Volunteers between New Age and Psychology. Holistic Therapists in a Prison Therapeutic Community in Mexico City

Abstract

The Integral Program Against Addictions (PAIA) is a specialized program within Mexico City´s prisons. It follows a therapeutic community model coordinated by a multidisciplinary team of psychologists, doctors, social workers, and criminologists. The team provides support and care through workshops or group, individual, and even family clinical psychology sessions. Although the intervention of Christian religious groups is avoided —commonly found in Latin American’s prisons and with expertise in addiction attention—; At PAIA they prefer to rely on volunteers who offer some activity related to alternative therapies, or with holistic perspectives such as meditation,  , among others. Using participant observation anthropology as a prison volunteer, I analyze the interaction between volunteers, inmates, and staff to explain how New Age beliefs and tools contribute to cognitive behavioral treatment; such as the collaboration of an angeltherapist to support an inmate's emotional process. It was found that subjective identification and empathy between inmates and volunteers are crucial for transmitting tools for emotional management. enhance subjective.