Humanist Movement guided experiences (Silo)

1. Introduction

Version followed: Silo's book Experiencias guiadas (1989) and El Mensaje de Silo (booklet dated July 2002; a later book edition is listed for 2008) as the movement's own communities and its affiliated press describe them, plus the organisational picture given by a former member's published account (1990) and by French parliamentary reporting (1999). The guided-experience texts themselves are not reproduced here. [source: Pressenza 2014; Pressenza 2023 (Pressenza is a press agency linked to the movement, with articles written by members); Kiddle biography; Free Inquiry 1990; Assemblée nationale report 1687]

What it is. The Humanist Movement grew around the Argentine writer Mario Luis Rodríguez Cobos (1938–2010), known as Silo. Its first public act was a speech, "The Healing of Suffering", given at Punta de Vacas, Argentina, on 4 May 1969. [source: Pressenza 2014; Kiddle biography; Hispanopedia] Silo's work includes La mirada interna (The Inner Look), Humanizar la Tierra (Humanize the Earth), Experiencias guiadas (Guided Experiences), Contribuciones al pensamiento (including Psychology of the Image, 1988) and El Mensaje de Silo (Silo's Message). [source: Kiddle biography; Pressenza 2023] Sources give different publication dates for La mirada interna (1972 or 1979) and for the Message (2002 or 2008). [uncertain]

The movement describes itself as nonviolent, participative and solidary. It names its bodies, or "organisms", as the Community for Human Development, Convergence of Cultures, the Humanist Party, World Without Wars and Violence, and the World Centre of Humanist Studies. Silo's Message communities run local rooms ("salas") and Parks of Study and Reflection; the first park was Punta de Vacas, building started in 2005, and about thirty parks existed by late 2010. [source: Pressenza 2014; Kiddle biography; Hispanopedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified]

The guided experiences. Experiencias guiadas is a set of short narratives written in the first person, where the "I" is the reader rather than the author. Each scene is a frame that the reader fills with personal content, and marked pauses turn the reader from a passive observer into an actor and co-author. [source: Pressenza 2023] Communities use these texts in workshops that also include relaxation and meditation, alongside workshops on well-being, "work with internal energy" and the Message's ceremonies. [source: Pressenza 2014b]

Core idea of change (as the movement states it). Suffering is tied to inner contradiction. Facing and reconciling that contradiction, through reflection, imagery and ceremony, and then acting nonviolently toward others, is presented as the route to a life that is "happy and free" and to finding one's own meaning. [source: Pressenza 2014] Claims about an inner "Force" or internal energy belong to the movement and are reported here as its own. Evidence status: no controlled outcome studies of the guided experiences or ceremonies are cited here. [uncertain: not verified]

For the psychotherapist. This is a movement and its practices, not a psychotherapy. This guide covers (a) what the movement publishes, in outline only, so the clinician understands what a client describes; and (b) the clinician's own work. That work covers meaning, cultural formulation, differential assessment, screening before intensive retreats, debriefing, recruitment and volunteering pressure, leaving, and family concerns. The therapist does not lead guided experiences or ceremonies in therapy. [synthesis]

2. Framework

The movement's published structure [source: Pressenza 2014; Pressenza 2014b; Pressenza 2014c; Pressenza 2019]:

