Psychotherapy Specialist for Jehovah’s Witnesses

by Marvin Shilmer 19 Replies latest jw friends

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  Band on the Run

  I recall a reading on PBS or NPR of the Miller trip up the mountain from contemporary accounts. It was horrific. People lost all. There was a sick frenzy of expectation, terror in small children. When there was no rapture, hopes were dashed. People were ruined financially and emotionally. I don't think the Wt pushes dates per se but instills fear in people.

  My mom knew people in her childhood who gathered on a mountain in the NY area. Close Witness friends gave away their assets, rejoicing in the imminent arrival of Armageddon. They had to walk off the mountain in disappointment. The strange thing I find unbelievable is that Russell continued to have followers. I heard with my own ears the 1975 prediction for the first public time at Yankee Stadium. People gasped at the announcement. Freddie Franz delivered the talk. Eve's menstruation was a major factor in his calculations. He told us we had to keep it a secret from the world for a while. Now I am a lawyer. It is possible he never committed the human race to wanton destruction. It was so clear that every Witness heard 1975 the same way I did at the time. They never said boo to moderate our hope. I had no hope, only terror.

  I suffered severe pain for years and ended up with severe depression. Antidepressants work on pain, separation from depression issues. I explained the family involvement casually in one or two sentences several Times. My announcement always halted the proceedings. They wanted to clarify several times that it was not my present belief. After I responded no way, ever, they said they treated some Witnesses and had hatred for the religion and thought it caused much harm. Others said they could not treat me if I believed JW dogma.

  The therapist bothers me a bit. His website is bland and generic. JW is awfully specific. Why not cults in general? I suspect he is a JW. Again, I stagger at the thought of any therapist being a JW.
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  MrMonroe

  A psychologist called Havor Montague published a medical paper in 1977 in which he discussed the furtiveness with which JWs approach mental health specialists. They fear that Jehovah's organisation will be reproached by an admission that they need psychiatric or psychological treatment, and Havor wrote, "In the writer's work as a therapist, a significant number of Witness patients would clearly have never have sought psychotherapy if the writer had not been seen as an active Witness." (Link to the paper available at jwfacts.)

  Another JW, Scott Wolfenden, of Newark, New Jersey, who has been active on Wikipedia trying to promote both his website and his religion, runs a psychology practice that presumably would invite JW patients, and he strikes me as the sort of person who would do anything to avoid blaming the religion for turning his patients into basket cases.

  As Montague notes, there is an incredible pressure within the organisation to hide these facts in order to present the brothers as the happiest people on earth. Since leaving this religion I have seriously wondered just how much mental damage I suffered in my two decades (including my formative years) inside this nuthouse. It affects your outlook, and relationships with others, in so many ways.
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  steve2

  he strikes me as the sort of person who would do anything to avoid blaming the religion for turning his patients into basket cases.

  I credit people, including professionals, with being able to make their own decisions regarding their religious affiliation and if they want to work on behalf of their faith, so be it. All strength to them.

  While I acknowledge that the JW environment can be experienced as punitive - hey I was raised in it and experienced it first hand - I think that psychologists such as Havor Montague (aka Jerry Bergman) tend to overstate the ill mental health causal effects of the Watchtower. He and others overlook personality variables and - importantly - the fact that possibly a huge number of people who are attracted to the religion already have significant mental health problems. Besides, I'd say for every person you parade as an example of someone being made mentally unwell by the religion, the JWs could parade 2 or 3 who swear the religion saved their lives. Yes, I think that the JW environment is higly likely to make some people's mental health problems even worse. Equally, there are so many people whose lives were already pretty sorry before they became witnesses that literally the only way was up. BTW, that's no recommendation of joining the religion or promoting it.
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  MrMonroe

  Havor Montague was Jerry Bergman? Haven't heard that before. Is that widely known?
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  TJ Curioso

  I send a email to Dr. Campbell asking in what sense he is specialized in the treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses. This is the answear:
  
  
  Dear Mr. Curioso,
  
  Dr. Campbell specializes in the treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses in the sense that as one of Jehovah's Witnesses he understands the dynamics involved in their belief system and the importance of incorporating those beliefs in the therapy process.
  
  Thank you for your query
  
  
  
  
  15708 Pomerado Rd., Ste N-201
  Poway, CA 92064
  phone/fax 858.487.4310
  
  www.rcampbellphdmft.com
  [email protected]
• 

  LongHairGal

  Band on the Run:

  Back when I was a JW, I was going through some personal/family issues and somebody recommended a JW therapist to me. I went for several visits and was satisfied and I liked the person. It gave me insight into myself as to why I think a certain way, etc. I felt the therapist being a JW didn't really matter all that much (to me, anyway) because the issues I had existed before I came into the religion and were family issues, particularly about my mother.

