Dr Phil promotes "Satanic Ritual Abuse" conspiracy theory

[Scott Sommers]

The bulk of therapists in the USA are social workers

Do you mean the bulk of all therapists or the bulk of therapists doing recovered memory crap?

 

[Ellen Travis]

Unfortunately the satanic panic and false memories are highly relevant to a situation we have here in the UK right now regarding the late paedophile and BBC celebrity kids TV presenter Jimmy Savile.

Just in case anyone missed it ITV recently broadcast a documentary exposing Savile's sexual assaults on young girls and this caused many other victims to come forward to tell of also being abused by Savile.

Savile's abuse of children occurred over decades with assaults going back to the 1960s, so memory and the validity of memories over time is a central issue.

The ITV documentary can be viewed in full here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKdmTj-jQ4Q

At the end of the documentary a telephone number and website is provided for people to call. The number and website are for the controversial charity the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC).

The charity is controversial because it recommends the notorious book The Courage to Heal to people contacting them and also because NAPAC head Peter Saunders dismisses concerns about false memories as nonsense and describes the False Memory Society as a "dangerous group" and an "enemy" of NAPAC.

From Saunder's blog (titles "Pete the Big Chief" - so nothing remotely narcissistic about that then)

There are a lot of abusers out there and we have to be on our guard. As some of you may have spotted recently the British False Memory Society (another dangerous group) have written to the Church of England urging them not to recommend a book called The Courage to Heal. Well I've never read this book but I have heard from countless survivors over the years how it has helped them............heal from abuse. Surprise, surprise then, the BFMS want it removed from bookshelves.

source:
http://petethebigchief.blogspot.co.uk/

NAPAC's views on ritual abuse, as disclosed in their newsletters are as follows:

Confusing terms in plain English……

Ritual abuse is a controversial issue because there are certain people in society in whose interest it is to maintain a firm denial that it exists. We call these people perpetrators.

At NAPAC we know it happens as we have spoken to hundreds of victims whose personal testimonies bear witness to this pernicious and vicious crime committed against children. It almost defies definition but we would describe it as a bunch of evil people who come together to destroy the mind, body and soul of a child and they do it in a carefully crafted and ritualistic way. The more bizarre the ritual, the more unlikely it is for children to be able to disclose and the harder it is for normal, decent people to believe that such atrocities occur.

NAPAC has more information of ritual abuse if you want to contact us. It does not make comfortable reading but consider people like Fred and Rose West – this was a part of their sordid world – and the world put them where they belong.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...ffCFeL&sig=AHIEtbTorYwkEXeopVscwyQWvP5mtU9kOA

What is Ritual Abuse?

One definition of ritual abuse is when one or more children are abused in a
highly organised way, by a group of people who have come together and
subscribe to a belief system which, for them, justifies their actions towards
that child. This usually extends into family involvement and may have been
practised as a religion or a way of life for years. Although survivors speak of
differing experiences, many elements are common.

Some things that ritual abuse can include:

• The use of mind control
• Being used in prostitution
• Photographing or filming the abuse
• Being forced to take drugs and/or alcohol
• Being tortured (sometimes to the point of death)
• Systematic emotional, physical and sexual abuse
• Being forced to participate in the abuse of others
• Elaborate rituals, “games”, “set ups” and “ceremonies”

Given that the above descriptions of abuse happens to countless children
on a daily basis within the UK and given that most of those children survive into adulthood… a question that frequently arises is “why isn’t there enough support for abuse survivors?”

There isn’t enough support for adult survivors of abuse mostly because
supporting survivors is a tacit admission of failure and we all know that we have failed children as a society and continue to do so.

We should never forget that the perpetrators of abuse are ultimately
responsible for that abuse – but it is such a wide spread societal problem that it needs to be tackled far more seriously than it currently is.

Furthermore, abuse is primarily perpetrated behind closed doors and perpetuated using fear, silence, isolation, embarrassment, shame and guilt.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...ki12NE&sig=AHIEtbSI8m18HI7zpA2V0PMrGQBQaYYfvg


I am extremely concerned that the ITV is promoting NAPAC as an organisation that people who remember abuse by Jimmy Savile should contact given their dangerous views about recovered memories and ritual abuse.

