Mike77 has been through hell including what sounds like persecution similar to what was dumped on diddly.

Mike, thanks for your offer to discuss things via PM

However, take care of youself and do not let anyone use the PM to shame trip or otherwise mess with your head.

Mike, it sounds like Swami G actually provided you with mental health counseling services and not just spiritual guidance. Would you say that that is an accurate assessment? If she did represent herself to you as an expert in the treatment of mental health disorders and, in your case, the weaning off of medications, is it your understanding that she holds a license from the State of Florida to provide such services? If you'll go to this link, you'll see that services of the kind you describe DO require state licensing. There's also a complaint process available through the site to file complaints against people providing such services without a license. [doh.state.fl.us] My understanding is that she DOES offer such services and many more by means of advertising on her website. She claims to treat: "Pain Management, Addictions, Terminal Illness, Anxiety Disorders, P.T.S.D.," etc., according to her own site. Heavy duty stuff. But does she have the education, credentials and licensing to do so? If she gave you mental health treatment WITHOUT a license, then I would suggest that as a public service you notify the state department of health. If she does not have a license then what she is doing may be dangerous and life-threatening, and not just outrageously unethical in terms of disclosing or threatening to disclose publicly and online no less the confidences (private and personal medical and other information) of former clients/followers.

Icarus:

You make a good point.
Mind you I consented to sessions knowing she wasn't a licensed therapist, and agreeing (however reluctantly) to her conditions of the recordings and sharing for "learning" purposes.
Also, payments are made in the form of "donations".
Does that mean I don't have grounds to file a complaint?
If there are grounds, I would be willing to get involved to try to shut down her operation.
Spiritual teacher is one thing.
Counseling for pay is another.
Also, if I find out she has shared those private recordings outside of the few she had told me, or uses any of that personal information against me or otherwise, I will be happy to join a suit against her if there are sufficient grounds.

Mike:

Are you absolutely sure that she does not have a mental health counselor license from the State of Florida? Her name does not appear on the directory of licensees available at doh.state.fl.us. At least there is no one with the first name "Ganga" as a licensed mental health counselor in the registry. Seems to me that if she is offering mental health counseling services in addition to spiritual counseling then she is in need of a state mental health counseling license. Her site makes crystal clear that she is offering mental health counseling services. If you go to her guruswamig.com home page and scroll to the bottom, the left two icons are for counseling services. The one on the left reads: "Guru G is offering Counseling Sessions through Skype. Counseling covering Drug - Marriage - Spiritual or simply Life Coaching." Then, under the "Living Cure" link, she offers services for the following conditions. I am cutting and pasting her text between the dashes below. These are the services she advertises:
---
Pain Management
Addictions
Terminal Illness
Anxiety Disorders
P.T.S.D.
Kundalini Crisis
Spiritual Emergency
Counseling & Guidance
Relaxation Techniques
Drug Intervention
---
Elsewhere on that counseling site, she uses language that suggests rather strongly that she is, indeed, engaging in mental health counseling and even treatment. The testimonials themselves characterize the services as such. Here is one, from a "Carolyn," who is listed under "drug addiction": "Today is two days past a month for which I began treatments with Swami-G to help me with my pain. ...I have been receiving daily counseling sessions since after the first week I started treatment with her. These treatments include at least an hour of counseling followed by an energy treatment which takes about one-half an hour. During the counseling sessions we have been dealing with my daily pain problem with my knee and recurring headaches."

As for your question about compensation, the Florida state unlicensed practice complaint form available from the following link makes it appear that uncompensated mental health counseling services need to be licensed, just as compensated services. And she is charging for services, no? $400 for a 4-session set, all needing to be prepaid. It seems clear to me at least from the Department of Health site itself that mental health counseling services of the kind Swami G is offering MUST be licensed. There is no "spirituality" exception. If a priest or rabbi is providing PTSD, anxiety, depression, drug etc. counseling, then he or she has to be licensed by the State of Florida as a counselor. I may be wrong, but that's how I read the state's requirements: [www.doh.state.fl.us].

Also, that you believed her to be unlicensed before you started your treatments with her doesn't change the fact that she may be practicing mental health counseling on vulnerable people without a license. It's irrelevant, isn't it?

Can it really be the case that she is unlicensed? She seems like a smart person to me and not someone who would think that she's above the law. Am I wrong? PS: For your records in case you do file a complaint, and to address the possibility of Swami G's removing all references to counseling from her site in fear of a state unlicensed practice investigation (IF indeed she is unlicensed), you might want to print out various pages from her site and keep them in a file for possible future use.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2013 11:47AM by Icarus.

Shes not in the mental health field shes just doing it I ask for my money back and have not heard anything back contrary to the video where she said she would send back the money.......

I believe Florida statues (see link) do, in fact, give an exemption to "clergy" from licensing requirements. It's sad, but I think Guru G may very well be off the hook on this one. That being said, i'm not a lawyer, and the language of the statute highlighted below might indicate she should be regulated. I suppose it depends on how you read it, what constitutes a "legally cognizable church", and what is considered to be an "established authority" for the purposes of accountability.

