A warning about Anxious to Awesome Sam and Martin Robbin’s

[Tangarinedream]

Martin and Sam Robbins have started another anxiety program. This time it is called Anxious to Awesome. They have ads on Facebook and LinkedIn and more. They were Young Vibes, Kactus Kids and many other names.

They have take £5000 from families and encouraged families to go into debt.
There is a BBC report about them https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000zt9y

They have been in trouble with trade standards.
They refuse Subject Access Requests
They promised they know how to deal with any Neurodivergence, but they have no experience or ability to deal with it.
They have no formal training and will tell you that they are the only solution and that Doctors teachers Psychiatrist cannot help.
They change their name often to hide from all the bad reviews.
They employed a name The Mumsnet . I’m assuming to confuse people.

They threaten, blame and belittle parents.

Most importantly, you will pay them and spend a lot of time with them and they won’t solve anything and when they don’t solve anything, they’ll blame you and attack you.

Look at all the messages and threads on Mumsnet. And also noticed that most of the positive reviews around them are just people that have written one review or two reviews. I’ve written about 50 reviews on Trust Pilot and Google maps and most of mine are positive.

I would recommend you stay far away from anything that Sam and Martin Robins are a part of. There are several family’s that would agree with me.

You can reach out to me. We wasted £5000 with these people. They didn’t reduce anxiety. They just added a huge amount of anxiety. The program involves watching hundreds of videos and they get aggravated if you are overwhelmed and need extra support. The tech was incredibly clunky. Sam would make new videos all the day and send them to you so you couldn’t ever catch up and it was unclear exactly what you’re supposed to do because there was so much information. Again they have no formal education or training in this, they just took a Facebook marketing class to figure out how they could make a lot of money, in an area where parents were struggling with their children during the pandemic . Charlie Waller Trust is a better place to start.
If anybody speaks out, they threaten to sue you with a son who isn’t even an attorney.
They promise moneyback guarantee, but then they will always find a reason why it’s your fault. My daughter was so uncomfortable talking to Sam because Sam told her the most ridiculous unprofessional things. Sam has done that to many children and parents. Run, don’t walk from this group. Try Charlie Waller or anything else but not these people. They prey on desperation.

https://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?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

This is another thread set up 3 years ago about this company. Same issues continue .... 🙄

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/child_adolescent_mental_health/4484583-Young-Vibes-New-company-set-up-by-the-same-people-as-Your-Child-Freedom-Formula-and-Peaky-Parents?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4601299-to-warn-you-about-this-company-offering-solutions-to-childs-anxiety-and-school-refusal?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

... and two others...

Wonder if there are any more?

She's a vile individual capitalising from peoples mental health issues. There doesn't seem to be anything that can be done to stop her.

Agreed. She made a stressful situation in our life soooooo much worse. She and Martin are the nasty couple in Les Miserable. Let’s be honest. If they actually cared about kids, they would invest in their own education and get educated and qualified, but they use the fact that they are not educated and not qualified as if it’s a strength. They want everybody to invest in their hair scheme but they don’t wanna put a penny into getting educated or Certified unless it’s Facebook marketing plan that teaches them to make a lot of money .

. They are ignorant and uneducated, and I don’t think they have even a college degree. These are ignorant people who jump from career after career trying to find their residual income dream. They are ignorant in the way they interact with people. No true mental health professional would ever talk to parents or children the way these two do. My friend had a dad like Sam and Martin. He was always trying to find some residual income job with zero university, education or qualifications, but just big dreams sailing the world on a yacht without having to work.. he didn’t care about anybody but making money since we always had some scheme where he was trying to be a life coach or a marriage coach or something else.

Awful experience too. It's a total money grab. They are rude, patronising people. Sam is cold and sociopathic. Whenever I see her ads pop up, it sends a shiver down my spine. I'm so glad I left when I did and never exposed my child to her rants. Her latest post on the Facebook group is to attack parents who give their children ADHD medication. Nice! The company has changed its name more times than I can count. Total red flag. Don't believe the hype or reviews.

I have the same reaction. Anger. Regret. Disgust. Fear. All of it. Sam has threatened me. She did so much damage and caused so much stress. And NOW she knows about pharmacology. Lovely. Someone who no doubt has NO FORMAL TRAINING in anything, is an expert on everything.

What have Trading Standards said on investigation?

So glad these postings are still happening and hopefully alerting so.e families to this company. Although I'm not happy that they still exist.

Talking about pharmacology Sam thought I should stop my own medication on the basis of how her medication made her feel. And without even knowing what it was or how this would interact with my other medication! She is dangerous.

