There is plenty on the web about PT. As usual, sounds like the program bastardized the process and uses the kids as gunea pigs.
http://www.primaltherapy.com/CORES/warningCore.htmPrimal Therapy is not Primal ?Scream? Therapy. Primal Therapy is not just making people scream; it was never ?screaming? therapy. The Primal Scream was the name of the 1st book by Dr. Janov about Primal Therapy.
Those who read the book knew that a scream is what some people do when they hurt. Others simply sob or cry. It was the hurt we were after, not MECHANICAL EXERCISES such as POUNDING WALLS AND YELLING, ?Mama?. This therapy has changed what was essentially an art form into a science.
This therapy is DANGEROUS IN UNTRAINED HANDS. There are hundreds of people practicing what they call ?primal therapy? without a single day?s training and others who claim to have been trained by us who were either not here or who were nowhere near completion of either their own therapy or the training at Dr. Janov's Primal Center.
Once people have been opened up to their pain, they are VULNERABLE TO MANIPULATION. A therapist who needs to control will control his patients and control the course of their therapy, never realizing that his patient needs to lose control into his/her feelings, leading to places the therapist cannot imagine because he won?t let himself lose control. A therapist who acts totally out of control and has an ?anything goes? attitude towards therapy will miss the fragile patient who needs structure and so drive someone to MADNESS OR SUICIDE. The possibilities for abuse ARE LIMITLESS.
It takes years to train therapists in Primal theory and teach them to do proper Primal Therapy, honed by Dr. Janov and his staff with 30 years of experience into a scientific tool, instead of an art form. We have rarely seen the therapy practiced correctly by others outside of the Center and spend a great deal of time treating patients from these other so-called ?primal? clinics. We have seen the damage that can result when therapy is done incorrectly. If you are thinking of having therapy with someone, we will verify any claims they make regarding training with us and address any concerns you may have.
DR. ARTHUR JANOV IS ONLY ASSOCIATED WITH DR. JANOV'S PRIMAL CENTER IN VENICE, CALIFORNIA.
http://www.primaltherapy.com/SEO/primal ... view.shtmlWhat is PT?
The goal is to process repressed feelings which put pressure on vital organs and create disruptions which can eventually lead to illness.
***My opinion, based on experience, is that there is no therapeutic value when the process is forced and emotion is staged or contrived. You can not force a person to tap into those very painful memories from their past. By forcing teens to 'ACT' as if they are having a cathartic experience, they are actually adding more hurtful memories that will have to be dealt with, or repressed, in the future. "Screaming on demand" does not alleviate one's anger.
Very, very sick.
Scroll down and read the section on Neurosis.
http://www.primaltherapy.com/SEO/primal ... view.shtmlIt should provide the understanding for why Institutionalizing kids at any age can create neurosis because, as we know, the real needs of children are not met in institutions. Further, more hurt is piled on the existing hurt. The grief of not having one's needs met is repressed potentially causing numerouse physical/mental problems.
Excerpt:
Each time a child is not held when he needs to be, each time he is shushed, ridiculed, ignored, or pushed beyond his limits, more weight will be added to his pool of hurts. This pool I call the Primal Pool. Each addition to his pool makes the child more unreal and neurotic.
??How can a teen 'work on' the grief of not having their needs met when they are in an environment that is not meeting their needs?? Answer: It's impossible.
And this one is powerfully right on:
As the assaults on the real system mount, they begin to crush the real person. One day an event will take place which, though not necessarily traumatic in itself--giving the child to a baby sitter for the hundredth time - will shift the balance between real and unreal and render the child neurotic. That event I call the major Primal Scene. It is a time in the young child's life when all the past humiliations, negations, and deprivations accumulate into an inchoate realization: "There is no hope of being loved for what I am." It is then that the child defends himself against that catastrophic realization by becoming split from his feelings, and slips quietly into neurosis. The realization is not a conscious one. Rather, the child BEGINS ACTING around his parents, and then elsewhere, IN THE MANNER EXPECTED by them. He says their words and does their thing. He acts unreal--i.e., not in accord with the reality of his own needs and desires. In a short time the neurotic behavior becomes automatic.
And this one describing 'struggling teens'. Ironically, society sees this type of child as healthy/successful/achiever, and those who rebel as the 'strugglers'. Could be summed up that all kids are 'struggling' because their needs are not and have not been met. Some attempt to conform, others rebel.
Struggle is what keeps a child from feeling his hopelessness. It lies in overwork, in slaving for high grades, in being the performer. Struggle is the neurotic's hope of being loved. Instead of being himself, he struggles to become another version of 'himself. Sooner or later the child comes to believe that this version is the real him. The "act" is no longer voluntary and conscious; it is automatic and unconscious. It is neurotic.
From Prospective Patients re: Minors and PT:
For those applicants who are minors, parental consent is required. We have found that young people do very well in Primal Therapy so long as their home environment is suitable.
http://www.primaltherapy.com/SEO/center ... tml#minorsEvery RTC/EGS/TBS/Wilderness Program should be required to spell-out the type of 'therapy' they employee and educate the parent on the particulars, then acquire parental consent. To subject children to experimental or bastardized 'therapy' should be criminal.