Atlas›Domain XIV · Western esoteric, divinatory & new spiritual movements›Guide 068
Guide XIV-068

Universal Medicine (Benhayon)

Serge Benhayon1999Lismore, New South Wales
A 34 · L 57 · M 921 interventions in the Trinity explorer1 described for recognition only
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: Universal Medicine (UM) and its teaching "The Way of the Livingness" as described in the World Religions and Spirituality Project profile (Coco, 2020), in Serge Benhayon's own 2018 trial testimony as reported by Australian Associated Press, and as English family courts recorded its beliefs in 2020. Its self-description is attributed through those sources.

What it is. Universal Medicine is a healing movement and esoteric teaching founded in 1999 near Lismore in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales by Serge Benhayon, a former tennis coach with no medical qualifications. It began as healing sessions in his home, opened a clinic in Goonellabah, launched a website in 2006, began five-day retreats in 2008, set up the College of Universal Medicine as a charity in 2011, opened a Hall of Ageless Wisdom in Wollongbar in 2016 and began a School of Initiation in 2017 [source: Coco 2020, WRSP]. Followers are called "the Student Body" [source: Coco 2020, WRSP]. The English Court of Appeal recorded a European base in Somerset [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568]. Reported size varies: about 15,000 people had attended retreats and presentations over a decade, according to an AAP report, and MJA InSight+ estimated about 700 followers, mostly women [source: Canberra Times/AAP 2018; MJA InSight+ 2018] [uncertain: figures differ by source and date].

Core idea of how change happens (as the movement teaches it). Benhayon presents his teaching as part of an "ageless wisdom" lineage that he traces back to Hermes, Plato and Pythagoras, and that scholars link to the Theosophy of Blavatsky and Alice Bailey [source: Canberra Times/AAP 2018; Coco 2020, WRSP]. In this teaching, energy is either "fire", which comes from the soul, or "prana", which is harmful. Illness and distress are attributed to harmful prana, to discarnate beings said to invade the lower chakras, and to "incarnational debris" and false beliefs. Healing is said to restore energetic balance and to undo unhelpful patterns of thought and feeling [source: Coco 2020, WRSP]. Benhayon testified that his healing was meant to "restore energy" and that he had developed seven or eight "modalities" [source: CIFS archive of AAP, 4 Sep 2018; Canberra Times/AAP 2018]. These are the movement's concepts, described here without endorsement or dismissal.

Evidence status (one line). No controlled evidence supports UM's claims that its modalities heal or prevent disease. A professor of medicine told a NSW parliamentary inquiry that claims that breast massage could cure breast cancer were "ludicrous", and in 2018 a NSW Supreme Court jury found substantially true the imputation that Benhayon makes fraudulent medical claims [source: MJA InSight+ 2018; Canberra Times/AAP 2018]. Nothing in this guide presents any UM practice as treating cancer or any physical disease.

Court findings in brief (details in the Harm account). In October 2018, in a defamation action Benhayon brought against a former client turned blogger, a four-person NSW Supreme Court jury found substantially true imputations that he leads a "socially harmful cult", is a charlatan who makes fraudulent medical claims, preys on cancer patients, intentionally touched clients indecently, and exploited children by having them vouch for UM's healing [source: Canberra Times/AAP 2018; Echo Net Daily via CIFS 2018; BuzzFeed News 2018]. In 2020 English family courts found the group to be "a cult with some potentially harmful and sinister elements" and moved a child's primary care to her father [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568; S [2020] EWHC 1940 (Fam)].

What this guide is for. It is not a guide to practising UM healing, and the therapist does not practise it. It is a guide to working with clients who attend UM, are leaving it, were harmed by it, or love someone inside it [synthesis].

2. Framework

2a. How the movement is organised (as published and reported)

  • Entry points: paid one-to-one "esoteric healing" sessions with UM-trained practitioners, including complementary therapists who add "esoteric healing styles" to acupuncture or massage, and clinics such as UniMed Brisbane [source: Coco 2020, WRSP]. Named modalities in reliable reports include Esoteric Breast Massage, ovary or ovarian "readings", esoteric lung massage, Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy and Chakra-puncture, which is based on acupuncture [source: MJA InSight+ 2018; Dwyer, the limbic 2018].
  • Teaching events: free sermons on The Way of the Livingness, monthly meditations, training workshops, "Expression and Presentation" sessions reviewed by Benhayon, Unimed weekends and five-day retreats [source: Coco 2020, WRSP].
  • Inner formation: the School of Initiation, from 2017 [source: Coco 2020, WRSP]. No public curriculum is described here.
  • Women's and young people's programmes: Esoteric Women's Health runs the Our Cycles app and a Girl to Woman Festival [source: Coco 2020, WRSP].
  • Lifestyle teachings: courts recorded food categories ("Fiery", "Pranic" and "Evil" foods), restriction of wheat, grain and dairy, and rules about anticlockwise movement linked to a heart centre [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568].
  • Entities: the College of Universal Medicine (a charity run by Student Body members), Esoteric Women's Health, Unimed Living (media), UniMed Publishing (Benhayon's books, credited to "Serge Benhayon and The Hierarchy"). Coco notes that the religious and commercial sides are formally separate but "thoroughly intertwined in practice" [source: Coco 2020, WRSP].

