Castlewood Treatment Center Victims In Their Own Words Part II
Updated: Feb 5, 2022
September 20, 2016 - Hi, I am using a fake Facebook profile and I apologize for that but I am terrified of retaliation should my name get out. But this is important. Castlewood Treatment Center is doing it again. They are diagnosing an exceptionally large number of people with DID which is then "helping" them to recover memories of childhood abuse. Some of these people are my friends and I can tell you unequivocally that they do not have DID nor did they have trauma going into Castlewood. It's really scaring me and I don't know what to do and was hoping that maybe you had some advice given that you have seen what they are capable of. Mark and Lori are no longer there but it's not stopping them. Now their clinical director and psychiatrist are diagnosing people with DID all over the place. My friends are being hurt. What should I do? Please help me
On Dec 26th, 2013 Nancy Albus wrote a letter to the editor of the St. Louis Dispatch, declaring that The Castlewood Treatment Center s on a new path with new leadership. This prompted some amazing comments from members of Castlewood Treatment Center Victims Unite:
"The article you posted makes me Ill! Of course Nancy doesn't say that this new course they set themselves on was ONLY after the shit hit the fan! Out of fear in case there was no settlement. She doesn't say that this new course was firing Mark and Lori and replacing practically every therapist who has been there during the years prior when families were being destroyed. And she keeps saying they have "successfully" treated 1000 or more clients...give me a break. If they were SO successful there would not be so many clients repeating lengthy stays there! In 2005 and 2009 and 2010
Nancy is so full of herself. The truth always wins. And I don't think she would feel the need to write such an article if there wasn't a feeling of being threatened by that truth!"
"Oh, how sad that someone would be so close minded to think that anyone would discourage treatment for their eating disorder. I, as well as...your words "this small group of people"...know all too well, the devastation, both physically and emotionally, that an eating disorder can cause. However, we also know all too well the devastation, of therapeutic methods that have broken our families. I get, that you are trying to make Castlewood Treatment Center look better. A "new course", implies that the old one was not working? Just a question....however the "old method" ruined a lot of lives. What would you say to someone who entered your treatment facility, who was in another facility prior...what if they told you that their eating disorder resulted from the fact that they were made to believe their family was evil? You claim that eating disorders are caused by trauma...would you not consider this trauma? Would you turn them away...if they were part of our "small group". What if your child, accused you of horrific acts of violence...and disappeared from your life? What would you do...what would you say to us then? These are just questions from an eating disorder patient....me...from a daughter who disappeared from her family....me....from someone, who believes that questions deserve to be answered...not just shoved under the rug."
"Nancy states - "so when there is documented history of trauma, we treat it." Well, what about the group of us who had no documented history of trauma? Why did they feel the need to create some when none existed before entering Castlewood Treatment Center? People develop eating disorders for many many different reasons, not all eating disorder patients have been sexually abused. No one would ever discourage people suffering from an eating disorder to not seek treatment, just to not seek treatment at the Castlewood Treatment Center, plain and simple!! "
"Internal Family Systems or IFS is not "evidence-based." The practice of employing therapies that invite adults to pretend they are children and that take "memories" that are created as part of role-play exercises between therapist and client as valid has a long history of problems. Why does The Castlewood Treatment Center continue to use IFS therapy when it has been called out by none other than the former head of ethics and president of the American Psychoanalytic Assoc?"