Entry points: free public activities such as book-fair stands, talks, workshops and public ceremonies. For example, a well-being ceremony for peace was held in front of the Obelisco in Buenos Aires in 2014, with parallel ceremonies in many countries. At such events, people can sign up for further workshops, seminars and retreats held at a Park.
The Message: a book in three parts. The Inner Look is the poetic text. The Experience is the practical part, given through eight ceremonies. The Path is a set of seventeen reflections on living with others and finding one's own meaning. A companion Commentaries lets "messengers" interpret the text freely. Messengers meet in communities for readings, questions and exchanges. [source: Pressenza 2014] Beyond the Well-being ceremony, the names and number of the ceremonies are not confirmed here. [uncertain: not verified]
Workshops: guided experiences combined with relaxation and "dynamic meditation"; work with internal energy; ceremonies and well-being experiences with requests, thanks and "contact with the Force". [source: Pressenza 2014b]
Accompaniment: a free cycle of four workshops, each about three hours, based on the book El arte de acompañar. The topics are an overview of the book's tools, the process of dying, deep reconciliation through image-based practices, and existential and spiritual accompaniment. They are held in community, health, hospital and university settings and in Message rooms. [source: Pressenza 2019]
Costs: the activities described are reported as free. [source: Pressenza 2014b; Pressenza 2019] No fee schedule for retreats or Park stays is confirmed. [uncertain: not verified]
Organisation (as one former member described it in 1990): a pyramid of delegates and coordinators, with advancement through recruiting and building one's own "structure", no elections, and decisions flowing downward. The same account describes a series of names, from "The Community for the Development and Equilibrium of the Human Being" to the Humanist Movement and Humanist Party (1984) and Green Future (1985). [source: Free Inquiry 1990] This is one former insider's account; whether it describes the movement today is not established. [uncertain]

The clinician's framework (adapted to a client involved with the movement) [synthesis]:

Orientation: learn which part of the movement the client is in: a Message community, a political party, a peace NGO, a Park retreat, accompaniment workshops, or a combination. Then learn what each means to the client.
Assessment: the Cultural Formulation Interview, differential assessment, and a review of risks before any intensive retreat.
Preparation: informed consent, the right to step out, and a plan for aftercare.
Integration or debrief: imagery, emotion and meaning that arise from experiences or ceremonies.
Ongoing review: time, money, recruiting and volunteering, relationships outside the group, and the client's freedom to question.
Transition, when chosen: leaving, re-entry, loss of community, family repair.

The client's own goals and readiness decide when to move between steps, not a fixed sequence. No session counts are set by any source. [synthesis]

3. Guiding principles

Describe, don't adjudicate. Report the movement's ideas about the Force, inner energy and reconciliation in its own terms. Practical meaning: ask what the experience was like, not whether it was "real". [synthesis]
The client's meaning comes first. The same ceremony can be comfort, community or pressure. Practical meaning: let the client name the function before you interpret it. [synthesis]
No pathologising of belief. Practical meaning: assess for symptoms such as functional decline, loss of reality testing or distress outside cultural norms, not for doctrine. [synthesis]
The therapist is not a guide or officiant. Practical meaning: decline to read guided experiences or lead ceremonies in session, and say why. [synthesis]
Imagery work can stir strong material. The texts are designed to make the reader the actor who fills each scene with personal content. [source: Pressenza 2023] Practical meaning: treat retreat and workshop imagery like any evocative exercise, with screening beforehand and debriefing afterward. [synthesis]
Consent includes the right to leave. Practical meaning: rehearse with the client how to step out of an exercise, workshop or role. [synthesis]
Distinguish the organisms. A party, an NGO and a spiritual community make different demands. Practical meaning: map them separately. [source: Hispanopedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified; synthesis]
Allegations stay allegations. Practical meaning: share published criticism only when it is relevant and the client wants it, with its source and its limits. [synthesis]
Watch the costs that are not money. Most activities are reported as free, so the costs to check are time, recruiting, "missions" and relationships. [source: Pressenza 2014b; Free Inquiry 1990; synthesis]
Safety outranks neutrality. Practical meaning: if the client is suicidal or in acute crisis, use risk assessment and crisis resources first: 988 in the US, Samaritans 116 123 in the UK and Ireland. [synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

Part A covers the movement's own practices, in public outline only: purpose, format and context as the movement presents them. These are not scripts, and the therapist does not run them. For each one, the "Steps" set out how the clinician explores and supports a client who takes part. Part B covers the clinician's own interventions.

