Disturbing

While I was investigating the waste of Te Reo Marama in the area of Maori Public Health I came across a disturbing example of how people are troughing and also endangering people at the same time.

On 30 July there was a Regional Cluster Hui at Nga Tai E Rua Marae in Tuakau about Health issues.

One of the speakers was Damian Peters. He had a session entitled Neuro Linguistic Programming and it was a session that suggested that NLP could be used to to assist in helping Maori stop smoking. Here in lies just one of the problems.

Wikipedia describes Neuro Linguistic programming as;

Because of the absence of any firm empirical evidence supporting its sometimes extravagant claims, NLP has had little or no support from the scientific community. It continues to make no impact on mainstream academic psychology, and only limited impact on mainstream psychotherapy and counselling. However, it has some influence among private psychotherapists, including hypnotherapists, to the extent that they claim to be trained in NLP and apply it to their work. It has had an influence in management training, life coaching, and the self-help industry.

For those of you who are struggling to understand what NLP is think of it as something akin to touching your middle finger to your thumb on both hands and reciting Oooooohm, I can stop smoking, over and over again, and thus you will be cured of your filthy habit. It is pure bunkum, yet we seem to be funding people to attend Hui, presumably from the public purse, to listen to witch-doctors espouse discredited theories. As a case in point watch this video.

Speaking of witch-doctors, Damian Peters, the person running the Magic Ohhhhhm session has a few problems of his own.

Wellington, Sept 8 NZPA – A counsellor who developed sexual relationships with female clients is a serious risk to the New Zealand public, says Deputy Health and Disabilities Commissioner Tania Thomas.

In a report issued today following an investigation, Ms Thomas identified Damian Peters, who she said showed a total lack of insight into his actions.

Mr Peters had caused harm to another under the guise of being a professional counsellor, which was unacceptable, she said.

“To provide false information during this investigation is to shirk responsibility for one’s actions.

“To refuse to comply with lawful instructions is true arrogance,” Ms Thomas said.

Mr Peters had neither set nor maintained professional boundaries when he counselled a client, identified as Ms A, from August 2004 to August 2006, Ms Thomas said.

“Instead he gradually blurred the boundary between their therapeutic and personal relationship to the point where counselling sessions in his professional office were followed by sexual intercourse.

“Mr Peters’ knowledge that Ms A was a vulnerable client — having suffered sexual abuse in the past — compounds the seriousness of his behaviour.”

It wasn’t the first time Mr Peters had been before the Health and Disabilities Commissioner (HDC) over a sexual relationship with a client.

There certainly needs to be some sort of quality control and investigation in the area of Maori Health Providers from the masses of evidence that I am uncovering.