  However, I now wonder what the story would have been if the issues were about the religion? Because this person was a JW, would they have been compelled to report me if I had admitted I had done "wrong" things?? I will never know now.

  I wonder if being a JW takes away from a professional person's objectivity? If there is a conflict of interest I imagine such a person would refuse to treat JWs.
• 

  steve2

  Havor Montague was Jerry Bergman?

  Yes. I understand that when he was still affiliated with the witnesses, he went by the name Havor Montague in his professional writings. Once he left he was open about his actual name.
• 

  steve2

  It's worth reflecting on what a psychotherapist means when they promote their services in terms of specialty areas (it is standard practice to specialize) : They build up their professional reputation in having expertise and experience in those areas with the attendant requirements that they practice within the limits of their training and with minimum competence. At the level of income, the practitioner can sometimes strike it "lucky", so to speak, by building up a well-paying clientele whose treatment needs the practitioner can meet. It would be difficult for the practitioner who has previously claimed a specialty area (e.g., helping JWs become better adjusted JWs)and built up a solid professional reputation to change his or her focus (e.g., helping ex-JWs become better adjusted ex-JWs). So, it would be interesting if Dr Campbell would accept a potential clident who was an ex-JW who wanted help to get on with their life as an ex-JW. In a situation like that, a professional would be obliged to refer the ex-JW to another practitioner who could potentially help the ex-JW.

  Other interesting questions arise: Would he help a Mormon become a better adjusted Mormon? Or a Catholic? Or a MUslim? Hmmmmmmm. Once a practitioner becomes overly specialized (promoting self as treating JWs),I would wonder about just how circumscribed his practice would become. Still, if you have enough well-paying JWs clients, why should he care?

  On another level, if a professional such as Dr Campbell ever began to develop their doubts about the Watchtower's claims to being "the Truth", he would have to consider the likely ramifications for his business (e.g., if it became known he was a doubter or no longer an active witness, he could lose his main source of income.
• 

  Band on the Run

  Steve:

  I see it as a two way street: Mentally unstable people who are way too deferential and act like sheep are drawn to the Witnesses. A KH is not a random slice of American life. Much pathology is brought in by the people who are attracted to the "good news" of Armageddon. People-pleasing actors unable to act without being ordered. On the other hand, the Society is a toxic brew. "Normal" people are affected by the cult atmosphere. Empathy, independent thought, and love towards fellows is derided constantly. The prime directive is to serve the Borg without questions.It attracts good Germans types and remolds resistant type people.

  I was born in and left at sixteen. Unlike most, I had incredible support from my immediate family. JWs remains something under my skin. I can't forget the experience and how loathsome I found the religion. Being powerless to act on my feelings until I reached a more mature age triggers controlling people in my life. I overreact to controlling people. They are not merely themselves but themselves and the WTBTS.

  Throughout my life I go about normal routines. When I am at a Paul McCartney concert, the WHO, or Dylan, or at a major political demonstration, Woodstock, campaigning, dancing, watching opera, a whole range of things, I catch myself. This was never my normal but portrayed as evil. I pause and thank God for seeing that I left.

  Mental illness and stress is multifactored. The Witnesses produce a host a factors for mental illness. Worse, once is clinically affected, great shame is attached to care beyond attending meetings. Psychiatrists were the most wicked doctors in my day. They robbed you of their will. Who was already stealing my will? The WTBTS.
• 

  AwareBeing

  Hello Band on the Run!

  Our family fully agrees with your statement:

  "Mentally unstable people who are way too deferential and act like sheep are drawn to the Witnesses. A KH is not a random slice of American life. Much pathology is brought in by the people who are attracted to the "good news" of Armageddon. People-pleasing actors unable to act without being ordered. On the other hand, the Society is a toxic brew. "Normal" people are affected by the cult atmosphere. Empathy, independent thought, and love towards fellows is derided constantly."

  The family head; because of similar cliques seen in corporate factories,

  The mom in the family; since her brothers were also abusive, manipulative, and close minded,

  The daughter, who suffered from young MS's & elder's daughters; mind games, lies, and harm,

  The son; who's scared, twisted, and won't talk about what's been done to him.

  PS: You avatar's name reminds me of Paul McCartney's "Man On The Run"!