Avatar

1. Introduction

Version followed: Avatar as published by Star's Edge International (founder Harry Palmer), in its current course ladder (ReSurfacing, the 9-day Avatar Course, the Masters, Professional and Wizards courses), read alongside the companion books Living Deliberately and ReSurfacing; secondary and independent sources are used where the organisation's own material is not cited, and are flagged.

Avatar is a commercial, trademarked large-group personal-development training, first released in 1986, taught in multi-day workshops and licensed to independent "Avatar Masters" worldwide. It is not a psychotherapy and this guide does not teach a therapist to deliver it. The guide is for a practising psychotherapist whose client is considering, is attending, or has attended Avatar, and who needs to support that client competently and ethically. [source: Wikipedia Avatar Course, uncertain: secondary, unverified; CIFS Australia]

Its core idea of how change happens is "belief management." Avatar holds that a person is the "source" of their own experience and that "what you believe has consequences in your life"; distress is attributed to limiting or unconscious beliefs the person has (often unknowingly) created, and relief is said to come from becoming deliberately aware of those beliefs and then "discreating" the unwanted ones so that reality can be re-created by choice. The stated organisational mission is "to catalyze the integration of belief systems." These are the system's own claims about mind and reality; they are described here as the movement holds them, neither endorsed nor dismissed. Avatar's language and several of its procedures descend from Scientology (see section 2); clinically the relevant point is that the training uses intense, experiential, multi-day group exercises aimed at shifting beliefs, with the documented risks common to large-group awareness trainings. [source: Wikipedia Avatar Course, uncertain: secondary, unverified; CIFS Australia; bigmarker Expansion Exercise listing; enlightened-spirituality LGATs]

The therapist's job is therefore not to adjudicate Avatar's metaphysics but to help the client make an informed decision, stay safe, integrate anything useful, recognise pressure and dependence, and recover if harmed.

2. Framework

The Avatar course ladder, as the organisation publishes it

Avatar is sold as a sequence of escalating courses; a graduate who pays to become a Master or Wizard may then teach lower courses and pays a royalty/licence share to Star's Edge on income earned. [source: CIFS Australia]

• ReSurfacing - described by Star's Edge and its Masters as Section I of the Avatar Course: a 2-day workshop of information, demonstrations and experiential exercises using around 30 "tools" to surface and examine self-limiting beliefs. Often introduced through a free "Info Hour" or evening/webinar demonstration (e.g. the "Expansion Exercise," Exercise 26, billed as conveying "an experience of expansion and integration"). [source: patch.com ReSurfacing listing; bigmarker Expansion Exercise listing]
• The Avatar Course - a roughly 9-day course comprising Sections I-III, delivered by licensed Avatar Masters; this is the core training and the gateway to the ladder above it. [source: patch.com ReSurfacing listing; Wikipedia Avatar Course, uncertain: secondary, unverified]
• Masters Course - trains graduates to deliver and sell the lower courses; taught by Star's Edge. As of 2008 the course had five sections, with Masters teaching the first three and Star's Edge teaching the two advanced sections. [source: Wikipedia Avatar Course, uncertain: secondary, unverified]
• Professional Course / Integrity Course - further licensed/advanced offerings; an "Integrity Course" has been reported as a 5-day course around US$500. [source: CIFS Australia]
• Wizards Course - the top course (introduced 1991), reported as a 13-day course around US$7,500, including lectures on a "history of consciousness." [source: CIFS Australia; Wikipedia Avatar Course, uncertain: secondary, unverified]

Exercises throughout are organised (in the system's own terms) around attention, feelings and "creation/discreation" of beliefs; they are described here in outline only. Independent sources put the total cost of climbing the ladder in the low thousands to roughly ten thousand US dollars or more, and note a strong pull from each course toward the next. Figures and course names vary by country and year; name the version and the current published price list when advising a specific client, and treat any single figure as [uncertain] unless confirmed on the organisation's current materials. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs; CIFS Australia]

Scientology background

Harry Palmer ran a Scientology mission (incorporated 1975 as the Elmira Mission) that licensed Scientology trademarks and paid tithes/fees; after a dispute and litigation the mission was renamed and Palmer launched Avatar in 1986. Early Avatar materials used heavy Scientology terminology, and terms such as "rundown," "handling" and "identities" persist; commentators have described Avatar as "Scientology-Lite." This lineage matters clinically because it predicts auditing-like one-to-one processing, a graded "bridge"-style ladder, loaded in-group vocabulary, and an emphasis on recruiting and on paid advancement. [source: Wikipedia Avatar Course, uncertain: secondary, unverified; CIFS Australia] (Cross-refer XIV 254, Scientology auditing.)

