Blog
The Consent Architecture
The Consent Architecture How the Troubled Teen Industry doesn't just override a child's refusal: it engineers the conditions that make refusal impossible by Meg Appelgate The Premise We Keep Getting Wrong When people talk [...]
What Chiles v. Salazar Means for the Troubled Teen Industry
What Chiles v. Salazar Means for the Troubled Teen Industry On March 31, 2026, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Chiles v. Salazar, a ruling that could [...]
The Parents as a Vector
The Parents as a Vector How the TTI's intake pipeline is engineered to exploit parental fear, and why assigning blame to parents without examining that structure is a misreading of how the system works by [...]
Laundering Harm
Laundering Harm Why TTI facilities close, rebrand, and reopen with near-zero institutional memory of prior harm, and a proposal for mandatory harm provenance disclosure in facility licensing by Meg Appelgate The Pattern That Never [...]
Behavior Modification as an Ideology
Behavior Modification as an Ideology How TTI programs deliver institutional harm through behavioral control systems, and why the people implementing them do not need to intend abuse for the harm to be predictable and measurable [...]
The Middlemen Problem
The Middlemen Problem by Dr. Corey Jentry The Referral Economy One of the stranger features of American behavioral healthcare is that some of its most influential decision-makers are also the least accountable or qualified. [...]
When “Therapeutic” Group Homes Become Pipelines to Trafficking: What’s Happening in Queen Creek, Arizona
When "Therapeutic" Group Homes Become Pipelines to Trafficking: What's Happening in Queen Creek, Arizona By Meg Appelgate, Founder & CEO, Unsilenced Project, Inc. March 15th, 2026 I've spent the better part of [...]
Our Healing Journey After Residential Treatment
Our Healing Journey After Residential Treatment by Valerie Wood-Lewis If I had known then what I know now: that wilderness and residential treatment centers - more often than not - cause trauma to the [...]
10 Things You Should Know About the Troubled Teen Industry
10 Things You Should Know About the Troubled Teen Industry "We were forced to endure verified brainwashing and abusive methods. For typically two days at a time, we were deprived of sleep and water." - [...]
Hidden Lake Academy: Unveiling the Dark Reality of Institutional Abuse
Hidden Lake Academy: Unveiling the Dark Reality of Institutional Abuse If you’ve been watching the news cycle lately, you might have seen a flurry of stories published about Clarence Thomas. One of [...]
Project SPEAK: Tennessee Unsilenced!
Project SPEAK: Tennessee Unsilenced Our volunteers were recently given the opportunity to set up a booth at Nashville State Community College's Spring Fair. During the two-day event, we were able to speak with students, faculty, [...]
NATSAP and the TTI
NATSAP and the TTI NATSAP appears to be trying to reform its image to appear to be “advocating for safe care” for children – including attempting to publicly “support” into regulatory bills over the last [...]
Unsilenced visits the Mass Torts Made Perfect Seminar
Unsilenced visits the Mass Torts Made Perfect Seminar In early April, Unsilenced was invited to speak and exhibit at the Mass Torts Made Perfect Seminar in Las Vegas, which is put on by Levin Papantonio [...]
How My Childhood Was Stolen From Me: Speaking Up About the Troubled Teen Industry and a Call for Change
How My Childhood Was Stolen From Me: Speaking Up About the Troubled Teen Industry and a Call for Change Originally shared via Linkedin by Meg Appelgate “We can do this the easy way or the [...]
Introducing Project SPEAK
Donate Unsilenced is a survivor-led non-profit organization that serves young people and adults who experienced institutional child abuse. If you’re looking for a way to make a difference, consider donating to Unsilenced. Your contribution will [...]
Therapy after the Troubled Teen Industry
Therapy after the TTI When someone experiences trauma in their life, they often find themselves using tools like therapy to help them process and heal. Therapy can be a wonderful, healthy, and [...]
Lifetime’s ‘Cruel Instruction” – Based on the Troubled Teen Industry
Cruel Instruction Review By Meg Appelgate Summary Cruel Instruction tells the story of 16-year-old Kayla Adams whose mother, Karen, is advised by the school’s counselor to send Kayla to get treatment at a youth [...]
Untangling the digital ties of Family Care
Untangling the digital ties of Family Care In early October 2021, Paris Hilton wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post calling for greater oversight and regulation for congregate care facilities in the United States. A [...]
Tips for Talking with Others About Your Experience
Tips for Talking with Others About Your Experience By Beth Matenear, LPC Look, we all want validation. We are human and it is important. However, If you are going into this conversation with family or [...]
America’s controversial ‘troubled teen’ wilderness therapy camps
America’s controversial ‘troubled teen’ wilderness therapy camps Kyra Frankowski was 14 years old when her parents decided they didn’t know what to do with her. Four days after entering the new year in 2014, she [...]