online head fix

by francine Schwartz

Carrie dreams - Horrible dreams. Boils all over her body. Other disfiguring ailments. And in the morning she wakes up with the symptoms. They're real.

Danny is in an underground grunge band called Cathode Rage. He's cool. He's desired. He deals with his demons on a daily basis.

Graciela is awaiting release from Petaluma jail. She was found wandering the streets. She expresses herself via her bizarre sketches - mazes of linear madness.

Donna is a 33 year old "stay at home mom" from Oxford, Mississippi. She's so fascinated with television talk shows that her obsession threatens to ruin her marriage. But she can't stop.

They're residents of Ferndale Miles and miles of lush, green farm land, sheep grazing in the rain, serenity. California country. Minutes from the coast, it's the kind of place that's good for the soul. Families live there. People like you and me. People with hopes and dreams, and . . . secrets

There's a therapy center in Ferndale. Peaceful, safe, a place that looks and feels more like a lodge than a clinic. Nestled in a grove of oaks, pine, and godlike redwoods, it's a clinic not quite like any other. People from the "outside world" are invited to look in and to get involved via the Internet. It's an important part of a new on-line therapy developed by Dr. Randolph Mix, who was the 1995 recipient of the North Bay Psychotherapy Society's Award for Innovative Approaches. The new therapy involves feedback from the outside world. It's called "Net Therapy.":

The idea is to reach out and touch the other side. Both sides of the computer screen. Touching via the technology. Like the fantasy of entering the television set and becoming part of the reality inside or of having the characters look out from within the screen and talk to you.

We get to know the patients through their journals, their therapy sessions, their dialogues with one another, their documents - things like medical reports, photographs, police files. Here it's o.k. to snoop. We're expected to. Invited to. We can listen to a patient's version of a conversation or an event or we can watch the webumentary (a documentary on the WEB) and see the actual event. The webumentary is a photographic record of the day - replete with full size photos and audio clips. This is where the truth is. We can look closely into the lives of the characters and judge them for ourselves.

It's all about communication at Ferndale. "Leave your secrets at the door." Mix's philosophy is that communicating makes you happy. "People feel badly when they don't communicate. The more we express ourselves, the better we feel." You, the observer, the voyeur, can leave your secrets at the door and enter the world of Ferndale. You don't have to use your real name. Use a virtual one. Your online personae. Reaching out and touching the other side. That's the idea. Communication. On-line therapy where people can express themselves in the safety net of anonymity May be even better than telling your story to the stranger in the bar. You may even win a prize. No kidding. An authentic Ferndale t-shirt is awarded weekly for the most interesting secret.

If you've never been to Ferndale before - click on "Quick Tour." Witness a therapy session. Watch the people relate - be it Graciela attacking Dr. Mix, or Sister Ruth trying to beat a new patient into therapeutic submission. Listen to their stories. Read their journals. Follow them around. Live their lives vicariously as they struggle towards mental health. You'll soon get acquainted and feel right at home.

You can find the characters at other sites - chat rooms like the Palace, for instance - (http://www.thepalace.com). Guerilla theatre. Reality and fantasy converge. You can't tell them apart. The characters from Ferndale relate to each other as well as to the other visitors, - you, if you like. They discuss their problems, reveal more about themselves. You can get a schedule of where they'll be and when, along with directions on how to get there.by clicking the "Interact" option on the menu bar.

Each patient must have a web page open to the outside world, but it is off limits to the other patients. The 'net takes on the role of "confessor." Not only is what is transmitted by the outside world received and read by the patients, it actually affects the events in Ferndale. Just like what you say and do affects the people you come in contact with everyday - on your side of the computer screen. Email must be answered within 48 hours, an edict firmly enforced by Dr. Mix. And more important - as participants in Net-Therapy, the patients must answer your questions with 100% honesty.

There are no secrets at Ferndale. That's the essence of Mix's therapy. Cameras and microphones are everywhere. The patients' journals are open to the public. Known as the location of the Ferndale Internet Experiment (F.I.X), the mountain retreat is virtually a digital glass house.

The patients' journals allow you to become intimate with their hopes and dreams, where they really live. In her journal on the first day of week two of an eight week session, Carrie writes,

If only I could will a dream. If I could wiggle my nose or click my heels and fall right into dreamy sleep. I'd dream myself healthy, uncontagious, and then I'd awaken with Danny in my grasp. . . . I'd travel with the band on tours, drinking cafe lattes and seeing bad movies and ordering room service at 4 a.m. All the while Danny would gaze into my eyes, undres me with his own, and then make love to me while the whole world slept.

The patients let you inside their minds. You can get that close.

The characters invite you into interactivity. Like when Danny, the grunge rocker, gets clunked with a frying pan by an enraged Sister Ruth. You get Carrie's hit on it by reading in her journal about the "big black hole of pain." If you choose you can see an image of it on your computer screen, where you can purge your own pain or binge on it. Your choice. If you choose to purge - you're invited to write out "all the crap you want to get off your chest" and post it in a space provided for that purpose. "Your pain and anger will be captured in the text and thrown into the Big Black Hole of Pain when you press the PURGE IT NOW button." There. All gone. The binge on pain option allows you to read other peoples' chronicles of pain.

As part of their daily schedule, the patients are given net therapy assignments. For example the Keirsey Temperament Test, which we can do as well. Nearly instant gratification. After you've answered all the questions - your temperament type is printed out right on your computer screen. Interactive fun. What a life.

By clicking on "Secrets" you can find ELIZA, an on-line psychologist who answers your questions and who listens to your problems and responds. Example: TOM: "Eliza, I want to kill everyone I see." ELIZA: "Are you sure that's everyone?" TOM: "Well, maybe not everyone, almost everyone." The dialogue continues as long as you want it to.

The therapy lasts eight weeks. After that - the patients go home and a new crew comes in. The experiment begins all over again.