The situation is worse because for some years David Icke and his fans have been claiming that Jimmy Savile was involved with a Satanist cult, along with various member of the British royal family and senior politicians, that abused children and sacrificed them to Satan.

It is clear to me that Jimmy Savile definitely abused lots of children. Given the delicacy of human memory it is essential that victims from decades past receive suitable professional help and support. Referring victims to a dangerous organisation that encourages its clients to recover memories using The Courage to Heal and unethical therapeutic methodologies risks endangering an important criminal investigation as well as the risk of abusing victims and discrediting their real memories and accounts of what happened to them.

relevant links for further reading
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2010/mar/31/false-memory-sex-abuse-church
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2010/mar/10/women-victims-childhood-sexual-abuse

 

[Altus]

Do you mean the bulk of all therapists or the bulk of therapists doing recovered memory crap?

I would say both. I am open to clarification by any professionals in this forum, but from what I gather in the US, "talk therapy" or traditional psychotherapy used to be done by folks who held a medical degree or PhDs. Of course that didn't make them immune from this crap as a great deal of the folks who started it, Cornelia Wilbur (Sybil's "Dr.") Ross, Kluft, et al. fell into those camps.

Insurance and other changes in the mental health industry now mean a person in the US likely to seek therapy today is not going to see someone with a PhD or medical training. The sad part of that is most of the folk with higher education in the field today DON'T believe this stuff.

However, the person they are likely to see, a licensed social worker, has a concerning probability of falling for all sorts of BS therapies. I gotta find a study someone did on social workers and unproven therapies. Social workers can pick up continuing ed credits by going and hearing "experts" babble on about Satanic Abuse and other wild stuff. These workshops and others like them are held not only by the ISSTD but at holistic health centers like Omega in NY that also host psychics. These social workers come back all pumped up from these workshops and start looking for this stuff in their patients. Someone mentioned "Courage to Heal" above. I think Carol Tavris pointed out how that one workshop virus alone (the authors have no psych training) led to a nightmare number of RMT cases.

Doug mentions Corydon Hammond in his review. This "Dr." was giving talks with the ISSTD blessings--and is held in high esteem in Judy Byington's book---on the connection among Satanic Worship, Nazi mind control and multiple personalities.

There is no labeling of the equivalent "homeopathic practitioner" among therapists. A therapist is a therapist. It's not until the damage is done that people find out about the wild beliefs some of these "professionals" navigate by.

 

[Ellen Travis]

Unfortunately here in the UK the main accrediting body for psychotherapists, the UKCP, has accredited organisations that train people in woo based "body psychotherapy" (as is the body itself has memories that can be released / recovered via massage), "breathwork" (basically hyperventilating), NLP, hypnotism and even past life regression, therapy based on Sufi mysticism and "soul initiation" and a load of other weirdness.

Within the UKCP is a group of highly influential and (to put it nicely) eccentric individuals who have been campaigning against HPC registration and the increased public protection that it would confer.

Many of these individuals have a background in hippy theatre groups, encounter groups, EST, Byron Katie, the Hoffman Process, the Landmark Forum and other cult like groups.

Prominent among them was until recently the chair of the UKCP, Professor Andrew Samuels a man with a reputation of being a cult apologist and also of being extremely unboundaried in terms of having sexual relationships with his students and supervisees. I was warned to stay away from him on many occasions during my training and work at psychotherapy organisations, some of these occasions the warnings came from women who he had seduced. He is surrounded by sycophants who turn a blind eye to his sexual escapades. Interesting man. Spends a lot of time in Russia.

Vast numbers of UKCP accredited, insured psychotherapists incorporate "energy medicine", astrology, shamanism, "ecstatic dance" and all kinds of woo into their practice and the UKCP is absolutely fine with it.

I believe it is a disgraceful and dangerous situation.

 

[Altus]

Unfortunately here in the UK the main accrediting body for psychotherapists, the UKCP, has accredited organisations that train people in woo based "body psychotherapy"...

I'd like to believe it's different here, in the US, but I'm not so sure. New age thinking among the type of folk who enter social work here based on what I've read and seen is pretty high.

