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'''Re-evaluation counseling''' ('''RC''') is a business, and a network of peer counseling. Its core philosophy prescribes regularly relating painful memories to a peer counsel or group and releasing strong feelings by crying, shaking, or laughing as the best salve for psychological wounds.<ref name=":1" /> This idea was first developed in the 1950s by [[L. Ron Hubbard]] and called [[Dianetics]] (later [[Scientology]]).


Re-evaluation counseling recruits members by branding itself as a peer-based counseling procedure trying to help people and bring about social reform.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Moving beyond Re-evaluation Counseling - The Boston Globe |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/28/opinion/moving-beyond-re-evaluation-counseling/ |access-date=2022-10-03 |website=BostonGlobe.com |language=en-US}}</ref>
'''Re-evaluation Counseling''' ('''RC''') is a peer-based counseling procedure – 'co-counseling' – in which people aim to help each other deal with the effects of emotional hurt. The theory and practice of RC were developed in Seattle in the United States by [[Harvey Jackins]] beginning in the 1950s. In the early 1970s, the Re-evaluation Counseling Community was formed, made up of local groups of Co-Counselors in Seattle and beyond. The theory developed to recognize the importance of challenging oppressions such as sexism and racism, and working to eliminate them. RC now teaches co-counseling and holds workshops throughout the world. While membership of the RC Community requires only a commitment to a one-point program of using the co-counseling process, the community has a number of projects that directly tackle the issues of racism, sexism, anti-semitism and the climate emergency.

The International Re-evaluation Counseling Community is based in [[Shoreline]], Washington, USA. It was led by Harvey Jackins until his death in 1999. It is currently led by his son Tim Jackins.
In the early 1970s Personal Counselors, Inc, established the Re-evaluation Counseling Community, made up of local groups of people called "Co-Counselors" in Seattle and beyond, based until 2021 in Seattle, WA, currently in [[Shoreline]] WA. It was led by Harvey Jackins until his death in 1999. It is currently led by his son [[Tim Jackins]].


== History ==
== History ==
In the early 1950s Harvey Jackins associated with [[L. Ron Hubbard]] (the founder of Scientology) and others interested in Dianetics (what later became Scientology).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cusack |first=Carole M. |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004330542/B9789004330542-s023.xml |title="Squirrels" and Unauthorized Uses of Scientology: Werner Erhard and est, Ken Dyers and Kenja, and Harvey Jackins and Re-Evaluation Counselling |date=2017-01-01 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-33054-2 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="history">{{Cite web |title=A Brief History of RC |url=https://www.rc.org/publication/theory/origin |access-date=2022-10-04 |website=www.rc.org}}</ref> This led Jackins to establish Personal Counselors Inc. which aimed to "engage in, conduct and teach the art and science of Dianetics."<ref>Copy of the articles of incorporation filed by Harvey Jackins {{cite web |url=http://imgur.com/KGpfgdn |title=Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet |access-date=2015-08-14 |author=Tim Jackins |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304090350/http://imgur.com/KGpfgdn |archive-date=2016-03-04 }}</ref> RC reports that collaboration between Jackins and Hubbard became unworkable, and Jackins ended their association and continued to develop RC as a separate organization.<ref name="history" />
In the early 1950s, Harvey Jackins, a shipyard worker, building maintenance worker and labor organizer, developed Re-evaluation Co-Counseling after observing that a troubled friend made changes in his thinking process as a result of being patiently listened to while he cried and expressed a range of other emotions.<ref name=history>[https://www.rc.org/publication/theory/origin A Very Brief Look at the History of RC] </ref><ref name=new>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Jyg8ed4pPu0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Co-Counselling:+The+Theory+and+Practice+of+Re-Evaluation+Counselling&hl=en&ei=CcHkTe7bCYOAhQfG7sHzBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false New, Caroline and Kauffman, Katie, ''Co-Counselling: The Theory and Practice of Re-Evaluation Counselling'', 2004, Brunner-Routledge] {{ISBN|1-58391-210-X}}</ref><ref>[http://circleway.org/talking_stick/TalkingStick2003.pdf Medicine Story, "To Be Human Again – Camps for Peace and Love", ''Talking Stick'', Winter/Spring 2003] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813153019/http://circleway.org/talking_stick/TalkingStick2003.pdf |date=2011-08-13 }}</ref> Jackins worked with others to develop a method of counseling based on the recollection of psychological and physical traumas or "hurts" accompanied by various types of emotional [[Catharsis#Therapeutic uses|catharsis]]. He called these effects "discharge", which he came to believe led to clearer thinking or "re-evaluation".<ref>Jackins, Harvey, ''The human side of human beings'', Seattle: Rational Island Publishers, 1965 {{ISBN|0-911214-60-7}}</ref>


During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jackins continued to build Personal Counselors, Inc., and in the 1960s and 1970s took RC from Seattle, where he first practiced it, to the rest of the US and then to other countries.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} Between 1975 and 1990, he appointed local teachers, area representatives, regional leaders and representatives of groups. A set of Guidelines for the community was adopted a biennial conference of local leaders. The Guidelines are revised at similar conferences, known as "World Conferences", originally biennial but currently every four years. The conferences also adopt general goals for the community.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}
After several years experimenting, Jackins quit his job and took up counseling full time. In 1952 he opened a small office in downtown Seattle and offered one-way counseling under the name of Personal Counselors, Inc. The process began to be called Co-Counseling because it worked well for two people to exchange time listening to each other. <ref name=history></ref>


