Glossary
Addictive behavior is the continued giving in to the restimulated feelings of a distress recording and re-enacting the distress recording’s content.
The Alternate Area Reference Person (AARP) is the person responsible for immediately assuming the functions of the Area Reference Person (ARP) if the ARP is unable to function for any reason. The Alternate may undertake other activities in relationship to the ARP and the Area, but these are optional.
The Alternate International Reference Person (AIRP) is the person who will immediately assume all the functions of the International Reference Person (IRP) if the IRP is unable to function for any reason.
Antisemitism refers to the specific oppression directed against the Jewish people. Although Arabs and other groups are also Semitic peoples, the term antisemitism has always been used specifically to refer to the oppression of Jewish people.
An Area is a formal grouping of Co-Counselors, with a designated leader called the Area Reference Person (ARP). Areas are formed by the decision of the Co-Counselors in the local Community, with approval from the IRP.
Area Maintenance Funds support the functioning of a local Area and are used for expenses, such as printing and mailing; and purchasing items for Community use, such as mats, assistive hearing devices, and RC audio and video recordings. Maintenance Funds are typically raised from donations or by taking a percentage of local class fees. Maintenance Funds are optional and are handled by the Area Reference Person (ARP) and/or other Area leaders.
Area Outreach Funds are kept in individual Area accounts. They are used to help individuals pay for workshop fees, transportation expenses, and RC literature. They come from fees paid for classes, workshops, and other Area events as well as from voluntary donations (not tax-deductible). The use of Area Outreach Funds must be authorized by the Area Reference Person (ARP), or a designated account signer for a Developing Community account. Area Outreach Funds are either held and managed by Re-evaluation Counseling Community Resources, Inc. (RCCR) or kept locally by Areas outside of the United States, with the agreement of the International Reference Person (IRP).
An Area Reference Person (ARP) is an RC leader who thinks about and oversees an Area as a whole. The ARP develops and supports leadership within the Area and exercises judgment on which activities are consistent with RC theory and policy.
An attack may be either an organized attempt to disrupt the functioning of the Community or a smearing of an individual. Trying to get others to support one’s upset with a Co-Counselor or the Community is an attack. Thinking that an error has been made, being upset with someone, questioning someone about their thinking, or arguing for a different point of view is not an attack.
The break-even fee is the estimated cost of a workshop per person. It can be calculated by dividing the total expected costs of the workshop including the 10% of total income (or in the case of online events, 30%) to be paid to the Community Service Fund by the number of expected participants.
Community Service Funds are funds that support the ongoing work of the RC Community by helping to pay for workshop fees, travel to workshops, and RC literature. They also support the administrative work of the RC Community done at Re-evaluation Counseling Community Resources, Inc. (RCCR). They come from fees paid for workshops, classes, and other events, as well as from donations (not tax-deductible). Community Service Funds are held by RCCR, and their use is authorized by the International Reference Person (IRP).
Confidentiality in RC means that nothing that the client reveals in a session, or in their turn as client in a class, a support group, or a workshop, is to be repeated to anyone without their permission. This also means not repeating it to the client at another time.
Cooperative workshops are workshops in which one teacher is in charge of the workshop as a whole and other Co-Counselors lead parts of the workshop or assist (as a team) the overall leader.
Coordinator: See “Local and Regional Coordinators.”
“Counsel the leader” is a format that brings out the thinking of a group and uses their attention to counsel the leader of the group.
Culturally enforced distress patterns are distress patterns enforced by a group’s culture.
Data—Personal data includes name, email address, phone number, and social media IDs. Sensitive data includes physical address, constituency data, special needs and diet data, language data, financial data, and similar information.
A Developing Community (previously called "an unorganized Area”) is a group of Co-Counselors in a geographic location who are working together to build an RC Community.
Disability in RC refers to and describes the oppression targeted at people with an impairment. A disability is created by a society when adaptation or accessibility is not provided or where negative attitudes are manifested. A person with an impairment becomes disabled when facing a barrier (physical or attitudinal).
