Issue 99 – July 2011

S.M.A.R.T
(Stop Mind control And Ritual abuse Today)
P. O Box 1295, Easthampton, MA 01027-1295 USA E-mail: SMARTNEWS@aol.com
Home page:  http://ritualabuse.us/

Issue 99 – July 2011

The purpose of this newsletter is to help stop secretive organizations and groups from abusing others and to help those who allege they have been abused by such organizations and groups. This newsletter is not a substitute for other ways of recovering from ritual abuse. Readers should use caution while reading this newsletter. If necessary, make sure other support systems are available during and after reading this newsletter.

Important: The resources mentioned in this newsletter are for educational value only. Reading the books cited may or may not help your recovery process, so use caution when reading any book or contacting any resource mentioned in this newsletter. Some may have a religious or other agenda that may be separate from your own recovery process. Others may have valuable information on the Masons and other organizations, but have triggers or be somewhat sympathetic to those organizations.  Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the views expressed in this newsletter constitute expressions of opinion, and readers are cautioned to form their own opinions and draw their own conclusions by consulting a variety of sources, including this newsletter. Resources listed, quoted and individual articles, etc. and their writers do not necessarily support all or any of the views mentioned in this newsletter. Also, the views, facts and opinions mentioned in this newsletter are solely the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily the opinions of this newsletter or its editor.

Copyright 2011 – All rights reserved.   No reproduction of any material without written permission from the editor and individual authors.

SMART wants to thank all those that have contributed resource information to the newsletter.

A conference to help survivors of severe child abuse (ritual abuse) and torture will be held on August 5  – 7, 2011, between 8 – 5 PM Saturday and Sunday at the DoubleTree Hotel near Bradley International Airport, 16 Ella Grasso Turnpike, Windsor Locks, CT 06096 (between Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA).  This conference will help educate survivors of this abuse and their helpers.  Pre-registration is preferred.  For information write  S.M.A.R.T., P. O Box 1295, Easthampton, MA 01027-1295 E-mail: smartnewsaol.com, conference information is at:  http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/

CD information on the 2010 ritual abuse conference information is at http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/

Ritual Abuse And Extreme Abuse Clinician’s Conference 2011 – A one day conference preceding our regular conference will be open to licensed practitioners in related fields to discuss issues in working with clients suffering from ritual abuse and extreme abuse symptoms.  Students studying in related fields and retired licensed practitioners may write smartnews@aol.com by e-mail for more information. Internet conference information is available at:  http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/ritual-abuse-and-extreme-abuse-clinicians-conference-2011/

This issue contains information on clergy abuse, Capturing the Friedmans, fighting child pornography, day care abuse, child sex slavery, ritual abuse and mind control, ritual child abuse documentary, Valerie Sinason, Mohler child abuse case, recovered memory, dissociative identity disorder, dissociation, trauma, child abuse, domestic violence, depression, PTSD, child abuse and neglect, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Parental Alienation Disorder and deprivation and neglect

Resources and Information
Please note: Listing of these resources does not necessarily constitute our endorsement of them. They are for educational value only and some may be heavy for survivors to read. Some of the conferences listed may not necessarily be safe for all survivors. S.M.A.R.T. recommends always bringing a support person to all conferences. If you are a survivor of mind control and/or ritual abuse, S.M.A.R.T. recommends that you try to bring a support person that is familiar with mind control techniques.

Legal Information

Frontline Investigates Church Sex Abuse in Alaska – The Silence – Tuesday, April 19, 2011, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS – FRONTLINE reveals a little-known chapter of the Catholic Church sex abuse story: decades of abuse of Native Americans by priests and other church workers in Alaska. In The Silence, the first of two magazine segments airing Tuesday, April 19, 2011, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS, FRONTLINE producer Tom Curran and reporter Mark Trahant examine the legacy of abuse by a number of men who worked for the Catholic Church along Alaska’s far west coast in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They would leave behind a trail of hundreds of claims of abuse, making this one of the hardest hit regions in the country….”

This was 1970,” says Anchorage attorney Ken Roosa, who represented the Alaska victims in a class action law suit against the church. “It was absolutely unthinkable that the Catholic Church could be involved in the sexual abuse of children. There was nowhere for the kids to hide. There was no one they could talk to. The adults believed the abusers over their own children. It was a perfect storm for molestation.” As part of the church’s class action settlement with the victims, the bishop of Fairbanks, Donald Kettler, was asked to do something that no other bishop in the country had done on this scale: return to all of the villages where the abuse occurred and apologize to the victims in person.

In December 2010, FRONTLINE gained unique access to Bishop Kettler’s visit to the village of St. Michael — frequently referred to as “ground zero” for the abuse — where the bishop would come face-to-face with the reality of the abuse that the church had refused to acknowledge for years.
Also has a video of the show (describes abuse) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-silence/

Victims Say Film on Molesters Distorts Facts By SHARON WAXMAN February 24, 2004 ”Capturing the Friedmans,” the Oscar-nominated documentary that raises questions about the guilt of a father and son convicted of child molestation, is being criticized by six of their former victims, who say the film omitted or distorted important information about their cases.

The six are suggesting that the director, Andrew Jarecki, created more ambiguity than actually existed about the case both to heighten the dramatic impact of the film and to elicit sympathy for the Friedmans. The film tells the story of the disintegration of a seemingly average Long Island family after the father, Arnold Friedman, and son, Jesse, were accused of molesting children in computer classes they held in the basement of their Great Neck home in the 1980’s….
The mother said that Mr. Jarecki’s film omitted a third co-defendant, Ross Goldstein, a teenage neighbor who also pleaded guilty to charges of child molestation and who corroborated some of the children’s accusations at the time and went to prison.

She also said that Mr. Jarecki omitted a tearful confession by Jesse Friedman in prison on Geraldo Rivera’s talk show in 1989. Mr. Friedman detailed how his father had molested him as a child. In interviews Jesse Friedman has retracted his confessions, saying he pleaded guilty because he feared he could not get a fair trial and would get the maximum penalty….Mr. Jarecki said the material on Mr. Goldstein was left out because it duplicated statements by the 13 children but was included in the just-released DVD. He said he considered the Rivera interview unnecessary, since the film showed Jesse Friedman’s confession in court….

Two former victims, including the son of the woman who spoke to The Times, wrote an open but anonymous letter last week to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which will give out the Oscars on Sunday. They said that the film portrayed the victims as if they had invented their stories to satisfy an overzealous Nassau County police force.

They wrote: ”We did not lie. We did not exaggerate. We were never hypnotized to tell our stories.” They said the director had twisted the facts in the film to make it appear that they had….

Mr. Jarecki denies that he has become an advocate for Jesse Friedman. Still, Mr. Jarecki has submitted an affidavit on his behalf to the court. ”One of the hallmarks of a balanced film on a controversial subject is that advocates on both sides will never be satisfied that the film supports their agendas,” he wrote by e-mail.

Utah authorities arrest dozens in child-porn investigation  By Erin Alberty – The Salt Lake Tribune  Apr 28 2011 After 114 sex crime investigations, 124 computer seizures, more than 36 million images, thousands of overtime hours and 39 arrests, Utah’s Internet crime investigators on Thursday offered a flat proclamation for their month-long, statewide child-pornography bust….

The suspected crimes range from possession of pornography to creating and disseminating child pornography. Farnsworth said some of the 114 suspects are accused of filming or photographing their own illegal sex acts with children as young as toddlers, but she declined to discuss those cases. According to a press release, two suspects, a Utah County man and a Weber County juvenile, are accused of manufacturing child pornography.