After Jackins' death in 1999, his son, Tim Jackins, was chosen at a conference, attended by leaders in the RC communities worldwide, to take over the role of International Reference Person, the title given to the leader of RC.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}
At that time, Jackins associated with [[L. Ron Hubbard]] and others interested in human growth.<ref name=history></ref> Personal Counselors Inc. originally stated its objective as to "engage in, conduct and teach the art and science of Dianetics."<ref>Copy of the articles of incorporation filed by Harvey Jackins {{cite web |url=http://imgur.com/KGpfgdn |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-08-14 |author=Tim Jackins |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304090350/http://imgur.com/KGpfgdn |archive-date=2016-03-04 }}</ref> Because of differences in their thinking, collaboration between Jackins and Hubbard became unworkable, and Jackins ended their association.<ref name=history></ref> RC has had no contact with Dianetics or Scientology since that time.


== Investigation by the Boston Globe ==
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jackins systematized his views, and in the 1960s and 1970s took RC from Seattle, where he first practised it, to the rest of the US and thence to Europe and elsewhere. Between 1975 and 1990, he appointed local teachers, area representatives, regional leaders and representatives of groups such as women, African Americans, and Lesbians and Gay Men. He drafted RC's Guidelines and decided on all major issues. His policies were ratified by a biennial conference.
Co-counseling was recently the focus of a 2021 investigation by [[the Boston Globe]], after a youth worker in the school system was found to be practicing co-counseling (which is not a licensed therapy program) with minors without the permission of the student's parents.<ref name=":1" />


Quoting from the Boston Globe: "Boston high school sophomore, Keondre McClay said he was pressured by the head of a district-sponsored youth advocacy program to attend an overnight retreat in Newton, where white adults asked the Black teenager to wrestle out his emotions on a gym mat with them. They said it would help him purge his trauma from experiencing racism. McClay fled to his room. Jenny Sazama, the program leader, and other retreat participants chased after him. For more than an hour, he recalled recently, they hugged him on his bed and entreated him to return to the group 'counseling' session while he hid under the covers screaming, “Please leave me alone!”.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last1=Martin |first1=Naomi |last2=Vaznis |first2=James |last3=Crimaldi |first3=Laura |date=May 26, 2021 |title=Inside the unlicensed counseling that led Boston students to allege emotional abuse |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/26/metro/inside-unlicensed-counseling-that-led-boston-students-allege-emotional-abuse/ |access-date=2022-11-22 |website=BostonGlobe.com |language=en-US}}</ref>
After Jackins' death in 1999, his son, Tim Jackins, was chosen at a conference, attended by leaders in the RC communities worldwide, to take over the role of International Reference Person, the title given to the leader of RC.

== Therapeutic theory ==
Re-evaluation Counseling describes itself as "a process for freeing humans and society as a whole from distress patterns so that we may resume {{Sic|hide=y|fully|-}}intelligent functioning."<ref name=theory>{{cite web|url=https://www.rc.org/publication/theory/about|title=About Re-evaluation Counseling|website=www.rc.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616172341/https://www.rc.org/publication/theory/about|archive-date=2018-06-16}}</ref> Counseling is practiced in pairs ("co-counseling"), in which the participants listen to one another in turn and help one other to "discharge". No money is exchanged by the co-counselors but they pay a nominal fee to the Re-evaluation Counseling organization when attending classes or a means-based fee when attending workshops.<ref name=theory />

RC believes that everyone is born good and intelligent and that all hurts are acquired. Inappropriate or hurtful behavior is caused by the unconscious "restimulation" of past hurts that have not been properly discharged. If discharge can be completed, the behavior will not be repeated.<ref name=theory />

The RC counsellor aims to remember the fundamental goodness of the client. Client and counselor are expected to work co-operatively. The counselor is expected to listen in a non-judgmental way but also to "contradict" errors and other conditions associated with distress so as to facilitate discharge. The counselor also intervenes to "interrupt" the client's patterns. Each co-counselor has to be emotionally healthy and well-versed in co-counseling in order to work effectively together.

RC questions the use of psychiatric drugs and the standard concept of mental illness.<ref name=guidelines /> [[John Heron]] compared RC to [[primal therapy]], [[Wilhelm Reich]]'s methods, and [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]]'s early [[psychoanalysis]] when he made use of [[abreaction]]. The editor of the [[Brunner-Routledge]] series of books on "Advancing Theory in Therapy" says that while Re-evaluation Counseling is not generally regarded as a psychotherapy, "it has made and continues to make an important contribution to our understanding of human beings and human situations."<ref name=new />

RC considers that co-counseling does not imply psychopathology on the part of co-counselors or the need for professional treatment and that there is a need for lay counselors because of the shortage of professionals. It says that, for the average person, co-counseling can heal emotional hurts, increase rational thought and increase one's capacity for a joyful and positive life.

