Young Vibes/Satsie Thomas. 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

www.trustpilot.com/review/satsiethomas.com

!!!! OMG she has reviewed it as if she is a customer to the programme. And the other reviews will be employees/parents I expect 🙄

I’ve been on these threads since the beginning, just had another name change. The school anxiety one came up on my fb feed the other day as a paid advert. So they’re clearly trying more things now with Satsie Thomas. Not heard of that.

There were a lot of positive comments on the fb ad, unfortunately. It’s sad because there are so many anxious children out there who need real support.

Staffinsider what do you think would help stop them?

Yes there were families who benefitted but then I could also say someone would benefit in any context if enough people are doing the same thing- its a numbers game. The issue was that we were the ones blamed for any failures, so they never saw it as something within the coaching and support. And if a family pulled out, we were penalised. This is what started the process of me feeling not genuine. That led to arguments with them and eventually being fired (along with others) without any pay.
From what we are told their coaches are mostly past clients/parents of clients that have been trained up on how to coach in their style. I honestly don't know anymore as it wasn't shared and so much was changed so often.
And - yes that is the book...originally part of an idea to advertise in the USA under a totally separate name so nobody would realise who they were.
I wont be able to go into too much details about the inner workings and finances as we may be bringing a court case against them to try and recuperate our lost earnings as most of us didn't have any other jobs.

@staffinsider this is awful. Personally we left because of Sam, and because our child is autistic (it exists!!) and this would never have "recovered them" as promised. I know of at least 2 families who got their money back one way or another.

You should be paid fairly. Sam would speak quite derogatorly about some employees even to families. Being penalised for families pulling out is disgraceful. Sam is not someone I would want to know let alone have to work for.

I hope you get what you are owed.

TRIGGER WARNING (she talks about self harm and suicide) I've just watched this video. I'm actually pretty shocked. It's a new low even for Sam.

Video transcript
Um right so when I went myself to the doctor back in the day I remember vividly that he went through a checklist of questions for me. And at the end of it he said right you have got depression and you have got anxiety. And of course in those days you know 25 years ago or whatever it was he was the doctor. He was the GP. Um I adored him. Um and obviously you go there for the advice and to know what to do and to know what to take etcetera etcetera. Who was I to question him and I didn't question him. And I walked away with in his words the equivalent of horse tranquilizers. Um he said they were very strong antidepressant tablets. And I left full of hope believing that this was the cure and a few weeks later I was no different in I think the despair then that hit me actually exasperated my anxiety and so as the months rolled on and the years have rolled on and I've learnt and developed obviously this formula now for children you do come to start to analyse actually why did those tablets not work why was I diagnosed with depression and anxiety. So my belief my firm complete belief is that tablets that I was given were a chemically enhancing medication because the doctor felt that I was depressed clinically depressed and therefore my serotonin levels were out of kilter and they needed to be given an uplift if you like I can't think what the right word is that they needed I needed to increase my serotonin levels in my brain because I was clinically depressed I never felt that I was clinically depressed. I never felt depressed. I felt low. Um I was incredibly fed up. I was questioning how I was going to live like this the rest of my life. Um I didn't want to be living but I definitely did not want to die. When you've got anxiety you've got huge amounts or vary levels of but certainly an overload of adrenaline coursing through your blood system. So you're constantly on the lookout, risk assessing et cetera. You certainly are not in the mindset of wanting to die. So just let me touch on this. Any child that is no longer here, shall we say? That happens because of a horrific accident it is nearly every single time that I've known and researched about it it's been a horrible horrible accident off the back of a cry for help because when you've got anxiety when you've got adrenaline coursing through your blood system it makes you feel low as low could be but it certainly doesn't make you want to jump if you like. The reverse of that or the the polar opposite to that is somebody who is suffering with depression is flat. They're certainly not risk assessing. They're certainly not hyperactive. They certainly do not have ADHD. They are the polar opposite that the whole world, the whole environment, their whole lives are grey, they have no I enthusiasm, no interest in anything. Everything is just dobbed down. I have never had clinical depression so it is very hard for me to ever judge anybody who does struggle with it but I will say that I had a friend 20 years ago who we used to watch on a Sunday our lads playing rugby and because of her condition if you like because she was clinically depressed and couldn't see a way out of it she took her own life. Um And she did that because she could see no joy in living. And she was in that mindset where she didn't care about anything. And at the time I was very judgmental over this but it is a completely different condition to an anxiety condition. Having clinical depression is a mental condition. Having anxiety is a physiological condition and I do not believe for one moment that the two can cohabit in the same being. If you take a child or anybody but we're talking about children here to the doctor and they will talk about a lot of things that will dovetail into them appearing to be depressed but they are not clinically depressed. I'm just trying to make sure I've covered all my points there because it is really really important because when you dose up a child with antidepressants and they haven't got depression you will add to the despair you will add to the misery and it is not right to do that sedation tablets for children sadly do work for grown-ups who self medicate with alcohol, with drugs. Um that also works because it dubs down and it suppresses the emotion. It suppresses the sensations the same way as beta blocks will beta blockers will slow down the heart rate stop taking them and it all pings back again. So putting a child on that medication. It's very difficult when they come to us because sad it does work but as I well know you need more and you need more and you need more and as the months roll into years the side effects of that form of medication then need other forms of medication and on it goes so anyway I hope you found that interesting thank you.

