It is now my belief that whoever is posting these bizarre claims is trolling. Most of the allegations made here are false. This is not based on my personal opinion, but facts. The only situation in which I could imagine someone volunteering at Option choosing to stop contacting a loved one is if there was serious abuse happening at home. And if she has a documented psychiatric condition, it’s not likely they would accept the liability of having her there unless it was being treated, based on my observations. They explicitly don’t allow people with active substance abuse issues, suicidal ideation, etc. to be there (in the terms of agreement), and insist people remain following medical advice while there. Option doesn’t isolate people the way cults do, and they absolutely 100% don’t coerce or encourage people to cut off contact from their loved ones. The entire point is to *leave there* and have better communication with friends, partners, and family. In fact, I have been in courses where they give participants homework to work out their differences with loved ones or contact estranged loved ones to heal former conflicts that caused them to stop speaking. The very opposite of what is alleged here is true, so this account is laughable and suggests to me it was likely written by an abusive or controlling spouse that is angry that his partner has chosen not to take the abuse anymore.
I was a volunteer at the Option Institute for a year a little less than a decade ago (before their volunteer program was ended recently due to its cost to the organization.) We received three meals a day from the chef (all you can eat from a large buffet of warm food) and a weekly workshop, so this bizarre allegation that volunteers aren’t fed is absurd. I actually had to put myself on a diet there. It is true that the paid staff (different from the volunteers- they are hired from the local community) are not paid amazing wages (in my opinion), but all of them applied for the job from outside the organization and accepted those wages, and they certainly aren’t pushed into anything. To be honest, most of the paid staff aren’t even really involved with the workshops or philosophy and see this as a regular job that they leave behind at the end of the day. Volunteers (when they still had volunteers) came and went (including me), and not a single one of us was ever pressured not to leave or to come back after leaving. We were there because we wanted access to the workshops but couldn’t afford them, and the lodging (comfortable) and food was included. I was able to return to take week-long courses there twice, and haven’t heard a peep from them since, which would seem weird behavior for a so-called cult. It is entirely up to me to enroll in a course or not. Honestly, Option is no more a cult than the local church, synagogue, etc. In fact, those organizations preach that they know “the truth”, ask for financial contributions during their meetings, perform ritualistic behaviors, worship deities, and actively recruit members, much more cult-like than Option. Option has none of the markers of a cult, besides maybe the natural bonding that occurs in close-knit communities (but even then, we live far apart and keeping in touch is tough.) In fact, in every Option/Autism Treatment Center workshop, they repeatedly tell participants that this is only one approach/concept, and if it doesn’t work for you, don’t use it. That’s very much the opposite message to what most churches and religions teach. Why aren’t they accused of being cults (which I believe they are)? These hyperbolic statements about the police being "aware of what is going on" and them “finding a way” to have his wife donate her money to them is what convinced me that this person posting here knows he/she is lying. Most people attending Option or volunteering have a car, are out and about in Great Barrington and Sheffield, free to do whatever they want, encouraged to think whatever they want, and welcome to leave whenever they want. I even had a boyfriend who had nothing to do with Option when I was a volunteer (he thought it was nonsense), and I often stayed over at his place in a nearby town. Nobody stopped me or criticized that. What exactly are you alleging the police know is “going on”?
Anyway, I thought I should add my two cents as someone who has actually been there both as a long-term volunteer and for their workshops, which really helped me in times when I needed it. They are, for all intents and purposes, cognitive behavioral therapy sessions. I have seen many people helped by them, and have seen exactly zero people forced into anything or isolated from their loved ones (ludicrous). Also, regarding their autism programs at ATCA, they have never claimed they will cure every child’s autism. They have claimed that some children are so helped by the method that they sometimes are no longer diagnosed on the spectrum later in life. This is true for their success cases, which they, of course, highlight in their marketing for their programs. But for many more, this is a tool and very helpful in dealing with their kids on the spectrum. The playroom approach and positive treatment approach, radical acceptance of a child wherever they are at, seems to me like a very beneficial thing for parents to learn. But again, as they say themselves, *it’s only one approach* and if you don’t like it, don’t do it. I’m convinced that the people posting here have an ulterior motive in tearing down the Option Institute (disgruntled partners, competing autism organizations?) because none of this gels factually with my observations of them over the years. I don’t agree with everything they do (such as paying fairly low wages to their local staff, and how proprietary they are over their material, which is a version of many self-help philosophies and not exactly brand new), but this is absolutely not a cult, based on the identifying features of cults, and conflating it with one is actually harmful to the pursuit of stopping actual cults.
