The Enduring Impacts of Reunification Camps: and Next Steps for Legislation

The past seven months would be best described as an avalanche of survivor’s voices: children and young adults who have been affected by the alienation industry and reunification camps.

Reunification camps are finally receiving international media attention, which is long overdue. The first reunification camp dates back to the early 2000’s with disturbing ties to the Synanon Cult, yet this unsound, unregulated industry has flown under the radar and flourished for decades. While we have heard sporadic outcries from survivors like Addyson Bender in 2017, and from their protective parents over the years, this issue has failed to garner the attention it deserves.

This all changed in October 2022, when 15-year-old Maya Laing of Santa Cruz County, California, took to Instagram with accusations that she and her younger brother, Sebastian, were being failed by family court professionals. She claimed that her reunification therapist, Regina Marshall, failed to act on her disclosure of (alleged) abuse at the hands of her mother. Maya stated that her abuse allegations were also being ignored by CPS, police, minor’s counsel, and the court system. Since Maya came forward with her story, reunification camps have received increasing media coverage, thanks to the reach of social media and the bravery of additional children coming forward.
 
These phenomena are not new nor uncommon; but as our community members become more aware of reunification camps as an industry, we’re called to transform our knowledge into action. We are further fueled and empowered by a recent United Nations report titled, “Custody, violence against women and violence against children: Report of the Special Rapporteur (Reem Alsalem) on violence against women and girls, it’s causes and consequences.” The United Nations joins the World Health Organization, the United States Federal Government, the American Psychological Association, and the American Medical Association in taking a firm stance against the denounced, debunked concept of parental alienation.
 
Today, we’re highlighting the stories of twenty children in nine different families, all affected by reunification camps and the alienation industry, as well as current and prospective legislation designed to dismantle this for-profit, pyramid scheme:

1. Zoe Winenger: In this video, 10-year-old Zoe Winenger bravely speaks at a recent hearing for Piqui's Law in California, where she describes her horrifying experience at the Family Bridges reunification camp, owned by Randy and Deidre Rand. “To protect kids like me,” Zoe says in her statement, “we need to pass Senate Bill 331.” Zoe's mother, Jill Montes, was recently featured in this powerful article written by Olivia Gentile for Insider. 
 
The bill Zoe references is also known as Piqui’s Law, named for Piqui, a five-year-old murdered by his father in California. Thanks to the advocacy of Zoe, her family, and other courageous voices, the bill finally passed on the California Senate floor on May 24th, 2023. More work lies ahead, but this decision marks a crucial first step.
 
Piqui’s Law mandates judges to complete training on domestic violence and child abuse. With this training, judges are expected to prioritize child safety in all custody proceedings. Critically, the law also clarifies California's ban on the use of dangerous reunification programs in family court. This is increasingly important as California has become the hotbed for this nefarious activity.

Kayden’s Law and Piqui’s Law: Two Essential Pieces of Legislation: Beyond California, advocates throughout the States are working tirelessly to enforce compliance with Kayden’s Law, named in honor of Kayden: a young girl killed by her father during a court-ordered visit. Kayden’s Law provides federal funds to U.S. states to improve their child custody laws and protect at-risk children.
 
Kayden’s Law mandates training for custody judges on abuse and trauma. As part of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Kayden’s Law incentivizes states to protect at-risk children through their child custody laws. Danielle Pollack, Policy Manager for the National Family Violence Law Center at the George Washington University, provides technical assistance and guidance to lawmakers, to develop and advance these important laws. Kayden’s Law is the primary solution to the reunification therapy: if enough states comply, this legislation could mark the end of reunification programs. Without these protections, stories like Zoe’s will continue to unfold.
 
In the stories that follow, we highlight other children whose worlds were upturned by reunification therapy. Each story showcases the cruelty of this industry and the remarkable power of a child’s voice, even in a family court system that refuses to listen.

2. Maya and Sebastian Laing: Maya and Sebastian first reached out to me on October 20th, 2022. Maya tagged me in multiple videos, including a now viral video documenting the violent removal of both children from their grandmother’s home by police and transport agents. These agents or “transporters” arrived under court orders to transport the children to Lynn Steinberg’s reunification camp. Shortly before they were taken, Maya posted a TikTok video with Sebastian, providing an update from their aunt’s home.
 
Maya and Sebastian’s father was accused of “alienating” them from their mother, who Maya describes as their abuser. Rebecca Connolly, the judge involved in the children’s case, has since sealed the case as a “private matter.” The designation of privacy makes it difficult to obtain updates: a common reality when children are court-ordered into reunification camps. Within minutes, both children lost access to their family, friends, community, school, and extracurricular activities. Seven months have passed since Maya and Sebastian were taken. Maya has turned 16, and Sebastian is now 12.

