Does anyone have any information or experience with 'Personal Best Seminars' based in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta (Canada)? The leader/founder is Jay Fiset.

My brother's wife has been involved with the group for quite a few months now, and it all seems very 'fishy'. She has gone on a few of the seminar weekends and she never discussed the contents of the weekend with her husband, only stating that 'he should experience it for himself'. She has spent about $4000 so far (on a total of 3-4 weekends, I believe). Since she has started these seminars, she has left her job, more recently her husband (without much of an explanation), and has run away from all responsibilities. Once she left her husband she completely avoided all contact with him - she doesn't return phone calls or e-mails etc... Needless to say, my brother is devistated.

I'm trying to gather as much information as I can in order to make some sense out of this. If anyone can offer any advice, personal experience or even specific information about this group it would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Quote
iso
Does anyone have any information or experience with 'Personal Best Seminars' based in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta (Canada)? The leader/founder is Jay Fiset.

My brother's wife has been involved with the group for quite a few months now, and it all seems very 'fishy'. She has gone on a few of the seminar weekends and she never discussed the contents of the weekend with her husband, only stating that 'he should experience it for himself'. She has spent about $4000 so far (on a total of 3-4 weekends, I believe). Since she has started these seminars, she has left her job, more recently her husband (without much of an explanation), and has run away from all responsibilities. Once she left her husband she completely avoided all contact with him - she doesn't return phone calls or e-mails etc... Needless to say, my brother is devistated.

I'm trying to gather as much information as I can in order to make some sense out of this. If anyone can offer any advice, personal experience or even specific information about this group it would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

When I hear of an organization like you've described, I always check with the Better Business Bureau to see if they are registered with them. It says alot about the company if it is not registered (in my opinion). Below is the result of the search for 'Personal Best Seminars', I notice they have been in business since 1988 and have never registered.

Also, I went through their website and came across their 'trainer's' personal information and I do not see any listed credentials for the 'trainers' in the bio's that are posted, but the odd one has a degree in something and it is mentioned in the bio. I see that one of the trainers has a degree in Psychology and subsequently had a therapy practice for 13 years..but it doesn't mention what level of degree...
anyway, this thing reeks of LGAT to me and its probably got some history not yet told..here is the BBB report:

BBB Reliability Report

BBB®
Serving Southern Alberta
350, 7330 Fisher Street SE
Calgary, AB T2H 2H8
(403) 517-4BBB
www.betterbusinessbureau.ca




Personal Best Seminars
1301 - 10 Avenue SW
Calgary, AB T3C 0J4
Telephone: (403) 269-2378
Fax: (403) 245-5260



The BBB reports on members and non-members. If a company is a member of the BBB, it is stated in this report
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or other information that results from activity conducted by the BBB.


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Original Business Start Date: January 1988
TOB Classification: Training Programs
BBB Membership: This company is not a member.


Customer Experience

When considering complaint information, please take into account the company's size and volume of transactions, and understand that the nature of complaints and a firm's responses to them are often more important than the number of complaints.

The BBB processed a total of 1 complaint about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period.Of the total of 1 complaint closed in 36 months, 1 was closed in the last year.

Billing or Collection Issues
BBB Definition:

Billing or Collection Issues - Claim alleging billing errors, unauthorized charges, or questionable collection practices.



Administratively Closed
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Administratively Closed - The BBB determined that the complaint could not be satisfactorily settled using standard methods of voluntary dispute resolution



1 - The parties could not provide sufficient information to support their positions nor were they agreeable to make reasonable efforts toward resolving the issues of the dispute.



Additional Telephone Numbers

Additional Phone Numbers
Tel: (403) 215-6856
Tel: (403) 215-6853





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Report as of January 15, 2008
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2008 04:56AM by ON2 LF.

Iso, I googled the name Jay Fiset and found several hits with his name. Most of what I found read like the same crab spewed by PSI Seminars. Sorry about your brother wife. I can really understand what he's going through. I went though the same thing four years ago.

Thanks for the info and support. I guess I'm at a loss right now as to what to do. I can't seem to find much info on Personal Best and it's leader's history. Has anyone ever heard of The Personal Best Training Society of Alberta? According to the 'Personal Best' website, 'Personal Best Seminars' derived from this 'society' in the late 80s/early 90s... but I can't find any info or even any trace of this 'society'... I'm thinking it probably never existed!

Well, I finally got to the bottom of this 'Personal Best Training Society'. Turns out that Jay Fiset took over the organization from Brian Copping in the late 80s and renamed it 'Personal Best'. Brian Copping is/was a LIFESPRING facilitator, who had moved up to Calgary in the 80s to start his own 'organization' based on his LIFESPRING learnings! So here we have it, Personal Best is yet another offsping of LIFESPRING based in Calgary and Edmonton.

I had a similar situation occur with someone in my family... they participated in Personal Best and their behavior changed in ways that made them almost unrecognizable to me.

