The Only Instance of Abuse "Admittance" by Staff of MBA

[enola]

This is pasted from Bill Hoffman's notes on Facebook.  Though the only ones who have access to it are his Facebook "friends", I am surprised that only a few comments out of 62 were calls for more accountability.  I also made a comment, but Bill erased it the next day, as well as edited a few words in the entry.  Bill was an ok guy compared to others, and I believe he has a touch of guilt for the way those of us from the "dark ages" of MBA were treated, yet he has also posted some very low blows and attacks on some of the Facebook boards, which I may post later.

"What MBA Kids From The Past Need To Know About MBA Today."

Saturday, April 11, 2009 at 11:06pm
We are no longer the old Mount Bachelor Academy you think of from the past.

Mount Bachelor Academy staff are not only loving people who enjoy working with kids either. Qualifications to be a Mentor now takes a Master's degree. Our Executive Director, Program Director, Clinical On-Site Coordinator and about half of our Mentors are Mastered Leveled Therapists.

"We have come far since the dark ages" What began in 1988 as "a mom and pop business" without regulation or degreed people has transformed in the 21st century with oversight, credentialed teachers, qualified professional staff trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, skill building from Dialectical Behavioral Training, Adoption Clinical Training, etc.

We are licensed by the State of Oregon, we are accredited by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools and Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools.

We have a full-time Chemical and Dependency Counselor as well to provide quality drug and alcohol focused therapies.

Our group therapy sessions are no longer profanity laced yelling sessions. We actually have grown away from that mode. We offer special-themed groups including workshops in issues of Adoption, Grief and Loss, Mastery and Control, Sexual Abuse, NA/AA, etc.

As far as my degree, I have a Bachelor's of Arts with 30 years of experience in working with youth and families. As the Residential Director, I have oversight of the daily living of our students, dorm life, providing recreational activities at night, on weekends, and for special events: Summer Olympics, Community Service projects, etc.

Regarding Lifesteps: students, by law, are given 6 hours of sleep. Food always has been healthy and plentiful. Fresh fruit, veggie platters, PBJ and meat and cheese sandwiches, juice, etc.

Do kids receive work projects for misbehavior? Yes, but this is not "Holes" folks, kids are out for a few hours if need be, to give back or think about their poor behavior(s) demonstrated in the community. We still hold kids to being responsible towards keeping rules. Work projects are meaningful and are often based on metaphors.

Kids do not sit facing a wall, kids who have writing assignments, book reading on self studies are done in the evening down in our Library with staff supervision.

By the way, the kids we take at MBA are products of overindulgence, under supervised, from dysfunctional families, have poor or low self esteem issues, have issues related to adoption, were labled or felt like perceived failures in school, many of our kids are ADD/ADHD. Not all kids as I wrote wwere close to death, although some were getting cclose to the edge. Many of our kids abused drugs or alcohol, made poor choices, etc.

I have nothing but pride in the good work we do everyday.

***I made the following comment, which was not only unanswered, but deleted the next day***

  November 30 at 5:35 pm
'I know I’m late to the party, but I just read this for the first time today, and I have a few comments to make.

“Kids do not sit facing a wall, kids who have writing assignments, book reading on self studies are done in the evening down in our Library with staff supervision.”
That is a very good thing.  However, you, in fact, ran my self-study when you first arrived at MBA, and you had me sitting in that small desk, facing the wall, not letting me get up until someone “escorted” me to the bathroom, and making me dig a ditch for 8 hours a day, then continue the work day by filling it up.  I did that for 3 months, w/o going to class.  So do those of us who did endure that get some kind of apology or at least acknowledgment of abuse?

“Regarding Lifesteps: students, by law, are given 6 hours of sleep. Food always has been healthy and plentiful. Fresh fruit, veggie platters, PBJ and meat and cheese sandwiches, juice, etc.”
It’s really nice that you guys decided to finally abide by the law.  But, as you know, in the ‘dark ages’ of MBA, we had about 2-3 hours sleep, and ate crackers and water.