Published criteria for moving up through these levels: none found in the sources consulted.

2b. The psychotherapist's framework (phases of work with an affected client)

This phase model is [synthesis]. It is built from the risks named by courts and regulators. No source gives session counts, so none are stated.

  1. Engage and assess. Goal: understand what UM means to the client, in the client's words, and get a clear picture of physical-health status, children in the household, finances and any history of touch or boundary violations. Move on when the client can name what they want from therapy and urgent medical and child-safety questions have been answered.
  2. Stabilise and coordinate. Goal: make sure any medical condition is being looked after by the client's doctor, deal with any child-safeguarding concern, and deal with acute anxiety about food or illness. Move on when there is no unmanaged medical or safeguarding risk.
  3. Work through. Goal: support autonomous decisions about involvement, look at group dynamics and family conflict, and process any sexual-boundary harm or financial loss. Move on when the client's decisions are their own and they can tolerate ambivalence.
  4. Rebuild or integrate. Goal: for leavers, work on religious trauma, grief, identity, social networks and relationships with children and family; for those who stay, keep up safety-relevant boundaries such as medical care and children's diet and contact. Ending: the client has stable supports and a plan for setbacks.

3. Guiding principles

  • Attribute, do not adjudicate, beliefs. In practice: say "in UM's teaching, prana is…" and never argue metaphysics with the client [synthesis].
  • Separate belief from harm. In practice: assess specific behaviours (delayed medical care, food restriction in a child, unwanted touch, money transfers), not whether the cosmology is true [synthesis; grounded in Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568, which turned on effects on a child].
  • Physical health goes to doctors. In practice: never assess, endorse or criticise a treatment decision yourself. Ask permission to coordinate with the client's GP or specialist, and never advise starting, stopping or changing a medicine [synthesis].
  • Autonomy-respecting decision support. In practice: help the client weigh options against their own values, using accurate information from their doctors. No ultimatums [synthesis].
  • Children's welfare is paramount. In practice: food fear, secrecy, alienation from a parent, or refusal of care in a child triggers safeguarding steps whatever the parents believe [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568; S [2020] EWHC 1940 (Fam)].
  • Psychological, not only physical, separation. In practice: when a client says they have left, explore beliefs and practices still active, as the English court distinguished a "skin-deep" break from a full one [source: S [2020] EWHC 1940 (Fam)]. Use this for understanding, not as a test of loyalty [synthesis].
  • Trauma-informed handling of touch histories. In practice: let the client set the pace and language, never press for detail, and offer a choice about reporting [synthesis].
  • Name findings accurately. In practice: refer to court findings by what was found (for example, "a jury found it substantially true that…") rather than labelling the group yourself [synthesis].
  • No dual roles. In practice: the therapist is never a healer, reader or spiritual teacher for the client and offers no energy work in session [synthesis].
  • Culture and community. In practice: use the Cultural Formulation Interview to set UM within the client's wider religious, family and social world [synthesis; CFI details uncertain: not verified].
  • Expect conflict and pressure around the client. In practice: be aware of litigation, online campaigns and pressure on critics reported around UM, keep careful notes, and get legal or professional advice before writing reports [source: BuzzFeed News 2018; Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified].

4. Intervention inventory

This inventory has two parts. Part A lists the movement's own practices as reliable sources name them, so that the therapist can recognise them when a client mentions them. These are public outlines only: no technique is described and none is to be used in therapy. Part B gives the psychotherapist's own interventions.

Part A. Movement practices the client may describe (recognition only)

A1. Esoteric healing sessions (general)

  • Purpose (as the movement states it): to restore energetic balance and clear harmful energy through gentle touch of a clothed client. Benhayon testified that practitioners follow a code of ethics on touch and pressure and must explain everything beforehand [source: CIFS archive of AAP, 4 Sep 2018].
  • Steps (therapist): ask what the client was told the session would do, what happened, whether they felt free to decline any part, what it cost and how often they attend. Do not ask for a description of the touch beyond what the client volunteers.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What did you hope these sessions would help with, and how did you decide that?"
  • Watch for: sessions used in place of medical assessment; touch the client did not clearly agree to; a reading that "finds" abuse or trauma and suggests it to the client (Benhayon testified that he asked a client about abuse after finding "compromised energy") [source: CIFS archive of AAP, 4 Sep 2018]; mounting costs. Harm risk: see the Harm account.