The therapist's working framework (phases of support)

Sources do not prescribe a therapist protocol or session count for working around an LGAT; the staged structure below is clinical [synthesis], to be paced to the individual rather than run as fixed sessions.

1. Before - deciding and screening. Goal: an informed, autonomous decision and a safety check. Covers screening for contraindications, informed consent, decisional balance, and an exit plan. Move on once the client has decided and (if attending) is prepared.
2. Before - preparing. Goal: realistic expectations, grounding skills, sleep and support in place. Move on when the client knows what to expect and how to pause or leave.
3. During - staying in contact (optional). Goal: a lifeline if overwhelm, a crisis, or pressure arises; agree in advance how and whether to make contact.
4. After - debriefing and integration. Goal: metabolise a "peak" or a breakdown, reality-test new beliefs without shaming, and reconnect to the client's own values and relationships.
5. After - longer term. Goal: address dependence, recruitment and financial pressure, support leaving if the client chooses, and treat religious trauma. [synthesis]

Criteria for moving between phases are the client's readiness and safety, not a timetable. If acute risk (suicidality, psychosis, mania) appears at any phase, risk management takes priority over all Avatar-related work.

3. Guiding principles

• You are supporting a client, not delivering or endorsing Avatar. Stay in the therapist role; never run Avatar exercises in session. [synthesis]
• Do not pathologise belief. A client holding Avatar's view of mind and reality is not thereby disordered; assess function and risk, not doctrine. [source: DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview approach; synthesis]
• Reality-test by function, not by content. Ask what a belief does in the client's life (safety, money, relationships, medical care), not whether it is "true." [synthesis]
• Informed consent is the client's, fully informed. The client is entitled to know the costs, the ladder, the Scientology lineage, the waivers, and the documented risks before paying. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs]
• Autonomy over persuasion. Your aim is the client's own reasoned choice, including the choice to attend; avoid replacing the group's pressure with your own. [synthesis]
• Curiosity, not confrontation. Avatar and similar trainings use confrontation; the therapy space should be the opposite - non-shaming, paced, consent-based. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs]
• Screen actively for vulnerability. Psychosis, bipolar disorder, PTSD, dissociation, recent bereavement, suicidality, eating disorders and pregnancy change the risk calculus of an intensive training. [source: LGAT literature; synthesis]
• Name the normal arc of a peak. Euphoria during and after an LGAT, sometimes with a manic quality, often gives way to a let-down; predicting this protects the client. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs]
• Watch the money. Track cost, debt, the pull to the next course, and any pressure to become a paying Master. [source: CIFS Australia; enlightened-spirituality LGATs]
• Watch for coercive-control markers. Isolation from doubters, loaded language, us/them framing, dependence on the leader/upline, and discouragement of dissent. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs]
• Keep the door open. Make clear the client can disagree with the training, leave it, and still keep therapy; former members are welcome without "I told you so." [synthesis]
• Keep dual roles separate. A therapist who personally practises Avatar, Reiki or similar must not mix it into the client's therapy, and should consider referral if separation is not possible. [source: APA Ethics Code, Standard 3.05 (Multiple Relationships)]
• Involve family and community only with consent, and be even-handed about relatives' concerns and the client's own account. [synthesis]
• Safe messaging on crisis. Where suicide or acute crisis arises, follow standard risk assessment and lethal-means safety; no method detail. [synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

These are the therapist's concrete procedures for supporting a client around Avatar. They are clinical interventions, not Avatar exercises; where an Avatar exercise is named it is given in outline only. Unless a source is cited, the clinical procedure is [synthesis] drawn from standard practice for high-intensity groups and LGATs.

Map the course ladder and the pitch with the client

• Purpose / when: Early, before the client commits money. To replace a vague "I'm doing a course" with a clear picture of a graded, paid ladder and its recruitment logic, so consent is real.
• Steps: Ask what exactly they have been offered (free Info Hour/webinar, ReSurfacing, the 9-day Avatar Course, Masters, Professional, Wizards) and the price of each. Draw the ladder together. Name who profits at each rung (Masters/Wizards earn by teaching and pay royalties upward). Ask what they were told the next course would give them that this one did not. Note the Scientology lineage neutrally if the client raises or would want it.
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's lay out the whole staircase, not just the next step - what each course costs and what you're told it adds. What were you told you'd get from the one after this?"
• Watch for: The client can only describe the immediate next step, not the whole ladder or total cost; escalating urgency ("spots are filling"); the client re-quoting the trainer's phrases verbatim. Working well: the client can state the full ladder, prices and the recruitment structure in their own words.