Additionally, a Davis County man was charged with object rape and aggravated sexual abuse of a child after a federal conviction for producing pornography, and a Salt Lake County man faces two sex abuse charges along with his charge of dealing in material harmful to a minor. Farnsworth would not confirm whether those two men are suspected of committing those abuses in the creation of pornography.
Investigators will not know how many Utah children were victims in the cases until they review the images seized — the total number is estimated in excess of 36 million, according to figures provided by the Attorney General’s Office — and finish the pending investigations, Farnsworth said.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/utes/51712402-78/county-pornography-child-farnsworth.html.csp

Shock as Catholic bishop who brokered multi-million dollar sex abuse settlement is found GUILTY of importing child porn By Daily Mail Reporter 5th May 2011 A Roman Catholic bishop has been found guilty of importing child pornography in a case that has sent shockwaves through Canada and the Church. Bishop Raymond Lahey was stopped at Ottawa Airport after border guards found 588 images and dozens of videos of naked boys as young as eight on his computer and phone. He was also carrying a bag of personal sex toys. He was found guilty on the charge today….

The bishop’s crimes are especially shocking for Canadians because Lahey was the public face of an historic apology and $15million (£8million) settlement for victims of sexual molestation by a priest in his diocese….Lahey, who is facing a mandatory 12-month minimum prison term, voluntarily entered custody today. The images and videos will be viewed by the judge in private before official sentencing.

In addition to the criminal charges, Lahey also faces accusations in a civil suit of sexually abusing an orphanage resident in the early 1980s. The Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John’s, Newfoundland was closed in 1990 after it was revealed that staff had systematically abused some 300 residents over several decades. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1383629/Shockwaves-sent-Catholic-Church-bishop-GUILTY-importing-child-pornography.html

Priest Sex-Abuse Case Hits Church of Pope’s Adviser By Alessandra Pieracci and Giacomo Galeazzi / La Stampa / Worldcrunch Thursday, May 19, 2011 (GENOA) – The latest sex-abuse case to rock the Catholic Church is unfolding in the archdiocese of an influential Italian Cardinal who has been working with Pope Benedict XVI on reforms to respond to prior scandals of pedophile priests.

Father Riccardo Seppia, a 51-year-old parish priest in the village of Sastri Ponente, near Genoa, was arrested last Friday, May 13, on pedophilia and drug charges. Investigators say that in tapped mobile-phone conversations, Seppia asked a Moroccan drug dealer to arrange sexual encounters with young and vulnerable boys. “I do not want 16-year-old boys but younger. Fourteen-year-olds are O.K. Look for needy boys who have family issues,” he allegedly said. Genoa Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, who is the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, had been working with Benedict to establish a tough new worldwide policy, released this week, on how bishops should handle accusations of priestly sex abuse….

According to investigators, Seppia told a friend – a former seminarian and barman who is currently under investigation – that the town’s malls were the best places to entice minors. In tapped phone conversations the two cursed and swore against God. The priest is charged with having attempted to kiss and touch an underage altar boy and of having exchanged cocaine for sexual intercourse with boys over 18. Seppia’s defense lawyers are expected to argue that those conversations – monitored since Oct. 20, 2010 – were just words, sex games that were played by adults. It was just a game even when he claimed to have “kissed on the mouth” a 15-year-old altar boy, according to the defense. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2072613,00.html

Revealed, six decades of ‘ritual’ child abuse: Catholic schools and orphanages damned in report By Tom Kelly 21st May 2009

Abuse was ‘endemic’ in childrens’ institutions
Safety of children in general was not a consideration
No abusers will be prosecuted
Victims banned from launch of shocking report

Church leaders and government watchdogs covered up ‘endemic’ and ‘ritualised’ abuse of thousands of children in Roman Catholic schools and orphanages in the Irish Republic, a shocking report revealed yesterday.  For six decades, priests and nuns terrorised boys and girls in the workhouse-style schools with sexual, physical and mental abuse. But officials in Ireland’s Catholic Church shielded paedophile staff from arrest to protect their own reputations despite knowing they were serial attackers, according to the 2,600-page report, which took nine years to complete.

Irish government inspectors also failed to stop the chronic beatings, rape and humiliation, it found. About 35,000 children and teenagers who were orphans, petty thieves, truants, unmarried mothers or from dysfunctional families were sent to Ireland’s network of 250 Church-run industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s up until the early 1990s. The report by Ireland’s Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse found ‘a climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys’. It added: ‘Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from.’

Judge Sean Ryan, who chaired the commission, said that when confronted with evidence of sex abuse, religious authorities responded by moving the sex offenders to another location, where in many instances they were free to abuse again. ‘There was evidence that such men took up teaching positions sometimes within days of receiving dispensations because of serious allegations or admissions of sexual abuse,’ the report said.
‘The safety of children in general was not a consideration.’….

The report found that molestation and rape were ‘endemic’ in boys’ facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order.  Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless. ‘In some schools a high level of ritualised beating was routine,’ the report said. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1184828/Revealed-decades-ritual-child-abuse-Catholic-schools-orphanages-damned-report.html

Man accused of sexual assaults at Rockford day care By Matt Williams RRSTAR.COM May 17, 2011  ROCKFORD — A Rockford day care worker has been charged with sexually assaulting at least two individuals who used the day care. Winnebago County State’s Attorney Joe Bruscato announced the charges against Kevin Yates, 56, of Rockford, saying it is believed that Yates sexually assaulted a 5-year-old and a teenager while working at Tiny Tots Daycare on Château Lane. Yates is charged with two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, three counts of criminal sexual assault and nine counts of criminal sexual abuse. Bruscato said the range of victims are both male and female, and he is not ruling out that more children could be involved.
http://www.rrstar.com/news/x243995037/Man-accused-of-sexual-assaults-at-Rockford-day-care

Fighting child sex slavery in Thailand May 24th, 2011 Thai police recently busted a sex slavery ring, rescuing nine boys and arresting a Buddhist monk. Police footage shows the monk in possession of several fake guns. Experts working the case say he and another Thai man bought boys, held them prisoner and then sold them to Westerners for sex. The leader of the ring was sentenced to 84 years in prison for human trafficking and sexual abuse, a sentence that has since been halved because the judges said he’d cooperated with investigators and the court. The monk, who has been expelled from the clergy, received a 21-year prison sentence for trafficking and sexually abusing under-aged children. CNN’s Dan Rivers reports.
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/24/fighting-child-sex-slavery-in-thailand/

Scientologist charged for ‘intimidating’ alleged sex abuse victim Leo Shanahan From: The Australian     May 31, 2011 A SENIOR member of the Church of Scientology has been charged by police for intimidating a young girl who wanted to report sexual abuse allegations within the church. Jan Eastgate, the head of the church’s “International Commission on Human Rights” which attacks psychology, has been charged by NSW Police with perverting the course of justice. According the ABC TV’s Lateline, police have alleged Eastgate intimidated a then 11-year-old Carmen Rainer to provide false statements about sexual abuse by her stepfather.

