself with parents in groups and I would never charge a parent to do so. Parent empowerment is a powerful and wonderful resource and research shows outcomes are measurable equally against 1:1 therapists delivering cbt. The difference is, you don’t need to pay for it. At all.

[3xteens]

Been on it, lost A LOT of money. £400 is nothing compared! I can see how this process can help some with anxiety BUT Sam has pretty much said autism etc don't exist. This is why this programme would NEVER have worked for our child and knowing this they should never have accepted us onto the programme and taken all our savings.

In the early days when we held on to positivity we, along with many others on the programme, were asked to leave positive reviews. Like you may have been asked to? If I was more tech savvy I would go back and re-write them!

If it works for you and your children great. But there are some of us that would like to spread awareness to families to beware, especially if their children have other diagnosis.

[BrilliantGreenFlamingo]

I’m sure the programme has worked for you.

However Sam is not a woman with integrity. Her very first post on mumsnet was deleted because she had been pretending to be different people on here. The company have repeatedly changed names. She accidentally sent the sales script to a customer. Including a bit about how to pressure them into taking out credit cards if they couldn’t afford it. And have links to a finance company to refer people so they can get in debt to fund it.

she has said autism doesn’t exist. Video has probably been taken down now coz she reads these threads and updates her tactics accordingly. Apparently her GP told her that ‘everyone is a bit on the spectrum’.

She has also said repeatedly under different company names that she can 100% guarantee cure anxiety. Even tho she’s been asked by the ASA not to do that.

She took a family to court to try and get money out of them. Which is a horrendous thing to do.

[NickyRus]

We’re on the programme at the moment. Sam
is the only person who has EVER and I mean EVER been able to get through to my step-son and he’s actually starting to improve. That is priceless. Yes, some of the marketing/admin is a bit ropey and you have to take some of what is said with a pinch of salt. But these are the first people who’ve said “we know what this is and we can help”, then have actually rolled up their sleeves and started to help.

Up until now we’ve run the whole gamut of CAMHS, private psychiatrists, all sorts of medication, various counsellors and therapists, and he’s just not engaged with any of it and continued getting worse. Now we’re actually starting to see positive changes - in him, in us and in our family life. I don’t know how far it will go, but I can see many many families on this programme whose kids are either fully recovered from their anxiety disorder or are well on the way.

Please can you only comment on this if you have actual experience of it? I can see so many vicious comments were people are jumping on the bandwagon, with opinions but no actual experience. Look at the Google reviews - all of the recent ones for sure are are from valid families on the programme at the moment. Please stop trying to destroy a business that is doing so much so much valuable work. If you succeed then bravo! My family and the many other families actually engaged in this will suffer as a result - yes, we’ll have wasted a lot of money but we’ll also lose out on the future that we could have had. Please stop the nastiness now. Thank you.

[TeenDivided]

@NickyRus I'm glad it is working for you.

• Can you tell us any specific advice you've been given that helped?
• How long have you been in the scheme?
• What benefits have you seen in your DSS?

[TeenDivided]

There's certainly been a massive influx of reviews for them on trustpilot in the last couple of weeks or so.

Anyway, i'm really hoping that @NickyRus and @Shoot4TheStars return soon to give answers to my 3 simple questions, as so often before the people who come on here to tell us how wonderful the company are seem unable to tell me even the simplest things about the advice and benefits.

On a previous (? - I lose track) thread I posted quite a lot about the treatment my own DD has received for her depression & anxiety, so it's not like I don't attempt to reciprocate.

[3xteens]

@NickyRus glad it's working for you. Its not the programme that I have so much an issue with as I do think it can work for some families. It is the way the business is run and the claims made that concern me.

It also concerns me that they get/got so involved with the wider picture, advising on relationships, medication etc (parents not the young people) with no qualifications or knowledge to do so.

We have been part of it and supposedly have lifeling access. But this programme cannot work for anxiety which, in our case, is part of being autistic. Autism DOES exist and DOES NOT go, and so there will always be a level of anxiety to live with.

I may not advocate CAMHS etc but these all rely on funding and there is not enough of this. If you are paying privately for a service, like this one, of course you will get more. And their young mentors do know how to connect with other young people.

It's also interesting how much they have changed the costs and services offered just over the last couple of years.

[Perfectstorm72]

@3xteens do we know what qualifications they have to work either with parents or with vulnerable children? I’m sorry but I always advise to double check insurance and qualifications with professional bodies such as the BPS before sowing anyone near families or children

[3xteens]

@Perfectstorm72 TBH I have no idea about qualifications and never thought to ask at the time.

I have seen since that mentors have qualifications but not sure exactly what sorry.

[NickyRus]

@TeenDivided sure, and thanks. In answer to your questions:

Understanding the physiology of the anxiety disorder, what’s going on in his body, how he feels, it’s a physical issue not a mental one. Coaching for us to stay super calm, whatever stress/rudeness/tantrums etc he throws at us. Advice on changing his environment. All this allows his stress levels to reduce, while he works with his mentor to understand what’s going on in his body and getting the tools to control his stress and move forward. Starting to work back up to normal parenting/boundaries (because all of that’s gone out of the window) as his anxiety starts to reduce. Starting to have some fun and closeness as a family again.

We started at the end of the summer holidays. The parents have to do a lot of work first to gain the understanding and lay the groundwork. He’s been seeing his mentor for 5-6 weeks, it took a while because he was so resistant but we got there in the end, with support and flexibility from Young Vibes.

It’s still early days, but we’re definitely seeing changes. He doesn’t get upset so readily, and when he does he’s able to calm down more quickly. When he’s rude to me he usually catches himself quickly and apologises, which he never used to do. He seems to have realised that it’s his responsibility to control his behaviour rather than just blaming everyone else, which is very new. He’s more open to doing family things - he volunteered to come to Sainsburys with me which was an absolute first, all three of us have been going out to play Pokémon Go, and playing football at home. More family mealtimes. It’s slow going, they describe it as turning a cruise ship round. But it really is making a difference, and I can see how it could work to have the transformational effect it has had for other families further through the programme.

The support and understanding from Young Vibes had been phenomenal. We’ve felt so alone and helpless for so long. Now we feel in the right place, supported by experts, surrounded by other families going through the same as us. The relief is indescribable, and I really feel we have a very strong chance to get to a happy loving family life with a stable, happy child. I wish we’d found this programme years ago.

I hope that helps you to understand it a bit more.