by Nina
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| Speak Up by Mimmo Rotella |
I wanted to let those of you who don’t already know that Richard C. Miller, founding president of the iRest Institute, has resigned from the iRest Board of Directors and stepped away from teaching at iRest Institute events for “an undetermined amount of time” after sexual harassment accusations made in 2012 against him by an employee of his organization were recently made public. He has also committed to immediately begin taking ethics and sensitivity training.
Richard has admitted his actions toward the employee in a public statement about the incident, which you can find at IRI Community Statement. (In addition to being a psychologist who specializes in trauma and a long-time yoga teacher, Richard was the President of the iRest Institute where the employee was the Director of Operations.)
In 2012, when the employee reported the sexual harassment to the Human Resources department, iRest took a corporate approach to the incident, using mediation and a non-disclosure agreement. But in 2020, the former employee questioned the legality of the non-disclosure agreement and recently she shared her story on her Facebook page last week (see update below). Only then did the iRest institute release her from her non-disclosure agreement and decide that other actions are needed besides the one they originally took. They are now pledging to:
- Overhaul our Board of Directors
- Reform our Ethics Committee and strengthen our ethics procedures
- Redesign our programming
- Enable and prioritize a diversity of thought, perspective, and influence
- Re-evaluate and update Human Resources (HR) procedures
- Strengthen and maintain an ethically informed and mission-driven organizational culture
To see their complete statement, go to A Statement from the iRest Institute Board of Directors.
Most of this information came to me, unsolicited, through my email, including both the letter from Richard Miller and the statement from the iRest Institute. I also saw a lot of concern being expressed about this on Facebook by members of the yoga community.
In 2018, after hearing Karen Rain on the J. Brown’s podcast discuss the importance of continuing to shine a light on sexual abuse in the yoga community (see Speaking Truth to Power About Sexual Abuse), I wrote down on a piece of paper “We have to keep this topic alive.” That’s why I’m sharing this information with you and why I will continue to report on this troubling topic.
Update: I received an email on March 23, 2021 from a YFHA reader who is following the story on Facebook, and she reported to me that the former employee stated that she was breaking her non-disclosure agreement when she made her first Facebook post revealing what happened. The former employee also stated that she had been threatened by the iRest Institute’s lawyers the very same day if she broke the non-disclosure agreement. After her Facebook post, within about 24 hours, she was released from the non-disclosure agreement.
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I received the Richard Miller/iRest info thru unsolicited me mails. I also received iRest audio practices this way once a week. I use them in addition to my hatha practice. I sent Dr. Miller an email as he is clearly a human being suffering with results of his actions. I think it is important that we as a community understand what has happened in this incident and many like incidents. It is the only way to yoga to maintain integrity and safety within the practice.
I have been following the employees comments on Facebook. Here is her last post:
"So almost exactly a week has gone by since my post about breaking an NDA.
To complete the circle and to honor their response, I wanted to share this recent release from the iRest Institute: they are taking thoughtful, wise action that feels really aligned to me in response to what I brought forward.
I am blown away by how much learning is asked of so many of us in this, and the healing and restoration that has already taken place in myself as I've leaned in to the conversation with women in senior leadership there, as they've taken the time to listen and reflect and act thoughtfully and with integrity.
It's been really vulnerable and real. And they have opened the door to any healing process or further conversation that I would need as we all move forward.
Their statement is pasted here below and I wanted to center that here! ��Thank you again to each of you who have been a voice of support to me. And I'd ask that as heartily as many of you have supported me, that you'd consider respecting and appreciating that this organization that has responded in this way. I have no desire to further division and have real hopes for forward momentum and healing."
Could someone share the original comment from the woman who was the victim. I'd like to know and hear her story, not just Richards.
I understand. As soon as she makes a public statement–and not just a Facebook post to her friends–I will share it with you.
I have tremendous respect and gratitude to this teacher who has come forward. It took so much courage. I am so incredibly disappointed in iRest and Richard Miller. A definite breach of ethics when it comes to being a Psychologist never mind "a spiritual teacher". Despite the Board of Directors statement, I'm already concerned with their lack of transparency. All posts(and comments) relating to what happened have now been deleted from the iRest Facebook page as well as the iRest Australasian Facebook page (who were very slow to comment or respond to anything – with a post shared late Friday evening and taken down only 5 days afterwards). I have grave concerns about what is shared in your post. That the person was threatened by the iRest Institutes' lawyers after breaking the NDA. How awful that must have been for her. It's hard to imagine that iRest will walk the talk when it comes to the Board of Directors response. It looks like they are already in damage control and trying to cover things up by deleting comments and posts on their facebook pages. They are shying away from truth telling and discussion. Very sad indeed to what are already tragic circumstances.
Hello. I am a prior victim of sexual harassment and stalking. I am sharing that history because although I was initially devastated to hear the news about Richard Miller, I then read the details of the history of this from a variety of viewpoints, and they match. Richard's harassment consisted of asking this woman if she would be interested in a relationship with him, and then asking again after she said a clear "no." This definitely does qualify as harassment and it was wrong, but please read on. Richard Miller said back then that it was wrong. He sought psychological help and he entered into a long, deep learning curve. The iRest Institute leadership at that time worked carefully and thoughtfully with the victim to make sure it was fully resolved to her satisfaction. I can't for the life of me fathom why the victim lifted this back to light when the issue had been so lovingly and thoughtfully resolved back at the time when this happened in 2012. Although this teacher's actions were inappropriate and harmful, he took full responsibility back in 2012 and the leaders at iRest allowed the teacher who was harmed to take the lead in terms of what solutions would be most healing for her. I urge people to please read his letter and please read what the victim is saying. I also want to share that the way that Dr. Miller is responding to this has gone a long way toward helping me heal my own trauma from sexual harassment. If the two men who harassed me had responded the way that Richard Miller did, it would have been healing for the entire organization I worked for at that time. It is my belief that the kind of dehumanization that we often engage in when sexual harassment occurs is a barrier to the learning that our culture so badly needs to do around this issue. When we dehumanize the victim by disbelieving her, we do grave harm. That is what happened to me. When we dehumanize the perpetrator who is attempting to learn from his errors and heal the harm he has caused, we prevent restorative justice from healing our world. I urge people to read the details about this before spreading more harmful rumors.