A2. Esoteric Breast Massage, ovary or ovarian "readings" and "esoteric ovary massage"

  • Purpose (as reported): UM practitioners reportedly claimed that breast massage could cure breast cancer, prevent painful periods and ease menopausal symptoms; the English Court of Appeal recorded that the group presented "esoteric ovary massage" as healing emotional blockages [source: MJA InSight+ 2018; Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568]. No technique is described here.
  • Steps (therapist): if the client mentions these, check medical follow-up for any breast, gynaecological or menstrual symptom and, gently, whether any touch felt sexual or unwanted. Offer, never press, a conversation about reporting options (Part B, B8).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some people have later felt uneasy about sessions like that, and some have not. How do you feel about it now, looking back?"
  • Watch for: breast lumps, bleeding or pain being "worked on" instead of examined by a doctor; shame, confusion or self-blame about touch; disclosures. A 2018 jury found substantially true the imputations that Benhayon intentionally touched clients indecently [source: BuzzFeed News 2018; Echo Net Daily via CIFS 2018]. In 2013 health bodies examined the breast massage technique and took no action, concluding it had not caused patient harm [source: Coco 2020, WRSP].

A3. Chakra-puncture

  • Purpose (as reported): an acupuncture-based UM modality [source: Dwyer, the limbic 2018]. Specific health claims for it: none found in the sources consulted.
  • Steps (therapist): ask who delivered it and in what setting, and whether the practitioner is also a registered health practitioner. If so, the registration regulator's standards apply as well as UM's own code [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Was this with someone who also works as a registered practitioner, like an acupuncturist or physio?"
  • Watch for: a registered practitioner blending esoteric sessions into a regulated service without clear disclosure (see A5). Regulator decisions specific to chakra-puncture: none found in the sources consulted.

A4. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy and esoteric lung massage

  • Purpose (as reported): a trial protocol studied Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy for chronic low back pain; esoteric lung massage was offered after a lung disease was framed as driven by "deep-seated grief" [source: MJA InSight+ 2018]. The researchers' undeclared conflicts of interest were investigated by the University of Queensland, and a journal said the omission "is a clear violation of our policies" [source: MJA InSight+ 2018]. Trial results: none found in the sources consulted.
  • Steps (therapist): treat any framing of a physical illness as "caused by" an emotion as the client's belief to explore, while confirming that the illness is under medical care.
  • Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like you were told grief was behind your breathing problems. What has your own doctor said about the breathing itself?"
  • Watch for: delayed diagnosis. In one documented case a patient referred for esoteric lung massage was later diagnosed with interstitial pneumonitis on a second opinion [source: Dwyer, the limbic 2018].

A5. Referral of patients by registered health professionals into UM therapies

  • Purpose (as reported): some UM-associated doctors and therapists referred patients to esoteric practitioners [source: MJA InSight+ 2018].
  • Steps (therapist): if a client was referred into UM therapy by a doctor, note who referred and whether the link to UM was disclosed. The client may complain to the relevant regulator (Part B, B13).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Did the doctor tell you they had a personal connection to the therapy they suggested?"
  • Watch for: undisclosed conflicts of interest. The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) process led to a respiratory physician being reprimanded in 2017 for unsatisfactory professional conduct for failing to disclose UM involvement when referring a patient, with restrictions on his referrals to complementary therapy [source: MJA InSight+ 2018; Dwyer, the limbic 2018].

A6. The Way of the Livingness: sermons, meditations, workshops, retreats, School of Initiation

  • Purpose (as the movement states it): spiritual development through aligning with "fire" and "energetic responsibility" in relationships [source: Coco 2020, WRSP]. The School of Initiation's content is treated as internal and is not described here.
  • Steps (therapist): map the client's weekly time, money and relationships tied to these activities; ask what the teachings mean to them and what they would lose by stepping back.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What does a typical week look like, and which parts of it are connected to the Livingness?"
  • Watch for: contact with non-member family dropping away; deference to Benhayon's approval on personal decisions [source: Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified]; a jury finding that he persuaded followers to shun loved ones who would not join [source: BuzzFeed News 2018].

A7. Food and movement rules

  • Purpose (as the movement states it): avoiding "pranic" influences. Courts recorded "Fiery", "Pranic" and "Evil" food categories and restriction of wheat, grain and dairy, plus rules about anticlockwise movement [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568].
  • Steps (therapist): screen for restrictive eating, fear of "wrong" foods, weight change and, in children, food anxiety and fear for others' health. Refer to the GP and, where indicated, eating-disorder services [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "How do you decide what to eat these days, and what happens inside you if you eat something outside the rules?"
  • Watch for: the English Court of Appeal found a child anxious about food, fearful that her father would fall ill or die from eating "wrong" foods, and possibly vulnerable to eating disorders [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568].

