Brehm is a place where neurodivergent students can finally unmask and discover who they really are, all while being supported in a nurturing educational and boarding environment. read more

I spent an entire year searching and Brehm was the only school that had the supports my son needed that wasnt on the other side of the country and wasnt a year round therapeutic boarding school at double the price. Through no fault of the school, it has been a rough year for my son but they have been patient and kind. Unhappy people leave more reviews than happy ones, but the parents all love Brehm and want other parents to know there is a place where your child can learn and get behavioral supports and grow into successful adults. Ask the school if you can speak to current parents, or visit during parents weekend. You can also trial it for summer camp. read more

"It's a Cult, Looking back on my time at Brehm, I'm genuinely amazed that no student has died during their incarceration at this institution. I am also amazed that nobody has been arrested. Brehm's philosophy is built on outdated and problematic views of the neurodivergent community. During my time there, we were subjected to the types of brainwashing techniques common to authoritarian regimes to keep us compliant. Kids with severe addiction and mental health problems were imported, making violence and drug use rampant. Academics were extremely subpar, preparing us to get into a mediocre university with limited job opportunities. In short, a degree from Brehm "prep" is worse than useless. Growing up under the Bush administration, the primary lens through which the neurodivergent community was seen was the work of a man named Mel Levine, who wrote a book called "All Kinds of Minds." The allegations of abuse plaguing this man before he committed suicide aside, he was a textbook neurotypical supremacist. He believed that neurodivergent people needed to be isolated from mainstream academia and experimented on. The narrative Brehm is built on is that the neurodivergent community will fail if they are allowed to compete on an even playing field with neurotypical students, and they shouldn't even be allowed to try. Their outright refusal to use the label "neurodivergent" and their insistence on using the highly problematic slur "learning disabled" should be a massive red flag. The narrative that we were genetically inferior was hammered into us with militaristic fervor. My first year at Brehm was a cult initiation. The "struggle session" was a brainwashing technique invented in communist China by Chairman Mao Zedong to brainwash his followers. The technique involves having cult members debase themselves on a regular basis by having them confess their sins against the Communist Party. Our weekly meetings with our "Dorm Parent," Aaron Lee, felt like struggle sessions. He would hammer into our heads that we were miserable failures. He would repeatedly say that we failed at our old school, and that Brehm Prep was the only chance we had at an education. The fact that I had good grades at school before attending Brehm didn't matter; we repeated the mantra "we failed at our own school and Brehm was our only chance" or we were punished. It's hard to be angry at a man as emotionally disturbed as Aaron Lee. He made it perfectly clear that he had a violent and traumatic childhood. Looking back as an adult, it's clear he dealt with that trauma by tormenting helpless 13 and 14-year-old boys. Not only did we have to obey him, we had to call him our parent. Cult leaders taking on the role of parents is a staple of cult indoctrination. The parallels between the famous Stanford prison experiment and the authoritarian structure of Brehm were profound. The introduction of children with severe mental health and addiction problems made this dynamic much worse. After my first traumatic year at this institution, the situation became much worse. During my time at this institution, something happened called the "Troubled Teen Boom." The troubled teen boom refers to a boom in highly controversial "wilderness camps" that sought to "fix" children with severe mental health and addiction problems. If you wish to learn more, Vice has an excellent documentary. Because of this, Brehm was flooded with high school-aged children with severe mental health and addiction problems. These children were overwhelmingly white and from wealthy families. They were labeled the "treatment kids," and it was as if the idea that their actions had consequences was anathema to their thinking. These children were extremely violent and turned the dorms into little more than drug houses. One of these "treatment kids," upon hearing that the school had a mandatory field trip to see a Holocaust survivor speak, began praising Hitler, the National Socialist German Workers' Party, and wishing that the speaker would die. I'm not sure if any of you reading this review are Jewish, but I'd like to think this would deter you from considering this institution. Once again, I have a hard time getting angry at these "treatment kids." Many of them were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from being abused in their "wilderness camps." Many had parents with similar addiction and mental health problems. I, however, never touched drugs and was never in trouble with the law before my time in this institution. Rather than punish the "treatment kids" individually for their infractions, the school opted for collective punishment. The "treatment kids" would get caught drinking or doing drugs, and the entire school would be punished. The "treatment kids" never seemed to learn their lesson, and every year the school began to feel more and more like a prison. I have hours of horror story's but yelp has a character limit. read more

Poor medication management. Very poor communication with parents. For a school that claims to specialise in working with students with special needs, they are quick to expel a student who asks for help. Nasty administration. Do not engage the "preferred psychiatrist ". He does not respect students or parents confidentiality and worse yet, is dishonest. read more

I was sent here in 2017. There are many many problems with this place. Medication is poorly managed. Everyone here is either under medicated or overmedicated. Administration are very unprofessional and downright nasty. They talked to us (the students) in a very berating manner and treated us like 3 year olds. The school claims to help kids with learning disabilities but are quick to expel students for small things. Aaron Lee, the Dean of Students, is incredibly disrespectful to the students and is dishonest. Very little contact with the outside world including our own families. Almost everyone had psychological problems but were often dismissed as "attention seeking" or just being "bad kids." The only positive was the academics as the teachers are very well trained. Overall, however, the programming is a joke and riddled with misogyny and homophobia. Male students got away with WAY more than female students and were almost always given more privileges. Hate speech was rampant. Slurs were used often. Trans kids were afraid to come out of the closet as were many other LGBTQ+ kids (including myself). The Gay-Straight Alliance was even shut down my Junior year. Don't send your kid here. You'd be better off sending them to the circus. read more

The programming is a joke. The dorm life is cold and unbearable. This school is a dog and pony show. I challenge parents to show up unannounced during a regular school week. read more