Quote
Florida Statue TITLE XXXII 491.014
(3) No provision of this chapter shall be construed to limit the performance of activities of a rabbi, priest, minister, or member of the clergy of any religious denomination or sect, or use of the terms “Christian counselor” or “Christian clinical counselor” when the activities are within the scope of the performance of his or her regular or specialized ministerial duties and no compensation is received by him or her, or when such activities are performed, with or without compensation, by a person for or under the auspices or sponsorship, individually or in conjunction with others, of an established and legally cognizable church, denomination, or sect, and when the person rendering service remains accountable to the established authority thereof.

You have to remember. This is Florida here. Home of Scientology. Home of Straight Inc. Home of a lot of other non-professional therapy cults/groups. I don't have a lot of faith in the ability of that particular state (or many others, for that matter) to competently regulate groups like these, or Guru G. That being said, it's certainly can't hurt to file a report and see what happens.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2013 06:43PM by psyborgue.

mike77,

You mentioned she shares all the recorded Skype conversations with her "inner circle". Do her clients know this goes on?

I'm also wondering about this inner circle. What else is different for them? Are there doctrinal differences? Are they let in on secrets not meant for the unwashed masses?

By any chance, if you have documents claiming treatment by Swami G as a medical dedictible when filing your IRS statement, that could be useful. If you have anything she signed for you to use in claiming her 'treatments' as a medical deductible on any of your tax filings, you might be able to use this.

(I am not a CPA or tax preparer. Just someone who pays tax)

Even you dont have such documentation, follow the others' advice and check the regulations in your state as Icarus and psyborgue have advised.

It is against the law to practice medicine without a license. Supervising someone while they wean from prescription mediction might (talk to a lawyer) be construed as practicing medicine.

See what the Florida State medical society has to say about this. If worried about money, see if a law school in your area has advice clinics that are offered for free or low charge.

Find out how early you have to wait in line to be sure of getting a spot. You may need to get up early in the morning. Interviews take 15 minutes. So have your query written down so as to stay focused.

And..if anyone from Swami G group shows up at this to mess with you, tell us all about it about here. And let the police know and show them all the stuff thats been written here about the way former disciples are treated.

I'm continuing with her video.

At 42:00, she's continuing to trash those who leave: "It comes up to some challenge in their life, they're not willing to face it, then they bail, and then you've gotta be the bad guy, so they can stay in denial, or their pity party, or whatever it is that they are, you know, hell-bent on doing. Just go do it! Go do it! You know. But uh. Again. You know the... the... one the other things, that's the saddest things that I see, is people come here, and they get out of some bondages, and they leave and they go right back to it, whether it's drinking, whether it's... you know... I... drugs. Drinking. Whatever it is. While they're here, for a time, they get their act cleaned up. And they get grounded, they get centered, and they start going forward, and then they throw it away. They throw it away. I don't get it. I don't get it. So anybody watching this video. If you're gonna send me a letter that says 'i'm leaving, i'm out of here' i'm going to tell you 'good luck with that'. This is not a cult. I'm not going to chase you."

So the way I interpret this statement is that she's trying to instill dread in her followers who might consider leaving her little slice of "paradise". She's basically saying "sure, you're free to leave, but if you do, you're going to to be miserable!". A while ago I managed to go back and visit (more like protest) the group I was in. Before the group went into full-on siege mode, I managed to talk to one of the members. He had recognized me from when I was in the group back in 2001 (this was in 2007). I asked him what he was still doing there. He said basically that it was not safe for him to leave. That the group was the only place safe for him. Left to his own devices, he would self destruct. He "free" to leave any time he wanted, and yet he was so sure he would fail -- so terrified of life without the group -- that he was willing to spend his life (or at least as long as the cash kept flowing) in a bubble.

Cults rarely keep people against their will. As Margaret T. Singer says in the chapter "Brainwashing/Thought Reform" of "Cults in Our Midst", "I and others who study these programs emphasize over and over that imprisonment and overt violence are not necessary and are actually counterproductive when influencing people to change their attitudes and behaviors." Later on in the book, in the chapter "Leaving the Cult" she lists "Dread" as one of the 5 main things keeping people from leaving cults. She states "4. Dread, because of beliefs instilled by the cult that a person who leaves will find no real life on the outside"

Elsewhere in the chapter "Brainwashing/Thought Reform" Margaret T. Singer states in describing Lifton's Mystical manipulation "Cult leaders tell their followers, "You have chosen to be here. No one has tole you to come here. No one has influenced you," when in fact the followers are in a situation they can't control owing to social pressure and their fear. Thus they come to believe that they are actually choosing this life." Is that what's going on here with Guru G? Is Guru G trying to make people dependent on her by implying they would have no life without her?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2013 08:16PM by psyborgue.