Ms Rainer has alleged that Ms Eastgate, who was then head of the church’s citizens’ commission on human rights in Australia, told her she should deny any charges of the sexual abuse or she and her brother would be taken away by social services. Ms Rainer’s mother Phoebe has also admitted Ms Eastgate told both of them what to say and to lie to police and in an interview with the Department of Community Services. Ms Eastgate previously called the allegations “egregiously false”. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/scientologist-charged-for-intimidating-alleged-sex-abuse-victim/story-e6frg6nf-1226066045613

Senior Scientologist Jan Eastgate arrested, charged in Sydney From: news.com.au     May 31, 2011 A LEADING Church of Scientology figure allegedly coached an 11-year-old girl to lie about sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepfather. Jan Eastgate, who is the international president of the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights, has been charged in relation to allegations she coached Carmen Raine into lying about the claims, the ABC reported. The girl’s stepfather was a member of the Church of Scientology. http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/senior-scientologist-jan-eastgate-arrested-charged-in-sydney/story-e6frg12c-1226066180641

Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Information

Ritual Abuse and Mind Control: The Manipulation of Attachment Needs – Editors : Orit Badouk Epstein, Joseph Schwartz, Rachel Wingfield Schwartz, Publisher Karnac Books 2011  ISBN 13 : 9781855758391 ISBN 10 : 1855758393

Synopsis: People who have survived ritual abuse or mind control experiments have often been silenced, accused of lying, mocked and disbelieved. Clinicians working with survivors often find themselves isolated, facing the same levels of disbelief and denial from other professionals within the mental health field. This report – based on proceedings from a conference on the subject – presents knowledge and experience from both clinicians and survivors to promote understanding and recovery from organized and ritual abuse, mind control and programming. The book combines clinical presentations, survivors’ voices, and research material to help address the ways in which we can work clinically with mind control and cult programming from the perspective of relational psychotherapy.

Description: `Although my father wrote about dissociation and multiple personality, it wasn’t until Valerie Sinason asked me to do some filming for a survivor of ritual abuse that the penny really dropped. We had been filming the locations where much of the abuse had occurred and the woman asked me “Do you believe me?” And I realized that I did. This book of papers from a pioneering conference of survivors and therapists stands as a testament to the courage of those willing to come forward to name and identify the horrors of organized abuse practiced on children in our society. Every therapist should read it.’ – Sir Richard Bowlby

`This book, and the remarkable conference it documents, has brought together an impressive group of experts, professional and experiential, to discuss one of the most controversial issues in the fields of trauma and mental health. Attachment theory can definitely throw new light on a topic that some sceptics might prefer be left in the dark altogether.’ – John Read, Professor of Clinical Psychology, the University of Auckland

Editors: Orit Badouk Epstein is an attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist and supervisor who trained at The Bowlby Centre, London where she is a member of the executive committee.

She works as a relational psychotherapist in private practice and has a particular interest and passion for working with individuals who have experienced extreme abuse and trauma, DID, ritual abuse and working relationally with parents Joseph Schwartz is a training therapist and supervisor at the Bowlby Centre. He is the author of numerous papers on clinical practice, the history of psychoanalysis, and the lack of a role of genetics in mental distress.

Rachel Wingfield Schwartz is a UKCP Registered Psychotherapist and a training supervisor and teacher at the Bowlby Centre. Rachel has been working with ritual abuse survivors since 1993 and is passionately committed to ending the disbelief and silence surrounding this issue.

http://www.karnacbooks.com/Product.asp?PID=29482
the book in places describes abuse
http://bit.ly/eX71Do
http://books.google.com/books?id=xU6GZ28gGy4C&dq=Ritual+Abuse+and+Mind+Control:+The+Manipulation+of+Attachment+Needs&source=gbs_navlinks_s

http://tinyurl.com/3cnlawt
http://books.google.com/books?id=xU6GZ28gGy4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ritual+Abuse+and+Mind+Control:+The+Manipulation+of+Attachment+Needs&source=bl&ots=lBhIDQb2Bl&sig=Vqq6xIa_Y23-kw-azoJa_XAgbjQ&hl=en&ei=zAudTameMMbSgQey64D8Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

Ritual Abuse and Torture-based Mind Control: Reducing and Preventing Re-contact with Abusers….Survivors in therapy should  read this webpage only after their therapists have first read it and assessed that the survivor would benefit from reading it. If a survivor does not have a therapist, I strongly recommend that she/he obtain a therapist and only read this webpage with the therapist’s approval. Information on this website and webpage should not be construed as a substitute for therapy….

This page represents my current opinions on mind-sets and measures that help survivors of ritual abuse and torture-based mind control to reduce and prevent re-contact with their abusers. Most definitions of the term “ritual abuse” refer to ceremonial practices that involve physical and sexual abuse of children and adults, and human sacrifice, to appease, win favor with, or empower deities whom the abusers believe demand abuse and sacrifice, such as Satan and other polytheistic gods and goddesses.

Torture-based mind control programming can be defined as systematic torture that blocks the victim’s capacity for conscious processing (through pain, terror, drugs, illusion, sensory deprivation, sensory over-stimulation, oxygen deprivation, cold, heat, spinning, brain stimulation, and often, near-death), and then employs suggestion and/or conditioning to implant thoughts, directives, and perceptions in the unconscious mind, often in newly-formed trauma-induced dissociated identities, that force the victim to do, feel, think, or perceive things for the purposes of the programmer. The objective is for the victim to follow directives with no conscious awareness, including execution of acts in clear violation of the victim’s volition, moral principles, and spiritual convictions.

Torture-based mind control is practiced by individuals and groups who seek to maximally control and exploit others, usually beginning in childhood. Included are practitioners of abusive religious rituals (e.g., Satanism and abusive witchcraft), organized crimes against children (child pornography, prostitution, and trafficking), and groups with political, military, and espionage agendas.

My opinions are based on a synthesis of 17 years of experience in providing psychotherapy to victims and survivors of ritual abuse and mind control and extensive interviews of other survivors, including many survivor-therapists, and my ongoing communication with therapist and clergy colleagues working with survivors….
http://endritualabuse.org/healing/ritual-abuse-and-torture-based-mind-control-reducing-and-preventing-re-contact-with-abusers/

Ritual child abuse in France: German documentary pt. 1/5 – German documentary that delves into three cases of child abuse in France. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUzQ7aqFyiU
Ritual child abuse in France: German documentary pt. 2/5
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_qTWBZ_aRc
Ritual child abuse in France: German documentary pt. 3/5
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TquVPkCTn6U
Ritual child abuse in France: German documentary pt. 4/5
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxBeYH7qdVE
Ritual child abuse in France: German documentary pt. 5/5
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUDAZLwRuCs

DVD: Healing from Ritual Abuse and Mind Control, Survivor Trish Fotheringham Speaks Out – Interviewed by Ellen Lacter, Ph.D. This is a three-disc DVD set interview of Trish Fotheringham, survivor of ritual abuse and mind control. In an interview of almost three hours with Dr. Ellen Lacter, Trish Fotheringham inspires hope and courage for extreme abuse survivors. She gives direction and guidance for the healing journey, not only to survivors but also to the people who help them, including psychotherapists, clergy, and loved ones.

Trish Fotheringham’s years of ritual abuse and mind control remained secret, even from herself, until she was 30 years old, reaching conscious awareness during college social work classes about child abuse. The decade-spanning healing journey that followed led Trish to discover truths that have culminated in her life purpose of sharing her experiences to spread understanding, hope and inspiration.
http://endritualabuse.org/healing/dvd-healing-from-ritual-abuse-and-mind-control-survivor-trish-fotheringham-speaks-out/

Wanda Karriker, Ph.D., a retired psychologist who first began working with dissociative clients (several with ritual abuse/mind control histories) in the early 80’s, published the novel “Morning, Come Quickly” in 2003 to share what she learned personally and professionally about the aftereffects of extreme abuse and the resilience of the human spirit.  She has recently made it inexpensively available at Amazon.com for Kindle, at Barnes & Noble for the Nook, and at online ebook stores in Adobe pdf for reading on computers.  Reviews of the print editions are at: http://www.amazon.com/Morning-Come-Quickly-ebook/dp/B004Y6A4H0/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Valerie Sinason, Director CDS – Valerie Sinason is a poet, writer, child psychotherapist and adult psychoanalyst. She is Director of the Clinic for Dissociative Studies. She specialises in work with abused/abusing and dissociative patients including those with a learning disability She has written over 12 books and 100 papers and lectures nationally and internationally. http://valeriesinason.co.uk/index.html