“Our group therapy sessions are no longer profanity laced yelling sessions. We actually have grown away from that mode.”
I’m honestly glad.  In my era, there was constant yelling, screaming, name-calling, swearing, crying, and very harsh criticism toward most of us (with the exception of the lucky few).  For example, I was constantly called a whore, a liar, manipulative, playing victim, etc.  By law, that’s abuse.

It really boggles my mind that there is no accountability for the staff’s actions towards the earlier peer groups.  Nothing.  Accountability and complete honesty is what we were taught; those 2 things were almost literally shoved down our throats, that’s usually what spurred most of the “profanity laced yelling sessions”.  Yet there is no accountability, apology, or admission of any wrong doing to those of us who endured that; wrong doing, or, in layman's terms abuse.  Some of my peers seem ok with it.  I am not.

I just don’t get it… '

So, without a word, message, or any acknowledgment to me, he erased my comment, then erased the words 'no longer' in the sentence about 'profanity-laced yelling sessions'.

The most upsetting aspect of all of this, besides the fact that it has brought up a lot of pain that I never dealt with, is the complete lack of ACCOUNTABILITY by the staff.  Accountability, the thing they preached, yelled about, screamed about, and based Lifesteps on.  There is known.  In fact, there are instead cover-ups and lies.  Like I said, I just don't get it.  And it makes me very angry, especially for all the crap I endured because of it.

[psy]

Time and time again i've heard "we don't do that anymore"...  Even from the program I was in.  So what did I do?  I investigated.  I even went down to the program to try to interview people...  and what did I discover?  Nothing of substance had changed at all.  At most they had renamed a few practices.  If I were you I would treat such claims from MBA with a grain of salt.  I can't even list the number of times i've heard similar claims from a wide variety of programs.

I also find it interesting that this guy claims MBA provides "therapy" given that Aspen Education Group recently argued in a court case that "therapy" is exactly what they do not provide (in order to argue they were not required to comply with the privacy regulations associated).  It's amazing how easily will say "therapy" in private when they think nobody is watching and "emotional growth" in public to avoid accountability.

[Whooter]

Programs are ever evolving, like Psy mentioned, and some may say they are doing away with a percieved harmful aspect of the program when in fact they just rename it.  So it is best to try to find out what they are doing currently by reading here or contacting the program directly, speaking to families who have been through the program recently.

I looked around and MBA did provide therapy via a licensed Psychologist.  The argument that Aspen had in court was with a specific child who didn’t receive therapy ( at another facility).  Many of these facilities give parents the option of having their child see a private therapist while the child attends the program which can be separately funded directly by the parents.  It is up to each parent to decide what is appropriate for their child and whether or not they want one on one therapy.
So technically any one specific program may not provide therapy through Aspen, so it can be said that Aspen doesn’t provide Therapy for “all“ their programs directly.  

But to imply that Aspen as a Corporation does not provide therapy would be an incorrect statement.

[psy]

Programs are ever evolving, like Psy mentioned, and some may say they are doing away with a percieved harmful aspect of the program when in fact they just rename it.  So it is best to try to find out what they are doing currently by reading here or contacting the program directly, speaking to families who have been through the program recently.

The program itself has every reason to lie and more often than not, almost always, the families themselves have little knoweldge of what actually goes on in the program.  Furthermore, the method of contacting families is often (but not always, as some do post here from time to time) only through the program, which can often be fairly selective about which parents they recommend. The only way to find the truth is to speak to a variety of recent graduates by seeking them out, asking for fact rather than opinion, and not by waiting for the program to recommend them.  Even then, the truth is often elusive.

I looked around and MBA did provide therapy via a licensed Psychologist.  The argument that Aspen had in court was with a specific child who didn’t receive therapy ( at another facility).  Many of these facilities give parents the option of having their child see a private therapist while the child attends the program which can be separately funded directly by the parents.