Part A. The movement's practices (outline only)

A1. Reading and study of the Message (The Inner Look, The Path, Commentaries)

Purpose (as published): reflection on suffering, contradiction and meaning. Messengers gather to read, ask questions and exchange views, and are free to interpret the text. [source: Pressenza 2014]
Clinician's steps: (1) Ask which passages matter to the client and why. (2) Explore how the client uses them in daily life: as consolation, as a guide to action, or as a standard to measure themselves against. (3) Note any self-criticism linked to falling short of the text. (4) Link the client's themes, such as contradiction or reconciliation, to their therapy goals in the client's own words. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Which line from the Message stays with you this week, and what does it ask of you?"
Watch for: the text used as comfort and orientation (working) versus as a rigid rulebook or a source of guilt (needs exploring). Notice whether the client can still disagree with the text. [synthesis]

A2. Guided experiences (Experiencias guiadas, 1989)

Purpose (as published): short first-person narratives in which the reader becomes the protagonist and fills each scene with personal images and memories. Marked pauses invite active participation. Communities present the book with video and practical sessions, and combine it with relaxation and meditation. [source: Pressenza 2023; Pressenza 2014b] The texts are not reproduced here.
Clinician's steps: (1) Ask whether the client did the experience alone or in a group, and who read or guided it. (2) Invite the client to describe the imagery and emotions in their own words, without you supplying images. (3) Separate what is metaphor from anything the client now treats as a recovered memory. Imagery-based recall is open to suggestion, so treat new "memories" with neutral caution and do not confirm or deny them. Cross-refer Domain VI 110. [synthesis] (4) Link what was learned to current goals.
Example language (illustrative): "You said a scene came up you hadn't thought about in years. Let's go slowly. What do you notice in your body as you tell me?"
Watch for: working signs are a sense of relief or a new perspective, and the client staying grounded afterward. Warning signs are flashbacks, dissociation, derealisation, or new "memories" of abuse that are held with certainty. Screen before intensive retreats if the client has PTSD or a dissociative disorder. [synthesis]

A3. The Message's ceremonies (eight, per the movement), including the Well-being ceremony

Purpose (as published): the practical part of the Message. [source: Pressenza 2014] A public example was a Well-being ceremony for peace: a group ceremony led by an officiant, in which participants ask for the well-being of people who suffer and may recall dead or absent loved ones. [source: Pressenza 2014c] Its sequence and wording are not reproduced. The names of the other ceremonies are not confirmed here. [uncertain: not verified]
Clinician's steps: (1) Ask which ceremonies the client attends and what role they play. (2) Explore what the ceremony gives them: community, ritual, hope, or a way to mark grief. (3) For bereaved clients, explore the "presence of loved ones" moment within grief work (see B6). [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "When the group asked for well-being for someone you love, what was that like for you?"
Watch for: benefits such as comfort, connection and rituals for marking loss. Watch also for magical thinking that replaces action, for example a request for well-being used in place of medical care, and for compulsive checking or reassurance-seeking about whether a request "worked". [synthesis]

A4. "Contact with the Force" and "work with internal energy"

Purpose (as published): workshops on internal energy, and a well-being and ceremony workshop that includes requests, thanks and "contact with the Force". [source: Pressenza 2014b] The movement holds that such an inner Force exists. This guide attributes that view to the movement and does not test it. Evidence status: no measured "energy" of this kind is established. [uncertain: not verified] No technique is given here.
Clinician's steps: (1) Ask for a plain description of the felt experience, such as warmth, lightness or tingling. (2) Ask about the hours and days afterward: sleep, mood, energy, unusual perceptions. (3) If there are signs of mania or psychosis, assess urgently (see B4).
Example language (illustrative): "How did you sleep in the days after the workshop? Any sense that thoughts were racing or that things carried special messages for you?"
Watch for: unusual bodily sensations that are short-lived and pleasant are common in contemplative settings. Warning signs are sleeplessness, grandiosity, voices, persistent depersonalisation, and the client stopping medication on the strength of the experience. [synthesis]

A5. Relaxation, "dynamic meditation" and retreat workshops at the Parks

Purpose (as published): personal and social development through relaxation combined with guided experiences and meditation, plus seminars and retreats at the Parks of Study and Reflection. [source: Pressenza 2014b] No procedure is given here.
Clinician's steps: (1) Before a retreat, carry out pre-participation screening (B2) and informed consent (B3). (2) Agree an aftercare plan (B5).
Example language (illustrative): "Before you go, let's plan what you'll do if something big comes up while you're there."
Watch for: fatigue, isolation from usual supports, and difficulty re-entering daily life after the retreat. [synthesis]