The Clinic for Dissociative Studies was set up with the aid of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in 1998 as one of the few national centres of specialist expertise in the care and treatment of people with dissociative disorders. As an Independent Provider to the NHS it is commissioned by PCTs, mental health trusts and local authorities nationally to provide diagnosis, outpatient treatment and training.   http://clinicds.com/

Working with Dissociation in Clinical Practice Using an Attachment Perspective – 18-19th June and 2-3rd July  2011, Summer course in collaboration with The Bowlby Centre  – This 4-day continuing professional development course introduces key concepts for working therapeutically from a relational perspective with adults suffering from dissociative experiences. Dissociation will be explored as a survival strategy which begins when an individual is faced with repeated early emotional, physical and/or sexual trauma at the hands of attachment figures. http://clinicds.com/news.html  http://clinicds.com/resources/bowlby+2011+perfect++with+phil+.gif

Introduction chapter from “Attachment Trauma and Multiplicity” by Valerie Sinason – DID and Ritual Abuse – In America the largest amount of DID is diagnosed in connection with allegations of ritual Satanist abuse….It is worth noting that both at the Portman Clinic and in the Clinic for Dissociative Studies we have not found evidence of fundamentalist religious beliefs, recovered memory or Munchhausen’s as issues in those alleging this kind of abuse. 

Indeed, the pilot study on patients alleging ritual abuse that Dr Robert Hale, then Director of the Portman Clinic and I submitted in July 2000 included the finding that the only two out of 51 subjects who had any link with evangelist religious groups made contact with them after disclosing ritual Satanist abuse, and only because no-one else would listen to them….I have stated elsewhere (Sinason, 1994) that the number of children and adults tortured in the name of mainstream religious and racial orthodoxy outweighs any onslaught by Satanist abusers. http://clinicfordissociativestudies.com/short%20att%20tram%20mult%20Introduction%20for%20web.htm

Satanic ritual lawsuit thrown out April 7, 2011 COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 7 (UPI) – The Ohio Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by a woman who says she was a victim of satanic ritual abuse by a Catholic priest. A lawyer for the woman, identified only as Survivor Doe, said the court’s unanimous decision means the end of her lawsuit, The Toledo Blade reported. One justice abstained because she served on a committee that drafted policies on sexual abuse in 1995 for the Roman Catholic diocese of Toledo. A lower court judge had dismissed the case because the suit was filed after the statute of limitations expired. Survivor Doe, 47, said she was subjected to abuse by people dressed as nuns. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/04/07/Satanic-ritual-lawsuit-thrown-out/UPI-72921302199906/

Doctors Demand State Board Take Action Against Gitmo Psychologist By KYLE ANNE UNISS  April 18, 2011       COLUMBUS, Ohio (CN) – Two doctors, a minister and a disabled veteran sued the Ohio Board of Psychology, claiming it failed to act on their detailed complaint against a psychologist, an Army colonel who “was responsible for the abuse and exploitation of detainees as a senior psychologist at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, in violation of Ohio law and Board ethics rules.”  The plaintiffs seek writ of mandamus to compel the State Board to take “formal action” against Dr. Larry C. James, a board-licensed psychologist and Dean of Wright State University’s School of Professional Psychology. James is not listed as a defendant.

The plaintiffs say he worked at the Guantanamo prison in 2003 and in 2007-2008. At Guantanamo, James was an Army colonel who led the Behavioral Science Consultation Team, which included psychiatrists and psychologists who “played a role in the exploitation, abuse, and torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, subsequently misrepresented that experience, and improperly disclosed confidential patient information,” according to the complaint. James led the team from January to May 2003, and against from June 2007 through May or June 2008, according to the complaint in Franklin County Court. The plaintiffs are Dr. Trudy Bond, a practicing psychologist from Toledo; Michael Reese, an Army veteran, member of Disable American Veterans, and a former counselor for people with disabilities; the Rev. Colin Bossen, a Unitarian minister from Cleveland Heights; and Dr. Josephine Setzler, director of an Ohio chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/04/18/35867.htm

About Teal Scott – The Spiritual Catalyst – Teal was born in Santa Fe New Mexico in the year 1984.
In the first years of her life, it became apparent that she had been born with extrasensory abilities. Among these abilities she was born with were clairvoyance, clairsentience, clairaudience, the ability to manipulate electromagnetic fields and the ability to communicate with thought forms. As she grew, unlike many children born with extrasensory abilities, her gifts did not go away.

Her parents, who were both Wilderness Rangers, later accepted a job in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest of Utah, not knowing at the time about the intensely religious climate of the location. Word of her abilities got out very quickly and were not only frowned upon but feared by many in the religious community. It was because of Teal’s extrasensory abilities that she was inducted as a child (unbeknownst to her parents) into a local cult by a family acquaintance, where she was routinely ritualistically tortured and programmed for a period of thirteen years.

She managed to escape from the cult when she was 19 years old. Since then, Teal has become a “spiritual catalyst” both accepting and utilizing her abilities to remind people of the united, energetic nature of this universe and to teach people how to find bliss in the midst of even the most extreme circumstances.
http://www.thespiritualcatalyst.com/TealScott-Bio.html
information on her book and work
http://www.thespiritualcatalyst.com/TealScottHome.html

Jared Mohler Trial Delayed Until 2012 – Family Member Accused Of Molesting Young Relatives April 18, 2011 LEXINGTON, Mo. – Another trial date has been set for one of six family members accused of molesting young relatives about 20 years ago in western Missouri. Jared Mohler was scheduled to stand trial Monday in Lafayette County. He has pleaded not guilty to several felony counts of abuse, including rape, sodomy and use of a child in a sexual performance. The judge set a new trial date of Feb. 25. 2012. Mohler’s father, uncle and three brothers also face various felonies stemming from claims they abused young relatives in the mid-1980s at a farm in Lafayette County. Court dates for other members of the family have also been changed. http://www.kmbc.com/news/27587051/detail.html

Breaking the silence about non-state torture (NST) I am a person who survived non-state torture in private settings in childhood. I speak and use my writing and art-work to raise awareness and educate about non-state torture including ritual abuse-torture, child trafficking, and organised ritualised pedophilia.  I dream of seeing human rights recognition of non-state torture in private settings for all persons. Torture in domestic/private settings is a genderised violence. All persons, and particularly women, women who when they were girls, and children who have endured torture victimisation in this way, are invisiblised in our world. http://www.artprintsnst.net

One of the 2011 NAUTILUS AWARDS SILVER WINNERS for the category of  MEMOIR / PERSONAL JOURNEY
DAY BREAKS OVER DHARAMSALA: A Memoir Of Life Lost and Found by Janet Thomas publisher Nutshell Books http://www.nautilusbookawards.com/2011_Silver_Winners.html

The Nautilus Awards recognizes Books and Audio Books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living & positive social change,  while at the same time they stimulate the “imagination” and offer the reader “new possibilities” for a better life and a better world. http://www.nautilusbookawards.com/Home.html
Day Breaks Over Dharamsala – A Memoir of Life Lost and Found by Janet Thomas – Day Breaks Over Dharamsala was a 20-year writing journey that started in 1990.

book excerpt:
I’ve tried to heal from the electric shocks that could never happen but did; the sexual slavery as a child that only my body remembers; the experiments that happened to someone else In my body; the days and nights in the dark that made indistinguishable my self from all that did not exist; the places where I became an animal, where being debased for the enjoyment of others was my charm and my glory. I heal from it all, even as I know it could never have happened to me. It is what I don’t know that has both saved me and condemned me. And it seems, at times, as though there is no difference.

