His Mansion Ministries: The Other Mercy Ministries

His Mansion Ministries is an organization similar in many ways to Mercy Ministries, though it does not perform exorcism. I attended His Mansion for a week in the fall of 2001, just after the towers fell. His Mansion is a ministry that specializes in treating "alcoholism, drug addiction, sexual addiction, pornography, eating disorders, depression, and abuse." Its counselors are untrained counselors, who apparently follow a form of biblical counseling, though they do not advertise this. Biblical counseling is a form of counseling founded by Jay Adams, which holds that mental illness is a sin.
Unlike Mercy Ministries, His Mansion prided itself on its toughness. At the time I attended the program, the program boasted that 50% of its "clients" dropped out. His Mansion allowed psychiatric medication, but there was always an aura of one being "less than" for taking it. Like Mercy graduates, we were described as the "spiritual third world". According to the site , "Unless a young man or woman arrives at adolescence with certain very basic tools in their box, they will, statistically, develop “behavioral health problems.” (That is, they’ll become soul-sick from sin)". I can only conclude from this that they see depression as a behavioral soul sickness. That's certainly the way they treated me.
His Mansion allowed only six books for each resident, all of which have to be Christ-approved (a.k.a. theologically safe). Somehow, when I attended His Mansion, they let me read the Brothers Karamazov. Men and women were not allowed to speak to each other, except in the presence of one of their untrained counselors. After a week at His Mansion, I met my counselor. My counselor told me that my OCD was the result of pride, and that unless i repented of this pride, I would not get better. I replied that my OCD was the result of a chemical imbalance and refused to listen to him any further. When I wouldn't write on how my OCD had been caused by pride, the program kicked me out. Not, however, before two His Mansion workers yelled at me for six consecutive hours, telling me how I was accursed by God.
People who say therapies like His Mansion or Mercy Ministries are not harmful are kidding themselves. These ministries support their full-time staff by claiming to be charities, while in reality living off the suffering of the world around them. I have nothing but respect for the unpaid counselors at his mansion, who were idealists. But I suspect that much of the paid staff did quite well.
I am going to invite His Mansion to respond to this post, in the interest of fairness.