Boarding Recovery
BOARDING RECOVERY is an organisation peopled by a group of accredited psychotherapists and trained counsellors who specialise in working with 'boarding school survivors'. BOARDING RECOVERY offers a support service for adult ex-boarders whose emotional damage often lies hidden until at some point in their adult lives it re-surfaces in the form of depression, burn out, marital problems or alcohol/drug abuse.
'Boarding school survivors' are often very competent, high-achieving individuals who may be acutely uncomfortable about asking for help. For the most part, they are unconscious of the fact that they are suffering from a specific, common syndrome treatable by a variety of psychotherapeutic approaches.
"Adults who were sent away to boarding school from their family homes often learnt to endure unacceptably brutal interpersonal practices ... When these kinds of trauma emerge in adulthood in the form of stress related disease, inability to sustain meaningful intimate sexual relationships, and mental and emotional breakdowns, adults often don't even know how to begin to acknowledge their long-hidden pain to themselves, let alone talk to someone else (such as their medical practitioner) about their suffering. This, as we know from the psychological research evidence, often leads to further psychosomatic difficulties in terms of overworking to the point of burnout, multiple serious health problems, and drug and alcohol misuse."
Petruska Clarkson BMJ, Vol. 322, 31/3/2001, reviewing Nick Duffell (2000) 'The Making of Them: The British Attitude to Children and the Boarding School System'.