I do bear one visible scar. It’s four inches long and reaches down the inside of my left forearm. On my left hand are five-year old fingers and a thumb that does not bend. There is not much feeling in this hand. It is a hand that is always cold, always numb, always looked after by my other hand-the right one, the one that writes, that does everything. “The scar is real,” it writes. It is a huge scar. It is connected to medical experiments and electric shocks to see if the severed nerve would grow, and electric shocks to make sure I didn’t remember the electric shocks. And shocks to obliterate the memory of the sexual exploitation, the manipulation of my mind, and the banishment of my self to a place of hiding so profound it would take me fifty years to get her back..

Many children were experimented on in the 40s and 50s; they still are. Many children were used for child prostitution and pornography; they still are. Many children, and adults, too, had their minds experimented upon through electric shock and drugs and by the destruction of the bonds that make life possible. It is everywhere. Yet it is ultimately our healing that matters. Only in healing that which is invisible is there hope.    Nutshell Books (November 2009) ISBN-13: 978-0615329215 http://www.daybreaksoverdharamsala.com/

Spillover Torture from the Military/Warring Sphere into the Private Sphere: Making Visible a Silenced Human Rights Violation and Victimized Persons’ ‘Body Talk’ by Jeanne Sarson and Linda Macdonald, June 2, 2011

Presented At: Canadian Peace Research Association (Cpra)
2011 Conference and Annual General Council Meeting – CPRA is part of the 2011 Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences of Canada, hosted by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University, Fredericton, Canada
Website: www.nonstatetorture.org

the paper describes graphic abuse
….Spillover into the private sphere of pedophilic torture against girls by perpetrators with warring or military experiences For us, raising this question began to emerge 18 years ago, when faced with the reality that pedophilic torture victimization was occurring in the so-called private or domestic sphere perpetrated by non-state actors, some who had military or warring experiences. Some of these torturers were also parents and extended inter-generational family members who were connected to like-minded others. For some women, so tortured as girls, they believed the horrors of war were contributing factors that led to the pedophilic torture they suffered in childhood…..

Web survey, pedophilic NST, ritualisms & military connections
• 90% (142 out of 157) of survey respondents were female
• 62% (96 out of 155) indicated their victimization occurred between 1946-1975
• 37% (57 out of the 155) stated victimization was after 1976 into the present
• 62% (96 out of 155) indicated perpetrators were military members, veterans, or civilian military employees
• 77% (120 out of 155) indicated perpetrators were male & female officers & other ranks
• 63% (97 out of 154) were trafficked, within their own country, or into one or more other countries.
(Sarson & MacDonald, 2009)

….media reports reveal that the manufacturing of pedophilic sexualized violence images occurs in Canada and some is interfamilial and homemade. One Canadian report that assessed 4,110 pedophilic images taken from 15,662 websites hosting child pornography showed (Canadian Centre for Child Protection, 2009)

….These examples provide a brief insight into how unexpressed past victimization and traumatization pain and suffering create present day real body memory pain – real body talk – but as real as the physical body talk pain is experienced it is generally not relieved with pain medication. It is relieved when she has succeeded to process the remembered torture ordeal.
http://nonstatetorture.org/files/9313/0714/7474/spillovernst.pdf

Survey: Sexualized Harms Inflicted by “Others” If you are a person who has survived, or are still enduring non-state torture, including ritual abuse-torture we are inviting you to answer our 10 question survey. Many people who contact Jeanne and I speak  about suffering sexualized harms when seeking help from support persons such as counselors, doctors, social workers, nurses, clergy, police or legal professionals.  The survey is linked here:  http://nonstatetorture.org/survey/

Journal articles and child abuse and trauma information

An Infinite Mind is proud to announce Healing Together – an Educational and Support Conference on DID held in beautiful Lake Buena Vista, FL on January 28th-29th 2012 at the beautiful Wyndham Lakes Resort. Who should attend?
*Survivors with all types of dissociative disorders, especially those with DID.
*Supporters and loved ones of people with dissociative disorders and DID.
*Mental Health Professionals who currently treat dissociative clients or would like to learn more about treating dissociation and DID.  http://www.aninfinitemind.com/healing-together.html

Trauma Articles, Chapters, & Commentaries – Articles and commentaries on this site are all authored or co-authored by Jennifer J. Freyd.  http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/traumapapers.html

Becker-Blease, K.A., DePrince, A.P., & Freyd, J.J. (2011). Why and how people forget sexual abuse. The Role of Traumatic Memories In V. Ardino (Ed.),Posttraumatic Syndromes in Children and Adolescents. (pp 135-155)  West Sussex, UK:  Wiley/Blackwell. http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/articles/bbdf2011.pdf

Hulette, A.C., Kaehler, L.A., & Freyd, J.J. (2011).  Intergenerational associations between trauma and dissociation.  Journal of Family Violence, 26, 217-225.

Abstract. The purpose of this study was to investigate intergenerational relationships between trauma and dissociation. Short and long term consequences of betrayal trauma (i.e., trauma perpetrated by someone with whom the victim is very close) on dissociation were examined in a sample of 67 mother-child dyads using group comparison and regression strategies. Experiences of high betrayal trauma were found to be related to higher levels of dissociation in both children and mothers. Furthermore, mothers who experienced high betrayal trauma in childhood and were subsequently interpersonally revictimized in adulthood were shown to have higher levels of dissociation than non-revictimized mothers. Maternal revictimization status was associated with child interpersonal trauma history. These results suggest that dissociation from a history of childhood betrayal trauma may involve a persistent unawareness of future threats to both self and children.

….Betrayal Trauma Theory (Freyd 1994, 1996) posits that dissociation is most likely to occur when a trauma is perpetrated by someone with whom the victim has a close relationship. Research has shown that exposure to traumas high in betrayal is significantly associated with dissociation (e.g., DePrince 2005; Freyd et al. 2001, 2005). In the case of child maltreatment, betrayal trauma theory suggests that a child who is dependent on his/her parent learns to dissociate the experience of parental betrayal and abuse from conscious awareness, in order to maintain an attachment to that parent.

Several studies have identified a link between the experience of maltreatment and heightened dissociation in children (Becker-Blease et al. 2004; Hulette et al. 2008a, b; Macfie et al. 2001a, b; Ogawa et al. 1997). For example, Hulette and colleagues (2008a, b) found that maltreated preschool-age children in foster care had a significantly higher mean level of dissociation than non-maltreated children. Children who experienced multiple forms of maltreatment were the most highly dissociative. These findings are in accord with betrayal trauma theory (Freyd 1996), as children experiencing different kinds of abuse may have a greater need to be dissociative in order to preserve a relationship with caregivers.

Betrayal trauma seems to have long-term effects on  dissociation as well. In a prospective longitudinal study, Ogawa et al. (1997) found that maltreatment predicted dissociation across developmental periods (i.e., infancy, preschool, elementary school, adolescence, and young adulthood). Dissociation is also present in adult survivors of childhood betrayal trauma (Coons et al. 1988; Loewenstein and Putnam 1990; Putnam 1997; Putnam et al. 1986; Ross et al. 1991)….http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/articles/hkf2011.pdf

Hulette, A.C., Freyd, J.J., & Fisher, P. A. (2011). Dissociation in middle childhood among foster children with early maltreatment experiences. Child Abuse & Neglect, 35, 123-126. Dissociation, defined as “a disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity, or perception of the environment” (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), has been hypothesized to develop in response to caregiver maltreatment and betrayal (e.g., Briere & Runtz, 1988; Chu & Dill, 1990; Freyd, 1994; Hornstein & Putnam, 1992; Liotti, 1999; Putnam, 1993; Sanders&Giolas, 1991; Terr, 1991). Further, researchers have recently identified a link between maltreatment and the experience of high dissociation in early childhood (Becker-Blease, Freyd, & Pears, 2004; Hulette, Fisher, Kim, Ganger, & Landsverk, 2008; Hulette, Freyd, et al., 2008; Macfie, Cicchetti, & Toth, 2001a; Macfie, Cicchetti, & Toth, 2001b; Ogawa, Sroufe, Weinfeld, Carlson, & Egeland, 1997).

