A First-hand Account of Holding Therapy in the UK
As far as I am aware this is the first time a first-hand account of Holding Therapy in the UK has been published on the internet. I have seen and heard evidence from a number of sources that reassures me that this description is genuine. This child would have experienced this treatment on a regular basis between the ages of 11 and 13 and the sessions sometimes could last for several hours, usually only ending when the child submitted to the authority of the therapists. Holding Therapy will probably have taken place today with a number of different children, sometimes as young as 8.
A First-hand Account of Holding Therapy in the UK | Invisible England
I found this blog threw Jean Mercer at CHILDMYTHS. I am really grateful to see so-called “holding therapy” getting some much needed scrutiny and being brought back in to consciousness, here, on Von’s blog and even on FaceBook.
Here are a couple of the things I had to say on FB:
- Sunday Koffron Taylor One of the things that makes this type of therapy so bad is that the therapist has all of the answers they want to hear and the torture continues until you tell them you are feeling what THEY believe you are feeling. There is no way to get out of the sessions and be true to yourself and your own thoughts and feelings. They will not let you go until they are told what they want to hear. That is not therapy that is inducing a retreat into survival mode, it is absolutely brain washing, and these methods are still being used, not just on adoptees, but on autistic kids and foster children to. We should ALL be outraged; we should all speak out against its uses...in ALL cases.
- Sunday Koffron Taylor It also sets them up for sexual abuse, because they are being taught they have no rights over their own bodies. Adults have the right to touch, hurt, smother, and lay on top of you if they want to whether you like it or not. They are supposed to be the ones in control over your body. it is just so horrible. I couldn't even talk about it until very recently and my experience with kind of "therapy" was back in the 1980's when it was cutting edge.
The more we talk about this and expose “holding type therapies” for what they are the sooner parents will start making other choices for their children. The sooner parents will start saying “this is not O.K. for my child.”
