Self-help course blamed for death leap

SYDNEY - A self-help course has been blamed by a coroner for the death of a woman who jumped from a Sydney office window after developing a psychosis on the course she had attended days earlier.

New South Wales' Deputy Coroner Malcolm MacPherson has recommended the state Government overhaul its system for regulating psychotherapy practitioners after "overwhelming" evidence of the course's responsibility for Rebekah Lawrence's death.

The 34-year-old plunged to her death shortly before 7pm on December 20, 2005 - two days after completing a Turning Point course described as a "journey to the core of the human spirit".

She was naked, acting in a child-like manner, singing and shouting "I love you" to her husband as she jumped from the second floor of her Macquarie St office building in Sydney.

An autopsy found she had no drugs or alcohol in her system.

"The evidence is overwhelming that the act of stepping out of a window to her death was the tragic culmination of a developing psychosis that had its origins in a self-development course known as the Turning Point," MacPherson said while delivering his findings at Glebe Coroners Court yesterday.

MacPherson did not recommend any charges be filed against Turning Point officials. But he made recommendations to the NSW Health Minister that legal restrictions be introduced for practising under the title psychotherapist or counsellor.

"[I recommend] the introduction of a legal requirement to have recognised tertiary qualifications in medicine [psychiatry], psychology, psychotherapy, social work, nursing, welfare, counselling or other appropriate qualifications from an institution accredited by either commonwealth or NSW education authorities ... before providing psychotherapy or counselling services," he said.

He called for these qualifications to be compulsory before practitioners could receive any payment.

The Turning Point was a four-day seminar run by the Sydney self-development company People Knowhow.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported participants were "involved in self-searching of their state of mind" and underwent a session called "The Inner Child".

The newspaper said that with eyes closed, the participants were returned to their childhood and encouraged to develop a dialogue between their child and adult selves.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Robert Bromwich, told the court participants were put "through a psychological wringer". It propelled Lawrence into psychosis, he submitted.

Turning Point officials acknowledged during inquest hearings in August that the course was intense and included the controversial technique of childhood regressive therapy. Such therapy uses hypnotic techniques designed to emotionally regress people to childlike states so they can confront issues from their past.

Lawrence's behaviour changed as the course progressed, and in the hours before her death, grew particularly childlike, to the point where she could no longer dress herself.

Over the span of a few days, she began to forget basic things such as her favourite song, tried to command the family dog with her mind and spoke of a fear of death.

Lawrence called course officials the night before her death, and was agitated, talking about her childhood and a disturbing movie she had recently seen about exorcisms, according to evidence in the case file.

One official advised her to have a cup of tea and a warm shower, and be kind to herself.

Outside court, Lawrence's sister Kate Lawrence-Haynes and husband David Booth said they were satisfied with the findings.

"Rebekah's death isn't in vain - it's helped a lot of people who may have come to the same grim end in the future," Booth said, remembering his "sweetheart" wife.

"I'm not angry, because they didn't mean to do it, but it's just unqualified people doing damaging things to people's minds. "[People looking for psychotherapy should] go to someone with appropriate qualifications."

Lawrence-Haynes warned people thinking of attending similar courses to "tread carefully".

"She was a normal woman in her 30s, grappling with marriage issues, wanting kids - there's probably hundreds of thousands of women out there grappling with exactly those issues," she said.

"She wasn't strange or crazy.

"[The finding] doesn't bring my sister back, my sister would be sharing Christmas with us ... [but] I think [the course organisers] have got their comeuppance.

"I don't think they meant to harm, but it's about time they consider the consequences of what they did ... they regressed her into an unstable state."

People Knowhow director Geoff Kabealo has a degree in business administration; Turning Point leader Richard Arthur has a degree in computer science.

- AAP, AP