I needed to get to the bottom of what was going on in the program so I went and participated myself!

I was on an undercover mission (of sorts) sent by my family to learn what happened to our sister and what I might learn to turn her back into the family member she once was. When I got into the course I was overwhelmed with both the concepts and the long hours of training.

In my first day of the course I was angry and wanted answers and got very few. That first evening when I returned home I reported to my family that I wasn't hurt and that I still felt like myself and (although I was angry) the course seemed fairly tame thus far.

However, as the course continued I started to notice subtle changes in myself (as if beyond my control) I started to be unjustifiably happy? And although this really pissed me off the feeling of happiness and peace just continued to grow until at the conclusion of the program I felt blissful.

Being completly new to the feeling and clarity of blissfulness I started to question my whole vision for life... why is my life a battle? why did I live with so much fear? where was I hiding my potential for so many years?

These questions were reflective and something that not only scared me but also scared my family... I understand why it scared my tribe - because we have never seen the possibility for a new way of being, a fresh perspective on being, an ability to attract what I want and be who I want without the need to be approved of by anyone other than myself... not in spite of anyone else, but to fully and completely (for the first time) connect with who I am and should continue to be.

I learned about love and that true love is courageous and although this might be hard for many of us to understand (i learned that) the greatest definition for love (don't know who was quoted for this) is that "I want for you, what you want for you, even (and this is the hard part) if it doesn't include me".

What this means is I learned that I love my sister and to make the quote functional for her and I - "I want for her, what she wants for her, even if it doesn't include me!!!"

Hard but liberating!!!

In my final analysis, Jay and the people at Personal Best are releasing people from their fear and approval... and that happens to lead some people away from toxic relationships or dysfunctional family - I now get it!

In our case, our entire family has been recreated through participation in the course and although we are not perfect we are more loving and supportive of each other!

I am registered for more courses - I'll keep you guys posted on how the balance of the courses go!

Respectfully,

Steve

ievolve:

Seems like, based upon your comments, that Personal Best is group therapy designed to resolve personal and family problems/issues.

What qualifies Jay and the people at Personal Best to conduct group therapy?

Is the program led and/or officially supervised by a licensed marriage and family therapist or mental health professional, such as a psychologist or psychiatrist? Is there a mental health professional on staff at Personal Best?

Is the staff at Personal Best somehow accountable to a professional licensing board?

What specific training and educational credentials are required before someone leads or instructs a course at Personal Best?

Is Personal Best considered an accredited educational course? If so how are its courses accredited?

Before you went through the course why did you feel there was something wrong with your sister?

Why were you once angry with Personal Best? What did they do wrong that angered you initially?

I'm an Alberta journalist researching Personal Best and am hoping someone here might chat with me.

If you're interested, could you drop me a line? I've set up an e-mail just for this story: pbarticle@hotmail.com

Go to an online article called 'Pathology as "Personal Growth" and a person can read all about the exercises used in Personal Best Seminars even though the article is about Lifespring - I can attest to how it really can regress a person.

I took Personal Best Training in 1988, before Jay Fiset took over. At that time it was being run as a non-profit organization and payment for the trainings was on a donation basis. I certainly changed radically after taking Personal Best, to the extent that some of my friends even tried to set up an "intervention" for me to deprogram me, so I guess I was spouting a lot of jargon and ideas that were fairly foreign to my previous way of thinking. I was heavily involved with PB for about 3 years and even went into their facilitator training program but didnt complete the course. I subsequently took a masters in Counselling Psychology at an accredited university and am now a therapist in Calgary. I occasionally refer clients to Personal Best if I think the experience will be a good fit for them. Over the last 23 years almost all of my friends have taken PB or similar courses, including most of the group that tried to deprogram me. I like to think it is because they see that my life was positively changed by my experience. None of the people I know who have taken the course have a bad word to say about it. I would say that the results I have observed in others have ranged from significant benefit to pretty much no change. PB does not fix anything, it presents a way of thinking and living that , if you follow it, can make your life happier and richer. It is absolutely possible, however, to take the course and get little or nothing out of it.
Currently I have just watched my niece complete level on of PB. She was ecstatic on completing the course and thanked my wife and I for suggesting it to her. I am not happy however with the new fee structure for PB. Level one is free but level two is an exorbitant $3000+ .

I dont think I am a naive New Age groupie - I have a PhD from UofC and worked as a manger at a major oil company for 8 years on one stage of my life. I dont think PB is the answer to life but I do think it can be helpful. Most of the people that I know who have been involved in running PB have been sincere in trying to help people and I think for the most part they have succeeded. I personally watched 2-3000 people go through PB trainings and never saw anything that I would consider an "adverse reaction" . Certainly people who take the course can change profoundly, but usually people who take PB are looking for change and would probably make changes in their lives anyway. All I can say is that the changes I went through I consider to be extremely positive