RC's has ambitious social and environmental objectives, including, "The transformation of society to a rational, peaceful, non-exploitative, classless form world-wide. The preservation of all existing species of life and the re-creation of extinguished species. The preservation of wilderness areas and the creation of a completely benign environment over most of the earth, the oceans, and the atmosphere. The exploration of, and eventually becoming at home in, space."<ref name=guidelines />


== Organization ==
== Organization ==
{{Independent sources|section|date=February 2024}}
The organization's official title is "The International Re-evaluation Counseling Communities". It is resourced by Re-evaluation Counseling Community Resources, Inc., with headquarters in Shoreline, Washington, USA. Its president is Tim Jackins and its vice president is Sarah Elizabeth Jackins.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wa.14thstory.com/re-evaluation-counseling-community-resources-inc.html |title=Re-Evaluation Counseling Community Resources, Inc. |website=wa.14thstory.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325224239/http://wa.14thstory.com/re-evaluation-counseling-community-resources-inc.html |archive-date=2012-03-25 }}</ref> The corporation owns trademark in the terms "Re-evaluation Counseling", "RC" and "United to End Racism".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trademarkia.com/reevaluation-counseling-76298287.html |title=Apply for a Trademark. Search a Trademark |website=trademarkia.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016065352/http://www.trademarkia.com/reevaluation-counseling-76298287.html |archive-date=2012-10-16 }}</ref> It also controls the Re-evaluation Foundation, a non-profit [[501(c) organization]], and Rational Island Publishers.<ref name=rc />
The organization's official title is "The International Re-evaluation Counseling Communities". It is resourced by Re-evaluation Counseling Community Resources, Inc., with headquarters in Shoreline, Washington, USA. Its president is Tim Jackins and its vice president is Sarah Elizabeth Jackins.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wa.14thstory.com/re-evaluation-counseling-community-resources-inc.html |title=Re-Evaluation Counseling Community Resources, Inc. |website=wa.14thstory.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325224239/http://wa.14thstory.com/re-evaluation-counseling-community-resources-inc.html |archive-date=2012-03-25 }}</ref> The corporation owns trademark in the terms "Re-evaluation Counseling", "RC" and "United to End Racism".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trademarkia.com/reevaluation-counseling-76298287.html |title=Apply for a Trademark. Search a Trademark |website=trademarkia.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016065352/http://www.trademarkia.com/reevaluation-counseling-76298287.html |archive-date=2012-10-16 }}</ref> It also controls the Re-evaluation Foundation, a non-profit [[501(c) organization]], and Rational Island Publishers.<ref name=rc />


Within RC, Tim Jackins is called the "International Reference Person". He is a former community college mathematics teacher from [[Palo Alto]], California, and a graduate of [[Yale]] and [[Stanford]]. He has been a co-counselor, leader and teacher of RC for most of his life. The International Reference Person appoints senior leaders ("reference persons") in consultation with local groups. Local groups choose local leaders. Reference persons are consulted about who can attend events, teach RC, and lead groups. No reference person is paid.<ref name=guidelines />
Within RC, Tim Jackins is called the "International Reference Person". He is a former community college mathematics teacher from [[Palo Alto]], California, and a graduate of [[Yale]] and [[Stanford]]. He has been a co-counselor, leader and teacher of RC for most of his life. The International Reference Person appoints senior leaders ("reference persons") in consultation with local groups. Local groups choose local leaders. Reference persons are consulted about who can attend events, teach RC, and lead groups. According to RC itself, no reference person is paid.<ref name="guidelines">{{cite web |title=Guidelines For The Re-evaluation Counseling Communities |url=https://www.rc.org/publication/guidelines_2022/contents |website=www.rc.org}}</ref>


Re-evaluation Counseling encourages its members to play an active role in public life<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cleanoregon.tripod.com/steinexposed/id12.html |title=Killing the Beast within: The Rise of Re-Evaluation Counseling |access-date=2011-06-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813171047/http://cleanoregon.tripod.com/steinexposed/id12.html |archive-date=2011-08-13 }} Cletus Nelson, ''Killing the Beast Within''</ref> and has set up groups to promote its ideas, which it calls "naturalized" groups.<ref name="rc">{{cite web |url=http://www.rc.org/uer/index.html |title=United to End Racism |website=www.rc.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218201319/http://www.rc.org/uer/index.html |archive-date=2007-02-18 |access-date=2006-06-19 }}</ref> The main groups promoting RC methods are [[United to End Racism]]" (UER), formed in 2000, and [[Sustaining All Life]], formed in 2015. UER is part of RC and shares its HQ in Shoreline.<ref name="rc" />
RC runs classes in co-counseling and local groups are set up by people experienced in the ideas and methods of RC who have been approved by the leaders. New members are invited to join "fundamentals" classes by existing members. They are expected to be well-functioning and emotionally healthy so that they can be effective counselors as well as being able to benefit from counseling. Fees are fixed at a low hourly rate per person, and there are scholarships for people on low incomes. Twenty-five per cent of fees are sent to the central body in Shoreline.<ref name=guidelines /> Participants are asked not to use caffeine or alcohol and to abstain from mind-altering drugs so as to be attentive and to have access to their feelings. People who counsel together are requested and expected to refrain from socializing with one another.<ref>Jackins, Harvey, ''Fundamentals of Co-Counseling Manual (Elementary Counselors Manual): For Beginning Classes in Re-evaluation Counseling'', Seattle: Rational Island Publishers, 1965 {{ISBN|978-1-58429-073-5}}</ref>


