Arbours Association communities

Domain III · Humanistic, existential & experiential · Joseph Berke, Morton Schatzman, Roberta Elzey Berke · 1970 · London

What it is

The Arbours Association is not a single therapy but a London charity and community network, set up in 1970 by former colleagues of R. D. Laing at Kingsley Hall, including Joseph Berke and Morton Schatzman (other founding members named in an early report: Roberta Elzey Berke, Vivien Millett, Richard…

Format

• This is a setting-based model, not a session-by-session protocol. The phases below are assembled from the sources; the Centre's own "five stages of stay" are named in Beyond Madness but their content is not described here.
• Phase C: Residential stay.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• What it is. The Arbours Association is not a single therapy but a London charity and community network, set up in 1970 by former colleagues of R. D. Laing at Kingsley Hall, including Joseph Berke and Morton Schatzman (other founding members named in an early report: Roberta Elzey Berke, Vivien Millett, Richard Goldberg). It ran (a) residential households where people in distress lived with therapists, (b) the…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• burnout, the stated reason for the three-year cap.
• one guest's crisis taking over every meeting; scapegoating.
• participation is encouraged, not required (unlike group meetings).
• family contact that repeatedly precipitates crises; agree visiting arrangements with the guest.
• guests too disorganised to tolerate a group; allow shorter attendance and follow up individually.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.