Of course, the book in question here doesn't even have a woman holding a valid license in social work...and she's doing therapy and promoting herself as CEO of a "Trauma Research Center"...which just means Judy Byington set-up a website to do therapy at $25 a session with no license. NPR regurgitated that BS as a credential...mindblowing.

 

[douglas mesner]

Unfortunately here in the UK the main accrediting body for psychotherapists, the UKCP, has accredited organisations that train people in woo based "body psychotherapy" (as is the body itself has memories that can be released / recovered via massage), "breathwork" (basically hyperventilating), NLP, hypnotism and even past life regression, therapy based on Sufi mysticism and "soul initiation" and a load of other weirdness.

Within the UKCP is a group of highly influential and (to put it nicely) eccentric individuals who have been campaigning against HPC registration and the increased public protection that it would confer.

Many of these individuals have a background in hippy theatre groups, encounter groups, EST, Byron Katie, the Hoffman Process, the Landmark Forum and other cult like groups.

Prominent among them was until recently the chair of the UKCP, Professor Andrew Samuels a man with a reputation of being a cult apologist and also of being extremely unboundaried in terms of having sexual relationships with his students and supervisees. I was warned to stay away from him on many occasions during my training and work at psychotherapy organisations, some of these occasions the warnings came from women who he had seduced. He is surrounded by sycophants who turn a blind eye to his sexual escapades. Interesting man. Spends a lot of time in Russia.

Vast numbers of UKCP accredited, insured psychotherapists incorporate "energy medicine", astrology, shamanism, "ecstatic dance" and all kinds of woo into their practice and the UKCP is absolutely fine with it.

I believe it is a disgraceful and dangerous situation.

Ellen -- I'm very glad to see you chime in. Have we spoken before? I have spoken to a few people who have put me on to very similar information in the UK where this body psychotherapy foolishness seems to spread out into brothels in Eastern Europe where girls who have "recovered memories" of abuse are made to believe that providing sexual services to clients is therapeutic both for the client and for themselves. At least, that's my understanding. I'm sure most people don't grasp just how powerful an indoctrination re-narrating the autobiographical memory can be.
In any case, being in the UK and concerned with therapeutic malpractice related to recovered memories, I hope you're aware of this:
http://www.justiceforcarol.com/

 

[Ellen Travis]

Ellen -- I'm very glad to see you chime in. Have we spoken before?

yes indeedy


will be in touch soon

edited
too much info
Doug you have to be careful posting that stuff under your real name
You may want to consider editing your post

 

[Altus]

Doug you have to be careful posting that stuff under your real name
You may want to consider editing your post

Doug has been writing for years. Check out his stuff. He's gone toe-to-toe with the wildest of them. He's accurate, but not shy. Thank goodness folks like him and Randi are willing to call "BS!!"

 

[douglas mesner]

Doug has been writing for years. Check out his stuff. He's gone toe-to-toe with the wildest of them. He's accurate, but not shy. Thank goodness folks like him and Randi are willing to call "BS!!"

Yeah, it's too late for me to keep it on the down-low. I've already been called into the courtroom, and I've already had plenty of speculations regarding my "agenda" and satanic loyalties.

 

[marplots]

Hail Satan!

 

[douglas mesner]

Hail Satan!

Thank you, thank you...

 

[marplots]

I tried that repressed memory recovery thing.
You know what? My car keys weren't under the couch.

It's all bunk.

On a serious note, does this remind anyone else of Scientology and the e-meter?

 

[douglas mesner]

On a serious note, does this remind anyone else of Scientology and the e-meter?

Yes. This is a connection that most people don't make, but Scientology is essentially a recovered memory psychotherapy cult. In their auditing they are very concerned with things like "pre-birth traumas" and -- I forget the language at the moment -- but a bunch of "forgotten" or "repressed" nonsense that is assumed to be there that fits with their convoluted pulp sci-fi fantasy.

 

[Altus]

Yes. This is a connection that most people don't make, but Scientology is essentially a recovered memory psychotherapy cult. In their auditing they are very concerned with things like "pre-birth traumas" and -- I forget the language at the moment -- but a bunch of "forgotten" or "repressed" nonsense that is assumed to be there that fits with their convoluted pulp sci-fi fantasy.