The Re-evaluation Foundation aims "To provide opportunities for people to participate in Re-evaluation counseling who otherwise could not afford to participate."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sos.wa.gov/charities/search-app.aspx |title=Charities – WA Secretary of State |website=wa.gov |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508032614/https://www.sos.wa.gov/charities/search-app.aspx |archive-date=2017-05-08 }}</ref> It was founded in 1972.<ref name=rc /> Its president is Michael Markovits,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rc.org/foundation/leadership.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020420143755/http://www.rc.org/foundation/leadership.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2002-04-20 |title=The Re-evaluation Foundation |website=www.rc.org }}</ref> a former vice-president of [[IBM]].{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} Its assets at the end of 2006 were approximately $1M.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.faqs.org/tax-exempt/WA/Re-Evaluation-Foundation.html#activities_a |title=Re-Evaluation Foundation in Seattle, Washington (WA) – NonProfitFacts.com |website=www.faqs.org |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013073110/http://www.faqs.org/tax-exempt/WA/Re-Evaluation-Foundation.html#activities_a |archive-date=2012-10-13 }}</ref> In 2007, the foundation made grants to several organizations initiated by Re-evaluation Counseling.<ref name=rc />
Classes and local communities are organized into regions and loose, country-wide affiliations, although RC does not organize on national lines.


===United to End Racism===
RC is committed to offering RC practices and insights "as widely as possible in the general population". RC does not seek publicity<ref>[http://psychcentral.com/lib/1994/co-counseling-therapy-without-therapists/ Tom Ferguson, ''Co-Counseling: Therapy Without Therapists''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110925002422/http://psychcentral.com/lib/1994/co-counseling-therapy-without-therapists/ |date=2011-09-25 }}</ref> Local publicity has to be approved by the regional leader and national and international publicity by the leader of RC.<ref name=guidelines /> RC does not list local contact information on its website.<ref name=rc />
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'''United to End Racism''' ('''UER''') is a program made out of members of [[Re-evaluation Counseling]] (RC), which publicly states that its aim is to eliminate racism "on an individual basis" using Re-evaluation counseling, a practice invented by [[Harvey Jackins]]. UER was founded by RC on 28 November 2000.


United to End Racism is one of a number of non-profit organizations that represent RC in public forums. [[Harvey Jackins]], founder of the RC movement, encouraged members of RC to create such organizations to spread RC ideas and objectives along lines decided by the RC leadership; previous well known examples of this tactic include Nuclear Freeze campaigns in the 1980s and the US-based National Coalition Building Institute, founded by RC'er Cherie Brown. Jackins' son, [[Tim Jackins]], the current world leader of RC, is also the de facto leader of UER. The organisation appears solely to exist to service activist conferences as an invited body, and only sporadically carries out other activities. It has no separate membership from RC and is managed from Personal Counselors, Inc (recently renamed "Re-evaluation Counseling Community Resources, Inc"), the office of RC in [[Seattle]]. Officers of UER are members of Re-evaluation Counseling and UER policies are determined by the RC leadership.
RC does not publish membership figures or comment on estimates. On one occasion, Jackins claimed that more than a million had attended RC "Fundamentals" classes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rc.org/page/search?search=How+to+Begin+RC |title=Search |website=www.rc.org |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202044124/https://www.rc.org/page/search?search=How+to+Begin+RC |archive-date=2017-02-02 }}</ref> The April 2007 edition of the RC publication ''Present Time'' listed 243 RC groups (each with about 45 members) and 428 teachers in groups of about 10 people, making an active membership of about 15,000.


