Group Agreements

Welcome to The Healing Place.

Here are THP’s general group agreements. These agreements protect the community and the individual members.  All members must agree to abide by these group agreements when becoming a member. It is each member’s responsibility to read them.

The Healing Place is a safe place. We happen to think our members are worth the effort and we will be striving to build a safe atmosphere.  Feel free to talk about whatever you are dealing with in your life.

We are adults here. We will strive to treat one another with courtesy and respect.

We are also people who are at times challenged by our thoughts, feelings, and our reactions to all sorts of situations.

We are expected to show courtesy and respect to one another, to the forum moderators and administrators and to guests. We must remember that, in essence, we are all volunteers here.

Make friends with people you feel safe with. If you have a problem with another member on the forum, try to work it out with the other person. This forum  can provide you with an opportunity to practice interpersonal skills you can use in the real world.

It is fine to say you strongly disagree with someone and why, but it is not appropriate to demean or insult anyone. Talk about your own experience and strive to avoid focusing on your thoughts about another member’s shortcomings No flame wars are permitted on this forum

THP is the place to learn how to effectively communicate your emotions. THP is not the place to rage at another THP member. THP is, however, the place to discuss your rage and learn how to handle it.

Don’t try to get help at THP if you are suicidal or homicidal right now. Please call 911 or go to an ER. You need to be getting help in the real world instead of spending precious time here.

However, discussions of suicidal thoughts or past suicidal attempts are permitted. Thoughts of suicide are normal for most who suffer from depression, anxiety, trauma, etc. We need to discuss these things honestly and openly if we expect to change for the better.

Discussion of thoughts, urges, or attempts to hurt ourselves or others is permitted as well. Again, many who have been hurt or who are in ongoing abusive relationships often hurt themselves or have thoughts of hurting themselves or others.

This means that if you have physically abused a child or any other person it is ok to discuss on this forum. * (see the note below)

Discussion of legal and illegal drug and alcohol use is ok, too. After all, if it is true, we need to own up to it to deal with it. We can’t get help if we don’t tell our support network the truth.

On the other hand, this is not allowed:

Talking about yourself as an adult sexually abusing a child is not permitted. To be clear: Any discussion of you as an adult sexually abusing a child or engaging in any sort of sexual activity with a child in the past, present, future, or even in your fantasies is not allowed on this discussion forum.

(Note: I think this material does need to be discussed somewhere and is very important, but I do not think that this forum is the right place for that discussion.  I have a lot of reasons for this and I will be glad to discuss this with you privately. If you need help in this area, please get help, just don’t try to get it here on this forum. ~Cliff H.)

If you aren’t sure about something you want to post, contact me and we’ll figure it out.

If a member continually violates the group agreements or routinely demonstrates very disruptive behavior on the forum, the member will be denied access to the board for a period of time after receiving fair warning.

If you feel at any time that your rights as an individual have been violated by the forum members or admin, we are here to listen and take whatever appropriate action is helpful If you have a grievance discuss it with me at cliff@askdrcliff.com

Again, welcome!

*If you talk about child abuse that is recent or current, we are ethically and legally obligated to report it to the proper authorities. Honestly, however, if we do not know who you are, it is almost impossible to report you.