I was a volunteer at the Option Institute for a year a little less than a decade ago (before their volunteer program was ended recently due to its cost to the organization.) We received three meals a day from the chef (all you can eat from a large buffet of warm food) and a weekly workshop, so this bizarre allegation that volunteers aren’t fed is absurd. I actually had to put myself on a diet there. It is true that the paid staff (different from the volunteers- they are hired from the local community) are not paid amazing wages (in my opinion), but all of them applied for the job from outside the organization and accepted those wages, and they certainly aren’t pushed into anything. To be honest, most of the paid staff aren’t even really involved with the workshops or philosophy and see this as a regular job that they leave behind at the end of the day. Volunteers (when they still had volunteers) came and went (including me), and not a single one of us was ever pressured not to leave or to come back after leaving. We were there because we wanted access to the workshops but couldn’t afford them, and the lodging (comfortable) and food was included. I was able to return to take week-long courses there twice, and haven’t heard a peep from them since, which would seem weird behavior for a so-called cult. It is entirely up to me to enroll in a course or not. Honestly, Option is no more a cult than the local church, synagogue, etc. In fact, those organizations preach that they know “the truth”, ask for financial contributions during their meetings, perform ritualistic behaviors, worship deities, and actively recruit members, much more cult-like than Option. Option has none of the markers of a cult, besides maybe the natural bonding that occurs in close-knit communities (but even then, we live far apart and keeping in touch is tough.) In fact, in every Option/Autism Treatment Center workshop, they repeatedly tell participants that this is only one approach/concept, and if it doesn’t work for you, don’t use it. That’s very much the opposite message to what most churches and religions teach. Why aren’t they accused of being cults (which I believe they are)? These hyperbolic statements about the police being "aware of what is going on" and them “finding a way” to have his wife donate her money to them is what convinced me that this person posting here knows he/she is lying. Most people attending Option or volunteering have a car, are out and about in Great Barrington and Sheffield, free to do whatever they want, encouraged to think whatever they want, and welcome to leave whenever they want. I even had a boyfriend who had nothing to do with Option when I was a volunteer (he thought it was nonsense), and I often stayed over at his place in a nearby town. Nobody stopped me or criticized that. What exactly are you alleging the police know is “going on”?
Anyway, I thought I should add my two cents as someone who has actually been there both as a long-term volunteer and for their workshops, which really helped me in times when I needed it. They are, for all intents and purposes, cognitive behavioral therapy sessions. I have seen many people helped by them, and have seen exactly zero people forced into anything or isolated from their loved ones (ludicrous). Also, regarding their autism programs at ATCA, they have never claimed they will cure every child’s autism. They have claimed that some children are so helped by the method that they sometimes are no longer diagnosed on the spectrum later in life. This is true for their success cases, which they, of course, highlight in their marketing for their programs. But for many more, this is a tool and very helpful in dealing with their kids on the spectrum. The playroom approach and positive treatment approach, radical acceptance of a child wherever they are at, seems to me like a very beneficial thing for parents to learn. But again, as they say themselves, *it’s only one approach* and if you don’t like it, don’t do it. I’m convinced that the people posting here have an ulterior motive in tearing down the Option Institute (disgruntled partners, competing autism organizations?) because none of this gels factually with my observations of them over the years. I don’t agree with everything they do (such as paying fairly low wages to their local staff, and how proprietary they are over their material, which is a version of many self-help philosophies and not exactly brand new), but this is absolutely not a cult, based on the identifying features of cults, and conflating it with one is actually harmful to the pursuit of stopping actual cults.