On 2006-02-27 13:00:00, waggytail_lickydog wrote:
on my first home visit, i was involved with a male friend of mine. when i returned to mms and was honest about what i had done, the school took away another home visit, my therapist met with me daily to see if i had realized that anything sexual is bad forever, and every group session was focused on what the other girls thought about what i had done. i felt like all i could do was agree with what everyone was saying about me and the way i felt emotionally, while holding in all my true feelings.
this was at the prompting of my therapist at the time. i could not sleep for weeks afterwards, fearing that my past abusers would find me. i could see nothing but their faces when i closed my eyes. i think that this was just a part of the school's way of dominating me.
-kim"
Kim, wow- this is intense, I hardly know how to respond. Who was the therapist?? Someone who worked at MMS?
MMS so badly handles sexual problems. They program was incredible shaming and so not about education and fact nor addressing the natural feelings that come about from just being human... Certainly the way they handled it while I was there, and sounds like they still do, is about shame. While some sexual acts can be driven by motives that are not about sexual intimacy, like seeking love type intimacy that's confused with sex...but they NEVER mad ethe distinction, presumably it's to far above their training capacities? (just like everything else, overly simplistic, black and white) and they ALWAYS placed sex in the BAD catagory. ...so instead of knowing where to draw the line and be healthy about it, it's just sex=bad...that's a really messed up message to drill into someone head.
Everything was essentially turned into a 'cop out' - that's why when I say their reality was imposed upon me, it's true...they decide what the world looks like and your place in it and how you fit...and then you're dropped in the real world to pick up the peices. It's outrageous to hear that this is STILL happening.
Oh, and of course the role of the students, as you mentioned Kim, is to rienforce and legitimize the schools power. While I was there NO ONE who had been there longer than 8 months spoke a word of dissent...that was a punishible offense and they would punish everyone. Of course, it's all about control and dominance...At this rate- I'm not sure that our so-called democracy can handle any more authoritarian, rigid minded, unquestioning, overly obedient people like those shaped through schools like MMS.
Beyond that, control and dominance is inconsitent with the ethical principles of APA and...well, any meidcal person whose work is to heal. HEALING is impossible in such conditions as you describe, so to pretend like MMS is therapuetic is absurd....jail like, maybe. and all girls prison with psuedo therapy, yes...therapuetic, no way. It's simply impossible under those conditions.