Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Aspen Education Group
The Only Instance of Abuse "Admittance" by Staff of MBA
Whooter:
--- Quote from: "psy" ---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.
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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.
--- Quote ---The OP specifically mentioned "group therapy", not individual therapy.
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I think I missed that, I was referring a little to the reference to the comment that Aspen doesn’t provide therapy.
--- Quote --- 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.
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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.
--- Quote ---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.
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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...
--- Quote from: "Psy" ---Nothing of substance had changed at all.
--- End quote ---
Then this gem from Whooter...
--- Quote from: "Whooter" ---Programs are ever evolving, like Psy mentioned
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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:
--- Quote from: "enola" ---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.
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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".
--- Quote from: "Dr. Robert Jay Lifton" ---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.
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Antigen:
--- Quote from: "Guest" ---First this from Psy...
--- Quote from: "Psy" ---Nothing of substance had changed at all.
--- End quote ---
Then this gem from Whooter...
--- Quote from: "Whooter" ---Programs are ever evolving, like Psy mentioned
--- End quote ---
I don't know why any of you bother to even respond meaningfully to Whooter The Ass Clown.
--- End quote ---
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
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