A8. Products

  • Purpose (as reported): herbal creams, teas and elixirs sold with therapeutic claims. The Therapeutic Goods Administration later required UM to remove therapeutic claims for its herbal creams [source: Coco 2020, WRSP].
  • Steps (therapist): note spending and any use of products in place of medical treatment; route medicine questions to the GP or pharmacist. Give no advice on products.
  • Example language (illustrative): "That's a question for your GP or pharmacist. Would it help to write it down for your next appointment?"
  • Watch for: products replacing prescribed treatment.

Part B. The psychotherapist's interventions

All Part B procedures are [synthesis] unless a source is given. They are built on the risks courts and regulators documented.

B1. Client-led exploration of meaning

  • Purpose: understand what UM gives the client (belonging, a sense of being cared for, explanations for suffering, a spiritual path) before any risk talk, so that the alliance survives later difficult conversations.
  • Steps: (1) Ask consent to talk about the client's spiritual life. (2) Use the client's own terms ("the Livingness", "fire", "prana") and ask what each means to them. (3) Ask what drew them in and what was happening in their life at that time. (4) Reflect values, not doctrines. (5) Note what the client fears losing.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you say a food feels 'pranic', what is that like for you?" / "What was going on in your life when you first went to a session?"
  • Watch for: the client checking whether you are "for or against" the group; relief at being asked rather than judged. It is working when the client brings up doubts or harms without prompting.

B2. Cultural Formulation Interview (including the spirituality, religion and moral traditions supplementary module)

  • Purpose: place UM involvement within the client's cultural identity, family and community, and their own explanation of their difficulties.
  • Steps: (1) Use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview core questions on cultural definition of the problem, causes, supports and help-seeking. (2) Add the supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions. (3) Record the client's explanatory model (for example, illness as energetic disharmony) alongside medical explanations, without ranking them aloud. Exact item wording is not reproduced here [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "How would people in your community, inside and outside UM, explain what you're going through?"
  • Watch for: an explanatory model that leaves no room for medical or psychological help; family conflict along belief lines.

B3. Differential assessment without pathologising belief

  • Purpose: tell apart sincerely held minority beliefs from symptoms such as psychosis, mania, dissociation, OCD-type scrupulosity, eating disorder or complicated grief.
  • Steps: (1) Ask whether the belief is shared by the client's group (shared beliefs, such as sensing spirits or energy, are not delusions in themselves). (2) Look for features beyond the group's norms: personal, idiosyncratic beliefs, disorganisation, loss of function, decreased need for sleep, command experiences. (3) Screen for intrusive fear of "contamination" by foods, music or people that the client experiences as unwanted and distressing (possible OCD) as distinct from valued practice. (4) Screen eating. (5) Where a spiritual or religious problem is the focus without disorder, ICD-10-CM Z65.8 (other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances), whose inclusion terms list "religious or spiritual problem", may be used [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8 (Unbound Medicine)].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Do other members experience this the same way, or is it something that's just yours?"
  • Watch for: your own bias in either direction. It is working when you can describe the client's beliefs in their terms and any disorder in clinical terms, separately.

B4. Medical coordination and autonomy-respecting decision support

  • Purpose: protect against delayed diagnosis and treatment, which reliable reports link to UM therapies [source: Dwyer, the limbic 2018; MJA InSight+ 2018].
  • Steps: (1) Ask about current physical symptoms, diagnoses and whether a doctor is involved. (2) With consent, contact the GP or specialist to share relevant concerns. (3) If the client is weighing esoteric healing against medical treatment, help them list their own values and questions, and send the questions to their doctor. (4) Do not comment on the merits of a medical treatment and never advise starting, stopping or changing a medicine. (5) Record the conversation.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm not the right person to judge the medical side, but I can help you get clear answers from your doctor. What would you most want to ask?"
  • Watch for: symptoms being "worked on" without examination; the client hiding UM involvement from their doctor; the doctor being UM-affiliated (see A5). It is working when the client attends medical appointments with their own questions.

B5. Assessing group dynamics and coercive control

  • Purpose: gauge how much the client's choices are still their own.
  • Steps: (1) Map decisions (diet, relationships, money, work, children, medical care) and who influences each. (2) Ask about consequences of dissent. (3) Ask about contact with non-members. (4) Listen for a "closed intellectual system" or "cultural bubble", terms used in expert evidence before the English courts [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568]. (5) Note reported practices such as shunning loved ones who will not join, which a jury found substantially true [source: BuzzFeed News 2018].
  • Example language (illustrative): "If you decided to eat differently, or to skip a retreat, what would happen, and who would you talk to about it?"
  • Watch for: fear, secrecy and loyalty conflicts; the client defending against criticism you did not make. It is working when the client can hold both their attachment and their doubts.