== Aggressive response to criticism ==
Re-evaluation Counseling encourages its members to play an active role in public life<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cleanoregon.tripod.com/steinexposed/id12.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-06-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813171047/http://cleanoregon.tripod.com/steinexposed/id12.html |archive-date=2011-08-13 }} Cletus Nelson, ''Killing the Beast Within''</ref> and has set up groups to promote its ideas, which it calls "naturalized" groups.<ref name=rc>{{cite web |url=http://www.rc.org/uer/index.html |title=United to End Racism |website=www.rc.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218201319/http://www.rc.org/uer/index.html |archive-date=2007-02-18 |access-date=2006-06-19 }}</ref> The main groups promoting RC methods are [[United to End Racism]]" (UER), formed in 2000, and [[Sustaining All Life]], formed in 2015. UER is part of RC and shares its HQ in Shoreline.<ref name=rc /> It participated in the 2001 [[Durban]] [[World Conference against Racism]], the 2006 [[Caracas]] [[World Social Forum]] and the 2006 [[Vancouver]] World Peace Forum.<ref name=rc /> Sustaining All Life participated in the [[United Nations Climate Change Conference]] ([[Conference of the Parties]] or COPs) every year since the 2015 COP in Paris. The COPs were in Marrakech, Morocco (COP22 in 2016); Bonn, Germany (COP23 in 2017); Katowice, Poland (COP24 in 2018); and Madrid, Spain (COP25 in 2019). Other organisations that are independent of RC are led by RC community members and draw to some extent on RC concepts. An example is the [[National Coalition Building Institute]] whose Founder-Executive Director, Cherie R. Brown,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ncbi.org/about-ncbi/ncbi-board-of-directors/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120716170639/http://ncbi.org/about-ncbi/ncbi-board-of-directors/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-07-16 |title=NCBI Board of Directors – NCBI – National Coalition Building Institute |website=ncbi.org}}</ref> is a member of RC<ref>[http://www.rc.org/publications/present_time/pt102/pt102_71_cb.html Cherie Brown, "Applying decisive ideas boldly", ''Present Time''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807023317/http://www.rc.org/publications/present_time/pt102/pt102_71_cb.html |date=2011-08-07 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.rc.org/publications/journals/ruah_hadashah/excerpts.html Excerpt from RC journal ''Ruah Hadashah''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807023224/http://www.rc.org/publications/journals/ruah_hadashah/excerpts.html |date=2011-08-07 }}</ref> and active in UER.<ref>[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:gN3EiF298roJ:www.tikkun.org/article.php/nov2001_brown/print+%22Cherie+R.+Brown%22+%2Bre-evaluation+counseling&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.co.uk Cherie R. Brown, "Lessons Learned in Durban", ''Tikkun Magazine'', November/December 2001]</ref>
There have been few papers about RC in scholarly journals. RC often refuses to cooperate with attempts at independent investigation.<ref name="carr">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110928181256/http://www.utwatch.org/archives/polemicist/vol3no5_rc.html Steve Carr, "Attack Theory: Re-Evaluating RC", ''Polemicist'', Volume 3, No. 5, April 1992]}}</ref> Dennis Tourish and Pauline Irving in a 1995 article compared his system of management to the [[Communist party|communist]] state model of [[democratic centralism]].<ref name="tourish">Dennis Tourish and Pauline Irving, "Group influence and the psychology of cultism within re-evaluation counselling: A critique of Co-Counselling",''Counselling Psychology Quarterly'', Volume 8, Issue 1, 1995, pp.35-50</ref>


The organisation is sensitive to criticism, either external or internal, which it regards as an attack on the organization.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} According to Steve Carr, "To counter attacks on RC and its leaders, RC members are instructed to interrupt the person, approach the accusation as the personal problem of the accuser, and vigorously come to the defense of the person or people being attacked."<ref name="carr" />
The Re-evaluation Foundation aims "To provide opportunities for people to participate in Re-evaluation counseling who otherwise could not afford to participate."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sos.wa.gov/charities/search-app.aspx |title=Charities – WA Secretary of State |website=wa.gov |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508032614/https://www.sos.wa.gov/charities/search-app.aspx |archive-date=2017-05-08 }}</ref> Founded in 1972, it supports projects based on the theory and practice of Re-evaluation Counseling that apply "bold, thoughtful action to freeing human beings from the distresses associated with past hurtful, unjust experiences."<ref name=rc /> Its president is Michael Markovits,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rc.org/foundation/leadership.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020420143755/http://www.rc.org/foundation/leadership.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2002-04-20 |title=The Re-evaluation Foundation |website=www.rc.org }}</ref> a former vice-president of [[IBM]].{{cn|date=January 2020}} Its assets at the end of 2006 were .<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.faqs.org/tax-exempt/WA/Re-Evaluation-Foundation.html#activities_a |title=Re-Evaluation Foundation in Seattle, Washington (WA) – NonProfitFacts.com |website=www.faqs.org |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013073110/http://www.faqs.org/tax-exempt/WA/Re-Evaluation-Foundation.html#activities_a |archive-date=2012-10-13 }}</ref> "The Foundation considers grant requests only from members of the Re-evaluation Counseling Communities who are seeking financial assistance that will further the dissemination of the theory and practice of RC."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rc.org/foundation/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011206005811/http://www.rc.org/foundation/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2001-12-06 |title=The Re-evaluation Foundation |website=www.rc.org }}</ref> In 2007, the foundation made grants totaling about to several organizations controlled by Re-evaluation Counseling, including "People-of-Color Leadership Development, Global Initiatives, Young People Leadership Development/Family Counseling Work, Elimination of Racism, and Mental Health."<ref name=rc />

== Criticism ==
Psychiatrist Richard M. Childs claimed that Jackins' book ''The Human Side of Human Beings'' (1965) plagiarized Hubbard's ''Dianetics'' (1950), saying that Jackins paraphrased Hubbard's terms by recasting them in his own jargon. Hubbard's "[[Engram (Dianetics)|Engrams]]" became Jackins' "distress patterns", "release" became "discharge", and "to become clear" became RC's "to re-emerge".<ref>[http://home.comcast.net/~reevaluation-counseling/pstory.htm Richard M. Childs, ''A Psychiatrist's Story of His Brief Involvement with Re-Evaluation Counseling] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101117074016/http://home.comcast.net/~reevaluation-counseling/pstory.htm |date=2010-11-17 }}''</ref>

Dennis Tourish and Pauline Irving in a 1995 article compared his system of management to the [[Communist party|communist]] state model of [[democratic centralism]].<ref name=tourish>Dennis Tourish and Pauline Irving, "Group influence and the psychology of cultism within re-evaluation counselling: A critique of Co-Counselling",''Counselling Psychology Quarterly'', Volume 8, Issue 1, 1995, pp.35-50</ref>

