I've been aware of Teal Swan for a couple of years, my thoughts if they're useful:
1. The Completion Process is a very effective trauma recovery practice.
It is clearly based on well established practices, so it's not surprising that it works.
Teal's refinements of this process are useful.
This is the one thing about Teal that is objectively positive and useful and adds to people's life tools.
2. Outside of trauma recovery, many of her statements are mainly nonsensical in real-world terms. (Aliens, Akashic fields etc.).
I think she does believe them though, I don't think she's consciously lying.
However, they are not down to earth, or verifiable, in any sense.
That in itself should give viewers pause for thought.
3. Her older videos seem to have more integrity, less woo-woo Goop type stuff.
From what I can tell, the commercial expectations of the people invovled have corrupted the useful stuff that was there.
Maybe she was corrupt before, I don't know, but her success has brought it out.
Example: She used to explicitly refuse the label "leader" ... and now she claims it.
I suspect also that people around her have put her into a slightly alternate world, because it suits them to have a "guru" type figure with super powers.
Makes them feel special.
Teal used to mock those who became "guru" figures. She actively fought against being that in her earlier videos ... now it seems she's accepted that's what she's become.
In my opinion, that was a wrong choice that has led to lots of nonsense and, sadly, turned what was something like a genuine as far as it could be postive self-help group, into a cult.
4. On suicide:
I looked into this, and my view is that, at it's root, Teal basically says:
If someone has been having suicidal thoughts / feelings for a long time, then one way of getting free of them is to imagine doing it vividly.
The idea is that this breaks through the person's stuck state, enabling the person to become aware of what happens after suicide (i.e. it hurts other people and doesn't fix anything).
Clearly, this is a dangerous method for anyone to do without proper support; and would only be useful in a very few extreme cases; and should only be done after everything else has been tried.
From what I can see, the suicide that did happen on her watch causes her a lot of pain. That person seems to have had a long history of mental illness, and many years of suicidal thoughts / behaviour.
That the person did it while in Teal's therapy doesn't mean Teal is responsible. It happens to a lot of mental health practitioners.
What Teal's credentials are for doing this kind of work with these kinds of people is another question.
5. I admit I'm disappointed with the way Teal Swan has developed over the last couple of years.
She is a powerful communicator, an insightful empath, and has some useful and practical ideas.
In some of her videos, she exposes a lot of ways fraudulent teachers out there fool their students, in very clear, and well explained, ways.
What therefore surprised me is that she also thinks Osho was a positive influence. That made me wonder about Teal's reliability.
Overall, I suspect that if she hadn't made this her business, she would have remained "good", as far as normal human beings can be.
That she and many others now earn their livings from her work in this field means it has been corrupted.
Blake's comments quoted above about boundaries and rape show that there is a toxic arrogance that has infected them.
This arrogance is a sign of the corruption that is now in the group, very unfortunately.
1. The Completion Process is a very effective trauma recovery practice.
It is clearly based on well established practices, so it's not surprising that it works.
Teal's refinements of this process are useful.
This is the one thing about Teal that is objectively positive and useful and adds to people's life tools.
2. Outside of trauma recovery, many of her statements are mainly nonsensical in real-world terms. (Aliens, Akashic fields etc.).
I think she does believe them though, I don't think she's consciously lying.
However, they are not down to earth, or verifiable, in any sense.
That in itself should give viewers pause for thought.
3. Her older videos seem to have more integrity, less woo-woo Goop type stuff.
From what I can tell, the commercial expectations of the people invovled have corrupted the useful stuff that was there.
Maybe she was corrupt before, I don't know, but her success has brought it out.
Example: She used to explicitly refuse the label "leader" ... and now she claims it.
I suspect also that people around her have put her into a slightly alternate world, because it suits them to have a "guru" type figure with super powers.
Makes them feel special.
Teal used to mock those who became "guru" figures. She actively fought against being that in her earlier videos ... now it seems she's accepted that's what she's become.
In my opinion, that was a wrong choice that has led to lots of nonsense and, sadly, turned what was something like a genuine as far as it could be postive self-help group, into a cult.
4. On suicide:
I looked into this, and my view is that, at it's root, Teal basically says:
If someone has been having suicidal thoughts / feelings for a long time, then one way of getting free of them is to imagine doing it vividly.
The idea is that this breaks through the person's stuck state, enabling the person to become aware of what happens after suicide (i.e. it hurts other people and doesn't fix anything).
Clearly, this is a dangerous method for anyone to do without proper support; and would only be useful in a very few extreme cases; and should only be done after everything else has been tried.
From what I can see, the suicide that did happen on her watch causes her a lot of pain. That person seems to have had a long history of mental illness, and many years of suicidal thoughts / behaviour.
That the person did it while in Teal's therapy doesn't mean Teal is responsible. It happens to a lot of mental health practitioners.
What Teal's credentials are for doing this kind of work with these kinds of people is another question.
5. I admit I'm disappointed with the way Teal Swan has developed over the last couple of years.
She is a powerful communicator, an insightful empath, and has some useful and practical ideas.
In some of her videos, she exposes a lot of ways fraudulent teachers out there fool their students, in very clear, and well explained, ways.
What therefore surprised me is that she also thinks Osho was a positive influence. That made me wonder about Teal's reliability.
Overall, I suspect that if she hadn't made this her business, she would have remained "good", as far as normal human beings can be.
That she and many others now earn their livings from her work in this field means it has been corrupted.
Blake's comments quoted above about boundaries and rape show that there is a toxic arrogance that has infected them.
This arrogance is a sign of the corruption that is now in the group, very unfortunately.