The OP specifically mentioned "group therapy", not individual therapy.  It is my understanding that while some programs do provide individual therapy, the group therapy is almost always facilitated by peers and non-qualified staff.  Furthermore, most of the individual therapists are essentially subcontractors, as you admit, often paid for directly by the parents and are thus not in the direct employ of the program.

It is up to each parent to decide what is appropriate for their child and whether or not they want one on one therapy.
So technically any one specific program may not provide therapy through Aspen, so it can be said that Aspen doesn’t provide Therapy for “all“ their programs directly.  

But to imply that Aspen as a Corporation does not provide therapy would be an incorrect statement.

It depends on your loose definition of "provide".  IMO, "permit" would be a more appropriate word.  As far as group therapy goes, are you aware of any Aspen facility where the group therapy is facilitated by licensed psychologists or psychotherapists.  Most of the time the only qualifications I see are LCSW and so forth...  social worker qualifications.  Hardly trained or qualified to facilitate any sort of bone-fide group therapy.

[Ursus]

The most upsetting aspect of all of this, besides the fact that it has brought up a lot of pain that I never dealt with, is the complete lack of ACCOUNTABILITY by the staff. Accountability, the thing they preached, yelled about, screamed about, and based Lifesteps on.

It would appear that "accountability" is a somewhat relative term. Kids are held accountable for all kinds of things at programs (sometimes even for things they did not do), but the program staff? The ones that actually do all the preaching about accountability and brother's keeper? Rarely, or, at most, barely.

[Whooter]

The program itself has every reason to lie and more often than not, almost always, the families themselves have little knoweldge of what actually goes on in the program. Furthermore, the method of contacting families is often (but not always, as some do post here from time to time) only through the program, which can often be fairly selective about which parents they recommend. The only way to find the truth is to speak to a variety of recent graduates by seeking them out, asking for fact rather than opinion, and not by waiting for the program to recommend them. Even then, the truth is often elusive.

Parents new to the industry would never be able to contact kids who recently graduated and be able to speak to them one-on-one.  Parents of kids who just left a program wouldn’t want their kids focusing on that.  Even if they did parents wouldn’t be informed enough about the ins and outs of the industry to know what questions to ask them.  I don’t think it is that bad that the programs recommend families who have completed the program to be the ones to contact for advice.  They can speak to what is happening today.  There is no reason to believe any of them would be deceitful.

The OP specifically mentioned "group therapy", not individual therapy.

I think I missed that, I was referring a little to the reference to the comment that Aspen doesn’t provide therapy.  

It is my understanding that while some programs do provide individual therapy, the group therapy is almost always facilitated by peers and non-qualified staff. Furthermore, most of the individual therapists are essentially subcontractors, as you admit, often paid for directly by the parents and are thus not in the direct employ of the program.

From a business standpoint it makes sense to have the parents pay for the therapists directly.  If you look at the rates that therapists are asking today ($140-to-190 per hour) it would cost them $150,000 a year for each therapist at a 30 hour per week billing (that on the low end).  You could reduce this cost, eliminate one more employee and remove yourself from the liability picture by having the parents pay and contract this independently.  I can only see a program wanting to have a licensed therapist on staff to provide oversight.

It depends on your loose definition of "provide". IMO, "permit" would be a more appropriate word. As far as group therapy goes, are you aware of any Aspen facility where the group therapy is facilitated by licensed psychologists or psychotherapists. Most of the time the only qualifications I see are LCSW and so forth... social worker qualifications. Hardly trained or qualified to facilitate any sort of bone-fide group therapy.

I believe most programs design groups that are run by staff who vary in educational back ground.  I couldn’t imagine many programs having a licensed counsellor seated for each group, it would be impossible because they typically break out at the same time in parallel (since programs are so linearly structured).  They would have to hire 6 – 10 therapists which could never be affordable.  That is why they place the option of therapy on the parents. This seems to work well for the present time.