Other critics have said that what purports to be "Re-evaluation Counseling theory" is merely a description of Harvey Jackins' counseling practice, that RC's ideas are untested and that "there has been no independent attempt to verify or otherwise the key constructs of RC theory."<ref name=belgium>{{cite web |url=http://home.comcast.net/~reevaluation-counseling/documentary_history_pdf%27s.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402140908/http://home.comcast.net/~reevaluation-counseling/documentary_history_pdf's.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2015-04-02 |title=''A Documentary History of the Career of Harvey Jackins and Re-evaluation Counseling'', Study Group on Psychotherapy Cults, Belgium, 1993 |website=comcast.net}}</ref>
There have been few papers about RC in scholarly journals and RC tends not to co-operate with attempts at independent investigation.<ref name=carr>[http://www.utwatch.org/archives/polemicist/vol3no5_rc.html Steve Carr, "Attack Theory: Re-Evaluating RC", ''Polemicist'', Volume 3, No. 5, April 1992] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928181256/http://www.utwatch.org/archives/polemicist/vol3no5_rc.html |date=2011-09-28 }}</ref>

The organisation is sensitive to criticism, either external or internal, which it regards as an attack on the organization.{{fact|date=January 2020}} Jackins believed that much criticism was inspired by the hostility of the US government to RC's "profoundly progressive nature and its effectiveness".<ref>[http://home.comcast.net/~reevaluation-counseling/dochist4.htm Harvey Jackins, ''Why Leaders of RC can expect to be attacked and what to do about such attacks''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100128215059/http://home.comcast.net/~reevaluation-counseling/dochist4.htm |date=2010-01-28 }}</ref> RC instructs members "to quickly interrupt both attacks and gossip",<ref name=guidelines>{{cite web|url=https://www.rc.org/publication/guidelines_2017/contents|title=Table of Contents|website=www.rc.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616172341/https://www.rc.org/publication/guidelines_2017/contents|archive-date=2018-06-16}}</ref> which are "dramatizations of distress" and unacceptable behaviors within the RC Community. It says that "An attack is not an effective way to resolve disagreements or difficulties." The organisation requires that "People who participate in an attack must first stop the attack and apologize for having participated in it", after which they are to be offered counseling.<ref name=guidelines /> Critics who persist "should be made to leave the group and their attacks ignored."<ref name=rc /> Steve Carr criticized RC this prevention of internal discussion.<ref name="carr" />

In an article analysing RC's so-called "attack theory" Steve Carr says that "To counter attacks on RC and its leaders, RC members are instructed to interrupt the person, approach the accusation as the personal problem of the accuser, and vigorously come to the defense of the person or people being attacked."<ref name=carr /> Richard Childs describes how he was treated in this way and expelled from RC when he tried to discuss allegations of sexual abuse within the organisation.<ref name=childs>{{cite web |url=http://home.comcast.net/~reevaluation-counseling/childs.html |title=Open letter from Richard Childs |website=comcast.net |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101118235647/http://home.comcast.net/~reevaluation-counseling/childs.html |archive-date=2010-11-18 }}</ref>

RC's system of centralised control has been deprecated by ex-members who would have preferred a more accountable leadership. John Heron, once an RC leader and teacher, who left the organization in 1974 to set up his own co-counseling organization, [[Co-Counselling International]], said he parted company with RC because it "systematically conditioned its members to associate a certain kind of beneficial human development with centralized authoritarian control of theory and community policy. It was clear to me that this was pseudo-liberation." He considered that the authoritarianism of RC derived partly from the [[Leninist]] doctrines of central control that Jackins had learned in the [[Communist Party of America]] and partly from the autocratic example of his former associate [[L. Ron Hubbard]].<ref>[http://www.co-counseling.org.uk/organisation/history.html John Heron, ''History of Co-Counseling'']{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Re-evaluation Counseling has been described as a cult<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/r/reevaluation/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030621193803/http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/r/reevaluation/|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 June 2003|title=Reevaluation Co-Counseling, Leader Harvey Jackins|date=21 June 2003}}</ref> or "cult-like".<ref name="belgium" /> Tourish and Irving considered that RC shared several characteristics with psycho-therapeutic cults, namely, a charismatic leader, idealization of the leader, followers regarding their belief system as superior to others, followers joining the group at times of stress, the therapist becoming central to the follower's life, the group absorbing increasing time, illusions of superiority to other groups and the group becoming suspicious of other groups. They concluded: "Given its hostility to such pluralistic notions of participation and democracy, RC has the potential to become a fully fledged and harmful cult, despite its original humanistic aims."<ref name=tourish />


