Category Archives: Alcoholics Anonymous
David Olsen Throwing His Supervisee Under the Bus and Making it Difficult to Get My Damn Records
Mr Gleason:
As per regulations I need the request in writing with a signed release
Thank you
David,
Here is my written request, with the zip code corrected. 
Please send me my records and a bill for them, and I’ll send you a check.
Tom
I don’t know what that means. Please explain. I’ve asked you for my records and provided my address. Here is my release. <----
Mr Gleason:
I received your release. Unfortunately, you were never a patient of mine so if you want your record released for your sessions with Oona Edmands, please resend,
David Olsen
Oddly enough, I saw a statement saying that I was getting sessions from Jenness Clairmont.(I never did)
“OK, please send me Oona’s email address so that I can send her my release.”
Mr. Gleason,
You can send the letter to my attention but change the fact the records you are requesting was for your therapy with Oona.
—
Why am I not allowed to send the release to her?
I am not a patient of yours. Connect me with Oona please.
—
Who can I contact at Samaritan that is not you? You are deliberately trying to make my life difficult and I never did anything wrong in therapy. Send me the email of somebody else please.
—
Mr. Gleason,
As I have stated several times we will be happy to have your clinical record sent to you once I receive a letter (hard copy – not email) formally requesting your clinical record.
I will send you hard copy of this emai as well.
All correspondance must be by mail. I will not be responding to any further emails.
—
Apparently he’s never heard of Ctrl-P…
I faxed my request according to their requirements.
FYI, he would have rejected RocketLawyer’s document as well (after I went to the trouble of sending it snail mail), because my date of birth was required to be on the document. (Information that the Office Manager Debbie was willing to give. She also gave us a fax number so I didn’t have to find envelopes and stamps and a printer. Who the fuck uses a fax machine these days? But I figured it out with myfax.com ).
Check out this blast from the past, when I tried to get my complaint to all three of them (David Olsen, Jenness Clairmont, and Oona Edmands). David told me to send it only to him and that made my alarm go off:
Lastly, it has come to our attention that multiple copies of your letters were received by the center. One of which was not by use of the US Postal Service or any third party delivery system. I was apparent that the letter had been hand delivered to our satellite office in Delmar, NY. As a result, this letter is also being written to inform you that under no circumstances will any further personal contact with the center, its satellites or its personnel be allowable.
No, a client with a legitimate complaint cannot be banned from telling the organization’s members about what’s going on. That’s not a healthy boundary, David Olsen.
Tradition Three – Emotional Blackmail
Here is the story of Alcoholics Anonymous’ emotional blackmailing of Ed, the atheist, who nearly committed suicide after being abandoned by “Friends of Bill”
AA – How it Works
“One poor chap committed suicide in my home. He could not, or would not, see our way of life.” – Bill Wilson, Chapter One of the Big Book of AA
“Jennifer from Saint Peters Addiction Recovery Center [12-step rehab] called to say that she had had a ‘frustrating session’ with client and requested a consultation with me. I returned call and left message” – Oona Edmands, Samaritan Counseling LCSW 2/7/14
“Client called and left message stating that he wished I would not recommend AA (as I had in my letter) as he felt it deeply contributed to his confusion. Message was cut off after two minutes. Did not return call” – Oona Edmands, Samaritan Counseling LCSW 3/20/14
“Therapists have the right to their preferred mode of treatment” – David Olsen, Executive Director of Samaritan Counseling Center of the Capital Region May 2014
Notice how she mentions that this is under David Olsen’s direction, because she knew that she needed to cover her ass because this is criminal, though her job was at stake over it. This is emotional blackmail. This letter was sent to me a day after I left a message telling my therapist that I liked talking to her because she had at one time allowed me to question AA. The counselor at SPARC, the rehab I was referred to, told me it would not be therapeutic to discuss my issues with the Step One worksheet I was given at SPARC.
How Suicide Works (for Alcoholics Anonymous)
Why does it never occur to anyone in AA or the rehab industry that calling yourself insane, defective, and powerless all the time, and even moreso when God isn’t magically removing a desire to drink, might be what led to that last guy’s suicide or overdose? Instead, they use the person’s death to reinforce illogical faith in the cult.
Breakdown: Sex, Suicide and the Harvard Psychiatrist
This book Breakdown describes the case of psychotherapist and American Society of Addiction Medicine former president Margaret Bean-Bayog, whose ‘treatment’ led to the suicide of her patient.
The author of this book was mentioned in the movie Spotlight. The Catholic Church spent up to $50 million dollars (as of 2002) on 12-step rehabs for pedophile priests.