B6. Financial exploitation review

  • Purpose: identify money, property or bequests being drawn into the group.
  • Steps: (1) Ask what the client spends on sessions, courses, retreats, products and donations. (2) Ask gently about wills and powers of attorney, especially for seriously ill clients. (3) If there is pressure, suggest independent legal and financial advice. (4) Never advise on specific legal steps yourself.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some people find their spending creeps up without noticing. Would it help to look at the last year together?"
  • Watch for: pressure on people with cancer to change wills. A 2018 jury found substantially true the imputation that Benhayon preys on cancer patients, including by targeting them for bequests [source: Canberra Times/AAP 2018]. One reported patient spent more than A$30,000 [source: Dwyer, the limbic 2018].

B7. Leaving, religious trauma and identity

  • Purpose: help leavers rebuild meaning, relationships and self-trust.
  • Steps: (1) Validate the losses (community, purpose, a world view). (2) Name leftover fears (foods, music, "energies") and work on them gradually, using exposure-based work only with consent and if the client wants it. (3) Rebuild social links and ordinary routines. (4) Address shame and self-blame. (5) Respect that the client may keep some beliefs; psychological separation is the client's own process.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Leaving can mean losing friends and a whole way of making sense of things at once. Which of those losses is loudest right now?"
  • Watch for: grief, anger, depression and suicidal thoughts. Assess risk with standard practice and ask about safe storage or removal of means where indicated. A drop in fear around everyday choices shows it is working.

B8. Trauma-informed response to disclosures of unwanted touch

  • Purpose: support clients who experienced sexualised or unwanted touch in healing sessions; a jury found substantially true the imputations that Benhayon intentionally touched clients indecently [source: BuzzFeed News 2018].
  • Steps: (1) Believe and thank; do not interrogate. (2) Assess current safety and symptoms (intrusions, avoidance, shame). (3) Explain reporting options (police; the HCCC for health-service complaints) and that the choice is the client's (if adult and safe). (4) Offer evidence-based trauma treatment where PTSD is present. (5) Document carefully in case of later proceedings.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Thank you for telling me. You get to decide what, if anything, happens next. I can explain the options whenever you're ready."
  • Watch for: self-blame framed in the group's language ("my energy invited it"); dissociation during recall.

B9. Working with family members' concerns

  • Purpose: support relatives worried about someone in UM, without turning them into enforcers.
  • Steps: (1) Hear the concern. (2) Separate what the relative has seen from what they fear. (3) Encourage warm, steady contact and curiosity instead of argument; no confrontation scripts. (4) Plan for safety issues (children, medical care) separately. (5) Look after the relative's own grief.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Keeping the door open often matters more than winning the argument. What helps you stay connected with her?"
  • Watch for: relatives' own distress and burnout; legal disputes in which the therapist could be drawn in as a witness.

B10. Child safeguarding

  • Purpose: protect children from medical neglect, harmful food restriction, alienation from a parent and pressure to vouch for healing. A jury found substantially true the imputation that Benhayon exploited children by having them vouch for UM's healing practices [source: Canberra Times/AAP 2018].
  • Steps: (1) Ask about children in the household and their diet, health care, schooling and contact with both parents. (2) Watch for signs found in Re S: food anxiety, fear for a parent's health, secrecy, loyalty conflict, alienation from the non-member parent [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568; S [2020] EWHC 1940 (Fam)]. (3) Follow your jurisdiction's mandatory reporting or safeguarding procedures. (4) Refer the child for paediatric and, where needed, psychological assessment. (5) Seek consent from those with parental responsibility and the child's assent, unless safeguarding law overrides this.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I need to think with you about how the children are doing. Can you tell me about their meals and how they've been with their dad?"
  • Watch for: courts treating continued deep involvement as harmful to the child [source: S [2020] EWHC 1940 (Fam)].

B11. Grief

  • Purpose: support those bereaved after a member's illness or death, or estranged from a family member in the group.
  • Steps: use standard grief work; acknowledge anger at the group without encouraging the client to dwell on it; make room for guilt ("I should have stopped her").
  • Example language (illustrative): "It makes sense to feel both grief and anger. Neither cancels the other."
  • Watch for: complicated grief; risk around anniversaries; involvement in estate disputes.

B12. Keeping the therapist's role clear

  • Purpose: avoid dual relationships.
  • Steps: the therapist does not offer energy work, readings or healing, and does not join or publicly campaign about the group in ways that could reach the client. If you have your own connection to UM or its critics, consider whether to refer on and seek supervision.
  • Example language (illustrative): "My role is to help you think, not to tell you what's spiritually true."
  • Watch for: pressure from the client to take a side.

