Here is the former Drug Czar Robert DuPont. At 6:30 you can hear about the ‘between the eyes repeatedly with a 2×4′ method of getting professionals into ‘Recovery’, which got Talbott sued (successfully) for false imprisonment and medical malpractice in 1999. DuPont was also a consultant for the Straight, Inc. program that was shut down by multiple lawsuits alleging abuse and malpractice, several of which were successful. He is part of a long history of this abusive industry.
Monthly Archives: October 2016
The ARISE Intervention by Judith Landau – My review
The ARISE method misrepresents itself. It IS about coercion. It is an extended Johnson intervention that ‘gradually escalates’ with ‘serious consequences’ for not entering 12-step treatment. The contracts in the book Invitational Intervention involve immediate inpatient rehab if any drug is used, mandatory drug tests, and ‘natural consequences’ (which are not actually natural consequences, because it is not natural to face consequences for not wanting intensive 12-step facilitation.
Here are articles I’ve written on my experience of the ARISE intervention, which involved using my family and trusted therapists to continually re-leverage me into meetings and treatment that I was already very familiar with and had rejected.
Here is something interesting: AA and rehab often say that you have to WANT it for it to work. The ARISE method is, like EAPs, PHPs and Drug Courts, coercive. If you read the book, you will find that they are lying when they say it is not coercive, because the method actually says that self-referrals don’t work — that coercion is part of the process. Also, their success rates (the 83% quoted) involve measuring success at getting people INTO treatment, a fact that is easily lost on people who assume the treatment will actually be helpful. Also note that they will try to bring your whole family into the 12-step cult and treatment because it’s a so-called ‘family disease’.
Summary: false advertisement, easily verified bait-and-switch. It is more a system for addiction specialists to make money off of rehab referrals.
New York State Education Department Investigator Admits Policy of Willful Negligence
Investigator Patrick Flynn told me on the phone when he was closing out my case that 1. My therapist denied everything so it was “he said she said” and 2. ‘We don’t look into the AA thing’. So, after three attempts at getting New York State to acknowledge a very serious problem with two-hatting therapists over the course of two years, this has always been and is still their official position, regardless of how it is clearly willful negligence.
New York State should, of course, acknowledge facts like:
– Treatment coercion is illegal. When networks of people are coached to impose ‘consequences’ for not entering treatment, it’s still coercion even if you say it’s not. It may even be a form of insurance fraud.
– Religious indoctrination into AA is a First Amendment violation, as well as a bad treatment for most conditions. It is ineffective and should not be protected from malpractice and fraud complaints.
– The 12-step treatment industry is psychologically abusive and extortionist in its approach. This is verifiable and not up for debate. ‘Treatment’ is life-and-death necessity until it fails or it’s questioned, and then suddenly “AA isn’t treatment”.
Finally, other abuses are easily hidden under the guise of ‘help’ in a 12-step organization, and also often arise out of the confusion that 12-step programs create. It is not necessary to lie to your clients, seduce them, or punish them to ‘motivate change’. The ‘unforced forces’ of better arguments have their own power.
In my opinion, it should be standard practice for New York State Education Department to inform therapists accused of 12-step coercion that this is not acceptable for a variety of reasons and they are being warned and will face consequences to their license status if new complaints arise. It’s the f*cking EDUCATION department; they need to be setting some standards for basic knowledge about treatment options.
AA Service Manual Page 69
Sounds like some kind of mafia talk (for such a ‘voluntary’, ‘live and let live’ organization!):
“Privately, however, we can inform Tradition-violators that they are out of order. When they persist, we can follow up by using such other resources of persuasion as we may have, and these are often considerable.”
“This combination of counter forces can be very discouraging to violators or would-be violators. Under these conditions they soon find their deviations to be unprofitable and unwise.”
“Feeling the weight of all these forces, certain members who run counter to AAs Traditions sometimes say that they are being censored or punished and that they are therefore being governed….Some deviators have suffered rather severe personal criticism from individual AA members, and this is to be deplored…It can be said in all fairness that the difficulties of those who contravene the Traditions are chiefly troubles of their own making.”
Letter from Obama
KIDS (formerly Straight Inc) Documentary
After Two and a Half years, this complaint is disregarded by New York State
The last complaint to New York State Department of Education Office of Professions (the licensing board). The investigator told me that he called my therapist and she just denied everything, so he said it’s a ‘he said she said’ thing. He also told me ‘We don’t look into the AA thing”.
SilverSamaritan (PDF)
I am writing in support of my brother (PDF 2nd Letter)
So, there are two letters explaining just how much has gone ignored by Samaritan Counseling, Samaritan Institute, New York State Licensing Board (which is staffed by the Clinical Director of Samaritan Counseling at the time), and the Justice Center. For anybody who thinks this is an isolated incident, like I initially thought it must be, please consider the following comments found on a FaceBook post about two Hope House employees getting arrested within the same week for having sex with rehab clients:
The pattern is clear and should not be ignored. It is a product of 12-step culture. Invoking high-school-level “addicts are con artists” or “only sometimes honest with themselves and others” after having some fun with them doesn’t fly when you’re supposed to be a treatment provider. People have basic human rights and deserve to be taken seriously, and Medicaid and insurance shouldn’t be paying for the “Spiritual Recovery” Dating Game.