== See also ==
== See also ==
Line 72: Line 96:
== References ==
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* Edwards, D. J., "The effect on self-actualization of a personal growth programme based on co-counseling", ''South African Journal of Psychology'', 1984, 14(2), 54–56.
* Evison, R. and Horobin, R., "Co-counseling", in ''Innovative therapy in Britain'', Ed. by Rowan, J. and Dryden, W., Milton Keynes: Open University
* Heron, J., "Re-evaluation Counseling", ''British Journal of Guidance and Counseling'', 1972.
* Heron, J., "Re-evaluation counseling: Personal growth through mutual aid", ''British Journal of Guidance & Counseling'', 1973, 1(2), 26–36
* Heron, J., ''Re-evaluation Counseling: A Theoretical Review'', 1973, Guildford: HPRP, University of Surrey
* Jackins, H., ''Fundamentals of co-counseling manual'', 1970, Seattle: Rational Island {{ISBN|1-58429-073-0}}
* Jackins, H., ''The human situation'', 1973, Seattle: Rational Island {{ISBN|0-911214-04-6}}
* Jackins, Harvey, ''The List'', Seattle: Rational Island Publishers, 1997 {{ISBN|1-88535-748-6}}
* New, Caroline and Kauffman, Katie, ''Co-Counselling: The Theory and Practice of Re-Evaluation Counselling'', Brunner-Routledge, 2004 {{ISBN|1-58391-210-X}}
* Rosen, R.D., ''Psychobabble'', Avon Books, 1979 {{ISBN|0-380-42291-3}}
* [http://jhp.sagepub.com/content/12/1/58.full.pdf+html Scheff, T.J., "Re-evaluation counseling: social implications", ''Journal of Humanistic Psychology'', April 1972, vol.12, no.1, 58–71]
* [http://jhp.sagepub.com/content/12/1/42.extract Somers, B.J., "Re-evaluation therapy: the theoretical framework", ''Journal of Humanistic Psychology'', April 1972, vol.12, no.1, 42–57]
* Somers, B. J., "The cocounseling class: People learning to exchange effective help with their distresses", ''Journal of Human Relations'', 1972, 20(4), 475–490
* Wolf, R. B. and Hirsch, B. J., "Outcomes of parent education programs based on reevaluation counseling". ''Journal of Child and Family Studies'', 2003, 12(1), 61–76


== External links ==
== External links ==
* [http://www.rc.org/ Re-evaluation Counseling]
* [http://www.rc.org/ Re-evaluation Counseling]
* [https://archive.today/20130221090754/http://reevaluation-counseling.home.comcast.net/ Re-evaluation Counseling Resources Site] Featuring critical analysis of the RC organization and its doctrines.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070218201319/http://www.rc.org/uer/index.html United To End Racism Home Page on the RC Website (archived on Feb 18 2007)]
* [https://www.rc.org/page/publication/guidelines/glossary Re-evaluation Counseling Glossary]
* [https://www.unitedtoendracism.org/ Current UER Home Page (Jun 2021)]


[[Category:Anti-psychiatry]]
[[Category:Anti-psychiatry]]

Latest revision as of 01:25, 18 September 2024

Re-evaluation counseling (RC) is a business, and a network of peer counseling. Its core philosophy prescribes regularly relating painful memories to a peer counsel or group and releasing strong feelings by crying, shaking, or laughing as the best salve for psychological wounds.[1] This idea was first developed in the 1950s by L. Ron Hubbard and called Dianetics (later Scientology).

Re-evaluation counseling recruits members by branding itself as a peer-based counseling procedure trying to help people and bring about social reform.[2]

In the early 1970s Personal Counselors, Inc, established the Re-evaluation Counseling Community, made up of local groups of people called "Co-Counselors" in Seattle and beyond, based until 2021 in Seattle, WA, currently in Shoreline WA. It was led by Harvey Jackins until his death in 1999. It is currently led by his son Tim Jackins.

History

In the early 1950s Harvey Jackins associated with L. Ron Hubbard (the founder of Scientology) and others interested in Dianetics (what later became Scientology).[3][4] This led Jackins to establish Personal Counselors Inc. which aimed to "engage in, conduct and teach the art and science of Dianetics."[5] RC reports that collaboration between Jackins and Hubbard became unworkable, and Jackins ended their association and continued to develop RC as a separate organization.[4]

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jackins continued to build Personal Counselors, Inc., and in the 1960s and 1970s took RC from Seattle, where he first practiced it, to the rest of the US and then to other countries.[citation needed] Between 1975 and 1990, he appointed local teachers, area representatives, regional leaders and representatives of groups. A set of Guidelines for the community was adopted a biennial conference of local leaders. The Guidelines are revised at similar conferences, known as "World Conferences", originally biennial but currently every four years. The conferences also adopt general goals for the community.[citation needed]

After Jackins' death in 1999, his son, Tim Jackins, was chosen at a conference, attended by leaders in the RC communities worldwide, to take over the role of International Reference Person, the title given to the leader of RC.[citation needed]

Investigation by the Boston Globe

Co-counseling was recently the focus of a 2021 investigation by the Boston Globe, after a youth worker in the school system was found to be practicing co-counseling (which is not a licensed therapy program) with minors without the permission of the student's parents.[1]

Quoting from the Boston Globe: "Boston high school sophomore, Keondre McClay said he was pressured by the head of a district-sponsored youth advocacy program to attend an overnight retreat in Newton, where white adults asked the Black teenager to wrestle out his emotions on a gym mat with them. They said it would help him purge his trauma from experiencing racism. McClay fled to his room. Jenny Sazama, the program leader, and other retreat participants chased after him. For more than an hour, he recalled recently, they hugged him on his bed and entreated him to return to the group 'counseling' session while he hid under the covers screaming, “Please leave me alone!”.[1]

Organization

The organization's official title is "The International Re-evaluation Counseling Communities". It is resourced by Re-evaluation Counseling Community Resources, Inc., with headquarters in Shoreline, Washington, USA. Its president is Tim Jackins and its vice president is Sarah Elizabeth Jackins.[6] The corporation owns trademark in the terms "Re-evaluation Counseling", "RC" and "United to End Racism".[7] It also controls the Re-evaluation Foundation, a non-profit 501(c) organization, and Rational Island Publishers.[8]