B13. Complaints and reporting routes (New South Wales; adapt elsewhere)

  • Purpose: let clients act on harm if they choose.
  • Steps: (1) For non-registered health practitioners in NSW, the Code of Conduct sits in Schedule 3 of the Public Health Regulation 2022; complaints go to the HCCC, which can investigate and make prohibition orders [source: NSW Health code of conduct page]. (2) Practitioners must display the Code and how to complain on their premises or website [source: NSW Health code of conduct page]. (3) The HCCC takes complaints online, by phone, post or in person [source: HCCC non-registered practitioners page]. (4) For registered practitioners, the relevant registration regulator applies [synthesis]. (5) Criminal conduct goes to police.
  • Example language (illustrative): "There is a body that handles complaints about health services, including unregistered ones. Would you like me to show you how it works?"
  • Watch for: fear of retaliation or legal action; tell the client to seek legal advice. Critics of UM have faced defamation suits [source: BuzzFeed News 2018].

5. Handling problems

The sources say little about therapy with UM members. Except where a source is given, the guidance below is [synthesis].

  • Client defends the group as soon as the topic arises. Back off content. Reflect the loyalty ("It matters a lot to you that people understand what it has given you") and go back to B1. Do not quote court findings unless the client asks or a safety issue requires it.
  • Client fears the therapist or therapy is "pranic" or harmful energy. Name it openly, ask what would make sessions feel safer (setting, pace, topics), and agree that the client controls the agenda. If the fear blocks all work, consider whether the timing is right and leave the door open.
  • Rupture after you mention court findings. Repair: own the timing, explain why you raised it (a safety concern, not a verdict on their faith), and ask how they would like such things raised in future.
  • Client declines medical assessment or treatment for a serious condition. Assess decision-making capacity in the usual way. If capacity is present, respect the decision while keeping the door to medical care open, offer to help prepare questions for a doctor, document carefully and consult a colleague. If capacity is in doubt, or a child is affected, follow local law and safeguarding procedures. The English courts treated a parent's continued involvement as a pervasive source of harm to a child when it caused food anxiety and alienation [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568].
  • Apparent leaving that is only physical. In a custody case the court found a parent's break "skin-deep": she had left the organisation and its members but not its beliefs or practices, and had not acknowledged harm to the child [source: S [2020] EWHC 1940 (Fam)]. In therapy, treat continued beliefs as normal after leaving and work on them at the client's pace. If you are asked for a report in proceedings, be aware that the judge gave little weight to a therapist's conclusions that had not tested the parent's acknowledgement of harm or considered disguised compliance [source: S [2020] EWHC 1940 (Fam)]. Keep therapeutic and forensic roles separate.
  • Overwhelm when a leaver faces the scale of loss. Slow down, stabilise (sleep, routines, supports), and focus on one domain at a time. Assess suicide risk.
  • Non-adherence to between-session tasks. Check whether tasks clash with group rules (for example, eating with family). Agree tasks the client sees as consistent with their values.
  • Family conflict in therapy. Keep the client's goals central. Meet relatives only with consent, and do not mediate custody or estate disputes.
  • Legal pressure on the therapist. UM's litigation against critics, including letters a judge described as "disgraceful" and a document request she called "harassment and unreasonable", is reported [source: BuzzFeed News 2018]. Keep accurate, factual notes, avoid public comment about clients, and seek advice from your professional indemnity insurer or legal adviser before releasing records or writing reports.
  • The client shows you a group-produced research paper. Note that some papers by UM-associated researchers were investigated for undeclared conflicts of interest [source: MJA InSight+ 2018], and send health questions to the client's doctor.
  • Online harassment or reputation campaigns. Reports describe coordinated online activity and complaints against critics [source: Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified]. Help the client with digital safety and documentation.
  • The client stays in UM and wants support. Respect the choice. Agree safety-relevant boundaries (medical care, children's diet and contact, consent to touch) and keep exploring meaning.

