The young woman stood naked in her downtown office building, swaying next to an open window. Her final words were sudden and calm: “I know I am going to jump.”
Rebekah Lawrence burst into song and leapt out the window. Lawrence died that day. But her mind had begun to show cracks a few days before, during an intense self-help seminar called The Turning Point. The course had pledged to change her life. Instead, some say, it led to her death.
For nearly 40 years, the mental health community has kept a wary eye on the explosion of self-help groups around the world. But despite concerns they can push the fragile too hard, too fast, these groups operate unmonitored and unregulated, most run by people with no formal mental health training.
In the four years since Lawrence’s fatal plunge, investigators for an inquest into her death have focused on a key issue: Was a course to blame for her psychosis and death? Or did the 34-year-old woman’s descent into madness begin earlier, triggered by her unrealized dream of having a child?
Lawrence grew up along Sydney’s northern beaches and received an archaeology degree from the University of Sydney. She met David Booth on a blind date in 1996. A few weeks later, they moved in together. In 1999, Lawrence proposed. He agreed reluctantly; he already had a son, Jarrod, from a previous marriage.
Seven years into the relationship, Lawrence brought up the idea of children. Booth was angry; Jarrod was nearly out of high school and the prospect of starting over with a baby was daunting. And so he told her children were not an option. They fought about it every month; Lawrence, then 33, struggled over whether to leave.
A friend suggested the couple attend a course called The Turning Point, run by People Knowhow, a Sydney self-development company. The program had worked miracles for her marriage, the friend said. On its Web site, People Knowhow says the course has helped 40,000 people achieve work-life balance, greater emotional intelligence and loving relationships. The couple was curious, but tucked the suggestion away.
In 2004, Lawrence sought counseling. Her therapist, Helen Mitrofanis, later told police Lawrence was lonely and anxious over whether to have children. She wondered if her life had been pointless. In October 2005, Lawrence finally paid the US$600 fee for the four-day Turning Point course. She wanted guidance on her conflicting feelings over children, and resolution to her anxieties over friendships and habit of blushing. The friend who had suggested The Turning Point was pleased, Booth says, but warned Lawrence that she had felt unsettled after the course.
For years, mental health professionals have tried to determine if any link exists between certain self-help seminars and participants who later suffered psychosis. But the research has offered few clear answers. In the early 1970s, entrepreneurs began offering courses to teach people how to unlock their untapped potential. Emergency rooms began reporting scattered cases of participants turning up in psychotic states.
But because most self-development companies bill their courses as educational rather than therapeutic, they are not subject to the same regulations as counselors or psychologists. People Knowhow’s officials have no formal psychological training. Director Geoff Kabealo has a degree in business administration; Turning Point leader Richard Arthur has a degree in computer science.
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