I cant say anything about MBA being shut down except I went to the school and had a good enough experience and the friends I made are friends for life Like family. Sharon Bitz was my first Mentor at Mount Bachelor and she was and I am sure is a caring person who really helped me. It's sad this is coming down on her she deserves better.
Bravo to you for having the integrity to stand up to these Flamers.
I am the parent of an MBA student. I am not going to engage the narrow-minded, so at the end of what I have to say, feel free to flame away.
If "narrow minded" = "disagrees with you" and "open minded" = "agrees with you" I don't see why you're even bothering to post.
First of all the term "substantiated" means nothing more than someone has put forth evidence of a claim. It is not a charge, it is not a fact and it is certainly not proven. To illustrate this point I substantiate that many of the posters to this thread are morons and I cite their posts as evidence.
Right, but moron is a matter of opinion, neither true nor false. The charges leveled against DRA are for the most part statements of fact.
While some of the posters here are apparently intelligent they are misguided. Go ahead and quote the dictionary definition of the word, It doesn't take into account the context in which the word is used. In this case DHS is complaining and ordering corrections. This does not rise to the level of illegal charges. DHS may refer their findings to law enforcement to determine if there is a case, we'll see about that. Beyond that proving harm is another matter, remember defendants in a case have a right to a vigorous defense.
Right and MBA waved that right by deciding to shut down rather than put up a defense. If they were innocent and these charges were false, why would they do that? Perhaps because DHS only touched the tip of the iceberg and MBA did not want the full details of their LifeSteps becoming public.
Secondly, just because there are experts who's professional opinion allows them to claim that the techniques used by the school are harmful doesn't make it so. What is missing in these charges is objective proof. There are just as many experts who, based on their expertise, can claim that there is validity in the therapeutic approach used. It boils down to the argument of clinical basis vs. evidence basis
Right. Perhaps you could elaborate on this "evidence basis" because other than anecdotal evidence, i've never seen much of anything presented to show these types of program work... not that "working" would make group humiliation ethical... Or perhaps you can explain to me how "Kelis - Milkshake", a
song about hand jobs, and a french maids outfit fit into a legitimate therapeutic context. Maybe Aspen opted to shut MBA down rather than bother with the sheer embarrassment of explaining
that one in court.
The problem with doing clinical analysis on the effectiveness of these therapeutic techniques is the need for double blind studies. Can you imagine giving help to one group of troubled teens and withholding it from a control group to measure the techniques effectiveness?
Yes, and it's the only way to do it. If you read some
stanton peele (or other sources), there is ample evidence that the vast majority of teens pull out of problems including drug/alcohol abuse on their own. In order to prove that MBA works, their success rate would indeed have to beat no treatment at all.
(maybe some of you flamers were actually in one of those control groups). The evidence for the effectiveness of the emotional growth workshops is clearly evident to anyone with an open mind.
Open mind does not mean blind faith. Do you know the origins of LifeSteps? Do you know who designed them (it wasn't aspen!), where they came from, where the techniques are derived from, and what they were originally intended to do? I recommend doing you own research into that unless you're afraid of what you might find.
We as a society are going back to the dark ages when we can't believe what is right before our eyes.
Thirdly, there is no one-size-fits-all treatment. You flamers are objective evidence of that. You clearly were not saved by the programs you went through, I am truly sorry for that. Now, because you weren't helped you want bring down those institutions.
I, for one, didn't need help. I was not broken before the program. Please bother to get to know me or some of the other posters before throwing around blind accusations that we are somehow "troubled'. It makes it seem like you believe that everybody who had a bad experience in a program was somehow at fault for it or is somehow wrong for deciding to speak out about it so it doesn't happen to others.