Harm account

What was actually done

  • Paid healing sessions with touch. From 1999 Benhayon gave one-to-one "esoteric healing" sessions, first at home and then in a clinic in Goonellabah, and trained practitioners in his modalities [source: Coco 2020, WRSP]. At trial in September 2018 he testified that sessions involved touch over clothed women's bodies, including near the pelvis and chest, and that after finding "compromised energy" he had asked a client about abuse [source: CIFS archive of AAP, 4 Sep 2018]. A former client described a 2005 session as an "ovarian reading" [source: Canberra Times/AAP 2018]. The technique of Esoteric Breast Massage is not described here.
  • Health claims. Practitioners reportedly claimed that breast massage could cure breast cancer, prevent painful periods and reduce menopausal symptoms [source: MJA InSight+ 2018]. Illness was framed as caused by harmful energy, discarnate beings and "incarnational debris" [source: Coco 2020, WRSP]. The Therapeutic Goods Administration required UM to remove therapeutic claims for its herbal creams [source: Coco 2020, WRSP].
  • Referral by registered professionals. A respiratory physician referred a patient with lung disease to an esoteric therapist at his clinic, framing the disease as driven by grief. A NSW professional standards committee reprimanded him in 2017 and restricted his referrals to complementary therapy, and he later stood down from the AMA Queensland council for passing medical information to the group [source: MJA InSight+ 2018; Dwyer, the limbic 2018].
  • Research. Medical-faculty researchers at the University of Queensland published studies of UM-associated women and a back-pain trial protocol on Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy. The university investigated undeclared conflicts of interest and a journal considered retraction [source: MJA InSight+ 2018].
  • Teachings on food, movement and relationships. Courts recorded food categories ("Fiery", "Pranic", "Evil"), restricted foods, and rules about anticlockwise movement [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568]. A jury found substantially true that Benhayon persuaded followers to shun loved ones who would not join [source: BuzzFeed News 2018].
  • The 2018 defamation trial. Benhayon sued a former client, a former acupuncturist who blogged and tweeted about UM in 2014, in the NSW Supreme Court over 21 publications [source: O'Brien Solicitors case study]. On 15 October 2018 a four-person jury found substantially true imputations that Benhayon: leads a "socially harmful cult"; is a charlatan who makes fraudulent medical claims; preys on cancer patients, including by targeting them for bequests in their wills; intentionally touched the former client indecently during a consultation and indecently touched a number of clients; uses "bizarre sexual manipulation" to make money; is sexually manipulative of followers; vilified people with disabilities; has an improper sexual interest in young girls who stay at his house unaccompanied; exploited children by having them vouch for UM's healing practices; and is dishonest and exploitative [source: Canberra Times/AAP 2018; Echo Net Daily via CIFS 2018; BuzzFeed News 2018]. A further judgment followed in 2019 ([2019] NSWSC 169, cited by the English Court of Appeal); the defendant's lawyers report that honest opinion, contextual truth and statutory qualified privilege defences were made out for the remaining imputations [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568; O'Brien Solicitors case study]. An appeal and its outcome are [uncertain: not verified].
  • Costs and pressure on critics. At a December 2018 costs hearing the former client sought indemnity costs, arguing that Benhayon used his financial position to inflict "pain" beyond ordinary litigation. The judge called a 31-page letter sent on the day of the defendant's father's funeral "disgraceful" and described a document request as "harassment and unreasonable". Two people associated with UM had sued her in Queensland, and she filed for bankruptcy in December 2017 after a pretrial costs order there [source: BuzzFeed News 2018]. Costs were awarded to her, and a private settlement followed [source: O'Brien Solicitors case study]. The amount is reported as about A$1.2 million on an indemnity basis [uncertain: secondary, unverified].
  • A child in England. In April 2020 the Court of Appeal ([2020] EWCA Civ 568, Peter Jackson, McCombe and King LJJ) upheld a finding that UM is "a cult with some potentially harmful and sinister elements". It held that the Australian findings were ones "no reasonable parent in the mother's position could disregard", and found the child had been harmed. In July 2020 Williams J transferred the child's primary care to her father [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568; S [2020] EWHC 1940 (Fam)].

How it caused harm

  • Delayed diagnosis and treatment. Reframing physical illness as energetic or emotional, and offering touch-based sessions for it, risks delayed diagnosis. A 2014 NSW parliamentary inquiry found little anecdotal evidence that the treatments themselves caused harm but heard concern that patients might forgo proper medical care. Two patients cited there were diagnosed with cancer and bronchiectasis and needed medical treatment. Another, referred for esoteric lung massage, was told she might need chemotherapy or a lung transplant, and a second opinion diagnosed interstitial pneumonitis [source: Dwyer, the limbic 2018].
  • Sexual boundary violation under a healing frame. Touch near the breasts and pelvis, justified as energy work, and "readings" that suggested abuse created conditions for violation, confusion and self-blame. The jury found indecent touching of clients substantially true [source: BuzzFeed News 2018; CIFS archive of AAP, 4 Sep 2018].
  • Financial harm. Sessions, courses, retreats and products added up: one patient reportedly spent more than A$30,000. Seriously ill people faced pressure over bequests [source: Dwyer, the limbic 2018; Canberra Times/AAP 2018].
  • Psychological harm from false hope and from the collapse of that hope [source: Dwyer, the limbic 2018].
  • Harm to children. Food anxiety, fear that a parent would die from eating "wrong" foods, secrecy, loyalty conflict, alienation from a non-member parent and possible vulnerability to eating disorders [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568]; children used to vouch for healing [source: Canberra Times/AAP 2018].
  • Family breakdown through shunning of non-members [source: BuzzFeed News 2018].
  • Corruption of trust in professionals and research, through undisclosed affiliations [source: MJA InSight+ 2018].
  • Who was most at risk: women with gynaecological, breast or menstrual concerns (most followers were women); people with cancer or chronic illness; children of members; people in custody disputes; critics and former members facing litigation [source: MJA InSight+ 2018; Canberra Times/AAP 2018; BuzzFeed News 2018; Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568].

