Consultation and Social Justice Advocacy

[Damian (Kbr Amen Rkhty)]

 

 

 

Running head:  Consultation and Social Justice Advocacy                                                                               1                                                                                                                                                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

Consultation and Social Justice Advocacy

Dr. Damian Q. Laster, Msc.D, M.Ed.

COUN5004

Survey of Research in Human Development for Professional Counselors

 

 

 

Email: [e-mail]

 

 

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Abstract

 

Counselors have a responsibility as social justice advocates to heal self and to heal society.  This writer believes that dissenting views to the idea that “HIV is the cause of AIDS” should be presented to patients and clients to allow them to make better decisions regarding their health.  Some people who experienced Kundalini Awakening experience spiritual emergency and/or spiritual crisis, and incorrectly are diagnosed with Schizophrenia (Collie, 1996).  They should receive information about the characteristics of spiritual awakening phenomenon, along with opportunities to receive medication-free treatment that can include alternative and holistic therapies (Shore, 1997).    

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                   

 

 

 

 

 

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       In the speech “Challenge to The Nation’s Social Scientists” in September of 1969, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at a convention sponsored by the American Psychological Association (APA).  Paraphrasing, Dr. King eloquently advised that, “destructive maladjustment” should be eradicated, and that to avoid schizophrenia and neuroses, everyone must seek to live a “well-adjusted” life.  He articulated that we should never adjust to physical violence, unfair economic conditions, religious bigotry, militarism, segregation and discrimination (Roysircar, 2009).  Dr. King was a “social justice extraordinaire”. He, others, and I believe that counselors have a responsibility to not only heal self, but also to heal society. 

       I believe we can infer that Dr. King was speaking about any unfair discrimination or institutionalized oppression that existed in the world.  When I become a mental health counselor, aside from my general responsibilities, I will work to provide dissenting views and information regarding HIV, HIV testing, and treatments to my clients and to the public.  I feel it is my moral duty, in light of my personal experiences, to provide information about holistic and alternative therapies for improving overall health, perhaps without the need for, and administration of toxic medication regimes for children, adolescents and adults. I will stress the importance of proper nutrition as a most important factor for healing any and all disease. I believe professional counselors are obligated to provide the best possible care to patients and clients in their care, given their knowledge-base.

       Newman and Newman (2012) defined an advocate as a person who pleads another’s case.    Advocacy and social justice topics have a rich tradition in counselor education programs, and integrate multiculturalism even in the process of counseling supervision (Steel, J., 2008).  (Glossuf, Durham, 2010) says that there is a need for both diversity in orientation to social justice, as well as a need for strategies that supervisors can to teach to

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counselor-trainees to become social justice advocates.  (Constantine, Hage, Kindaichi, & Bryant, 2007; Crethar, Torres Rivera, & Nash, 2008; Hays, Dean, & Chang, 2007; Roysircar, 2009) say that a counselor must be self-reflective of oppression in their own life to be effective social justice advocates.

       There can be no social justice where truth and honesty is not present.  In addition, as an advocate for, and as a consultant to those who are diagnosed with schizophrenia, I will use approved assessment instruments and other methods to help determine if such a diagnosis is correct, and determine if the patient or client is experiencing spiritual emergency/spiritual crisis, and provide opportunities for them to consider non-invasive methods of treatment. Patient will be encouraged to participate in the planning of their treatment.  It is noted that The National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH), in response to concerns from clinical researchers and advocacy groups for patients, sponsored a workshop to address the controversial impact of drug-free periods, during the course of both HIV and Schizophrenia (Shore, 1997).  They addressed concerns about those patients who, because of their health, were not able to make informed decisions for themselves regarding the administration of prescribed drugs into their body.  Many people diagnosed with Schizophrenia are mis-diagnosed (El Collie, 1996).  These people are not schizophrenic, but are in spiritual crisis.   As a result, from my perspective, lives will be saved by advising, where appropriate, that people be educated about the dangers of toxic medication for HIV/AIDS as well as for Schizophrenia.

       People going through a spiritual crisis are really experiencing an “ego death”.  Unsuccessful and old ways of being are dying, and sometimes leave the person feeling despair and hopelessness.  The resultant inner chaos is sometimes mis-diagnosed as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. 

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       My own personal experiences left me feeling, for a time, that God had forsaken me.  But after intense research to understand what was happening in my body and in my life, I was able to distinguish for myself that my experiences were not psychotic in nature, or indicative of mental illness, but were related to the powerful consciousness-transforming energetic force known as Kundalini.  A spiritual transformation was taking place.