Macfie et al. (2001a) found a significant increase in dissociation in preschool aged children over a 1-year period, suggesting that early maltreatment has long-term effects on dissociation. They also found that severity and chronicity of maltreatment were associated with dissociation and that physical abuse was associated with dissociation in the clinical range (Macfie et al., 2001b). Hulette, Freyd, et al. (2008) examined dissociation with the children in the current sample when they were preschool aged. In addition to the finding that maltreated preschool-aged foster children had significantly higher mean levels of dissociation than nonmaltreated children, they found the highest levels of dissociation in children who had experienced moderate–high physical abuse with emotional maltreatment and neglect.

In another sample of preschool-aged children, Hulette, Fisher, et al. (2008) found that children who had experienced multiple forms of maltreatment (i.e., neglect, and physical, sexual, and emotional abuse) showed the highest dissociation….In this study, we examined dissociation in school-aged foster children who had been maltreated in early childhood.
The finding that foster children continue to be highly dissociative years after maltreatment experiences supports previous research findings….

Summary – The findings from the current study suggest that the experiences of early maltreatment and foster care are related to later dissociative symptoms in school-aged children, and that girls are more susceptible to dissociative symptoms. It is important for practitioners to consider these factors to prevent pathological problems that could negatively impact other areas of such children’s lives.
http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/articles/hff2011.pdf

482 children died. Now what? Carol Capó April 11, 2011 If 482 children had died in Virginia because of tainted formula or shoddy cribs, there would be people going door to door to recall all the suspect cans and cribs they could find. If 482 children had died in Virginia because the brakes on a certain make of car were faulty, we would have demanded action from Congress — and got it. 482 children did die in Virginia, over the 11-year period that ended June 30, 2010. But they weren’t sickened by bad food or suffocated by collapsing cribs or crushed by careening cars. They died because the people who loved them, or should have, killed them or let them die. That astounding number is the count of children who died of abuse or neglect at the hands of a caretaker, in just this state in just this period of time….In Hampton Roads, in that time, 196 children died….

This is what we know about those 196 children: They were almost all babies. About half never got to celebrate their first birthday, and three-quarters were no older than two. We know how they died: The single most common cause was inflicted head injury. We know who killed them. 60 percent died because of the action or inaction of a parent; 11 percent were the victims of a parent’s lover, usually the mother’s.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-nws-capo-column-0412-20110411,0,1411662.column

RACE AGAINST CHILD ABUSE 2011 SATURDAY MAY 7TH, 2011 11.00am  RACECOURSE PARK, KETTERING ROAD, NORTHAMPTON, UK In June 2010, a newly founded charity ‘Against Child Abuse’ launched their first annual ‘Race Against Child Abuse’, a 5km sponsored fun run in Northampton. The event was a great success and attracted local press coverage. With the support of family and friends, enough money was raised from the Race in 2010 to organise a UK Rally Against Child Abuse in Trafalgar Square, London. Victims, survivors, families, support groups and campaigners were given the opportunity to speak out and stand united for the cause.

The event was a great success and was covered by ITN News. This year’s Race Against Child Abuse already has five times the amount of participants than last year and the charity hopes to raise enough money to assist other smaller, grassroots, support organisations helping victims and survivors of child abuse. The charity is holding another UK Rally Against Child Abuse in Trafalgar Square on Saturday June 4th 2011. To find out more about ‘Against Child Abuse’ or to sign up for this year’s Race visit  http://www.againstchildabuse.co.uk/race-against-child-abuse.html
Email: againstchildabuse@live.co.uk

UK RALLY AGAINST CHILD ABUSE Saturday 4th June 2011 The UK Rally Against Child Abuse is part of a peaceful child protection movement giving people from all walks of life the opportunity to join together, not only in raising awareness of this most serious issue but also providing a source of support for victims, survivors and families and showing that they are not alone. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join us – victims, survivors, non-survivors, friends, families, supporters and support organisations, anyone who is against child abuse and wants to make a difference – for the children. Members of the public will be invited to take the stand to voice their views and share their experiences. Support organisations are invited to take the stand to promote their work and are encouraged to bring publicity materials.

Start  1:00pm Trafalgar Square, Westminster, London. Finish  4:00pm (Please note: this event will be filmed & speeches aired with permission) For enquiries, please email truthandhope@live.co.uk http://www.againstchildabuse.co.uk/uk-rally-against-child-abuse.html

No Way Out But One is a feature length documentary currently in post-production. It tells the story of an American woman accused of kidnapping her own children, a woman who fled the country and became the first American to be granted asylum by the government of the Netherlands on grounds of domestic violence. The 13-minute version presented here serves as a trailer for the feature and a documentary short. In 1994 Holly Collins became an international fugitive when she took her three children and fled the United States to protect them from abuse. The family courts had ignored medical evidence of domestic violence and gave full custody of Holly’s children to the man they named as their abuser – her ex-husband and the children’s father.

Wanted by the FBI, Holly became the first U.S. Citizen to receive asylum from the Netherlands. In No Way Out But One, Holly Collins shares a story that in many respects is like thousands of others. It is estimated that 58,000 children a year are ordered into unsupervised contact with physically or sexually abusive parents following divorce in the United States.Unlike so many of the other tragic stories happening around the country, Holly was able to protect her children and keep them safe. Despite all the harrowing trials, her story ultimately has a happy ending. Even though she and the kids had No Way Out But One. http://nowayoutbutone.com/

NO WAY OUT BUT ONE: a story of love and justice Project by Garland Waller and Barry Nolan

No Way Out But One is a documentary that tells the story of Holly Collins, an American woman who was driven by fear, love and desperation to kidnap her own children and go on the run in order to protect them from a life of abuse. Wanted by the FBI, Holly left behind everything she owned and everyone she knew in an effort to keep her children safe. She became an international fugitive, eventually making it to Amsterdam. After spending 2 years in a refugee camp out in the middle of nowhere, living shoulder to shoulder with other desperate souls fleeing violence torn hell holes around the world,  Holly became the first American woman to ever be granted asylum by the Government of the Netherlands, due to domestic violence.

Though it focuses on the desperate measures that one woman felt she had to take to protect her children, it also exposes the problems that protective parents and vulnerable children are facing nearly every day in courtrooms across the country….

No Way Out But One is based on extensive interviews with Holly and her family, medical professionals, lawyers, and child advocates. Filming has been completed in The Netherlands, Boston, Washington DC, and New York.  The producers have culled through thousands of pages of court and medical records, unpublished journals, news reports, family photos and videos. Our Freedom of Information Act request to the FBI for Holly’s files, resulted in the identification of nearly 1,000 pages of never before seen material. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2038674816/no-way-out-but-one-a-story-of-love-and-justice

Biological Links Found Between Childhood Abuse and Adolescent Depression – ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2011) — Kate Harkness has found that a history of physical, sexual or emotional abuse in childhood substantially increases the risk of depression in adolescence by altering a person’s neuroendocrine response to stress. Adolescents with a history of maltreatment and a mild level of depression were found to release much more of the stress hormone cortisol than is normal in response to psychological stressors such as giving a speech or solving a difficult arithmetic test.