Sorry for the massive long post. I wanted to put in the transcript in case she takes the video down. Would maybe have been better to do screen shots.

@Hols12345 no thanks for sharing that transcript, horrific as it is to read, just completely shows what an uneducated non-professional, preying on the vulnerable nasty piece of work she continues to be!

Well, my DD has anxiety and depression (recovering).

Depression - low energy levels, no get up and go, feeling what is the point etc etc, you know the drill.

Anxiety - debilitating concerns about doing normal every day stuff, in her case around germs and touching things, generally normal things not being 'safe'.

So I think she is talking rubbish when she says you can't have the two at the same time.

@TeenDivided Absolutely talking out of her “other end”. My eldest was diagnosed with both in 2012 and I’m a holistic kind of person. Have researched continually but can’t dispute anxiety and depression go hand in hand 🤯 I really struggle to understand her angle. What is her theory? And how does what she offers help? It’s a big confusing mess to me

@Perfectstorm72 the argument they put is, simplistically, that anxiety is a state of running high on adrenaline but depression is a low state so you can't be both at the same time. I could see their point a bit BUT if your anxiety, for example, is causing OCD surely you can also be depressed about it at the same time?

My issue is I think the basis of what they do can be helpful. HOW they do it, and how they run their business is another matter entirely?

Anxiety can be a central factor of depression. I think disputing that to make vulnerable think you have a magic solution and that the medical model is wrong, is very scary. I also think that talking therapies such as CBT can and do work for many, including my own child. I’m still curious to know what their method of working is, thankfully not having seen this company 10 years ago when I’d have been vulnerable to it, I’d still be glad if someone could explain it briefly.

My DD couldn't properly access talking therapy until she was on the anti depressants and thus had enough get up and go to engage with it.

She’s just chatting shit. Again.

sorry to hear you had such a bad experience working for them @staffinsider She sounds so unprofessional.

Also, I don’t really understand why it’s such an issue if anxiety is a mental health condition. It’s quite offensive to people with mental health problems really. They’re nothing to be ashamed of.

@TeenDivided so glad to hear your daughter is still recovering. I can’t remember what my previous usernames were but we’ve been chatting since the beginning. You always have such sound advice.

How kind @WoeBeCome .

DD seems to have turned a bit of a corner since Christmas. She's now wanting to do things at weekends, and is open to pushing herself more on her anxieties. She still has a way to go compared with most 18yos, but way better than 2.5-3 years ago.
The good things is, I have turned a corner too and am feeling much more my old self more frequently.

I’m so pleased for both of you. Hopefully it’ll be an upward spiral as she starts to push herself a bit more and stretch her comfort zone. It’s great you’ve helped her make such progress while she’s still young too.

