After one year on a waiting list at “Maison St-Jacques“, I have been refused for a group therapy for the reason of being a vanner. They claimed that my situation changed since they first met me and someone must have an apartment to be considered having a stable enough situation to comply with this three-year group therapy requirement.
It is true that in their acceptation requirement list, there is a line that says that an applicant must have “a permanent lodging place” .
I tried my best to explain that living in a van for me was not an unstable or temporary situation, but a true lifestyle choice and that I was also part-time employed three days a week as a truck driver which covers all my expenses.
Despite all my efforts, it seems that being non-conformist is a good way to disqualify yourself on some therapy.
I know that they have an old fashioned check list to pass on … but it’s the therapist personal choice to judge if it is pertinent or not to lift a flag about something that may or may not enter in conflict with the therapy itself in order to disqualify someone.
Since being open-minded isn’t a skull fracture, some therapists should get out of the closet sometimes and see that people who choose to live a different way still need to be included in group therapy in order to help them develop healthier human relations with other human being, which is most of the time one of their hardest difficulties being so different from the mainstream.
Related links:
http://www.camper-van-fun.com/living-in-a-van.html