Shawn McCall is the parenting coordinator on this case and has been connected to many other stories of children being sent to reunification camps dating back as early as 2016. Lynn Steinberg’s testimony in this case was nothing short of disturbing but that is the case with most things that we uncover about Lynn Steinberg. On that same day, transport agents from Assisted Interventions Inc. testified about the methods that would be used to remove the children, their words and their actions were not in alignment.
 
In an unexpected turn of events, Maya Laing released a video in the middle of the night on Monday, May 29, 2023. The video has been shared on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Maya and Sebastian have escaped, and their current whereabouts are unknown. In the video, they describe being called names like, “liars” and “psychopaths,” at the Los Angeles reunification camp. According to the children, they were threatened with wilderness camp where they were warned that non-compliance would result in the removal of basic necessities such as food or blankets.

3. Orrin Ryder Homme and Camille Harley Joan Homme: In December, 2022, we received a video of two children, Orrin Ryder Homme and Camille Harley Joan Homme, who were violently transported from Los Angeles to the Family Bridges reunification camp. The youngest child, Wolf, was transported separately. According to court orders, the two oldest children are not even living with their father but with their paternal grandparents. 
 
Camille and her mother, Brody Dalle, were both granted restraining orders against the children’s father, Josh Homme, who has a concerning history that is well-documented by media outlets. Despite the abuse findings and two restraining orders, Mr. Homme managed to successfully counter with the legal strategy of “parental alienation.” It has been 466 days since they have seen their mother, with a custody trial that was pushed out until fall of 2023. The corruption in this case is palatable, Brody Dalle has been silenced yet Josh Homme and his PR team issued public statements with an incredibly twisted narrative.

4. Ty and Brynlee Larson: In January of this year, Ty went public with his story, which quickly received more than 370,000 views on TikTok. At the time of this video, he was 15-years old; five years had passed since the beginning of the case against his abusive father. The possibility of resolution – let alone, safety – seemed dim. Ty and his 12-year-old sister, Brynlee, live in their mother’s home in Utah, where the family court system is attempting to reverse custody to a documented abuser, with the children being at risk for Turning Points reunification camp.
 
The reasoning behind the court’s push for reunification? The court thought it was the last opportunity for Ty and Brynlee to restore a relationship with their biological father – despite previous substantiated findings of sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse by CPS. Like with most of these cases, the professionals have an agenda that is driven by confirmation bias and profit, such as Michelle Jones, who served as the reunification therapist. In connecting dots on other cases, her name continues to appear.
 
After Ty repeatedly refused visits with his biological father, the court signed a writ to allow police involvement with “reasonable force.” To avoid being returned to their father’s home, Ty and Brynlee barricaded in a bedroom. “My own word doesn’t matter, and they don’t believe my truth,” Ty said. In the video, Ty describes a recent application of the writ: after he refused a visit with his father, the police arrived at his bedroom door. They refused to break down door but were trying “very hard” to lure Ty and Brynlee out of the room, Ty reflected.
 
Ty lives in fear of his father, and the two siblings are terrified to leave their room, their home, and even stopped attending school in December of 2022 to prioritize their safety. The children currently remain in limbo, awaiting further orders from the court after Judge Derek Pullan paused his original orders. 

5. Lexi Venetis: At the end of March 2023, we connected with Lexi, a 15-year-old girl living in Phoenix. Lexi and her two younger brothers, 13-year-old Zachary and 7-year-old Elijah, were ordered to attend Turning Points for Families, a reunification camp owned by Linda Gottlieb. Unable to gain compliance from the children to go to the courthouse, their father was thrown in jail.
 
Gottlieb describes Turning Points as a “therapeutic vacation,” but stories like Lexi’s show otherwise. Survivors speak to the true reality of reunification camps, where children undergo traumatizing therapy sessions and lose contact with their safe parents for years at a time. 
 
Authorities entered Lexi’s home and took her younger brothers to Gottlieb’s camp, documented in this video. For days, we stayed in near-constant contact with Lexi in an effort to keep her safe, livestreaming via Instagram from time to time. Volunteers came together to ‘eep watch overnight as Lexi slept, to allow her to feel safer in the home.
 
After authorities shut off her cameras, knocked on her doors at all hours, broke into her home, and physically scratched her, Lexi decided to run away and is now considered a missing person. I recently received a series of letters from Lexi, which I shared on my Instagram account.