This whole trauma link should be taken on by researchers. Making the slightest or totally fabricated childhood event into a "trauma" to be looped over and over again in therapy is creating real trauma for therapy patients. Byington named herself CEO an alleged "Trauma Research Center." What "center"? She most likely works out of her home, duping folks on Skype. She has no credentials...her social worker license expired long ago, yet the top Utah papers and an NPR station were/are unwilling to do the 15 minutes of work it would take to determine this.

 

[Ellen Travis]

Yeah, it's too late for me to keep it on the down-low. I've already been called into the courtroom, and I've already had plenty of speculations regarding my "agenda" and satanic loyalties.

It is not the satanic stuff that concerns me

You mentioned brothels in your earlier post

The people involved in trafficking are extremely dangerous people*, you know with guns, paramilitary connections, that kind of thing.

Seriously dude, it's not a good idea to post about that stuff under your real name

*Including the scientologists

 

[douglas mesner]

This whole trauma link should be taken on by researchers. Making the slightest or totally fabricated childhood event into a "trauma" to be looped over and over again in therapy is creating real trauma for therapy patients. Byington named herself CEO an alleged "Trauma Research Center." What "center"? She most likely works out of her home, duping folks on Skype. She has no credentials...her social worker license expired long ago, yet the top Utah papers and an NPR station were/are unwilling to do the 15 minutes of work it would take to determine this.

At least learning that would have taken a little research. But they have her on talking about her book, and the least you would expect from that is that somebody would be aware what the book was really about. I find it simply ponderous that I see she has all these interviews and appearances lined up, and her book is as absurd as it is. I feel like I'm the only person who has actually read the filth. None of what I've included in my dissection of the book is artistic license or hyperbole. It really is about a woman who has ESP, who was abused by a Jewish Nazi Satanist brought to the US by the CIA, was saved from ritual sacrifice by the Lord Jeee-sus hisself (or at least a description of him), had to restrain herself from "messing around" with levitation, was instructed by the voice of God (presumably) to write the book, and has been possessed by demons. How do you get somebody who writes a book like that on your show and ask her a question like, "so tell me about this misunderstood diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder"???

 

[godless dave]

At least learning that would have taken a little research. But they have her on talking about her book, and the least you would expect from that is that somebody would be aware what the book was really about.

Having observed what passes for journalism in the US these days, no, I wouldn't expect that. I would expect them to have read the press release from the book's publisher about what the book was about. Or had an intern read it and reduce it to some bullet points.

 

[Ellen Travis]

Oh, while I'm on the subject of Jimmy Savile

This child molester was given keys to access all the bedrooms at Broadmoor Hospital and young women patients there have claimed that he sexually abused them on site at the hospital.

Here is a photo of Savile at Broadmoor introducing his friend the boxer Frank Bruno to another of his friends the serial killer Peter Sutcliffe (aka the Yorkshire Ripper).

Astonishingly Savile was actually in charge of the entire hospital for a period of time and could pretty much do whatever he wanted

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/12/jimmy-savile-broadmoor-volunteer-role

You might wonder who the consultant psychiatrist has been at Broadmoor for over 20 years?

None other than Gwen Adshead, friend of Valerie Sinason and author of various demented papers about Satanic Ritual Abuse.

 

[Altus]

Having observed what passes for journalism in the US these days, no, I wouldn't expect that. I would expect them to have read the press release from the book's publisher about what the book was about. Or had an intern read it and reduce it to some bullet points.

Or maybe took their "research" to the point of glancing at Judy Byington's Twenty-two Faces Amazon page where all her friends have voted up her book. Thanks again to all the JREF folks who voted down the bizarre glowing reviews and up the critical ones...still got a bit to go before any of the critical ones can get top ranking though. C'mon JREFers jump on in and click...it's all the skepti-rage, so to speak

 

[Altus]

It is not the satanic stuff that concerns me

Seriously dude, it's not a good idea to post about that stuff under your real name

*Including the scientologists

Really, go read his stuff. He's taken on former CIA folk, cults, and one of the the big brothers of all conspiracy theorists, Colin Ross, and he's still smilin'. Doug Mesner=debunking. He'd have to pull his name from the Interwebs to be clean of it. Ain't gonna happen.