A6. Accompaniment workshops (El arte de acompañar)

Purpose (as published): four free workshops on the process of dying, deep reconciliation through image-based practices, and existential and spiritual accompaniment of others. [source: Pressenza 2019]
Clinician's steps: (1) If the client is accompanying a dying relative, check what they learned and their own load as a carer. (2) Coordinate with palliative-care and medical teams; accompaniment does not replace them. (3) Watch for the client's own anticipatory grief. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "You're giving a lot of presence to your father. Who is accompanying you?"
Watch for: burnout in carers, and spiritual frameworks used to delay medical or palliative decisions. Those decisions stay with the medical team. [synthesis]

A7. Community, political and peace work (Humanist Party, World Without Wars and Violence, Community for Human Development, Convergence of Cultures)

Purpose (as published): nonviolent social action, peace campaigns and cultural work by the movement's "organisms". [source: Hispanopedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified; Kiddle biography] France's 1999 parliamentary report on the finances of groups it studied as sects names "Le Parti Humaniste" among groups that approached unemployment associations offering "particular formulas" to fight unemployment. The same report states that a commission of inquiry is not a court. [source: Assemblée nationale report 1687, pp. 12 and 21]
Clinician's steps: (1) Map the client's roles, hours, travel and any "missions". (2) Explore what the activism gives them, such as purpose, friendship and skills, and what it costs. (3) Check whether the client knows which organisation they are serving and how it connects to the others. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Let's list each group you give time to, how many hours, and how you'd feel if you cut one."
Watch for: recruitment targets, and roles that grow until work, study or family suffer. One former member described advancement as tied to recruiting (see B7). [source: Free Inquiry 1990]

A8. Recruitment and the "structure"

Purpose (as one former member described it): members recruit others. A recruit's group grows into a team, and advancement depends on building one's own "structure". The same account says dissent was barely tolerated and that people with "mental reservations" might be moved aside. [source: Free Inquiry 1990] These are one former member's 1990 statements, not findings of a court or regulator. Current practice may differ. [uncertain]
Clinician's steps: see B7 and B8.
Example language (illustrative): "How do you feel when someone you invited doesn't come back?"
Watch for: guilt or loss of status tied to recruiting numbers, and friendships that are used mainly for recruiting. [synthesis]

Part B. The clinician's interventions

B1. Cultural Formulation Interview, including the spirituality, religion and moral traditions module

Purpose: understand what the movement means in the client's identity, community and coping, before forming any clinical view. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) Use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview core questions on the problem, its causes, stressors, supports and help-seeking. (2) Add the supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions: affiliation, practices, how the client's beliefs relate to the problem, and any conflicts with family. (3) Record the client's own terms, such as Message, the Force, messenger, Park, ceremony, and use them back. (4) Summarise the formulation to the client and invite correction. [synthesis; the module's wording is not verified here, uncertain]
Example language (illustrative): "In your own words, what does the Message give you, and has it ever made things harder?"
Watch for: working signs are that the client corrects your summary and feels understood. Warning signs are defensiveness that suggests the client expects to be judged; if so, name your neutrality. [synthesis]

B2. Pre-participation screening before an intensive workshop or retreat

Purpose: identify people for whom intensive imagery, meditation, energy or retreat settings carry more risk. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) Ask about any past psychosis, bipolar disorder or recent manic symptoms, PTSD or dissociative symptoms, recent bereavement or major loss, current suicidal thoughts, eating disorders, pregnancy, and current medication. (2) For each flag, discuss postponing, attending with support, or choosing less intensive activities such as reading groups. (3) Agree warning signs and who the client will contact. (4) Never advise the client to start, stop or change a medicine; route that to the prescriber. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Given the episode you had two years ago, I'd like us to plan for sleep and support during the retreat. Can we talk it through?"
Watch for: minimising ("it's only relaxation"). Remember the client's right to decide; your role is to inform, not to forbid. [synthesis]

