as far as what they whispered to us...? i don't remember........... probably the same old 'that's right' bullshit. 'you were just a kid - and someone hurt you - that hurt you right? that made your little kid want to disappear forever right?"
I remember what I was whispered. Sharon was whispering to me about the divorce and being abandoned by my father. That seemed to be my issue du jour. Can't come up with anything? Always fall back on the divorce.
As to why the whispering?
My guess would be that it encouraged the student to internalize their struggle. i.e. it is "contained". Acting in instead of acting out. A staff, an inappropriately intimate distance from your ear, whispers things to you to further cause you to regress and retreat into your own world. Typical guided imagery stuff. It also helps to create a bond with that student. Sometimes effective, sometimes not.
If the struggle is internal, the student whales on themselves and helps to encourage the brainwashing process. If the struggle is external, then the student is seeing how fucked up the program is. The program is the point of contention, not the misdirection of focusing on their own issues (which the program then exploits to further its own agenda and ideology.)