Just thought I'd add my experience, for a balanced view. We did the 100 day self directed program and are finished and moving on better for it.

I don't understand, from a business and credibility point of view, the continuous rebranding etc and do admit that Sam may be a controversial figure, however, despite all of that, the actual program worked for my son.

Before we began, he could barely leave the house, wouldn't let me leave the house, didn't go to school, constantly pleaded with me to help him and was having panic attacks. We'd tried CAMHS, talking therapies, mindfulness etc etc!

For him, Young Vibes took the fear away from the anxiety, he learned why he felt the way he did and that it couldn't hurt him, this was huge. He learned that if he distracted his mind, this took away the feelings, this took practice, but now he's mastered it. He used to very much lean on me to take it all away from him, but learned to keep the power and not give it away, so that he could learn how to do it himself and not be reliant on me. He also saw how talking generally about the anxiety and how he was feeling constantly, just fuels the adrenaline, so to focus on positive things instead. He was living as an anxious person and we were thus treating him like one. Not now.

New positive habits and total awareness of his survival instincts have educated him and allowed him to know how and why change was needed.

From the parent section at the beginning of the program, my anxiety is so much less too and I'm delighted I got to reap the benefits also. I've taken back control of my thoughts. I'm one of these people who you'd never know was anxious (masking), so it's not noticeable to others, but I feel it improving hugely.

So now... we are just back from 3 days away on holiday, we can go to the shops, restaurants, see friends, he goes out with my husband without me. He's stayed with my parents, while we had date night. The other day, when we went to a new shopping centre near home, he was struggling to get out of the car and previously we'd just have had to go home, but he told me he just needed a minute, calmed himself and we didn't go home for another 4.5 hours! Seeing him do this was amazing for me.

I'm genuinely sorry that the course hasn't worked for everyone and I do understand credibility can be seen to be lacking. The bare bones of the course though is everything we needed and I am beyond grateful we did it for that reason. I am glad that we mentored ourselves as did take a slightly gentler approach than what was advised, but as every child is different, the good thing is you can tailor it to your child's personality.

@Shoot4TheStars I agree it can work but not for everyone, and definitely not for people with diagnosis they refuse to believe exist. If you had little contact with them it probably made it easier!

Glad it worked for your family. Thinking about our experience makes me anxious. And it left its mark on our child too.

I’ve had more adverts today. Luckily they take you to their trust pilot which has a few negative reviews. Can’t quite believe they’ve rebranded again with this satsie thing.

Can we add Satsie Thomas to the thread title? Keeps this up to date for new parents.

That sound be good. At least mention Satsie Thomas on posts so it comes up in google searches. Who started this thread?

@Hols12345 Suggestions to ask for Satsie Thomas to be added to thread title?

The difficulty I have is that most qualified child and family therapists’ I know soon found advertising is unnecessary. If you’re any good at your job word of mouth is enough and you’ll quickly have a waiting list. To continually rebrand, advertise and employ high pressure marketing tactics shouldn’t be needed. It sounds like Satsie Thomas is getting the wrong advice by someone who doesn’t understand that integrity is everything in our profession. There are people who’ve found her helpful - she should be building on that and sticking to one name, one website and one strategy. Her business will grow.

@TherapistandParent hi there. Satsie Thomas is a pseudonym for Sam, the founder of the Your Child Freedom Formula/Peaky Parents/Young Vibes. She wrote the books under that name. Not sure whether there is any integrity. Too many dubious things have happened surrounding this/these companies. Everything will help someone and I don't doubt the ideas and approach can help some. But her approach and her views on any diagnosis other than anxiety are scary and could/do cause more harm than good. She isn't professional and does not understand a lot of important, integral things to some young people's lives. Such as ADHD and autism. There costs have changed more times than their name. There is no consistency.

I don’t know why Sam keeps rebranding. And has now even rebranded her name. Also, why is their phone number for Satsie Thomas a foreign number?

She keep rebranding in the hope that dissatisfied customers don't catch up with her and she can drop any bad reviews.