B3. Informed consent and the right to step out

Purpose: help the client go in with clear expectations and a plan for stepping out of any exercise, ceremony or role. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) List the questions to ask organisers. Which organisation runs the activity, and how does it relate to the others? Is there a cost? Is there any follow-on expectation, such as recruiting, volunteering or "missions"? Can participants sit out an exercise? (2) Rehearse a short, polite way of stepping out. (3) Agree that the client may tell you anything that happened, without judgement. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Let's practise how you'd say 'I'll sit this one out' so it's easy if you need it."
Watch for: reluctance to ask questions because asking feels disloyal. Explore that feeling. [synthesis]

B4. Differential assessment without pathologising belief

Purpose: tell culturally normative spiritual experience apart from psychosis, mania, dissociation, complicated grief or OCD. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) Ask whether the experience is shared and recognised by the client's community. (2) Assess duration, distress, functioning, insight, sleep and mood. (3) Screen for first-rank symptoms, grandiosity, dissociation and intrusive doubt. (4) Where a spiritual or religious problem is the main focus, consider the DSM-5-TR "Religious or Spiritual Problem", coded Z65.8 [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8; DSM-5-TR wording uncertain: not verified]. (5) Refer urgently for psychiatric assessment if there are psychotic or manic signs. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Do others in your community have experiences like this? How is yours similar or different?"
Watch for: confirmation bias in either direction, whether that means treating belief as a symptom or treating symptoms as spiritual growth. [synthesis]

B5. Debriefing and aftercare after a guided experience, ceremony or retreat

Purpose: help the client make sense of strong experiences and stay stable after a "peak" or a crisis. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) Schedule contact soon after the event. (2) Invite a free narrative, then ask about body, emotion, meaning and any decisions made in the moment. (3) Check sleep, appetite, mood and reality testing. (4) Advise delaying major decisions made in a heightened state, such as quitting a job, ending a relationship or giving money. (5) Use grounding skills if the client is dysregulated. (6) Link insights to behaviour the client chooses. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "That sounds powerful. Before acting on the decision you made there, shall we give it a couple of weeks and look at it again together?"
Watch for: a post-retreat low, or a sense that ordinary life has lost its colour, which can lead to pressure to return quickly. Also watch for persistent dissociation. [synthesis]

B6. Grief work around the "presence of loved ones"

Purpose: the Well-being ceremony includes an optional moment to feel the presence of dead or absent loved ones. [source: Pressenza 2014c] Bereaved clients may bring this experience to therapy. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) Ask what the experience was like and what it meant. (2) Treat felt presence as a common grief experience; neither confirm nor dispute what it means. (3) Assess for prolonged grief, and for any suicidal wish to join the deceased. (4) Integrate the ritual into the client's grief work if they find it helpful. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "When you felt your mother near during the ceremony, what did you want to say to her?"
Watch for: comfort and continuing bonds (working) versus avoidance of the loss or a wish to die. [synthesis] Suicidal thoughts call for risk assessment and crisis resources: 988 in the US, Samaritans 116 123 in the UK and Ireland.

B7. Time, money, recruitment and volunteering review

Purpose: activities are reported as free, so the main costs may be time, recruiting, travel, "missions" and roles. [source: Pressenza 2014b; Free Inquiry 1990; synthesis]
Steps: (1) Draw a weekly chart with the client: hours spent on the movement versus work, study, family, rest and friends outside the movement. (2) List all money given or spent, including travel, events and loans. (3) Ask about any targets, quotas or status linked to recruiting. (4) Help the client set limits they choose and rehearse saying no. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "If you kept two evenings a week for yourself, what would happen in your group?"
Watch for: debt, falling behind at work or school, guilt about saying no, and friendships kept only through recruiting. [synthesis]

