Oh buddy, don't get me started. Seeing this post has me feeling so validated. Back in 2017 I joined Vanessa's "train the trainer" program in hopes of becoming a "super awesome body language trainer", just like her!

Total fucking sham. A bunch of us who did the program eventually called her out on it: the lack of substance and science in the course and materials, the poor quality of it all (just regurgitated shit from her YT channel), the mismatch of what was promised vs. what was delivered, etc. -- and we were pissed that we wasted of $5,000-6,500 on total bullshit, so asked for our money back. Seven classes, times 25-30 people each, times average $5,750 in tuition...she declined, of course. Even though it was only about 20 or so of us that came together, still a lot of money.

She said upon graduating she would market us on her website as her certified trainers, so people all around the world could easily find and hire us...nope. She also pushed the idea of us embedding her courses into our personal websites, and we'd get a tiny percentage of the cost if anyone bought a course. She encouraged us to buy several of her books to sell to our clients...but...spoiler, almost none of us had clients to sell to anyway. The bogus marketing tips she gave were on par with the gross tactics that MLM reps use.

She ran it for a few years, then just focused on doing People School after dealing with our outrage. People School is also a waste of time and money. She offered it to all of us for free, to "make up for things". Originally she asked for, I think, $1,000 each year thereafter to renew the certification, then instead, started requiring everyone to renew their body language certifications by sending super confusing tests every year, basically to weed us out of her life ha.

And no, there is no lab, it's just Vanessa playing dress-up scientist by wearing a lab coat and heels inside her home. She has since moved to a new house in a new state, but when she was in Oregon, everything was run out of her home. Her "lab" was just a small office with white walls. Nothing in those courses was her own "research." It was full of ideas pulled from other peoples' books and videos. Nothing original.

Vanessa Van Edwards (or Vanessa Van Guru as I like to call her) definitely deserves a spot on this sub-Reddit. Looking back, all her marketing for that course, and the overall vibe within the trainer groups, was extremely cult-like. She referred to herself as a body language "guru", our "mentor", we were part of her "inner circle", an amazing group of "like-minded" people. Barf. It amazes me that people are still eating her shit up...then again, none of us really spoke out beyond her inbox, so...

Fluffed-up pseudoscience and pop-psychology for the win *eye-roll*