D. REQUIREMENTS FOR RE-EVALUATION COUNSELING TEACHERS
D.2. Requirements of RC Teachers[52]
Experience and Knowledge
People applying to teach RC shall, whenever possible,
- have participated in many RC classes and workshops;
- have Co-Counseled effectively with a number of Co-Counselors of diverse backgrounds and identities;
- have discharged consistently in their sessions;
- have regular Co-Counseling sessions;
- stay up-to-date with RC theory, which includes reading the literature (including Present Time) when possible (taking into account available translations[53] and literacy);
- subscribe to Present Time,[54] if English is their first language or, if English is not their first language, obtain as many as possible of the Present Time articles that have been translated into their language[55];
- be knowledgeable about the Guidelines, follow them, and support their use;
- be knowledgeable and teach about the Goals of the RC Community;
- have good relationships with their local Co-Counseling Community; and
- have been an assistant teacher or had similar leadership experience.
Teachers should understand the purpose of the Community policy on not socializing and follow it.
Moving Against Distress
When approving teachers, Reference Persons will consider the applicants’ competence, responsibility, relationships with others, and capacity to handle their surroundings and their own well-being. The goal is to have each teacher be free of any patterns that interfere with being an excellent model of RC. Classist, racist, anti-Jewish, sexist, young people’s, anti-LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, gender non-conforming, and non-binary), and “mental health” oppression, and all other oppressive patterns[56], including greed, are part of our societies. Teachers are to challenge and discharge on all oppressive patterns they encounter in RC activities and in their own lives.
Discharge and decision can be used to eliminate addictive behavior.[57] Meanwhile, teachers are expected
- not to engage in or defend the use of alcohol, cannabis, or other mind-altering drugs,[58] including psychiatric drugs; not to defend the use of tobacco or e-cigarettes;[59] and to understand and share information and an RC perspective in classes about the harmfulness of their use[60] (exceptions[61] are to be discussed with the teacher’s RRP);
- not to defend the use of pornography,[62] prostitution, or other sex industries[63] [64];
- to have counseled enough on the sexual distresses that society has installed on them (as on all of us) to not engage in sexual contact for money or other forms of compensation or otherwise collude with the exploitation of anyone who is compelled or driven by violence, threat, force, economic conditions, or oppression to offer such contact;
- to work to free themselves from rigid and repetitive sexual behaviors and longings;
- to counsel on and challenge all distresses related to addictive behavior, including in the areas of sex, money, and food, and to counsel on and challenge the use of or avoidance of medications[65] and/or medical treatment;
- not to intentionally act out patterns that endanger themselves or others;
- to discharge any attitudes of superiority toward anyone;
- to work openly as a client with a Reference Person or Reference Persons about any struggles to meet these expectations.
Teachers are expected to discharge and take action against oppressive patterns
- for their own successful re-emergence,
- to be models for other people,
- to teach successful classes and build successful Communities, and
- to be leaders wherever they are.
REASON
RC teachers are expected to be excellent models of RC theory. They should attempt to guide their lives by rational thought and RC theory.
The use of addictive and/or harmful substances, the participation in harmful activities, and the acting out of addictions or frozen longings are inconsistent with RC theory. They affect the full functioning of our minds, install new hurts, and collude with and reinforce oppression. Our society promotes these substances and activities to make people numb and silence their struggle against oppression.
Our experience indicates that no human would use these substances or participate in these activities in the absence of oppression, other hurt, and targeting by profit-motivated entities. People can recover from the damage caused by these substances and activities through discharge.
Those actively engaged in the struggle to end heavy addictions have often proved to be good RC teachers.
The current rapid expansion and normalization of the global commercial sex industries poses a challenge to the RC Community’s commitment to all people regaining access to their full intelligence, free from the effects of distress recordings. RC teachers must understand the far-reaching effects of this industry, in general and on our work. This industry is designed to manipulate people to act irrationally, which undermines our ability to think clearly. We stand against the efforts of this industry and the patterns installed on the individuals engaged in the industry, but not against the individuals themselves.
The sex industries are based in and promote patterns of male domination, sexism, and economic exploitation. They target particular oppressed groups—primarily women and girls, but also Native and Indigenous people, Global Majority people, poor people, LGBTQ+ people, and boys—with further exploitation. Men, who are oppressed by society into becoming agents of oppression, are targeted by the sex industries to become compulsive users. Increasingly women and young people are also targeted as users. The sex industries distort the rational human need for closeness and affection and reinforce sexual distresses.
[52] This Guideline has the force of a requirement to teach RC.
[53] The RC Communities are committed to providing translations of RC theory into all languages. While we work in that direction, Communities that don’t have theory translated into their language are encouraged to organize or ask for support for teachers to access and understand written theory.
[54] A shared subscription is fine.
[55] Translations of many articles can be found here: rc.org/translations.
[56] See Articles Supporting Our Understanding of the Guidelines, including articles on liberation theory: rc.org/guidelinesresources.
[57] Addictive behavior is the continued giving in to the restimulated feelings of a distress recording and re-enacting the distress recording’s content.
[58] Mind-altering drugs are drugs that affect the central nervous system and interfere with the thought process and/or with discharge and re-evaluation.
[59] Co-Counselors who use tobacco or e-cigarettes may teach RC as long as they are actively committed to ending the behavior and openly discharging on the struggle to do so.
[60] See Articles Supporting Our Understanding of the Guidelines: rc.org/guidelinesresources.
[61] It is expected that RC teachers will not defend the use of such substances. There may be exceptions such as the use of a dopamine promoting drug for someone with Parkinson's disease.
[62] The use of pornography is defined as the seeking out of written, audio, or visual materials that are intended to restimulate sexual feelings. Pornography is a form of sexual exploitation, mainly of women and young people as objects and of men as consumers. It exists within a context of sexism, male domination, young people’s oppression, and classism. Racism and anti-LGBQT+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, gender non-conforming, and non-binary) oppression also play key roles in the ways that everyone is exploited and oppressed by it. Although pornography has been primarily promoted to men as consumers, the highly profitable pornography industry is increasingly targeting women as consumers as well.
[63] The sex industries are global multi-billion dollar industries that profit off of commercial sexual exploitation. The sex industries include but are not limited to pornography, prostitution, Internet sex, escort services, strip clubs, erotic massage parlors, sex tourism, and sex trafficking.
[64] See Articles Supporting Our Understanding of the Guidelines: rc.org/guidelinesresources.
[65] A medication is a substance that treats, prevents, or alleviates the symptoms or causes of a disease or other medical condition.