In Lieu of Therapists, Benchmark Opts for "Coaches"

[TheWho]

You're right. They only state that they have therapists to prospective parents. On their website they used to claim they were "counselors" so if you want to split hairs that it would be "benchmark replaces 'counselors' with 'coaches"

That was my only point, thanks.  The title of the thread should be In Lieu of "Counselors", Benchmark Opts for "Coaches".  If they want to tell parents that they have therapists, when they don’t, that is a problem, but I don’t think many parents will fall for it for very long.  I had my daughter’s therapist at ASR speak directly with her therapist at home and she had a private practice also.  Plus they need someone to distribute meds etc.  all the parents would discuss the various counselors, therapists, their backgrounds, schools etc. as we all sat together at dinner... if there was a therapist without a degree it would had surfaced fairly quickly.



...

[psy]

So I called Penelope Valentine this morning and asked her a few questions on the phone about coaching.  I don't think she knew who I was, otherwise I doubt she would have talked to me at all.

Among other things I did confirm that Mel Wasserman definitely created his workshops/seminars from est/Lifespring material (Yes, I know we all knew this long, long ago, but one more confirmation isn't a bad thing).

About coaching, I asked her a few questions about this page of hers.  Among other things, I wanted to know the purpose of this skill that is taught:

"Revealing the Barriers to 'What Is'"

she responded:

"one of the skills when we do our coach training talks about the barriers of parents seeing what is actually in front of them.  Parents who have a struggling teen and young adult often are not able to clearly see what is right in front of them so... when we talk about revealing the barriers that's what we do, we talk about what the problem may be, we look at it objectively, how they can assess it... we look at some of the barriers that might, um, be in place which could be, um, expectations that they have for their child...  It could be, um.  Negative self-judgements, um, it could just be fear of change."

What didn't surprise me at all was that the coaching seemed to be, as she was explaining this, more oriented at coaching the parents than the students.

It's good she paused so much during her speaking... gave me ample time to type it down word for word.

[Che Gookin]

"one of the skills when we do our coach training talks about the barriers of parents seeing what is actually in front of them.  Parents who have a struggling teen and young adult often are not able to clearly see what is right in front of them so... when we talk about revealing the barriers that's what we do, we talk about what the problem may be, we look at it objectively, how they can assess it... we look at some of the barriers that might, um, be in place which could be, um, expectations that they have for their child...  It could be, um.  Negative self-judgements, um, it could just be fear of change."

I bet at no time does it ever come up that the problem lies with the parent.

[Anonymous]

FUCK COACHES! OATS

[chuckAluck]

yo. whats up. i went to benchmark for over 2 years. the counsilors, thats what we had to call them when i was there, dont know shit. coaches?! half of them could coach young criminals. dont get me wrong, some of the people there are all right. but the company and the way they conduct their buissiness is just plain wrong. not to mention technically illegal. :ftard: i just thought that was kool.

[psy]

yo. whats up. i went to benchmark for over 2 years. the counsilors, thats what we had to call them when i was there, dont know shit. coaches?! half of them could coach young criminals. dont get me wrong, some of the people there are all right. but the company and the way they conduct their buissiness is just plain wrong. not to mention technically illegal. :ftard: i just thought that was kool.

Were you there recently?

[Ursus]

chuckAluck came on the shout box around the same time that he/she made that post. My memory might be failing me on this, but I recall that the period of time they spent at Benchmark was 2004-2006.

[wdtony]

Theresa Valade,  A "Pathway Family Center" associate ( on the NWI Board Of Directors) lists "The Growth Coach - entrepreneur and principal partner of a professional coaching enterprise" as her occupation.

Seems like another CULT - tie to me. She is probably a program parent also.

Here is the Growth coach website:

http://www.thegrowthcoachfranchise.com/ ... nAodbxMN5w

I just thought it interesting to the topic of coaching.

[psy]

According to a cult expert I consulted, "coaching" is the new thing when it comes to getting away with practicing "therapy" without a license.

[Anonymous]

They told my parents right off the bat that they where people who had delt with our issues, and though they had psychologists (brian was one when i was there) they where not certified. In all honesty, i learned alot from them. Some where completely full of it, and where pretty lousy, where some gave me advice that i use to this day. Enlight of that, i remember some of them having troubles. I know tom got busted with a 24 pack of beer and was fired. I think Don went back out again. Not sure on that one. I think most where genuinly concerned and wanted to help us out. I also think that the tough love approach was warented on some of us. Some of us just did not function well in society. Some of us where so negative that it was hard to be around us, while others where legit drug addicts. I do feel that i was coxed into alot of things...AA, NA, etc... not that i didnt benifit from them, but looking back, it did kinda mess me up, and point me in the wrong direction. The only problem i have with the 'there not therapists' is that most of us had therapists. They where either easy to manipulate, were people you just talked to, or tried to cox you into things and misdiagnose you. I've had a bad therapist, and would of traded him for the worst of the staff (IMO Tom) any day.

[psy]

I think most where genuinly concerned and wanted to help us out.

Yeah, but even the best of intentions can be disastrous when there isn't the training.  It's also illegal to sell services such as "counseling" or "behavior modification" (both terms from benchmark's 2001 website) when one is not licensed to practice those services.  As I understand it, to this day, while Benchmark sometimes refers to outside licensed professionals for things such as prescriptions, they employ no licensed personnel directly (other than the "coaches" now... which anybody can claim to be if you've ever seen the episode of Penn and Teller's "Bullshit" on "Life Coaching").

[psy]

Some of us where so negative that it was hard to be around us

But what does that really mean ("negative")?  Does it really have an objective meaning or is it just something a program labels something it doesn't like.  It's like "evil" or "bad".  It all depends on the point of view.

[psy]

They told my parents right off the bat that they where people who had delt with our issues, and though they had psychologists (brian was one when i was there) they where not certified.

That was not the case with my parents.  I'm very surprised they would tell your parents that right off the bat.

[Anonymous]

They told my parents right off the bat that they where people who had delt with our issues, and though they had psychologists (brian was one when i was there) they where not certified.

That was not the case with my parents.  I'm very surprised they would tell your parents that right off the bat.

Well, i did come earlier. I just remember there selling point was that they where people who have delt with the issues i had and got better so they knew what to do. Infact dina always said 'i wouldn't ask you to do something that i haven't already done myself'. Even on there site they have councelers and psych's.

[psy]

I've had a bad therapist, and would of traded him for the worst of the staff (IMO Tom) any day.

But you could, and probably did (quit him). You had the choice in that situation.  The therapist works for you and if he does a bad job you can fire him.  The situation is reversed in the case of staff in which they have authority over you.  And not just authority over what you do, authority over who you talk to, what you can say, what you can read, and by controlling all that, what you can think.  Their intent was to change how you think without your explicit knowledge and consent.  I believe that is wrong, even when it is done for the best of intentions.

It's different than education when you know what you're getting and are free to reject and accept.  If you disagreed and expressed disagreement at Benchmark you were "negative" or what have you and given "consequences" (punishment).  You had to accept everything they said and ordered unconditionally if you wanted to ever progress.  Big difference than therapy.