When Helping Starts to Hurt
“Members of Alcoholics Anonymous cannot and will not permit themselves to forget their brokenness and vulnerability. Their wounds are acknowledged, accepted, and kept visible. The capacity of one alcoholic to empathize with another is still a recognized as “building a transmission line to him”. The apparent (or presumable) effectiveness of AA’s members in the care and treatment of their fellow alcoholics is one of the great success stories of our time, and graphically illustrates
the power of wounds, when used creatively, to lighten the burden of pain and suffering. AA offers lifelong emotional support to those who explicity acknowledge their problem and admit their helplessness to face life’s stresses and temptations to regression alone.” – David Olsen, Executive Director of Samaritan Counseling Center
What Keeps People From Telling the Truth About Alcoholics Anonymous?
People like me who discover that Alcoholics Anonymous is a religious cult that has nothing to do with solving a drinking problem seem to go through a variety of disturbing emotions, and some fear, about telling the truth about their experience.
At a certain point, I finally decided that AA was not healthy for me. It was making me doubt myself, making me feel powerless, insane, defective, and dishonest. It was depressing and stupid, because I’m not a dishonest person and I’m not crazy. I began to want to tell people about it. I tried to tell my therapist at Samaritan Counseling Center, but they terminated me for non-compliance instead of listening. Over the past year, I’ve had more insight into why people have such difficulty explaining how AA is counterproductive and unhelpful.
The first reasons are obvious. AA tells you that if you leave you’ll die, or end up in jails or institutions. That’s enough of a psychological mind-fuck to keep many people from speaking out. But assuming most people are capable of seeing that that’s just not true, based on empirical data about human habit patterns, there is a lesser known reason why people have trouble speaking out about it.
Dissent and negative feedback are being actively censored by 12-step businesses. The rehab industry is a $35 billion/year business.
In the past couple of months, I’ve had my Yelp account disabled because I posted a negative review of Samaritan Counseling Center for their 12-step coercion. I’ve seen review after review in support of my protest deleted. I’ve seen other people’s reviews of their rehabs deleted.
What keeps people from telling the truth about Alcoholics Anonymous? It’s not fear, in the end. It’s sheer exhaustion from being repeatedly shut down for standing up. It’s a sick, dangerous cult, and the reason why people aren’t aware that places like Samaritan Counseling REQUIRE 12-step fealty is because people like me are not allowed to tell the truth to others about what to expect there. Indoctrination strategy requires that the client is unaware of the ultimate intent of the ‘treatment’. This is called suppression of informed consent, and it’s illegal.
There are many reasons to reject AA
This blog focuses on 12-Step coercion by state-licensed professionals.
There are many different aspects to the anti-AA movement, though, because there are many reasons to reject Alcoholics Anonymous. They are all intertwined, as I’ll try to show:
Some point simply to the bad psychology of AA. It’s not helpful to think of yourself as selfish, dishonest, powerless, insane, and defective. Out With the Addict Identity Edit Sept 8 2020: I had to refer to the Wayback Machine because the original link was replaced with a rehab advertisement
Some point out the fact that AA mixes vulnerable young people with court ordered sex offenders and people who have a history of violent crime, telling vulnerable people not to trust their own thinking and to do what they are told to do by virtual strangers. The 13th Step: The Film Edit Sept. 8 2020: This link has also failed, but the film is available on Amazon.com
Some point out that AA is a religious cult. Independent or critical thought is discouraged. You read from the AA scriptures and recite Christian prayers. You’re expected to come to believe and proclaim that AA saved your life and that without AA you will die. AA is a Cult
Some point out the fraudulent and vehemently anti-science rehab industry which is full of “addiction specialists” whose primary qualification is AA membership. It’s a big business founded on misinformation. Doctor Debunks the Bad Science of AA and the Rehab Industry
Some point out the Constitutional violations in mandated attendance in a religious group as punishment for a crime (or non-crime!) Separation of Church and State
Some point out professional extortion, how AA uses ‘leverage’ such as professional license to practice. Disrupted Physician HIMS program FAA Pilot Extortion Experience
Some point out the Ethics code violations by professional two-hatters (people who serve as both licensed professional social workers and AA proselytizers). My cartoon about the 12-step coercion experience originally did not include the name of the organization in the title. But after having my Yelp reviews repeatedly removed, I decided it was the way to make sure this ‘faith-based counseling’ 12-step organization is flagged in some way for people searching for information.
And some point out the pseudo-science of the disease concept of alcoholism. They note that 12 step groups exist for everything from eating and sex and gambling to even Emotions Anonymous, pathologizing virtually anything to spread 12 step faith healing as the solution.