A draft liberation policy is a statement representing a group’s best thinking at that moment in time about its liberation from oppression, including suggestions for achieving its liberation. A draft liberation policy statement is not binding on anyone or meant to tell people what they should think or do. It a tool to promote discussion and discharge. All RC liberation policy statements are considered drafts, to be updated as people become able to think more clearly about the liberation of their group.
An each-one-teach-one event is an introduction to RC in which Co-Counselor's each bring someone who is not a Co-Counselor.
Family work is a range of ways in which we use RC to support young people, parents, and families. It uses play to build strong connections between young people and their parents and other adults, and supports young people to use the discharge process. It includes creating situations where young people lead adults in play and other activities to challenge the oppression of young people in our society.
A skilled family worker is an RC leader who has been trained to lead family work and is approved to lead it by the International Commonality Reference Person (ICRP) for Family Work.
Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life intended to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing actions or policies intended to prevent births within the group, or removing children of the group from their families and communities.
Global Majority People—The peoples of Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, and Latin America, and those descended from them, are over eighty percent of the global population. These people also occupy most of the global land mass.
Using the term “Global Majority (GM)” for these people acknowledges their majority status in the world and interrupts how the dominant (U.S. and European) culture assigns them a minority status.
Many Global Majority people living in dominant-culture countries have been assimilated into the dominant culture—by force, in order to survive, in seeking a better life for themselves and their families, or in pursuing the economic, political, or other inclusion of their communities. Calling these people “Global Majority” contradicts the assimilation.
A Co-Counselor in good standing is a Co-Counselor who actively participates in RC and supports its development.
Guidelines having the force of a requirement for being part of the RC Community are those that require the agreement of the International Reference Person (IRP) for any deviation. These are Guideline A.5. Confidentiality; Guideline B.3. Use of the Terms “Re-evaluation Counseling” and “RC”; Guideline H.3. (and H.3.A. Online version), Regional and Area Classes, Support Groups, and Playdays, and Area Gather-ins; Guideline H.4. (and H.4.A. Online version), Class and Area Workshops and Daylong Playdays; Guideline H.5. (and H.5.A. Online version), Regional and International Workshops and Gather-ins; Guideline H.7. Outreach Finances: Communities Outside the United States; Guideline J.2. Duplicating and Electronically Distributing RC Publications and Other Materials; Guideline J.4. Publications Royalties; Guideline J.7. Preserving Confidentiality when Writing about Others; Guideline K.1. Internet Safety; Guideline M.1. The No-Socializing Policy; and Guideline O.2. Handling Attacks.
Humanness refers to what RC theory, based on our practice, describes as the nature of humans when we are not under the effects of distress recordings. This includes acting based on intelligence, a sense of connection, a caring and cooperative nature, and a zest for life.
Impairment refers to and describes a physical, medical, or quasi-medical health condition.
For example, “I have a visual or hearing impairment.”
Intelligence is the ability to create a new, flexible, creative response to each new, present situation. Undischarged distress experiences interfere with this ability.
An International Commonality Reference Person (ICRP) represents a group of individuals who are involved with a particular issue and represents their interests in the International RC Community. The ICRP is the International Reference Person’s (IRP’s) deputy leader of that constituency. The ICRP proposes and develops policies and publications, and leads workshops and conferences on the constituency’s particular interests.
An International Liberation Reference Person (ILRP) represents a constituency’s interests in the International RC Community and is the International Reference Person’s deputy leader of that constituency. The ILRP proposes and develops liberation policies and publications, and leads workshops and conferences on the constituency’s particular interests
The International Reference Person (IRP) exercises judgment about and coordinates International actions and policies.
Interpreting means orally translating.
Language liberation is the mutual commitment and organized effort shared by members of the RC Communities for creating spaces and modes of communication free from language oppression. We aim to do this in all our interactions with people.
