Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Daytop Village
DAYTOP Did Me Great Harm in the Long Run
SEKTO:
Keep in mind that I have not seen Marcy in person since approx. 1995, but can still see her face and remember her looks. She had long, wavy brown hair.
That said, I'll tell you that I have taken a closer look at those Golf Tournament photos from '06/'07 and did not recognize any of those folks. I'll look through some more though, and will let you know if I recognize her.
SEKTO:
OK, I shall now disclose for everybody's information where I am am who my therapists are, in order to assuage any real or potential concern about the veracity of what I have been describing to all of you, and to describe for all of you my present situation and circumstances.
I have been posting to this board from within Meadow Haven; we are in Lakeville MA and my therapists' names are Bob and Judy PARDON.
Meadow Haven is a residential program that helps survivors of cults of all kinds, and also survivors of certain abusive and overly controlling relationships that took place in some religious, psycho-therapeutic, or otherwise cult-like context.
They (Bob and Judy) work closely with Wellspring, and to compare Wellspring to Meadow Haven I'll use the following medical analogy. Wellspring is comparable to a cult-trauma emergency room, and Meadow Haven is a longer-term program, kind of like extended physical therapy that one would go through after being hit by a truck or something, but it's not physical therapy, it's psychotherapy. Wellspring and Meadow Haven refer people to one another on a regular basis.
There are only two programs of this kind in the United States. Wellspring is one of them and Meadow Haven is the other. Wellspring is the ER, and is short-term; Meadow Haven is the longer-term therapeutic community program.
The Pardons are well familiar with CEDU clone programs and the like, and Bob just loaned me a copy of Help At Any Cost to read. Amazingly, they'd never heard of DAYTOP until I told them about it.
BTW: I just started that book; I skipped the introduction and finished Chapter One last night. Tonight I'll read the introduction and probably start Chapter Two.
Read of Meadow Haven and the Pardons here:
http://www.meadowhaven.org/index.htm
http://www.meadowhaven.org/the_people.htm
The Pardons are well known in cult-ed and cult recovery circles and the Meadow Haven program is nothing like a 12-step group environment, not at all, nothing whatsoever. I am definitely in a safe place and we are not controlled or coerced here in the least. I am in the driver's seat of my own treatment all the way.
The Pardons are committed Christians, but they are hardly preachy and never try and impose their beliefs on anybody at any time; not in any way, shape or, form.
Bob and Judy PARDON (my therapists) are without a doubt two of the most compassionate, encouraging, and positive people I have ever had the privilege to know, not to mention two of the foremost experts on the subject of thought reform in this country, and it is a pure blessing to be here in and therapy with them, to sit under them as my mentors. I am 100% confident in their integrity, professional ethics, and capability, and am so very grateful to be here with them. I am very very fortunate, all of us here are. It is my incredible privilege to be here, and I cannot overstate that point.
These are very highly competent people that I am with, certainly not Puerto Rican hack armchair psychologists or anything like that.
They are absolute professionals and I am 100% confident about their competence and ethics.
I consider myself highly blessed to have them. The Pardons literally saved my life. That is no understatement and none of us here takes that fact lightly.
Furthermore, I am in about three hours of psychotherapy a week and am making real progress.
Check them out if you're not familiar with them, or have never heard of Meadow Haven.
Anonymous:
--- Quote from: "SEKTO" ---There are only two programs of this kind in the United States. Wellspring is one of them and Meadow Haven is the other. Wellspring is the ER, and is short-term; Meadow Haven is the longer-term therapeutic community program.
--- End quote ---
You DO know (do you?), since you were in Daytop, that the term "therapeutic community" is a dirty word around here. It is neither therapeutic nor is it a community.
Daytop is one of the original therapeutic communities. They usually focused on addiction treatment.
SEKTO:
Well, one would imagine that the words "treatment" and "program" are dirty words around here too, but that is exactly what I am participating in. I am in a treatment program for cult-trauma survivors, and Meadow Haven is both therapeutic and a community; therefore, it is a legitimate therapeutic community.
There are legitimate treatment programs that are healthy and constructive for the participants, who are all participating voluntarily, mind you, and in psychotherapy with trained, licensed professional counselors; as well, there are (needless to say) unhealthy and illegitimate hellholes that call themselves "treatment programs" which are abusive to and destructive for the participants, who are usually there involuntarily, and which are usually run by a bunch of uneducated thugs.
One thing that I do not need is somebody telling me what I can and cannot say.
So I'll tell you what: my assertion is, that I don't have to change anything at all about what I say or how I say it just because you (or anybody else) tells me so, Guest. I do not need you playing "semantics police." I do not not your blessings. If I wanted somebody to control me or my choice of words and impose their will (and therefore their way of thinking) on me, then I'd go back to DAYTOP.
So I'll say what I want, and use any choice of words I wish, if that's OK with you. Deal?
psy:
--- Quote from: "SEKTO" ---One thing that I do not need is somebody telling me what I can and cannot say.
--- End quote ---
Maybe, but at the same time, aren't you suggesting to him what he can and can not say? Just food for thought and I mean no disrespect. In any case, what you won't find here is any administration or authority interfering with what anybody can or cannot say. There are staunch industry supporters, program staff, and the like who come here from time to time, berate survivors, and generally make asses out of themselves but... why interfere with that? By letting them speak they make all the more clear to everybody just how bat-shit crazy many of these cult members are. Some AARC threads have particularly good examples of this behavior.
All in all I think it's a bit silly. People criticized me when my lawyers referred to Benchmark as a "school" in their papers even though they didn't employ any qualified teachers (judge's words, not mine), but for lack of a better term what other way is there to succinctly describe the place. Program maybe? But then that would be implying it's a treatment program when it's not licensed as one. Anybody got any better suggestions?
All in all it's pretty silly. "Therapeutic community", negative connotations aside, is a fairly good way to describe the place you are in based on your description. Maybe "cult recovery center" would be another, but... come on, guest.. you know what he meant. SEKTO has a point about the "semantics police." Quibbling over terminology is more the program's territory than of Fornits, or most anywhere else.
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