B8. Exploring the group relationship and published criticism

Purpose: support the client's own judgement about the movement, without a confrontation script. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) Ask what the client values in the movement and what concerns them. (2) Explore whether the client can question openly and what happens to people who disagree. (3) If the client asks about criticism, share sources with their status. A 1990 article by a former member, published in Free Inquiry under the title "Mysterious Cult Misuses Humanist Label", alleged front groups, top-down control, pressure to recruit, isolation of recruits and intolerance of dissent. [source: Free Inquiry 1990] Other reports appear only in secondary sources and are given here as reported claims [uncertain: secondary, unverified]:
- Wikipedia, citing the historian Barr-Melej (2006), reports that in Chile in 1971 members were arrested after parents complained about young people leaving home, and that the charges were later dropped [uncertain: secondary, unverified].
- The same secondary sources report that members were detained during the dictatorships [uncertain: secondary, unverified].
- A 1989 Village Voice article is reported to have been critical of the movement's Green Future party [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified].
- A Belgian parliamentary commission report (1997) is reported to have listed the movement while identifying no illegal activity [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified].
- The movement rejects the "sect" label and says it has faced political persecution. [source: Wikipedia; Hispanopedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified] (4) Let the client draw their own conclusions. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "What would happen if you raised that doubt with your coordinator?"
Watch for: fear, shame or cutting off when the client questions; these suggest high control. Also notice the opposite: a client who simply enjoys a peace group and has no such concerns. [synthesis]

B9. Supporting leaving, and working with former members

Purpose: support a self-chosen exit or a reduced role, and repair after leaving. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) Explore what the client wants: a smaller role, a different organism, or leaving altogether. (2) Plan practical steps: who to tell, handing over roles, and handling contact afterward. (3) Name the losses (community, purpose, friends, a meaning system) and grieve them. (4) Rebuild social networks and values the client chooses, keeping what still fits, such as nonviolence. (5) Address shame, anger or self-blame. (6) Offer peer support from people who have left, if the client wants it. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "You can keep the parts of the Message that still mean something to you and leave the rest."
Watch for: isolation after leaving, depression, a sense of disorientation about meaning, and harassment. Document any harassment, and advise legal routes where relevant. [synthesis]

B10. Family members' concerns

Purpose: help relatives keep the relationship and respond to real risks without coercion. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) Hear the family's concerns and separate what has been observed from what has been read. (2) Advise staying in contact, staying curious and avoiding ultimatums. (3) Name specific safety concerns, such as a minor leaving home, debt or a mental-health crisis, and the services that handle them. (4) For minors, follow local safeguarding procedures. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "What has your daughter actually told you about the group, and what would help her keep talking to you?"
Watch for: pressure toward forced removal or "deprogramming". Do not support it. [synthesis]

B11. Therapist boundaries and roles

Purpose: keep the clinical frame. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) Decline to read guided experiences, officiate ceremonies or attend events with the client, and explain why. (2) If you belong to the movement yourself, disclose it, consider whether to refer the client, and keep roles separate. (3) Do not endorse or condemn the movement. (4) If the client wishes, involve community figures they trust. (5) Use supervision and spiritual competencies frameworks (Vieten et al. 2013). [uncertain: not verified]
Example language (illustrative): "I'd rather not lead an experience from the book here. My job is to help you make sense of what comes up for you."
Watch for: requests for approval, invitations to join, and your own reactions to the movement. [synthesis]

B12. Crisis response and referral

Purpose: act quickly when acute risk emerges. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) Carry out a standard suicide and risk assessment. (2) Arrange urgent psychiatric referral for psychosis or mania. (3) Give crisis resources: 988 in the US, Samaritans 116 123 in the UK and Ireland. (4) Make a safety plan with supports outside the group. (5) Follow up within days. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "I'm concerned about your safety right now. Let's make a plan together, including who you can call tonight."
Watch for: reluctance to seek medical care because of a belief that the experience is spiritual. Validate the meaning, and insist on safety. [synthesis]

5. Handling problems

No clinical source addresses these problems for this movement specifically, so all guidance below is [synthesis] unless a source is marked.