“This kind of reaction is a problem because cortisol kills cells in areas of the brain that control memory and emotion regulation,” explains Dr. Harkness, a professor in the Department of Psychology and an expert in the role of stress and trauma in adolescent depression. “Over time cortisol levels can build up and increase a person’s risk for more severe endocrine impairment and more severe depression.”….Dr. Harkness recently presented her findings at the International Society for Affective Disorders Conference in Toronto.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110420125506.htm

Annual Restorative Justice Initiative Conference Event Details 04-04-2011 Location: Eckstein Hall, Marquette Law School – Harm, Hope, and Healing: International Dialogue on the Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal April 4 & 5, 2011 Eckstein Hall, Marquette Law School – Marquette University campus (links to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s Lecture and viewing the conference)  http://law.marquette.edu/cgi-bin/site.pl?2216&deEvent_eventID=3256&date=04-04-2011

4/4/2011 Marquette Conference Address CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY – HARM, HOPE AND HEALING
Marquette University International Dialogue on the Clergy Sexual Abuse Scandal THE TRUTH WILL MAKE YOU FREE:  A PERSONAL JOURNEY Lecture Notes of Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin – Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland – Marquette University, Milwaukee, 4th April 2011

Let me give you some brief statistical background into the extent of the abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Dublin.  In the period between 1940 and 2010 – as far as it has been possible to ascertain – allegations or suspicions of sexual abuse have been made against over 90 priests of the Archdiocese and against about 60 religious priests who held diocesan appointments. 10 Dublin priests, or former priests, have been convicted or have cases pending in the criminal courts.  Two non-diocesan priests, who served in Dublin, have also been convicted in the criminal courts.   The number of victims who have been individually identified is 570, but it is generally accepted that the number of children who were abused must run into thousands, possibly by about 10 priests who were clearly serial pedophiles….

I remember well the first complaint about the behaviour of a priest that arrived on my desk.  I looked briefly at the priest’s file to see if there were any earlier indications about his behaviour. At the top of the file I found a yellow page saying “Inspected regarding CSA – Nothing found”.  I felt however that I should look at the file in a little more detail and found that the very next document was an internal note: “Father X seems to be back to his old activities”.  Clearly there was knowledge of “old activities” but no clear understanding that these activities indicated an on-going serious pattern of grooming which should clearly have raised red flags.   The case was effectively dealt with respecting the appropriate norms; the priest was removed from ministry and the civil authorities informed….

If I take a Father Z, I can categorise him statistically in various ways.  He can be statistically registered as one priest; it can be determined however that he abused perhaps one hundred known victims; there can be valid indications that he had probably abused hundreds more other children; the number of family members affected will then easily reach into the thousands.  And that is just for one priest.  And in Dublin you must multiply Father Z by about ten real serial abusers….

I tell these events not to re-open history, but to illustrate just how difficult it is to bring an institution around to the conviction that the truth must be told.  All institutions have an innate tendency to protect themselves and to hide their dirty laundry.  We have to learn that the truth has a power to set free which half-truths do not have. The first condition for restorative justice is that all parties are willing to tell the truth and to take ownership of the truth, even when the truth is unpleasant.   As I said at a recent liturgy of lament in Dublin: “The truth will set us free, but not in a simplistic way.  The truth hurts.  The truth cleanses not like smooth designer soap but like a fire that burns and hurts and lances”….
http://www.dublindiocese.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2367&Itemid=1166

describes abuse
‘My father’s relationship with me ultimately destroyed him’: Writer Leslie Kenton reveals the secret incest she endured By Louette Harding  31st January 2010

In her new memoir, beauty guru Leslie Kenton reveals for the first time that she was raped aged 11 by her own father, and describes the secret incest that lasted until she was 13….`I was not enamoured of the world I grew up in,’ she told an interviewer in 1993 when asked about her father, the American jazz band leader Stan Kenton, and her mother Violet. `I felt alienated.’ Two years later, she revealed a childhood suicide attempt. Now we learn in Love Affair the full extent of the horrors and the secret incest at its heart….During the summer of 1952, she met him on tour, sharing his hotel room, sleeping back to back. He was drinking heavily while she, though aged only ten, was trying to police him, this six-foot four-inch man. He was, in many ways, treating her as a substitute for Violet. One night the final boundary was crossed and he raped his daughter. It was the beginning of an incestuous relationship that lasted until she was 13.

During visits, the days were as sunny as ever. They shared a unique exhilaration when together. Some nights he left her alone. `I believe he tried his best to resist touching me. Then, drowning in a sea of alcohol, he would come to my bed, only to deny the next morning that he’d been there.’ This was not cynical. Stanley had become so skilled in keeping secrets he could hide his guiltiest one even from himself. `He was born into guilt. As a child he was taught by his mother, “There’s something wrong with you, Stanley.”‘ From talking to relatives, Leslie has learnt of a highly dysfunctional family with a history of manipulation, neglect and bizarre cult-like rituals.

`I do not know how to express the damage that a family like this does. This is a disease that’s passed on. Some people survive it and others are deeply damaged.’ Leslie thinks Stanley experienced a condition known as dissociative identity disorder, involving selective amnesia, which she also developed as she blocked out the incest.
Her body, though, provided mute testimony. She suffered intense fevers and pains. `I believe my body was processing a lot of trauma and getting it out. I had the same recurring dream where I was being chased across rooftops and I was terrified, and I looked behind only to see myself come up over the side of the building.’ She ripped the flesh from the soles of her feet, tore at one of her nails. `There was no way I could stop doing that.’….

Despite the disassociation, he was [unconsciously] terrified of someone finding out,’ Leslie reasons. He raged and screamed at his daughter. `One night he shook me to the point where it didn’t matter to me if he killed me. Something broke in me and my relationship with him broke.  Love Affair: The Memoir of a Forbidden – Father-Daughter Relationship by Leslie Kenton – Vermilion http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1246717/Leslie-Kenton-reveals-incestuous-relationship-father.html

Post-Traumatic Childhood By BESSEL A. van der KOLK Op-Ed Contributor May 10, 2011 Brookline, Mass….Rather than being subjected to bullets and bombs, children are victimized by those who are meant to care for them. These are children like a 3-year-old girl in Anchorage who was found by a police officer in her crib, hungry, underweight and covered in her own feces; an 11-year-old boy in New York City who has had violent outbursts since he was sexually molested, and whose terror of being alone makes him a subject of ridicule by his classmates; or a 14-year-old girl in Boston who set fire to a church and repeatedly attempted suicide after being beaten at home. The Pew Charitable Trusts estimates that the annual cost of childhood maltreatment like this is $103.8 billion.

Inspired by the work of the National Center for PTSD, Congress authorized the establishment of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network in 2001 to evaluate and develop treatments for traumatized children nationwide, with a budget that is now $40 million — about the cost of keeping 40 soldiers fighting in Afghanistan for one year.
President Obama’s 2012 budget has proposed a 70 percent reduction in financing for the network. That would be devastating for these children. The network has knitted together 130 clinics and universities in 38 states that specialize in helping traumatized children and adolescents. It has allowed the members to develop treatment programs and to hire and educate the staff to run them, enabling 322,000 children nationwide to get treatment from July 2002 to September 2009.

According to the latest figures available, 2.9 million children were mistreated in 2006, many of whom manifested serious behavioral and psychological problems. The network has started to document how trauma affects developing brains differently from those of adults exposed to wartime violence….

Most traumatized children now do not even receive a proper mental health assessment. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of them are numbed by powerful drugs that help control their “bad behavior,” but that don’t deal with the imprint of terror and helplessness on their minds and brains….

Untreated, traumatized children become failing adults who populate our jails and overwhelm our human services agencies. Cutting the development of effective treatments will produce many years of increasing costs and unquantifiable human misery. Bessel A. van der Kolk, a professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, is the founder and medical director of the Trauma Center at the Justice Resource Institute. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/opinion/11kolk.html

Child Abuse and Neglect Cost Nation over $100 Billion per Year – Washington, DC – 01/29/2008 – An economic impact analysis released today estimates the costs of child abuse and neglect to society were nearly $104 billion last year, and a companion report highlights the unavailability of federal child welfare funding for programs and services known to be effective at reducing incidences of child abuse and neglect.