6. Maya in Mexico: 18-year-old Maya is a survivor of reunification therapy. To avoid reunification camp, Maya fled with her mother and siblings to Mexico, to avoid being sent to Turning Points in the U.S. after a family court judge in Texas ordered the siblings into the New York reunification program with Linda Gottlieb. The family recently received positive news when the Hague Convention issued a ruling, which will now protect them.
 
As a young adult, Maya is already committed to fighting against the alienation industry and recently shared her story on a panel hosted by the National Safe Parents Organization. In addition to sharing her story publicly, Maya hopes to expose the traumas she was subjected to in court ordered reunification therapy. Maya recorded her final and chilling session of reunification therapy with Loretta Maase, partner to Linda Gottlieb in the Texas branch of Turning Points. While many professionals who work in the alienation industry claim that victims of domestic abuse are immune from forced reunification programs, the family therapy session with Loretta Maase and her subsequent actions in testifying in favor of the children being sent to reunification camp, expose the truth of what happens in these cases.

7. Mia and Ava: Mia, age 16, and her younger sister, Ava, age 14, were both sent to Turning Points after their biological father accused their mother – the preferred parent – of parental alienation. After completing reunification therapy, the girls returned to their father’s custody but ran away to live with their grandmother. Today, Ava and Mia are still unable to contact their mother and remain in limbo, waiting for the courts to make a decision about what the future will hold. As teenagers, their life is in limbo and in the hands of the same family court system that ordered them into this unregulated, unsound “treatment.”
 
In a recent testimony, which Mia wrote for me to share with the Senate in both California and Montana, she details her experience with grace, strength, and clarity. Ava emphasizes the deeply traumatic effects of reunification therapy, the ineffectiveness of these camps, and the overwhelming need for advocacy as more children are silenced.

8. Macy Northcutt: Macy is a 15-year-old girl living in South Dakota. Earlier this month, Macy fled her home after a judge ordered her into the custody of her abusive father.
 
Two years ago, Macy’s father was arrested for false imprisonment and domestic violence against Macy, her sister, and their mother. He was convicted and sentenced to jail, but he did not actually serve more than a few days in jail. He subsequently violated a no-contact order, which remains in place.
 
Despite this legal history, Judge Matt Brown ordered Macy into her father’s custody. Pat Myers, her father’s lawyer, is attempting to send Macy to a reunification camp owned by Linda Gottlieb. Macy is stuck in the final stage of the alienation industry pipeline, when children are sent to reunification camp and assigned “therapists” to reestablish relationships with their abusers.
 
In this TikTok video, Macy describes some of Gottlieb’s common counterpoints: children attend her camps voluntarily, and the “hard part” is persuading courts to send children to reunification camps. As Macy says: “Who would want to be counseled by someone who won’t even listen to you?”
 
Her mom has “tried everything” to get her out of this situation, Macy shared in a follow-up video. But when legal authorities refuse to listen to children, crisis ensues. In this case, a 15-year-old girl chose to run away to protect her safety, rather than enter her father’s home. This is a crisis, a tragedy, and a blatant failure of the family court system.

9. Gabe and Cam in Utah: Several months ago, I was contacted by Xander who had aged out of the system but expressed concern for his younger brothers who had been sent to Turning Points in Texas, operated by Loretta Maase. An investigation into their story was shocking. Gabe described inhumane punishments for non-participation in the four-day reunification camp such as being stripped of clothing until he and his brother were in their underwear. An investigation by Hannah Dreyfus of ProPublica uncovered more horrors in this for-profit traumatization of children.  It has been over 90 days since their mother has seen them, with no end currently in sight. 

The Next Steps for Advocacy

These stories represent only a handful of children whose lives were overturned by reunification camps or other unsound treatment methods. We are in a family court system that promotes a pro-contact agenda at all costs, often compromising the child’s safety and well-being. As advocates and witnesses, we’re called to honor the rights of these children, promote their healing, and protect their futures.

We are called to be their voices when their voices are silenced.
 
The family court system has failed these children, but we have an opportunity – and an obligation – to amplify their voices. We will continue to share updates as we receive them, as well as opportunities to engage in both local and national advocacy and uplift these young voices.
 
Colorado just made history as the first state to adopt Kayden’s Law, and we call on other states to follow in their footsteps. We must prioritize child safety and we must demand a ban on these dangerous reunification therapies and camps. In California, Piqui’s Law (modeled after Kayden’s Law) has passed through the Senate with flying colors and is now in the Assembly. If you are in California, we encourage you to get involved with legislative efforts. For the 48 remaining states, please sign up at www.nationalsafeparents.org to join efforts in your state.

Child safety is common sense, we want #KaydensLawForAll.