HISTORY OF OUR HOLISTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY COMMUNITY

In the early 1960s, creative social worker Jacqui Schiff, who had worked with psychiatrist Eric Berne in the development of Transactional Analysis of mental illness in the United States, decided to take a teenage schizophrenic boy into her family.

She experienced her patient as "childlike" and in desperate need of caretaking due to his mental illness.

This was the beginning of the development of the Schiff school of reparenting for treatment of schizophrenia.

Recognition
Jacqui found that within a community setting which functioned as a family unit, the schizophrenia patients began to adapt and behave in socially acceptable ways.

She received international recognition for her work and in 1979 was invited by the present director, Father Hank Nunn, and a group of parents with schizophrenic children to establish an international community in Bangalore for the treatment of schizophrenia.

This would grow into a cross-cultural schizophrenia research and training centre.

The original group which started the holistic psychotherapy community has seen it develop over the years. They have had the rewarding experience of seeing young people leave, hopeful and assured of their ability to cope with the difficulties they'll have to face.

Those still in the community continue the search to create more effective methodology in the treatment of schizophrenia patients.

What our name means
When the community was established in Bangalore, there was a need to name it.

After a brainstorming session, the name Athma Shakti Vidyalaya was chosen. Athma means "soul or spirit", Shakti means "power" and Vidyalaya means "school".

There are several reasons for this.

Irrespective of help offered from outside, the patient seeking schizophrenia treatment must learn to use his or her inner strength to handle feelings appropriately, to be able to shift his/her inner energy when necessary, to think clearly about his/her feelings, and to integrate an appropriate set of beliefs and attitudes - all of which means having the power to be responsible and well.

Due to ill health, Jacqui Schiff returned to the US in 1985. She spent many years in England and passed away in California in 2002 as a result of multiple sclerosis.

The community continued to function under the leadership of Father Hank Nunn, a Canadian Jesuit priest.

Under the directorship of Father Nunn, patients learn through holistic psychotherapy supervision to recognise, develop and use their own strength and skills instead of being dependent on medication for the treatment of schizophrenia.

This is why it is called Vidyalaya (a school), which teaches the patients to build inner strength.