[Troll Control]

I'm not sure anyone should be taking advice on accountablity from Whooter.  He seems not to understand what this concept means.

[Troll Control]

First this from Psy...

Nothing of substance had changed at all.

Then this gem from Whooter...

Programs are ever evolving, like Psy mentioned

I don't know why any of you bother to even respond meaningfully to Whooter The Ass Clown.  

Psy says 'nothing has changed' and Whooter replies 'things have changed, like Psy said' (paraphrased). He says this as if nobody notices he just took two opposite statements and made them equivalent.  He can't avoid dissembling from the first sentence of his factually bereft, idiotic reply. Why bother reading past that? :beat:  :beat:  :beat:  :wall:

[Antigen]

The most upsetting aspect of all of this, besides the fact that it has brought up a lot of pain that I never dealt with, is the complete lack of ACCOUNTABILITY by the staff.  Accountability, the thing they preached, yelled about, screamed about, and based Lifesteps on.  There is known.  In fact, there are instead cover-ups and lies.  Like I said, I just don't get it.  And it makes me very angry, especially for all the crap I endured because of it.

That's because these programs are run by cults. It really is that simple. In the more commonly accepted reality, medical and other professionals have to answer to the patient and/or to the courts when they fuck up. Often, people compare programs to the military. Same holds true there, even when the organization is overtly and openly authoritarian, officers are still held to a reasonable degree of accountability most of the time.

In a cult, the people in authority are not professionals who have learned skills and who perform a legitimate leadership function or they get fired. In a cult, the people in charge have to be seen as god-like beings, infallible, omniscient, above reproach and question. If they admit that the program is flawed then it doesn't "work". This is what Lifton referred to as "Sacred Science".

Sacred Science. The group's doctrine or ideology is considered to be the ultimate Truth, beyond all questioning or dispute. Truth is not to be found outside the group. The leader, as the spokesperson for God or for all humanity, is likewise above criticism.

[Antigen]

First this from Psy...

Nothing of substance had changed at all.

Then this gem from Whooter...

Programs are ever evolving, like Psy mentioned

I don't know why any of you bother to even respond meaningfully to Whooter The Ass Clown.  

Whooter does this because it works. People really are just that simple minded most of the time. Actually, "simple" is neither fair nor correct. We're really pretty complex but too often blind to the fact that most of our beliefs and perceptions are based on primal drives, emotion, body language and subliminal input. We then craft "logical" ways of framing the issues and kid ourselves into thinking that what we're doing is thinking when we're really just responding.

And if people don't challenge it it becomes part of the accepted reality--the Consensus Trance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63SRpGXBHE

[Anonymous]

the program I was in.

Can Benchmark really be called a program?

The answer is no. Benchmark is a facility for adults who wish to rehabilitate themselves from problems. The proper name for Benchmark is adult rehabilitation center, a place which Psy signed himself into at the age of 18, a legal adult. Psy claims he is against coercive programs, something he never experienced in any way, shape or form. In short, Psy is a fraudulent program survivor of a dubious nature.

[Anonymous]

Programs are ever evolving, like Psy mentioned, and some may say they are doing away with a percieved harmful aspect of the program when in fact they just rename it.  So it is best to try to find out what they are doing currently by reading here or contacting the program directly, speaking to families who have been through the program recently.

I looked around and MBA did provide therapy via a licensed Psychologist.  The argument that Aspen had in court was with a specific child who didn’t receive therapy ( at another facility).  Many of these facilities give parents the option of having their child see a private therapist while the child attends the program which can be separately funded directly by the parents.  It is up to each parent to decide what is appropriate for their child and whether or not they want one on one therapy.
So technically any one specific program may not provide therapy through Aspen, so it can be said that Aspen doesn’t provide Therapy for “all“ their programs directly.  

But to imply that Aspen as a Corporation does not provide therapy would be an incorrect statement.