        Christina Groff, founder of the Spiritual Crisis Network, and author of The Search for Wholeness, along with her husband, the renowned Dr. Stanislov Groff, author of books including The Stormy Search for Self, Beyond Death, and Spiritual Emergency, teach the phenomenon known as Kundalini Awakening, and offer breath-work exercises, meditation and relaxation, as well as a variety of other strategies to soothe the patients’ anxieties and symptoms. They, too, support that if a person chooses to, they should be able to use them without the use of medications and/or psychiatry (Mishlove, 1999). http://www.intuition.org/txt/cgrof2.htm .

       In an article called “Misdiagnosis” published by one Kundalini Support Group called Shared Transformation, El Collie (1996), the group’s founder, informed that a wide variety of somatic disorders are experienced during spiritual crisis.  These disorders might include epilepsy, low back problems, inflammatory disease, heart and panic attacks, irritable bowel syndrome, and bipolar disorder and depression.  Yet, they are not the result of psychiatric disorders.

    

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       As a mental health advocate for my clients, when appropriate, I plan to continue to share with others what I learned from my traumatic experience of living through the HIV/AIDS debacle and crisis; knowledge about HIV testing, and dissenting views to HIV being the cause of AIDS.  Patients and clients will be given the opportunity to make more informed decisions about treating their health issues, as a result.  I believe that as people are educated to their spiritual nature, they will begin to understand that they are spiritual beings having a physical experience, and that they can heal the underlying causes of their diseases by healing the consciousness that created them.  Awareness and knowledge of the human body chakra system can provide alternative and holistic healing methods and treatments, perhaps to go along with other healing modalities, of which there are many.

       Sadly, not one, but two of my acquaintances, in separate incidents, literally leaped from a bridge to end their own life, as a result of receiving an HIV positive diagnosis.  One of them was successful.  The other one was subsequently hospitalized in a mental health institution.  .  Many HIV positive acquaintances of mine abuse(d) alcohol and/or legal/illegal drugs.  Brakoulis (2006) confirmed that some schizophrenics become suicidal, or abuse drugs, or inflict self-harm.  In truth, are not all self-destructive behaviors indicative of inflicting self-harm?  I think they are.

       It is difficult if not impossible to make informed decisions about one’s health when there is a propagation of unfounded fears, and the distribution of misinformation designed to manipulate mass consciousness about any topic.  Well-meaning philanthropists and innocent others forward misinformation when they blindly follow the television media and religious zealots, without questioning things for themselves.  Unless and until people resist mind-control techniques and strategies, they will allow themselves to be blindly led by those

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who might not have their best interests in mind and certainly not at heart; those who seek to profit from others’ misfortunes, or who might have hidden agendas.

       A healer like me, working as a mental health counselor can serve as a consultant to and an advocate for such people.  Consider the following fictitious hypothetical scenario: Bobby, a 24 year old gay, white male, is urged by HIV testing advocates to take an HIV test.  He is told that it is best to “know your status”.  Test results came back HIV positive.   Surprised and disappointed, Bobby fears that he will die.  Bobby is then counseled to see a doctor.  The doctor urges Bobby to take further tests to determine his T-cell count and viral load.  He begins taking prescribed AZT medications, even though he is not sick.  Bobby’s mother and father were divorced after his high school graduation.  He tries to communicate with his clinically depressed mother that he tested positive for HIV.  His mother becomes infuriated, tells that she is ashamed of him and ostracizes him from the family. Bobby’s mother tells her other son and daughter he has AIDS, not that he is HIV positive, but that he has AIDS.  Both of them are embarrassed and angry so they, too, ostracize him from the family.  He begins to drink alcohol more frequently than he usually did, misses work repeatedly, and gets fired from his job.  He later loses his apartment.  Friends won’t help him.  No one wants to be around Bobby, because he has the “gay plague” and they fear for their own life.  Out of desperation Bobby becomes a hustler selling his body and so-called protected sex to make money.  That trauma causes him to become a crystal meth addict.  He gets caught stealing from the grocery store and goes to jail.  He is later released from jail and goes back to the same lifestyle.  Two weeks later, a former sexual partner is told by a mutual friend that a friend of a friend of a friend said that he heard that Bobby was HIV positive.  That guy immediately goes to take an HIV test and receives a positive diagnosis, accuses Bobby

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of infecting him with the AIDS virus, and files charges at the police station.  Represented by a court appointed public defender, Bobby receives a 25 year prison sentence for attempted murder.  One night while in his cell, Bobby’s feelings of guilt and shame cause him to attempt suicide.  Prison official refer Bobby for mental health counseling.

       What would I do as a counselor to advocate for Bobby?  I would immediately call Dr. Nancy Turner-Banks, M.D., a well-known Harvard Medical School graduate and physician, and the author of “Aids, Opium, Diamonds and Empire:  The Deadly Virus of International Greed”, who, among many other things, is an expert witness for people who find themselves in similar situations with the legal system.  See http://reason.com/blog/2012/06/12/hiv-revisionism-in-fort-bragg-acq... for other cases where her advocacy efforts resulted in acquittal.