Recognising it today

UM's entities and programmes continue under several names: the College of Universal Medicine, Esoteric Women's Health (the Our Cycles app and Girl to Woman Festival), Unimed Living, UniMed Publishing and UniMed clinics, with practitioners who add "esoteric healing styles" to acupuncture or massage [source: Coco 2020, WRSP]. Whether these are all still active is [uncertain: not verified]. Features and phrases to notice [synthesis, drawing on the sources cited above]:

  • "Esoteric" attached to a body part or therapy (esoteric breast, ovary, lung or connective-tissue work; chakra-puncture), especially for breast, menstrual, menopausal or gynaecological concerns.
  • Physical illness explained as caused by energy, prana, spirits, past lives or a specific emotion ("grief drives lung disease"), with sessions offered instead of examination.
  • Talk of "the Livingness", "fire" versus "prana", "energetic responsibility", "the Hierarchy", "the Student Body", or food sorted into "fiery" and "pranic".
  • A registered doctor, nurse, physiotherapist or acupuncturist who refers patients to, or blends in, esoteric therapies without disclosing a personal link.
  • Research or testimonials presented as evidence where authors or speakers are members and have not declared it; children giving testimonials about healing.
  • Products sold with therapeutic claims outside regulatory approval.
  • Hostility, legal threats or online campaigns against critics and former members.

Red flags in a colleague's or a service's practice: touching breasts or pelvic areas in the name of energy work; "readings" that suggest abuse or trauma to the client; discouraging or delaying medical care; asking about wills or soliciting large payments from seriously ill people; secrecy about affiliations; failing to display the NSW Code of Conduct and complaint information where it is required [source: NSW Health code of conduct page].

How legitimate versions differ: registered massage, physiotherapy or acupuncture works within a defined scope with specific informed consent for any sensitive-area contact, makes no claim to cure cancer or disease, refers promptly for medical assessment, and discloses conflicts of interest [synthesis]. Breast and gynaecological symptoms are assessed by GPs and specialists. Spiritual communities can offer meaning and belonging without making health claims.

What to do instead and how to help those harmed

  • Instead of esoteric healing for physical symptoms: assessment and treatment by the client's GP and relevant specialists; for women's health concerns, a GP, gynaecologist or breast clinic. Complementary therapies, if the client wants them, should come from practitioners who work within the applicable code of conduct and alongside medical care [synthesis; source: NSW Health code of conduct page].
  • Instead of a high-control spiritual setting: if the client wants a spiritual life, explore communities and practices that respect autonomy, allow questions and keep away from health claims, chosen by the client [synthesis].
  • Assessment of affected clients: use B1 to B6 for physical-health status and medical follow-up, trauma symptoms after unwanted touch, eating and food fears, depression and suicide risk, grief, finances, family estrangement, and the children's welfare [synthesis].
  • Treatment: evidence-based trauma treatment for PTSD; eating-disorder care via the GP where indicated; grief work; religious-trauma-informed work on identity and rebuilding social networks (B7); family work where the client wants it (B9) [synthesis].
  • Children: follow mandatory reporting and safeguarding duties in your jurisdiction; refer for paediatric and psychological assessment; recognise that courts have treated food anxiety, alienation from a parent and secrecy linked to UM teachings as harm [source: Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568; S [2020] EWHC 1940 (Fam)].
  • Complaints and legal routes: in NSW, complaints about unregistered practitioners and health organisations go to the HCCC, which can investigate and make prohibition orders [source: NSW Health code of conduct page; HCCC non-registered practitioners page]; complaints about registered practitioners go to the relevant registration regulator; possible crimes go to police; financial or estate concerns go to independent lawyers [synthesis]. Support adult clients to choose for themselves whether to report.
  • Ethical duties of the therapist: confidentiality and its legal limits, no dual roles (no healing, readings or spiritual guidance), careful records, keeping therapeutic and forensic roles separate, and supervision when the work touches litigation or public controversy [synthesis].

Sources

Web pages:

ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), https://www.unboundmedicine.com/icd/view/ICD-10-CM/945432/all/Z65_8___Other_specified_problems_related_to_psychosocial_circumstances

Also cited [uncertain: not verified]: the NSW Supreme Court judgment [2019] NSWSC 169; the 2014 NSW parliamentary inquiry report on false and misleading health-related information and practices (as reported by Dwyer, above); the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview.

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