It doesn’t matter what kind of therapy it is. If it is a forced situation it CANNOT result in behavior changes that you can identify as free, independent, expressions of the individual. In this way any positive results cannot statistically be shown to represent the change solely in the individual, but the statistics MUST show that the psychological unit of evaluation is the individual AND the environment. This makes it impossible to produce accurate statistics, or make factual statements  with regard to individual change of any kind. “Therapy”, under this pretense,  can only produce results that ONLY exist in relation to the environment.

This also means the individual CANNOT credit themselves in any way for the changes they make even if they are positive ones and are happy with them. The continued change in behavior of the individual will always be recognized, by the individual and the involved  group, as a result of forced compliance and so any pride the individual may feel for achieving growth and change will be coupled with the fact that it was achieved by giving up their autonomy, and personal will, and submitting to the therapists definition of him as being unaware of his own inability to judge reality and being out of control of his own actions.

The individual then is faced with the untenable position of ‘making positive choices’, but ones that have been directed to him under the pretext ‘you are not well enough to make decisions for yourself’. So even if at some point the individual chooses to continue that behavior he will also be accepting the presupposition, that is adopting the personal belief about himself, that he  can be ‘out of control of himself’ or ’not himself’.  So if he then falls out of this pattern of ‘positive changes’ he is accepting that it is a result of him ‘losing control of himself’ or  entering into some state of mind where he believes some foreign force is controlling him. This belief about himself is necessary to adopt if the process of forced therapy is going to be a success.
Of course if the individual does not want to go through therapy they do not have a choice. The reason is they CANNOT NOT communicate in this situation. Trying to resist the process of therapy is still a type of communication in this situation. The subject will be labeled by the therapist, the one given authority to label him in the social setting, isolated, withdrawn, uncooperative, etc. Resistance on the part of the individual is then able to be used as supportive evidence that he is in fact ‘mentally ill’ in some manner.
Of course this outcome, and the awareness of the inability to challenge the therapists authority, is quickly learned by victims of programs. The knowledge that, if their resistance is detected, it will be cause for negative labeling can result in behavior that is extremely compliant, but the action is really an act to avoid labels that keep him trapped in an environment perceives him as dysfunctional, and therefore not safe to be allowed freedom.

Sorry Whooter, the idea of forced therapy contains this obvious paradox, and your position is void due to this logical error in your thinking. If you really expect your words to have any meaning I suggest you agree to join me here.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=29442

[Whooter]

Whooter does this because it works........And if people don't challenge it it becomes part of the accepted reality--the Consensus Trance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63SRpGXBHE

Sorry if I wasn’t clear, I was thinking more from a biological standpoint vs hypnotic, although now that you mentioned it I do believe the ever changing perception is what keeps the programs in business.  There was no conscience attempt to misquote Psy.  Let me try to explain my thinking:

Think of programs as the cure for the common cold.  If evolution did not exist we would never be sick because the common cold wouldn’t change or evolve, the cold would stay the same and we would have all built up antibodies to deal with it a long time ago.  So for Aspen to stay in business they need to evolve along with us in order to attract the same percentage of the population (staying the same/maintaining market share).
 
The programs are evolving at a slightly faster pace than we are and therefore are one step ahead of us putting in place a cure.  If someone from the past cheats, looks back and peels away a layer (like Psy did when he went back to Benchmark) you may see that the basis of the change is parasitic on the present but mirrors the past as Psy discovered and therefore nothing has really changed from his vantage point.  We are not suppose to be able to see that because programs are marketed to be cutting edge and only someone from the past could spot the similarities.  People 100 years ago caught the cold the same as we do today but it has evolved to become stronger to outsmart our present antibodies.

The cold is the real problem, not the cure.  But as we all know there is no cure for the common cold.  We just need to let it run its course and give our bodies time to adjust and overcome it.

[Anonymous]

There was no conscience attempt to misquote Psy.