Screen for contraindications before attending

• Purpose / when: Before any decision to attend, and again if the client re-enrols. Intensive multi-day group processing can precipitate crises in vulnerable people.
• Steps: Systematically assess for psychosis or psychosis-risk, bipolar disorder (especially mania risk), current or complex PTSD and trauma, dissociative disorders, recent bereavement or major loss, active suicidality or self-harm, eating disorders, and pregnancy or acute medical illness. Review current medication and the risk of stopping it. Weigh sleep loss, confrontation and emotional flooding against the specific client. If high risk, advise clearly against attending and document the advice.
• Example language (illustrative): "A long, emotionally intense group can be too much for some people at some times. Given what's going on for you right now, I'm concerned it could tip you into [a manic episode / a dissociative state / a crisis]. Can we think hard about timing?"
• Watch for: Recent hospitalisation, a loss in the last months, a trauma history the training may re-activate, grandiosity or sleeplessness suggesting hypomania. Working well: the client can name their own risk factors and has a concrete plan (including possibly not going). [source: LGAT psychiatric literature; synthesis]

Review informed consent and the waivers

• Purpose / when: Before payment. LGAT enrolment usually involves signing broad liability waivers; clients often have not read them.
• Steps: Encourage the client to read the full enrolment agreement, cancellation/refund terms and any waiver before paying. Note that participants are commonly asked to sign releases that commentators consider legally questionable, and that early "agreeing" sets a compliance tone. Confirm the client knows they can stop, leave and seek medical/psychological help at any point regardless of what they signed. Suggest they keep copies.
• Example language (illustrative): "Before you sign anything, read what you're agreeing to - especially the refund terms and the waiver. Signing a form never signs away your right to leave or to get help."
• Watch for: Pressure to pay a deposit at the introductory event; non-refundable large fees; waivers framed as a formality. Working well: the client has read the terms and can describe what they are and are not agreeing to. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs]

Decisional-balance on whether to attend

• Purpose / when: When the client is weighing attendance. To support an autonomous decision without the therapist pushing either way.
• Steps: Build a four-cell grid (benefits and costs of going; benefits and costs of not going), in the client's own words. Include financial cost, time, hoped-for change, and what else that money/time could serve. Ask what specific, checkable outcome would tell them it was worth it. Explore alternatives that might meet the same need (therapy, a course, a community). Hand the decision back to the client.
• Example language (illustrative): "I'm not going to tell you to go or not go. Let's get the real trade-offs on the table so the choice is yours and clear-eyed. What would ‘worth it’ actually look like for you?"
• Watch for: The client seeking your permission or approval; "everyone I trust is doing it"; the cost being borrowed or displacing essentials. Working well: the client owns the decision and its reasons.

Pre-course preparation and grounding plan

• Purpose / when: Once a client has decided to attend. To reduce the chance of overwhelm and to give portable self-regulation skills.
• Steps: Teach one or two simple grounding/anchoring skills the client can use discreetly (slow paced breathing without any breath-holding, orienting to the room, a self-statement). Plan sleep, food, hydration and breaks. Agree the client may step out, decline an exercise, or leave. Rehearse a short internal reminder of their own values and limits. Pre-arrange support for the evenings and for the days after.
• Example language (illustrative): "If it gets to be too much, here's your reset: feel your feet, slow your out-breath, and remember you can step out. You never owe anyone your participation in a particular exercise."
• Watch for: A client who believes they must "go all in" and override every limit. Working well: the client has rehearsed skills and genuinely believes they may pause or leave.

Agree an exit plan and a stop signal

• Purpose / when: Before attending. To make the right to leave real rather than theoretical.
• Steps: Identify in advance the signs that mean "leave now" (e.g. feeling unreal, unable to sleep, panicked, coerced). Plan the logistics (transport, somewhere to go, who to call). Normalise leaving as a strength, not a failure. If the client is travelling to a residential course, ensure they have independent means to get home.
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's decide now what would be your signal to walk out - so you don't have to work it out while flooded. If you feel unreal or you can't sleep, that's your cue."
• Watch for: Residential settings far from home; phones discouraged; social pressure that makes leaving costly. Working well: the client has a concrete, independent way out.

