Sexual Harrassment in the Los Angeles Landmark Forum Introduction Leaders Program by Landmark Education
I was already a successful woman when I started taking courses at Landmark, but since taking the Forum I started making way more money than before and my participation in the work deepened several relationships. So I kept taking courses to further my growth. I've gotten a lot out of the work, but the center in my area (Los Angeles) has some serious problems.
I was told the Introduction Leaders Program, their most demanding course, was truly a mind expanding experience. So I signed up, but found myself quickly pursued by one of the male coaches despite his knowing I was married and ALL the coaches in the program having an agreement not to date students. I told him to back off, but it didn't work. He kept finding ways to connect with me. So I told my coach and she said she'd take care of it.
Then a week later, she relayed to me that he said it was just my imagination and assured me that he was a man of integrity and was only there for my transformation. So a month later, when he found out which homework parties (private parties where coaches come to help participants with course work) I attended and showed up at one I was at, I let myself trust him which proved to be a huge mistake.
I decided to let go of my reservations and work with him. He told me I wasn't getting the work because I was blocked and kept asking about my marriage like whether I was fully expressed in my marriage and my sex life. I didn't realize it at the time, but he kept pushing me to talk about what part of my marriage wasn't working. Now while my marriage isn't perfect, I have no intention of leaving my husband and definitely want it to work and know that it will, but he kept pushing for me to work on what WASN'T working in my marriage and used examples of people who were freed up by getting out of a bad relationships.
After a while I started believing him. He made it seem like he was getting me He coached me all night and said he really wanted me to get what we were working on. He kept at it until I broke down and started crying about an affair my husband had had when we first started dating. Then while comforting me, made a pass at me and while I stopped it, it went way too far for me.in fact, I couldn't believe he even had the balls to go there after what we had discussed.
He tried to clean it up with me that night, (but all he really wanted was my word that it would stay between us) and the next day called incessantly to get me to agree not to tell anyone, not even my husband. Obviously none of this has anything to do with the model of integrity he was hired to teach. So I told him I was telling my husband and this coach actually told me to quit the program. He was upset and couldn't believe I was unwilling to trust the work.
So I told my husband and my coach and again she said she'd handle it, I thought that meant she would take it to the appropriate person at the center and have him removed. No, that means she discussed it with the offender and took his word that it would never happen again. What kind of sexual harassment policy is that? How can you trust the fox to manage the integrity of a chicken coop?
So I went to a superior coach and she told me it had already been handled, but it hadn't and she never got back to me after that and he was never removed from the program. I think it's unbelievable that a multinational corporation like Landmark would not have a sexual harassment policy or at the very least not enforce the one they have. The people in their programs open themselves up emotionally and psychologically in ways that are uncommon in our society and should not be preyed upon by the coaches in the system.
Needless to say, I dropped the course and would caution any one before taking it. While the education is great, the risk you take is not worth it, at least not in Los Angeles. It certainly wasn't worth sacrificing my marriage. Before this I had only taken weekend courses where you're in and out with very little interaction with center staff.in the longer courses, from what I'm told, it's very common for people to date and coaches to pick up on participants and, as it turns out, I wasn't the only one he made a pass at in our program and was told by my friend who remained that one of the leaders encouraged dating in the course and even questioned why any one would ever want to date someone who hadn't taken it.
Taking this course almost cost me my marriage and their leaders could careless.in fact, by turning a blind eye, they seem to be encouraging it.
0 comments