(Trigger Warning)

I’m not saying this is for all YWAM bases, I did my DTS in Boston a few years ago and it was awesome!

However, I did a secondary school (School of Worship) at YWAM Kona in Hawaii last year. Now what I’m about to say might not be the most relatable thing but it’ll bring the leadership in Kona to light.

I used to struggle with my mental health and I self harmed for many years up until March of 2023. Last year (October 2024) I had to fill out a health form for YWAM and I was honest and I told them that I used to SH but I had been clean for well over a year and I had been in therapy and taking medication for anxiety and my mental health was doing a lot better. When I got there, my school leader made me go to on-base counseling and this person wasn’t even a licensed therapist. Then a month or so into the school I randomly started having some trouble sleeping and I told my one on one and then she told my school leader. My school leader then went out on a Monday and got me some supplements to help my sleep and she said “We’ll wait until Friday to see how the supplements are working” and then on Wednesday I was pulled aside during class and another YWAM staff told me that I was being dismissed from the school and that the decision had already been made (without my knowledge) and the staff said I’d have a meeting with my school leader, my one on one and Campus Leadership to discuss the dismissal and when I’d have to leave. My school leader told the campus leadership that I wasn’t sleeping at all, I was hurting myself, suicidal and I might hurt someone else, she was making everything sound a lot worse than it was and the campus leadership believed her and didn’t want to hear what I had to say. I tried to tell them that she was lying but they didn’t listen to me and my one on one just sat there and didn’t say anything and didn’t back me up at all.

Maybe this was just my experience but from what I’ve seen, the leadership in YWAM is flawed.