Optional check-in / lifeline during the training

• Purpose / when: During a multi-day or residential course, if the client wants it and it fits your frame and boundaries.
• Steps: Agree in advance whether, how and when the client may contact you (and your limits). Keep any contact brief and grounding; reinforce the exit plan; assess for acute risk and signpost emergency services if needed. Do not conduct therapy by text in the middle of an exercise; stabilise and defer.
• Example language (illustrative): "If you message me, I'll help you steady yourself and remember your plan - I won't do a full session by phone. If you're in danger, call [local emergency number / 988 in the US / Samaritans 116 123 in the UK and Ireland]."
• Watch for: Escalating distress, sleeplessness, derealisation. Working well: brief contact helps the client re-ground and either continue safely or leave safely.

Debrief a peak experience

• Purpose / when: Soon after the course, when the client returns elated or "transformed." To honour the experience while buffering the predictable let-down.
• Steps: Listen first and validate the meaning without endorsing the metaphysics. Name the normal arc: intense bonding and euphoria, sometimes manic in quality, often followed by a dip as ordinary life resumes. Help translate any genuine insight into one or two concrete, sustainable actions. Gently anchor expectations so a later low is not read as personal failure.
• Example language (illustrative): "It sounds powerful, and I want to hold onto what mattered. It's also really common to come down after something this intense - if a low comes, it won't mean the insight was fake or that you failed."
• Watch for: Sleeplessness and pressured, grandiose speech (possible hypomania); plans to spend large sums or upend relationships "right now." Working well: the client keeps a modest, real gain and expects the comedown. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs]

Integration - reality-test new beliefs by function

• Purpose / when: In the weeks after, as the client applies "belief management" to real life. To assess usefulness and safety without pathologising belief.
• Steps: For each new belief or practice, ask what it does: does it help the client act, connect and stay safe, or does it isolate them, stop them seeking medical care, or justify risky spending? Distinguish a helpful reframe from a belief that denies external reality (e.g. "I create everything, so illness/abuse is my own creation"). Hold curiosity about content; be firm about consequences. Where a belief blocks needed medical or psychiatric care, address that directly.
• Example language (illustrative): "I'm less interested in whether a belief is true than in what it's doing for you. Is this one helping you live the life you want, or is it talking you out of something you need?"
• Watch for: "Everything is my creation" used to self-blame for trauma or illness, or to refuse treatment; dismissal of a real external problem as merely a "belief." Working well: the client uses reframes flexibly and still seeks help when reality calls for it. [source: DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview approach; synthesis]

Manage post-catharsis emotional after-effects

• Purpose / when: After exercises that stir strong feeling or "processing." To metabolise activation rather than leave it raw.
• Steps: Titrate: slow the client down, keep a dual awareness of past and present, use grounding before and after any emotional content. Normalise that intense release can be followed by fatigue, tearfulness or irritability for days. Resource the client (sleep, gentle routine, connection) before any further emotional work. If old trauma has been re-opened, shift to trauma-informed stabilisation, not more catharsis.
• Example language (illustrative): "Big emotional releases often leave an after-echo for a few days. Let's slow it right down and get you steady before we look at anything that got stirred up."
• Watch for: Re-traumatisation, flashbacks, numbing or dissociation after confrontational or emotionally flooding exercises. Working well: activation settles and the client feels resourced, not flooded. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs; synthesis]

Differential assessment - crisis versus spiritual emergency

• Purpose / when: If the client returns disorganised, grandiose, not sleeping, hearing or seeing things, or profoundly detached. To distinguish a psychiatric emergency from a transient, self-limiting "spiritual emergency" without pathologising belief.
• Steps: Assess sleep, orientation, thought form, risk, and whether functioning is collapsing. Treat mania, psychosis and acute suicidality as medical emergencies and route urgently regardless of the spiritual framing. Where presentation is intense but organised, risk is low and the person retains insight, consider the DSM-5-TR category "Religious or Spiritual Problem" (ICD-10-CM Z65.8) and the spiritual-emergency debate, supporting integration over time. Do not diagnose a disorder solely from unusual beliefs. [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8; DSM-5-TR wording uncertain: not verified]
• Example language (illustrative): "I take what you experienced seriously. Right now I'm also checking some practical things - sleep, safety - because if your body and mind are overloaded, we get you medical help first and make meaning of it afterwards."
• Watch for: No sleep for days, pressured speech, paranoia, command experiences, inability to care for self - escalate. Working well: an organised, insightful client stabilises with support; a deteriorating one gets prompt psychiatric care. If suicidality is present, use standard risk assessment and lethal-means safety (988 in the US; Samaritans 116 123 in the UK and Ireland).