The client fears judgement and stays guarded. Name your neutrality explicitly. Ask about the good things first. Use the client's own vocabulary. Do not open with published criticism.
The client wants you to share or endorse the practice. Decline warmly (see B11). Keep the focus on the client's experience, and offer to explore any guided experience they did themselves.
Overwhelm after a guided experience or retreat (flashbacks, panic, dissociation). Ground first. Assess safety. Slow the pace. Pause imagery work, including at home, until the client is stable. Treat any newly "recovered" memory with caution and cross-refer Domain VI 110. Refer for trauma-focused care if needed.
Signs of mania or psychosis after an energy or retreat workshop. Arrange urgent psychiatric assessment. Involve supports the client chooses. Leave all medicine decisions to the prescriber. After the episode, explore the meaning of the experience without arguing about its spiritual status.
The client cannot set limits on recruiting or volunteering. Return to the weekly chart (B7). Try a small, time-limited experiment with one evening off. Process the guilt that follows. Explore whether status or belonging feels tied to recruiting numbers, a feature one former member described. [source: Free Inquiry 1990]
Rupture after the therapist mentions criticism. Acknowledge the client's reaction. Restate that the choices are the client's. Return to the client's own concerns. Bring in published material only when the client asks for it.
Ambivalence about leaving. Use a decision balance over time, covering benefits and costs of staying, reducing involvement and leaving. Reassure the client that partial positions, such as keeping the peace work and dropping a coordinating role, are legitimate.
Loss of meaning after leaving. Grieve the meaning system. Help the client identify values worth keeping, such as nonviolence and service to others, and new places to express them.
Family conflict. Offer family sessions on communication. Discourage ultimatums. Address concrete risks through the right services: safeguarding for minors, debt advice, mental-health crisis services.
Children in the family. Ask whether the child's development, schooling, health care and friendships are being supported. Apply local safeguarding procedures if they are not. No source reviewed here reports child-safety concerns specific to this movement. [uncertain: not verified]
Bereaved clients relying on ceremonies. Support rituals the client finds helpful within grief work. Assess for prolonged grief and suicidal ideation (988 US; Samaritans 116 123 UK/IE).
Allegations of abuse by a member. Take a disclosure seriously. Assess safety. Explain the reporting options and support services. Follow mandatory-reporting law, and safeguarding rules if a minor is involved. Do not investigate the group yourself.
The therapist's own bias, whether attraction to the movement's peace work or alarm at its critics. Use supervision. Check that your formulation rests on the client's account, not on what you have read.

Sources

Web sources:

Twelve years of Silo's Message (E. H. de Casas, Pressenza, July 2014): "Pressenza 2014". This is a member's account.
Silo: a literary work and a universal thought to be known and recognised (Pressenza, May 2023): "Pressenza 2023".
Experiencias Guiadas, de Bienestar y Trabajo con la Energía Interna en la Feria del Libro 2014 (Pressenza): "Pressenza 2014b".
Una ceremonia de bienestar por la paz (Pressenza, July 2014): "Pressenza 2014c".
Los talleres sobre El arte de acompañar ya se realizan en varias ciudades (Pressenza, July 2019): "Pressenza 2019".
Pressenza tag: experiencias guiadas
von Holdt, B. (1990). Mysterious Cult Misuses Humanist Label. Free Inquiry, Summer 1990, 48–49: "Free Inquiry 1990". This is a former member's account.
Assemblée nationale (1999). Rapport n° 1687, commission d'enquête sur la situation financière, patrimoniale et fiscale des sectes (rapporteur J.-P. Brard): "Assemblée nationale report 1687".
Humanist Movement (Wikipedia): [uncertain: secondary, unverified].
Movimiento Humanista (Hispanopedia): [uncertain: secondary, unverified].
Silo (Mario Rodríguez) (Kiddle): "Kiddle biography". Secondary, used for dates and titles [uncertain: secondary, unverified].

Books and works referred to (details as given by the sources above):

Silo (1989). Experiencias guiadas. [uncertain: publisher not verified]
Silo (2002; book edition listed 2008). El Mensaje de Silo. [uncertain]
Silo. La mirada interna; Humanizar la Tierra; Contribuciones al pensamiento. [uncertain: editions not verified]
El arte de acompañar. [uncertain: author and publisher not verified]
Barr-Melej, P. (2006). Siloísmo and the Self in Allende's Chile. Hispanic American Historical Review 86(4), 747–784, as cited by Wikipedia. [uncertain: secondary, unverified]
Vieten, C. et al. (2013), on spiritual and religious competencies. [uncertain: not verified]
ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), Unbound Medicine

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