Odd comments from therapist

^that's where I'm at. I see a lot of red flags.

He's pulled this crap before.. he led me to believe it would be a good idea to do something.. I didn't do it... and then when I confronted him about it.. he denied it was his idea.

I chalked it up to some kind of "professional mind game"... but, it's really not a quality I want in a therapist.

None of this really matters, because unless you are seeing a T for religious counseling or something of that sort, then the subject should never come up. The beliefs of the OP's T are not really the point, the fact that he talks about them is. The moment a topic like this is introduced by a T and not the client, then therapy becomes less about the client and clients needs. It's not like he mentioned something benign in passing. He's sharing his support of a silly, unscientific treatment for an illness as serious as addiction and defending a group that is cultish in nature.

I have known people who have left both Scientology and somewhat similar EST type groups. It is not fear mongering to say that they take advantage of people.

I have read Diatetics and L Ron Hubbard himself was vehemently opposed to psychotherapy and psychiatry yet he replaced it with "auditing" which is a quack version of therapy.

Please do your research. I don't mean relying on wikipedia. Talk to someone both inside scientology and someone who left and make up your own mind.

Today was our regular session, and the first thing I did was to verify that he was being honest with me about his views on Narconon..

After he did, I got up and left.. it was only 15 minutes into the session.

He's just really ignorant... it turns out that he is actually some kind of consultant for them...

I honestly think he means well.. they've just convinced him they're not Scientologists.. I don't know what he tells himself about their methods (vitamins and saunas). but, he knows about them and is fine with them.

He was surprised when I told him I was leaving and why..

Wow. My life is a soap opera... I'm going to write a book someday... I swear!

EDIT:
He also knows that 60 Minutes did an expose on them a while back, but he claimed to know that the media is dishonest when reporting on such things.. (or perhaps he was just suggesting that 60 Minutes often overstates their case).

The above would have been my guess, too.

Sorry he wasn't what you were looking for.

well, 60 minutes did an episode starring Torrey about how all schizophrenics are mass murders in making and should be treated against own will. So I wouldn't be suprised if they really did overstate or misinform.

Forget 60 minutes or wikipedia. There have been scores of watchdog groups, media outlets etc that have found evidence that Scientology and Narconon are scams.

In this day and age of vast amounts of information and transparency, I don't know how anyone can defend Scientology.

^he didn't actually defend Scientology.. He defended Narconon.

Yeah but I'm still going to remain neutral about Scientology until I learn more from reliable sources. Perhaps one day I will be able to visit their church and make up my own mind about what I think of them. I've been misled by the media before. And people who leave a religion or group are not likely to have the best things to say about it. Unfortunately I don't know any Scientologists either. So I will withhold judgment till later.

My response was not directly about OP or the therapist, if that's what you mean by saying it doesn't matter. I was just sharing questions and views on Scientology.

I wouldn't recommend that an expert in covert hypnosis and manipulation take the chance of entering the premises of an organization widely identified as a cultic operation (those media outlets that report on them at all do so bravely at their own peril as the organization has a legal team that surely outrivals any other of its kind, leaving few stones unturned). Those who aren't experts but who think that avoiding the talons of a cultic organization requires only being intelligent and aware can turn out to be their best victims, as it can make it that much easier for the cognitive dissonance to work, when rhetoric designed to confuse and distract is spun. Those who think they know what to watch for, and work hard mentally at watching for those things, are made more susceptible and apt to miss what's really happening by doing so. Thanks to one particular shyster with a strong interest in science fiction, brainwashing, and large sums of cash money, there are many organizations now covertly using versions of the same methodology to willfully invoke dissociation in others, willfully disable a person's startle reflex (putting them at high risk for PTSD), and create dangerous psychological anchors (which we call triggers) that cause a person to react abnormally to normal situations, thereby rendering them dependent on others for guidance. And that's how you turn a belief system based on a science fiction story into an insanely rich organization with devoted followers from scratch in just a few decades.

I don't know why you would want to visit a place suspect of these actions, just to make your own assessment. I don't know from personal experience that being in a cage with a lion could cause me to lose a limb or worse, but I still decline to do it.

I really and truly have no dog in this fight. I'm not a disgruntled ex, I didn't lose a family member to it, and I'm not trying to start my own such organization. I do have one friend that grew up in that environment, and when she thinks she is slyly 'auditing' me, which she isn't as it's an action that is wholly distinctive to me, it's quite annoying. Besides that I don't really care, except that I do care about good people not realizing when there is a lion in the den.

I wish you luck but hope you will not need it.

Thank you, vonmoxie.
Let's just say as a naiive college student, I was momentarily sucked in by a "free psych test". It required me to visit their offices a few blocks away from my college but in a busy part of Boston. I thought the same at the time "I want to see for myself what they are about".

Once inside they took me to a windowless room and started setting up a biofeedback machine. They refused to explain anything. And when I said, whoa I didn't sign up for this, they wouldn't let me leave. They did not physically touch me but they did not show me how to get out. I shoved my way through a few people trying to make it harder for me to leave.

So by all means, go walk in to one of their offices. No harm in checking it out for yourself, right?