Within RC, Tim Jackins is called the "International Reference Person". He is a former community college mathematics teacher from Palo Alto, California, and a graduate of Yale and Stanford. He has been a co-counselor, leader and teacher of RC for most of his life. The International Reference Person appoints senior leaders ("reference persons") in consultation with local groups. Local groups choose local leaders. Reference persons are consulted about who can attend events, teach RC, and lead groups. According to RC itself, no reference person is paid.[9]

Re-evaluation Counseling encourages its members to play an active role in public life[10] and has set up groups to promote its ideas, which it calls "naturalized" groups.[8] The main groups promoting RC methods are United to End Racism" (UER), formed in 2000, and Sustaining All Life, formed in 2015. UER is part of RC and shares its HQ in Shoreline.[8]

The Re-evaluation Foundation aims "To provide opportunities for people to participate in Re-evaluation counseling who otherwise could not afford to participate."[11] It was founded in 1972.[8] Its president is Michael Markovits,[12] a former vice-president of IBM.[citation needed] Its assets at the end of 2006 were approximately $1M.[13] In 2007, the foundation made grants to several organizations initiated by Re-evaluation Counseling.[8]

United to End Racism

United to End Racism
StatusActive
GenreAnti-racism, ethnic
FrequencyAnnually
CountryUnited States
Inaugurated2000
Websitewww.unitedtoendracism.org

United to End Racism (UER) is a program made out of members of Re-evaluation Counseling (RC), which publicly states that its aim is to eliminate racism "on an individual basis" using Re-evaluation counseling, a practice invented by Harvey Jackins. UER was founded by RC on 28 November 2000.

United to End Racism is one of a number of non-profit organizations that represent RC in public forums. Harvey Jackins, founder of the RC movement, encouraged members of RC to create such organizations to spread RC ideas and objectives along lines decided by the RC leadership; previous well known examples of this tactic include Nuclear Freeze campaigns in the 1980s and the US-based National Coalition Building Institute, founded by RC'er Cherie Brown. Jackins' son, Tim Jackins, the current world leader of RC, is also the de facto leader of UER. The organisation appears solely to exist to service activist conferences as an invited body, and only sporadically carries out other activities. It has no separate membership from RC and is managed from Personal Counselors, Inc (recently renamed "Re-evaluation Counseling Community Resources, Inc"), the office of RC in Seattle. Officers of UER are members of Re-evaluation Counseling and UER policies are determined by the RC leadership.

Aggressive response to criticism

There have been few papers about RC in scholarly journals. RC often refuses to cooperate with attempts at independent investigation.[14] Dennis Tourish and Pauline Irving in a 1995 article compared his system of management to the communist state model of democratic centralism.[15]

The organisation is sensitive to criticism, either external or internal, which it regards as an attack on the organization.[citation needed] According to Steve Carr, "To counter attacks on RC and its leaders, RC members are instructed to interrupt the person, approach the accusation as the personal problem of the accuser, and vigorously come to the defense of the person or people being attacked."[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Martin, Naomi; Vaznis, James; Crimaldi, Laura (May 26, 2021). "Inside the unlicensed counseling that led Boston students to allege emotional abuse". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
  2. ^ "Moving beyond Re-evaluation Counseling - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2022-10-03.
  3. ^ Cusack, Carole M. (2017-01-01). "Squirrels" and Unauthorized Uses of Scientology: Werner Erhard and est, Ken Dyers and Kenja, and Harvey Jackins and Re-Evaluation Counselling. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-33054-2.
  4. ^ a b "A Brief History of RC". www.rc.org. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  5. ^ Copy of the articles of incorporation filed by Harvey Jackins Tim Jackins. "Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
  6. ^ "Re-Evaluation Counseling Community Resources, Inc". wa.14thstory.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-25.
  7. ^ "Apply for a Trademark. Search a Trademark". trademarkia.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-16.
  8. ^ a b c d e "United to End Racism". www.rc.org. Archived from the original on 2007-02-18. Retrieved 2006-06-19.
  9. ^ "Guidelines For The Re-evaluation Counseling Communities". www.rc.org.
  10. ^ "Killing the Beast within: The Rise of Re-Evaluation Counseling". Archived from the original on 2011-08-13. Retrieved 2011-06-17. Cletus Nelson, Killing the Beast Within
  11. ^ "Charities – WA Secretary of State". wa.gov. Archived from the original on 2017-05-08.
  12. ^ "The Re-evaluation Foundation". www.rc.org. Archived from the original on 2002-04-20.
  13. ^ "Re-Evaluation Foundation in Seattle, Washington (WA) – NonProfitFacts.com". www.faqs.org. Archived from the original on 2012-10-13.
  14. ^ a b Steve Carr, "Attack Theory: Re-Evaluating RC", Polemicist, Volume 3, No. 5, April 1992[usurped]
  15. ^ Dennis Tourish and Pauline Irving, "Group influence and the psychology of cultism within re-evaluation counselling: A critique of Co-Counselling",Counselling Psychology Quarterly, Volume 8, Issue 1, 1995, pp.35-50
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