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        > Posted by: In Recovery -- Therapists -- 12/16/01		 New Topic    Add Reply

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srfwalrus
ezOP
(12/16/01 7:21 pm)
Reply 		Posted by: In Recovery -- Therapists -- 12/16/01
In Recovery -- Therapists -- 12/16/01
pub78.ezboard.com/fsrfwal...D=29.topic
You start off with a legitimate question: "Was this the reason they hired therapists to work with the monastics? To help them to contact their true feelings and leave?" Then you finish your entry having convinced yourself that this is true: "But they neglected their people, they didn't listen to them, and finally they hired psychotherapists to help them to leave." To tell you the truth, sometimes I worry about you.

The therapists were NOT brought in to help the monastics leave the ashram. They were brought in to help improve the ashram culture.

The Spiritual Life Committees were the first in the ashram to contact these very healthy, well-rounded people and realized just by interacting with them how much help the organization needed. The committees also realized (and were somehow able to convince the leadership) that the emotional and psychological needs of the monastics needed to be handled by qualified professionals and not only by the ashram's spiritual counselors, who had no qualifications in this arena. I wouldn't be surprised if the main thing that convinced the management to give monastics access to therapy was the legal ramifications of having spiritual counselors deal with issues outside their area of expertise. Quite possibly the main motivating factor might have been to avoid lawsuits (and not because one of their "beloved" monastics had a legitimate need).

These professionals were hired on a consultancy basis to evaluate the culture in the ashram and recommend any improvements to meet the emotional and psychological needs of the monastics. Bottom line: They were appalled at the level of abuse and emotional immaturity in the ashram. Of course, Management couldn't handle the truth and therefore fired the consultants. By the way, the consultants weren't told they were fired but heard about it indirectly -- in classic SRF style.

Even though SRF will publically state there is no stigma about seeking professional help, I am convinced that they don't truly believe it and that this is just an effort to appear politically correct. The monastics who are in therapy are instructed to keep it a secret from the others, even though one monk said to me: "Now it's a question of, 'Who ISN'T going to therapy.'"

Maybe there is a connection between therapy and leaving the ashram. Perhaps the healthier the individuals become the more self-respect they get and the less they are willing to subject themselves to an environment that is no longer serving their needs. Perhaps they saw more clearly just how unhealthy the ashram environment was for them.

RELATED POST IN SAME THREAD:
XInsider -- The therapeutic Intervention -- 12/16

KS and Rigiditananda,
Afraid your information about the role of the therapists is incomplete and somewhat misleading.
They were brought in as consultants to see how the ashram environment could be improved. This happened during the tenure of the Spiritual Life Committees. It is a long and complicated story. The short version is that management/BOD did not like what they had paid to hear. So they fired the consultants and enjoyed a nice housecleaning, hoping against hope that everything would somehow return to (enter the violins) "the way we were."
It is true that monastics who do not fit the mold can be starved out, in a sense. For example, a nun might be kept without a vow, transferred from department to department, asked to move to an off site ashram where she makes trouble for fewer people, and so on. She is given no respect (few are!) or responsibility, and is simply "tolerated" with the forced smile that hides the true feelings of the leadership. This is the classic non-direct, passive way to get rid of someone.

Edited by: srfwalrus at: 12/16/01 7:23:29 pm
sevaki
Registered User
(12/17/01 1:12 pm)
Reply 		Re: Posted by: In Recovery -- Therapists -- 12/16/01
I think those in charge who slowly freeze monastics out of the ashram should listen to Master's tape Be a Smile Millionaire, how He condemns the false friends who smile at you then stab you in the back. There are lots of treacherous smiles over there, and I'm sure Master would see right through them. Why is honesty so far down on the list of desireable character traits, while "humility" - fake, forced, imposed or otherwise, so treasured. Take one person, add a huge dose of unhealthy surrender and an eqaul measure of artificial humilty and a pasted on smile, and you've got.....hmm?

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