Language oppression—Those speaking non-dominant languages have fewer and unbalanced opportunities to access information and resources. Those speaking dominant languages act out distresses of domination and superiority, especially when these are languages of imperialist, colonialist, and capitalist societies. The distresses include devaluation of, contempt for, and marginalization of non-dominant languages. English has become the dominant language globally. Native speakers of all other languages experience language oppression in relation to it.
A Re-evaluation Counseling (RC) leader is a Co-Counselor who assumes responsibility for everything going well in the RC Community—by teaching RC classes, leading support groups and/or workshops, and/or serving as a Reference Person or in other special roles.
A Local or Regional Coordinator of a particular constituency is an RC leader who coordinates activities that encourage the growth and re-emergence of the constituency within the locality or Region.
A member of the RC Community is a Co-Counselor who assumes responsibility for helping the Community to function, by participating in and contributing to RC activities, supporting leadership, and assisting in the work of the Community.
A definition for mind-altering drugs was deleted as part of an Interim Modification to the Guidelines by the IRP on 2/1/24. A PDF showing the full modifications adopted at that time can be found here.
Occluded means blocked or inaccessible, as in “occluded” intelligence.
An online class includes any person or people regularly participating in it over the Internet.
Oppression is the one-way systematic mistreatment of a group of people by the society, or by another group of people who serve as agents of societal oppression, with the mistreatment encouraged or enforced by the society.
Outreach/Outreach Funds is/are financial assistance for people whose circumstances make it difficult for them to have access to RC. Outreach Funds can include Area Outreach Funds and Community Service Funds (both held by Re-evaluation Counseling Community Resources [RCCR]), and International Outreach Funds (held by the Re-evaluation Foundation).
A playday or family class is an RC family-work event at which skilled adults and cooperating parents play with young people in the ways that the young people choose, and under the young people’s direction, all under the leadership of a skilled family worker. The playday or family class should include mini-sessions and/or support groups for the adults and may include introductions, a theory presentation, special time, and a closing circle. The play often creates opportunities for the young people to discharge, and these “sessions” are supported by the adults.
Policies are guides and agreements that assist a group of people to act together in a cooperative, supportive way. Policies can promote discharge and help clarify thinking. They represent our best thinking to date, so they are always considered to be in draft form. Policy consists of (1) proposals for the application of RC theory, (2) recommendations based on our past experiences, and (3) structures for implementing these proposals and recommendations.
There are two different kinds of policies in the RC Community: (1) the Community’s policies, including those endorsed by a World Conference or an Area meeting, and (2) policies that represent the best thinking of a particular group (draft liberation policy statements).
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-LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, gender non-conforming, and non-binary people) 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.
Psychiatric drugs are substances prescribed by psychiatrists or health care providers to “treat” what they call “mental illness.” This includes difficulties such as sleeplessness, tension, stress, or “disruptive behavior,” passivity, anxiety, and grief. They are also prescribed to suppress or numb feelings and effects of oppression. They include substances such as Ritalin and Adderall that are widely prescribed to young people and others to enforce compliance and passivity. Psychiatric drugs are sometimes called psychotropic drugs.
The Publications Fund of Rational Island Publishers (RIP) provides resource for RIP to produce the publications of the Re-evaluation Counseling Community.
Racism is the one-way, systematic mistreatment of a group of people on the basis of “racial” characteristics, which is reinforced by society. (We say “racial” in quotes because we believe that while human beings have cultural, social, religious, or other differences, we share many more commonalities than we have differences, and there is only one race of our species, the human race.)
Rational means free of the effects of distress.
Re-emergence means regaining fully human functioning, free from the effects of distress recordings.
Re-evaluation Counseling: See “Co-Counseling.”
