A few weeks ago, my therapist was telling me that during his weekly meetings with his colleagues, one of the therapists asked about TBS facilities. She apparently has clients who are parents and were considering sending their daughter to a place. The therapist asked if anyone in the room had any info on any of these facilities. My therapist raised his hand and say "Oh yes! I do." and he proceeded to tell her about my experience with CEDU. (What he knew at the time. I've been telling him more recently.) He made a point to mention how negative these places are.
When he told me about it a few weeks ago, I suggested that he recommend Szalavitz's book to the other therapist's clients. We followed up a week later, and he did, indeed recommend the book to her. During that time, I was giving him more info about the industry as a whole.
Today, I asked him if he had heard from his colleague about what had happened. He said "It was frightening. It went down just like you said it would. The parents went ahead and hired an escort to come get her at 5am, to take her away on a plane, to a place in Utah (he didn't have the facility's name offhand). They can't see her right away, and when she does come to visit, she will have to have an escort with her. And the place is outrageously expensive. They are going to have to take out a second mortgage on their house." He was obviously shaken by it. Of course, this sounds familiar to all of us, but he was freaked out.
I asked him "Did you tell her about the book?" He said "Absolutely! She recommended it to them, but they sent her off anyway. They probably didn't read it, or didn't want to read it."
I said "Did she mention by any chance why the parents wanted her to be sent off, anyway?" (not like there is any valid reason to be sent to one of these places) He said "Based on what she said, they simply sounded happy and relieved to be alone finally."
I said "So essentially, they didn't want to be parents anymore? So the kid has to suffer?"
He shook his head sadly and said "It sounds that way."
Anyway, I left him a message about the isaccorp.org site, so his colleague can educate herself on the specific facilities and their abuses. It sounds like the parents are true program parents, though, in the sense that they have totally bought into the whole sales pitch. But at least the therapist can learn more about this shit, especially if she is going to continue to treat these people. Yeah, I guess I should have mentioned the website first instead of the book when the subject was initially broached, websites are less cumbersome to navigate through for people who are seeking quick answers.
Maybe I'm tired. Maybe it's lack of sleep. I read about kids being sent off all the time on this forum. I don't know this kid, or her parents, but for some reason, it upset me. I rarely cry. Even when I try to cry, I normally can't. I don't even cry about my own experiences at CEDU, so I don't know why this hit me weird. I mean, it's not like I was naive enough to even think that my suggestions, two persons removed, no less, would have had much of an impact. Good lord, I'm not that idealistic, and I'm not Mr. Interventionist, but I felt obligated to sure as fuck say something about it. I guess what hit me was thinking about what fresh hell this kid is going through right now. Why her and not all of the other stories I've read and heard about? Dunno.
Fucking whatever. I'm going to bed.