       Next, I would then begin to counsel Bobby, and begin his road to recovery from PTSD, alcohol and drug abuse and place him on suicide watch.  Over time, I would gage his recovery carefully and begin to introduce alternative views about HIV/AIDS by guiding him to books, articles, internet websites etc. and encouraging him to have faith that he can still lead a well-adjusted life, despite all that he has endured.

       Odonnell, et al. (1999) proposed that more client-focused services to community-based clients with schizophrenia improved outcomes in client functioning and satisfaction with services. So, advocating and providing consultative services to the people can address both institutional (educational, medical, mental health, governmental, societal) barriers that may be present by implementing Supportive Family Training, education, and a framework for cost effective teaching about major mood disorders, problem solving and communication skills, and coping and management skills (Le Gacy, Schulman, 1998).  People like me can continue to provide free classes to the public and expose the AIDS Hoax. Self-healing

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classes can also be taught to help raise awareness in communities all across the country, and in fact the world.  Counselors who consult and advocate for social justice can help us “regain our sanity and our health in a world gone mad”—Dr. Nancy Turner-Banks, M.D., and help people live lives of joy in love of self and service to others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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References

Banks, Nancy Turner M.D.  (2010). Aids,opium,diamonds and empire: the deadly virus of

           international greed.  iUniverse, 1663 Liberty  Dr. Bloomington IN 46403.

Baca-Garcia, Enrique Perez-Rodriguez, Maria M. Basurte-Villamor, Ignacio Quintero-Gutierrez, F. Javier Sevilla-

         Vicente, Juncal Martinez-Vigo, Maria Artes-Rodriguez, Antonio Fernandez del Moral, Antonio L. Jimenez-Arriero,

         Miguel A. Gonzalez de Rivera, Jose L. (2008).  Patterns of mental health service utilization in a general hospital

         and outpatient mental health facilities. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, Vol 258(2),

         117-123. 

Brakoulias, Vlasios Ryan, Christopher Byth, Karen (2006). Patients with deliberate self-harm seen by a

        consultation-liaison service. Australasian Psychiatry, Vol 14(2), 192-197.

Caplan, Gerald, ; Caplan Ruth B.; Erchul William P. (1994).  Mental health consultation: historical background and

         current status. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, vol 46(4), 2. 

Collie, El, Osler’s Web: Inside the labyrinth of the chronic-fatigue syndrome epidemic, by Hillary Johnson, Crown

        Publishers, Inc., 1996.  ISBN: 0-51770353-X Retrieved October 3, 2012

        from http://reason.com/blog/2012/06/12/hiv-revisionism-in-fort-bragg-acq...

Glosoff, Harriet L. Durham, Judith C. (2010).  Using supervision to prepare social justice counseling

       Advocates.  Counselor Education and Supervision, Vol 50(2), 116-129. Special issue: Social justice: A

       national imperative for counselor education and supervision.  

Moe, Jeffry, L. (2010).  Are consultation and social justice similar? Exploring the perceptions of professional

       counselors and counseling students. Journal for Social Action and Counseling and Psychology, Volume 2(2),

       106.

Le Gacy, Sheila Shulman 2010.  Working through the heart: a transpersonal approach to family support and

       Education. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, Vol 22(2), 133-141.

 

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Mishlove, Jeffrey, Ph.D. (    ).   Addiction, attachment, and spiritual crisis with Christina Grof, The Intuition Network

,

       Thinking Allowed Television Underwriter, presents the following transcript from the series Thinking Allowed,

      

       Conversations on the Leading Edge of Knowledge and Discovery with Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove.

 

        Retrieved October  2, 2012  from  http://www.intuition.org/txt/cgrof2.htm.

 

Munich, Richard L., (2003).  Review of “The environment of schizophrenia: Innovations in practice, policy

       and communications”. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, Vol 67(4), 375-376.

Newman B.M. & Newman, P.R. (2012).  Development through life: A psychosocial approach. (11 ed.).

       Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Roysircar, Gargi (2009).  A study of client-focused case management and consumer advocacy: Community and

       counsumer service project. Journal of Counseling & Development, Vol 87(3), 288-294.

Shore, David & Hsiao,John K. (1997).  Medication-free intervals and schizophrenia research: Editors’ Introduction.

       Schizophrenia Bulletin, Vol 23(1), 1.

Steele, Janeé M. (2008).  Preparing counselors to advocate for social justice: A liberation model.

       Counselor Education and Supervision, Vol 48(2), 74-85.