Use the Cultural Formulation Interview for belief and spirituality

• Purpose / when: Whenever Avatar belief is central, to understand it in the client's own terms rather than the therapist's.
• Steps: Use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview, including its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions, to ask how the client names the problem, what their community and the training say about it, what helps and what harms, and what they want. Let the client define the meaning; map where the training's framing and the client's own needs align or conflict.
• Example language (illustrative): "Help me understand this the way you understand it. What do you call what you're going through, and what do the people around you - and the course - say it is?"
• Watch for: Drift into debating doctrine; the client masking distress in course jargon. Working well: a shared, client-led formulation that respects belief and surfaces real needs. [source: DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview approach; synthesis]

Handle recruitment and up-sell pressure

• Purpose / when: When the client feels pushed to bring others, to assist/volunteer, or to pay for the next course. LGATs characteristically press graduates to recruit and to advance.
• Steps: Name the mechanism without contempt: investment and public commitment make people recruit and re-enrol, and feeling "incomplete" pulls them to the next rung. Separate the client's genuine wish to share from obligation or guilt. Rehearse low-key refusals to recruit friends and family. Distinguish freely chosen volunteering from unpaid labour that benefits the business.
• Example language (illustrative): "It's okay to have valued the course and still not want to sell it to your sister. What would you do if the only reason to sign up again is that stopping feels like failing?"
• Watch for: Guilt at not recruiting; strained relationships from repeated pitches; unpaid assisting that looks like staffing the business. Working well: the client can decline further recruitment and enrolment without distress. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs]

Review finances, debt and the paid ladder

• Purpose / when: Whenever cost, borrowing or the Master/Wizard track is in play. Financial exploitation is a central documented risk.
• Steps: Total what has been and would be spent across the ladder (introductory course through Wizards, plus licence fees to become a Master). Check for debt, credit cards, borrowing from family, or displaced essentials. Slow large or urgent payments; encourage a cooling-off period. Treat becoming a paid Master as a business/financial decision to examine soberly, not an identity milestone to rush.
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's add up the whole path in real money, including becoming a Master. Where would that money come from, and what would it stop you doing?"
• Watch for: New debt, secrecy about spending, pressure to pay before a deadline, family conflict over money. Working well: spending is planned, affordable and free of urgency. [source: CIFS Australia; enlightened-spirituality LGATs]

Assess and address dependence on the group and upline

• Purpose / when: When the client increasingly routes decisions, mood and identity through the training, its Masters, or an "upline" figure.
• Steps: Map where the client now turns for guidance, validation and belonging, and how that has changed. Rebuild the client's own decision-making and external supports. Notice if the client needs each new course to feel okay. Strengthen tolerance of ordinary, un-peak life and relationships outside the group.
• Example language (illustrative): "When you have a big decision now, who do you go to first - and who did you go to a year ago? Let's make sure the course is one voice among many, not the only one."
• Watch for: Social life narrowing to the group; decisions deferred to a Master; distress when away from the training. Working well: the client has a life and supports independent of Avatar. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs; synthesis]

Assess coercive-control markers

• Purpose / when: Routinely where involvement is deepening, to gauge whether this is a course the client takes or a group that is taking over.
• Steps: Screen (as scholars and independent reports describe such dynamics) for compliance pressure, dependence on a leader/upline, devaluing of outsiders and critics, discouragement of dissent and doubt, loaded in-group language, isolation from sceptical family and friends, and escalating time and money demands. Reflect findings back for the client to weigh; do not label the group for them. Avoid labels except when quoting a court, parliament or reliable source.
• Example language (illustrative): "I'm noticing a few patterns and I want to describe them so you can decide what they mean: less contact with people who have doubts, and a sense that questioning isn't welcome. Does that fit?"
• Watch for: Us/them framing, secrecy, guilt-driven loyalty, fear of leaving. Working well: the client can see the dynamics and chooses their level of involvement freely. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs; synthesis]