The Re-evaluation Counseling (RC) Community is an international network of people who each use the tools of RC to regain access to their full, individual intelligence and innate humanness. We are a network of local RC Communities, groups, and classes. We also offer RC tools to people everywhere and invite them to join in a common effort to regain access to our full intelligence.
Re-evaluation Counseling Community Resources, Inc. (RCCR) is the international office for Re-evaluation Counseling and is located in Shoreline, Washington, USA.
A Re-evaluation Counseling (RC) teacher is an RC leader who is currently certified to teach RC.
The Re-evaluation Foundation provides financial resources to help disseminate RC ideas, skills, and leadership training to people whose circumstances limit their access to RC. Established in 1972, it is a completely separate entity from the RC Community and from RCCR. It is registered in the United States as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation under the jurisdiction of its board of directors.
A Reference Person is an RC leader who has agreed to play the role of exercising judgment about a Community, Region, constituency, or group, in ways that are consistent with RC theory and the Guidelines. Members of a Reference Person’s Community, Region, constituency, or group can consult with the Reference Person about RC theory and practice.
A Region can be a geographic, ethnic, or language entity. Regions of various sizes in different locations around the world are initially created by the International Reference Person (IRP). As the RC Community has grown, many Regions have divided into two or more Regions. Regions may or may not contain organized Areas.
A Regional Reference Person (RRP) is appointed by and responsible to the International Reference Person (IRP). The RRP acts as the IRP’s deputy in developing and supporting leadership. An RRP holds this position at the discretion of the IRP, in consultation with the leaders of the Region. The primary responsibility of the RRP is the continued re-emergence of both existing and new leaders in the Region.
Release initiative means create the conditions in which more Co-Counselors initiate activities and move forward with their leadership.
The sex industries are global multi-billion-dollar industries that profit from 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.
Sexual harassment in RC is conduct of a sexual nature—verbal, written, physical, visual, or electronic—that is serious, or unwelcome and repeated.
Sexual misconduct includes sexual advances or stalking, sexual requests, sexual harassment, and other unwelcome behaviors and communications of a sexual nature.
A sliding scale offers a range of fees so participants can select the amount to pay, usually based on income. The sliding scale for a class is set by the teacher of the class. The sliding scale for a workshop is set by the workshop organizer, in consultation with the appropriate Regional Reference Person (RRP).
Social media websites and apps are wholly or partially intended for communicating with, sharing, and posting social or other content publicly or to a broad group of people that is not restricted to Co-Counselors. (This is different from other forms of electronic communication such as email or text messaging, which have the primary purpose of one-to-one contact or contact intended for a specific group of people.)
Groups targeted by oppression are groups of people often referred to as “oppressed groups.”
A teaching credential grants an applicant permission to teach RC. It requires the approval of the Area Reference Person (ARP), International Reference Person (IRP), and Regional Reference Person (RRP) (where one has been designated).
RC theory is a summary of information gained from the experiences of Co-Counselors that guides the practice of RC. It allows us to relate our individual experiences to what has already been experienced. We also build on our theory as we try and learn new things. Our theory continues to develop as our knowledge and understandings grow.
Trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, and selling of people of all ages for the purpose of gaining control over and exploiting them. It is carried out by threat, force, abuse of power, and coercion. Many people become involved in prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation by means of trafficking.
An RC Webinar is an online class sponsored by RCCR, usually offered internationally. RC Webinars are generally offered twice in a 24-hour period in order to be accessible globally.
A working consensus is a tentative agreement that allows the group to move forward.
A working group is a group of Co-Counselors doing something more than Co-Counseling or learning Co-Counseling together—for example, building an RC Community together, or participating in a women’s leadership group.
Wygelian is an RC-invented term for any of the many constituencies—Native and Indigenous people, Global Majority people, women, LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, gender non-conforming, and non-binary) people, young people, elders, people with disabilities, and so on.
Young adults in RC are people who are between the ages of twenty-two (22) and thirty (30).
Young people in RC are people who are twenty-one (21) years of age or younger.