Total Estimated Cost of Child Abuse and Neglect in the United States, by Prevent Child Abuse America (PCAA) and Time for Reform: Investing in Prevention, Keeping Children Safe At Home, by Kids Are Waiting (KAW), a project of The Pew Charitable Trusts, show that while the economic costs associated with child abuse and neglect rose to a staggering $103.8 billion in 2007, merely ten percent of federal money dedicated for child welfare, approximately $741.9 million, can currently be used to prevent child abuse and neglect from occurring by strengthening families.

The PCAA report documents pervasive and long-lasting effects of child abuse on children, their families, and society as a whole.  The $103.8 billion cost of child abuse and neglect includes more than $33 billion in direct costs for foster care services, hospitalization, mental health treatment, and law enforcement.  Indirect costs of over $70 billion include loss of productivity, as well as expenditures related to chronic health problems, special education, and the criminal justice system. http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=34676

Childhood Trauma and Risk for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Association With Neuroendocrine Dysfunction – Journal: Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66(1):72-80 Authors: Christine Heim, PhD; Urs M. Nater, PhD; Elizabeth Maloney, MS, DrPH; Roumiana Boneva, MD, PhD; James F. Jones, MD; William C. Reeves, MD, MSc

Context – Childhood trauma appears to be a potent risk factor for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Evidence from developmental neuroscience suggests that early experience programs the development of regulatory systems that are implicated in the pathophysiology of CFS, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. However, the contribution of childhood trauma to neuroendocrine dysfunction in CFS remains obscure.

Objectives – To replicate findings on the relationship between childhood trauma and risk for CFS and to evaluate the association between childhood trauma and neuroendocrine dysfunction in CFS.
Design, Setting, and Participants – A case-control study of 113 persons with CFS and 124 well control subjects identified from a general population sample of 19 381 adult residents of Georgia….
Results – Individuals with CFS reported significantly higher levels of childhood trauma and psychopathological symptoms than control subjects. Exposure to childhood trauma was associated with a 6-fold increased risk of CFS. Sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and emotional neglect were most effective in discriminating CFS cases from controls. There was a graded relationship between exposure level and CFS risk. The risk of CFS conveyed by childhood trauma further increased with the presence of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Only individuals with CFS and with childhood trauma exposure, but not individuals with CFS without exposure, exhibited decreased salivary cortisol concentrations after awakening compared with control subjects.

Conclusions – Our results confirm childhood trauma as an important risk factor of CFS. In addition, neuroendocrine dysfunction, a hallmark feature of CFS, appears to be associated with childhood trauma. This possibly reflects a biological correlate of vulnerability due to early developmental insults. Our findings are critical to inform pathophysiological research and to devise targets for the prevention of CFS. http://www.endfatigue.com/health_articles_c/Cfs_fm-child_abuse_can_lead_to_cfs_fibromyalgia.html

Parental Alienation Disorder: Why Label Children with a Mental Diagnosis? Journal of Child Custody Volume 7, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 266 – 286 Authors: Lenore E. Walker; David L. Shapiro DOI: 10.1080/15379418.2010.521041

Abstract
The proposal to include Parental Alienation Disorder (PAD) in the new proposed Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V) creates a host of problems. The first major problem is the labeling of children with a mental disorder who may simply be reacting with anger to the changes in their lives from the separation and divorce of their parents by rejecting one parent and aligning with the other. Diagnosis may bring with it shame and have a chilling impact on parents report of domestic violence.

Although proponents of PAD are aware that it is inappropriate to diagnose children who have been exposed to child abuse and/or domestic violence with PAD, they do not clarify how to make such differential diagnoses. It is suggested that there are insufficient empirical data to differentiate abused and traumatized children from those who are alienated or estranged from the rejected parent.

Nor are there sufficient scientific data to account for other child vulnerabilities such as neurological immaturity, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), other anxiety and mood disorders, or oppositional defiant disorder. There are too few comparisons between the risks and benefits of adding a new diagnosis of childhood disorders to justify its inclusion in the DSM-V. Appropriate intervention strategies recommended for PAD children include contact with the rejected parent, which differ widely from trauma victim/survivors who need assurance of safety and healing before contact is re-established. Ethical standards that may be impacted by this new diagnosis and admissibility issues raised by its predecessor, Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS), are also discussed by the authors.

“As discussed, alienation is almost always alleged when the child does not want to be with a parent when there does not appear to be any ‘rational’ reason for these feelings. Of course, the definition of ‘‘rational’’ in these cases remains totally subjective to the person making the evaluation. Although proponents of labeling these children with PAD claim that using this label will assist in formulation of treatment goals and techniques, there are no empirical data to support this position (Bernet, 2010). Using the definition put forward by the American Psychological Association (APA) which requires two scientific studies replicating each other, there are no empirically validated interventions that support evidence that forcing a child to be with an unwanted parent will promote mental health.” (p.270-271)

“PROPOSED DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA FOR PAD AND MAKING A DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS….Perhaps the most egregious part of this newly proposed diagnosis is the impossibility of making a differential diagnosis based on the child’s signs and symptoms and not the parents’ alleged behavior. Johnston (2010) discussed the confusion currently in the courts dealing with PAS=PAD and, in particular, defining who is alienated, the rejected parent or the child? There are so many explanations other than alienation for a child’s rejection of a parent during separation or divorce that to give children a new mental illness diagnosis is neither necessary nor appropriate. Surely anxiety disorders including PTSD from abuse are primary as has been discussed herein, as are other mood disorders, particularly depression. The criteria for children’s depression often include acting-out behavior and rejection of people and things that they used to like to do. (p. 276 – 277)

“It is not appropriate to diagnose a child with a mental illness based on the parents’ behavior. In many cases known to the authors, both in practice and in supervision of other forensic evaluators, the child’s behavior could have been diagnosed as an adjustment disorder with anxiety or depression. Separation and divorce often means a new home or even two homes, new schools, new friends, and new schedules. Even when all goes well this can be a daunting challenge for most children.” (p. 277)

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/15379418.2010.521041
full article pdf and web page until 12/31/11
http://pdfserve.informaworld.com/903178__930160339.pdf
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a930160339&fulltext=713240928

Deprivation and Neglect Found to Age Children’s Chromosomes – ScienceDaily (May 17, 2011) — Studies in institutionalized Romanian children have found that the length of time spent in conditions of social deprivation and neglect correlates with lower IQ and behavioral problems. A new study, led by researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and Tulane University, shows that early adversity even affects children’s chromosomes — prematurely shortening the chromosome tips, known as telomeres, and hastening how quickly their cells “age.”

The study, published online this week in Molecular Psychiatry, is the first to find an association between adversity and telomere length in children. It is part of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), which is conducting a long-term clinical trial tracking two groups of institutionalized children: those who remained in the institution and those who were removed to high-quality foster care at varying ages.
Laboratory studies, conducted by Stacy Drury and colleagues at Tulane University, examined DNA samples collected from mouth swabs of the Romanian children (62 boys and 47 girls). The studies found that children exposed longer to institutional care before age 5 had significantly shorter relative telomere length (compared to that expected for their age) when they reached age 6-10….

S S Drury, K Theall, M M Gleason, A T Smyke, I De Vivo, J Y Y Wong, N A Fox, C H Zeanah, C A Nelson. Telomere length and early severe social deprivation: linking early adversity and cellular aging. Molecular Psychiatry, 2011; DOI: 10.1038/mp.2011.53 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110517091937.htm

June 5, 2011 · Filed Under Newsletter 2011 - Issues 96 - 101