Support leaving and treat religious/spiritual trauma

• Purpose / when: When a client decides to disengage, or presents harmed after leaving. Leaving a high-commitment group can bring grief, shame, disorientation and loss of community.
• Steps: Normalise ambivalence and grief for what was good. Rebuild identity and meaning outside the group's frame, at the client's pace. Address shame ("How did I fall for it?") with compassion and psychoeducation about group influence. Reconstruct social supports; treat trauma symptoms with trauma-informed care. Do not rush the client to renounce everything; let them keep what was genuinely useful.
• Example language (illustrative): "Leaving can mean losing friends and a sense of purpose as well as the parts that hurt. We can grieve the good, make sense of the harm, and build back a life that's yours."
• Watch for: Isolation, depression, suicidality, intrusive shame, financial ruin. Working well: the client rebuilds meaning and relationships and self-blame softens. [synthesis]

Work with concerned family members

• Purpose / when: When relatives raise alarm, or the client asks to involve family. To stay even-handed and keep the client central.
• Steps: Clarify consent and confidentiality before any family contact. Hear relatives' specific concerns and the client's own account without taking sides against the client. Avoid attacking the group, which tends to entrench involvement; focus on the relationship and on observable effects (money, time, contact). Offer families psychoeducation and their own support.
• Example language (illustrative): "Your family is worried, and you have your own reasons for being in this. My job isn't to pick a side - it's to help you look honestly at the effects and protect the relationships that matter to you."
• Watch for: Family ultimatums that push the client further in; the client cut off from relatives. Working well: communication stays open and the client feels respected, not cornered. [synthesis]

Manage therapist boundaries and dual relationships

• Purpose / when: Continuously, and especially if the client wants you to attend, approve, or personally practise Avatar.
• Steps: Decline to run Avatar exercises, perform the Master role, or endorse or condemn the metaphysics in session. If you personally practise Avatar or a similar modality, keep it entirely out of the client's therapy and consider referral if you cannot. Use self-disclosure sparingly and in the client's interest. Anchor decisions in the profession's ethics code on competence, boundaries and avoiding exploitation; mark other boundary points as your own practice standard.
• Example language (illustrative): "I won't take you through the course material or tell you it's right or wrong for your soul - that's not my role. What I can do is help you work out what it's doing in your life."
• Watch for: Pressure to merge roles; your own curiosity or bias leaking in. Working well: roles stay clear and the client's autonomy is protected. [source: APA Ethics Code, Standard 3.05 (Multiple Relationships)]

Safeguard children and assess institutional reach

• Purpose / when: When children are in a family involved with the training, or when the training reaches schools or workplaces (reported, e.g., in the Netherlands).
• Steps: Ask about children's welfare, schooling and medical care within a high-commitment family. Watch for pseudo-psychological labelling that displaces proper assessment, and refer for assessment where a child's needs may be unmet. Respect consent and a child's assent. If the training is being delivered in a school or workplace, consider the client's right to opt out and any institutional conflict of interest. Follow local child-protection duties if a child is at risk; never name a minor.
• Example language (illustrative): "How are the kids doing with all this - school, doctors, routine? If anything about a child's care worries either of us, we have a duty to make sure they're assessed properly."
• Watch for: Medical or educational neglect, isolation of children, labels used in place of assessment. Working well: children's ordinary needs are met and independently assessed. [source: CIFS Australia; dutchnews.nl reporting]

5. Handling problems

The sources describe the training and its risks but not a therapist's troubleshooting; the responses below are clinical [synthesis] unless a source is cited.