Whooter’s Freudian slip is showing.

[Anonymous]

Whooter does this because it works........And if people don't challenge it it becomes part of the accepted reality--the Consensus Trance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63SRpGXBHE

Sorry if I wasn’t clear, I was thinking more from a biological standpoint vs hypnotic, although now that you mentioned it I do believe the ever changing perception is what keeps the programs in business. There was no conscience attempt to misquote Psy. Let me try to explain my thinking:

Think of programs as the cure for the common cold. If evolution did not exist we would never be sick because the common cold wouldn’t change or evolve, the cold would stay the same and we would have all built up antibodies to deal with it a long time ago. So for Aspen to stay in business they need to evolve along with us in order to attract the same percentage of the population (staying the same/maintaining market share).

The programs are evolving at a slightly faster pace than we are and therefore are one step ahead of us putting in place a cure. If someone from the past cheats, looks back and peels away a layer (like Psy did when he went back to Benchmark) you may see that the basis of the change is parasitic on the present but mirrors the past as Psy discovered and therefore nothing has really changed from his vantage point. We are not suppose to be able to see that because programs are marketed to be cutting edge and only someone from the past could spot the similarities. People 100 years ago caught the cold the same as we do today but it has evolved to become stronger to outsmart our present antibodies.

The cold is the real problem, not the cure. But as we all know there is no cure for the common cold. We just need to let it run its course and give our bodies time to adjust and overcome it.

We cannot really evaluate things properly if we rely on erroneous associations to explain them. Because you should know....

It doesn’t matter what kind of therapy it is. If it is a forced situation it CANNOT result in behavior changes that you can identify as free, independent, expressions of the individual. In this way any positive results cannot statistically be shown to represent the change solely in the individual, but the statistics MUST show that the psychological unit of evaluation is the individual AND the environment. This makes it impossible to produce accurate statistics, or make factual statements with regard to individual change of any kind. “Therapy”, under this pretense, can only produce results that ONLY exist in relation to the environment.

This also means the individual CANNOT credit themselves in any way for the changes they make even if they are positive ones and are happy with them. The continued change in behavior of the individual will always be recognized, by the individual and the involved group, as a result of forced compliance and so any pride the individual may feel for achieving growth and change will be coupled with the fact that it was achieved by giving up their autonomy, and personal will, and submitting to the therapists definition of him as being unaware of his own inability to judge reality and being out of control of his own actions.

The individual then is faced with the untenable position of ‘making positive choices’, but ones that have been directed to him under the pretext ‘you are not well enough to make decisions for yourself’. So even if at some point the individual chooses to continue that behavior he will also be accepting the presupposition, that is adopting the personal belief about himself, that he can be ‘out of control of himself’ or ’not himself’. So if he then falls out of this pattern of ‘positive changes’ he is accepting that it is a result of him ‘losing control of himself’ or entering into some state of mind where he believes some foreign force is controlling him. This belief about himself is necessary to adopt if the process of forced therapy is going to be a success.
Of course if the individual does not want to go through therapy they do not have a choice. The reason is they CANNOT NOT communicate in this situation. Trying to resist the process of therapy is still a type of communication in this situation. The subject will be labeled by the therapist, the one given authority to label him in the social setting, isolated, withdrawn, uncooperative, etc. Resistance on the part of the individual is then able to be used as supportive evidence that he is in fact ‘mentally ill’ in some manner.
Of course this outcome, and the awareness of the inability to challenge the therapists authority, is quickly learned by victims of programs. The knowledge that, if their resistance is detected, it will be cause for negative labeling can result in behavior that is extremely compliant, but the action is really an act to avoid labels that keep him trapped in an environment perceives him as dysfunctional, and therefore not safe to be allowed freedom.

Sorry Whooter, the idea of forced therapy contains this obvious paradox, and your position is void due to this logical error in your thinking. If you really expect your words to have any meaning I suggest you agree to join me here.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=29442