Two wrongs dont make a right, and nobody said being a parent was easy, 'desperate'. If you think youre sooo abused by your child then tough shit. You're a parent, and an adult, so show some maturity and dont make this some kind of eye for an eye scenario for children that are SUPPOSED to be getting therapy, not abuse or indoctrination, ok?
Taking away priviladges (per the definition of the program, that includes basic human rights and education.... :
: ) and doling them back when they conform isn't 'therapy', its making them conform! The specific 'priviladges' that are taken away that result in humiliation, such as observation and time limits on hygene, elmination and in the case of girls feminie hygene are not 'therapeutic', its just breaking them down. Hell many programs call you a thief if you use more than so many squares of toilet paper or use too many pads or tampons, come on.
Being totally isolated from the outside world is not about 'focusing on yourself'. That statemnt is simply to excuse the isolation and is utter nonsense. People don't magically become introspective if theyre kept in a cage, metaphorically or otherwise. Feeling trapped doesn't either! Its not something you can FORCE, its something they have to want to do - and you cant 'make them want to' either. Some things HAVE to happen at their own pace.
Now, isolation and what really happens - the program becoming their entire existance because the outside world basically doesnt even exist to them anymore, does basically make their minds and emotions open up in a way thats about as gentle and therapeutic to the child as shucking an oyster is to the mollusc, especially when the terms and conditions of moving up the levels is having an emotional breakdown and sharing all your personal crap.
BTW, did you know that its rather often that the child either runs out of sob stories and 'juicy details' so they have to make them up, or figures out they can make up stuff before they run out... and just make crap up?
All the 'emotional growth' is just that - isolate the kid from everything and everyone, no free time for enjoyment, no self time (which is where you actually focus on yourself, not in a seminar where you're in a gale of emotions and tears) and certainly nothing enjoyable or even comfortable until they 'earn it' - and then losing what they 'earned' is held over them like a guillotine.
Therapy isnt something that can be 'intensive' or as it implies, forced, Desperate. YOUR hurry to 'fix' your kid doesnt make it so that in reality you can hurry up to clean the blemish that is your child like you can scrub a little faster to get a stain out of some clothes.
Before I rant and repeat whats been said a million times before... again... why not share with us how this program is supposed to actually help your child, anyway? How can you FORCE therapy and growth, and how does that program actually go about doing it? What does GT do to help, and what would some specifics about it be? Do you even know? How often do you talk to your kid, and is it censored?
Neither in my private life nor in my writings, have I ever made a secret of being an out-and-out unbeliever.
--Sigmund Freud, Austrian-born psychologist