• The client wants your blessing to attend (or not). Don't give a verdict. Return to decisional balance and the client's own checkable outcomes, so the choice stays theirs. Giving permission either way undermines autonomy and makes you responsible for the result. [synthesis]
• The client re-quotes trainer language and resists examination. Don't argue the doctrine. Shift from content to function ("what does this belief do in your week?") and use the Cultural Formulation Interview to let the client define things in their own words; jargon usually loosens once the lived effects are in view. [source: CFI]
• Post-course euphoria looks like hypomania. Treat sleeplessness, pressured grandiose speech and impulsive big decisions as possible mania, not just a "breakthrough." Prioritise sleep, defer major decisions and spending, and arrange psychiatric review; this overrides integration work. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs; synthesis]
• A crisis or breakdown during or after the course. Stabilise first: safety, sleep, orientation, risk. Distinguish a psychiatric emergency (escalate urgently) from an organised, insightful spiritual emergency (support over time). Use standard suicide risk assessment and lethal-means safety where relevant (988 in the US; Samaritans 116 123 in the UK and Ireland). [synthesis]
• Overwhelm and re-traumatisation from flooding/confrontation exercises. Stop deepening emotional work. Titrate, ground, resource and keep dual awareness; move to trauma-informed stabilisation. Name that intense catharsis often has a multi-day after-echo so the client doesn't read it as deterioration. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs; synthesis]
• "I create my reality" used to self-blame or refuse care. Be gentle on the content, firm on consequences: a belief that blocks medical or psychiatric treatment, or that holds the client responsible for abuse or illness, needs direct attention. Separate taking agency where one has it from taking blame where one doesn't. [synthesis]
• Escalating spending, debt, or a push to become a paid Master. Make the full financial path explicit in real money, slow urgent payments with a cooling-off period, and treat going pro as a sober business decision. Involve financial support/advice if debt is mounting. [source: CIFS Australia; enlightened-spirituality LGATs]
• Recruitment guilt and strained relationships. Separate genuine enthusiasm from obligation; rehearse low-key refusals; protect key relationships from repeated pitching. Reframe "not recruiting" as a legitimate choice, not a betrayal. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs]
• Deepening dependence and isolation (coercive-control markers). Describe the specific patterns you observe for the client to weigh, rebuild outside supports and independent decision-making, and keep the therapy door open without ultimatums. Don't label the group for them. [source: enlightened-spirituality LGATs; synthesis]
• A rupture because the client feels judged. Repair directly: you are not for or against the group, you are for the client's wellbeing and freedom. Clients primed by confrontation elsewhere may test whether therapy is safe; non-defensive repair models the non-shaming stance. [synthesis]
• The client asks you to attend, approve, or practise Avatar with them. Decline warmly and hold the boundary; keep any personal practice of yours out of the room; refer if you cannot maintain separation. [source: APA Ethics Code, Standard 3.05 (Multiple Relationships)]
• A concerned family contacts you, or demands you intervene. Clarify consent and confidentiality, stay even-handed, avoid attacking the group (which entrenches involvement), and offer the family their own support. [synthesis]
• Children may be affected, or the training is in a school/workplace. Ask about children's medical care, schooling and welfare; refer for proper assessment where labels have displaced it; follow local safeguarding duties; respect opt-out and conflict-of-interest where an institution hosts the training; never name a minor. [source: dutchnews.nl reporting]
• A former member presents harmed and ashamed. Normalise ambivalence and grief, counter shame with psychoeducation about group influence, rebuild identity and supports at the client's pace, and treat trauma symptoms; let them keep what was genuinely useful. [synthesis]
• Uncertainty about the exact current course names, days and prices. These vary by country and year and the organisation's own current pages are not cited here; verify against the current published price list before advising a specific client and mark any single figure [uncertain]

Sources

• Avatar Course (Wikipedia) - secondary; course history, Scientology lineage, Palmer biography, litigation; marked [uncertain: secondary, unverified] where unique to it.
• CIFS Australia - "Infiltrating" (archive) - secondary advocacy; course ladder, reported costs (Integrity ~US$500/5-day; Wizards ~US$7,500/13-day), royalty structure, Scientology connection, Dutch allegations (stated as allegations).
• The Pros & Cons of LGATs (enlightened-spirituality.org) - secondary; general LGAT clinical risks, coercive dynamics (cites Deikman 1990; Cushman 1993; Festinger), euphoria/comedown, screening and cost patterns.
• ReSurfacing weekend community listing (Patch.com) - how a Master publishes ReSurfacing: "Section I of The 9-day Avatar Course," 2 days, ~30 tools; Palmer mission quote.
• Avatar Expansion Exercise webinar listing (BigMarker) - how an introductory Avatar exercise is published: "Exercise 26... convey an experience of expansion and integration"; ReSurfacing as a 2-day Section I workshop.
• Clinical frameworks referenced: DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview and its spirituality/religion/moral-traditions module [uncertain: not verified]; ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), Unbound Medicine, DSM-5-TR wording [uncertain: not verified]; American Psychological Association, Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, Standard 3.05 (Multiple Relationships), https://www.apa.org/ethics/code, also cited for competence and avoiding exploitation.
• Course names, section counts, days and prices should be confirmed against the organisation's current published materials; single figures here are [uncertain].