To leave us parents with feelings of anxiety, fear, anger, regret, hate etc after being part of a programme aimed at recovering our children from anxiety says it all!

That is a good question. Has anybody looked at it? Many have reported them as well for not respecting the Subject Access Request.

That is literally BONKERS. Sam should not be giving medication advice to anyone. While these individuals possess a certain level of cunning, their willingness to skirt the boundaries of legality makes them deeply repugnant and untrustworthy in my eyes. Despite their perceived intelligence, I find their slick and unscrupulous behavior to be utterly reprehensible.

A business that truly cared about families and children would never charge 5,000 or encourage debt. Instead, they should work with parents to address their concerns and use feedback to improve the company. However, the founder, Sam, had two ways of responding to feedback - either manipulating the situation by feigning sympathy about technical issues, or attacking the parents directly.
When we raised concerns, the "mentors" (who had no children themselves) sent patronizing messages. Additionally, the program's therapist, Davina, was unqualified and complicit in promoting the company's harmful practices. Compounding this, the mentors were not based in the UK, but South Africa, providing no meaningful oversight or protections for participants. The mentor for our child disappeared without any warning and so we had to go to Sam. That lasted one session before I pulled the plug because of the things Sam said. Utterly indefensible and Sam will take no responsibility but will lie and blame. DARVO.

This is a SALES AND MARKETING program. This is NOT a mental health program. RUN AWAY.

I came here through yet another add I saw on FB from Sam. I feel like I’m reading my own story, we too lost £5000 we didn’t have, but this is mental health profiteering at its finest. It’s frightening to me that she is still operating. Our horrific experience was years ago and our family is still working through the traumatic impact she had. Invalidating, shaming, guilting, coercive and frankly ignorant without an understanding of the nuance of behaviour, trauma, language and co regulation….and then all the call recordings disappeared, interesting to say the least. Left us worse off in every way. I report the ads everytime I see them. I’m unsure what else to do, as the rebranding beggars belief.

Same friend. Same.

♥️

Is anyone who is reading this still on the program ? If so what’s their thoughts ?

A familiar story here too. Made me angry for a long time. I try not to think about it too much now.

Has anyone noticed that some writing reviews are now delivering the program ??

do you think Sam is moderating the FB feed to only allow the mild negative comments ?

Yes .. this is what I found a couple of times she has had ‘ technical issues’ so she couldn’t deliver the session so asked someone else. I was conscious it was staged and a delay tactic to keep you on for another session/ another day tolling into another week for another payment …. I could be completely wrong but my gut is saying not.

I also find they use existing parents to convince you that it works …

I have come across these people a few times and even considered it but found Sam so agressive in the way she speaks that she instantly got my back up. Something about her just did not sit right with me. However not wanting to jumo to conclusions I kept an eye on it and joined their FB group. More red flags soon started going up for me though - 1st was the constant name changes. 2nd was the way another woman spoke to me in the sales call, and the apparent lack of real knowledge she seemed to have. The 3rd is in their FAQ's section it says "What qualifications do you have," with the reply "If you need to ask that question you are in the wrong place". I mean really?!! The final straw was recently they offered a free 7 day programme, with the aim to obviously hook you in. I attended this and very quickly it became apparent that the knowlege she has is very limited and nothing I did not already know. She also rants in her videos about what YOU will be experiencing, which large parts of I was thinking, no, that is not me, that is not my kid - our anxiety does not manifest that way - And it dawned on me, ''Oh my God, she is just talking about herself, and I think this is the extent of her knowledge. She has either read something or experienced something, and now thinks she knows it all!" And trust me, I have enough experience to knowledge to know she does not! She also tells you to cease engagement with any other therapy you might be having, and very early on underneath videos in red letters " Think about when you are going to come off your medication." as if a few videos explaining in very simple terms the physiological terms how anxiety works, were enough for you to come off your meds, nevermind any warnings or advice about doing so safely. Now today I went to try and delete my account from the free trial and unsubscribe from their relentless emails, and so typed in the latest name to google 'anxiety to awesome'. First result in Google was another company who run a programme by this name - my first thought was omg are they piggy backing off the back of them or stolen their programme? The second result was this warning post on here - And staright away I thought, I knew it. My instincts were right. Now I have listened to her speak on that BBC Podcast, it just confirmed how she conducts herself - aggressive, defensive and unprofessional. She certainly does not come across as a person who has got a grip on stress and anxiety to find peace and calm in her life!

@kh04 you hit the nail on the head there! She is just going from her own experience, which she is definitely not over. It sounds like nothing has changed in the last few years. What other names have you found they are going under nowadays?