Advocates For Children In Therapy
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Advocates For Children In Therapy
Advocates for Children in Therapy (ACT) is a U.S. advocacy group founded by Jean Mercer and opposed to attachment therapy and related treatments. The organization opposes a number of psychotherapeutic techniques which are potentially or actually harmful to the children who undergo them. The group's mission is to provide advocacy by "raising general public awareness of the dangers and cruelty" of practices related to attachment therapy. According to the group, "ACT works to mobilize parents, professionals, private and governmental regulators, prosecutors, juries, and legislators to end the physical torture and emotional abuse that is Attachment Therapy." Opposition to attachment therapy Attachment therapy is an ambiguous term with no precise professional meaning but popularly used to describe controversial, non-mainstream "treatments" for children allegedly suffering from attachment disorder, in itself an ambiguous term. (American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) ...
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United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ...
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Advocacy Group
Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the development of political and social systems. Motives for action may be based on Politics, political, religious, morality, moral, or commerce, commercial positions. Groups Methods used by advocacy groups, use varied methods to try to achieve their aims, including lobbying, media campaigns, consciousness raising, awareness raising publicity stunts, Opinion poll, polls, research, and policy briefings. Some groups are supported or backed by powerful business or political interests and exert considerable influence on the political process, while others have few or no such resources. Some have developed into important social, political institutions or social movements. Some powerful advocacy groups have been accused of manipulating the democratic syste ...
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Jean Mercer
Jean Mercer is an American developmental psychologist and professor Emeritus, emerita of psychology at Stockton University. Founder of the advocacy group Advocates for Children in Therapy, she is known as an advocate for adopted children and those who come from the foster care system, and as an outspoken critic of attachment therapy. Mercer is the author of several books, including ''Thinking critically about child development: examining myths and misunderstandings.'' Mercer's articles on attachment disorder, harmful psychological treatments and other mental health issues have been published in peer reviewed journals. She has presented at conferences internationally, made television appearances, served as editor for an industry newsletter, and authors two blogs, ''Childmyths'' and ''The Study of Nonsense''. Education Mercer attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, from 1959 to 1961. She received a Bachelor of Arts, BA in psychology from Occidental College in ...
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Attachment Therapy
Attachment therapy (also called "the Evergreen model", "holding time", "rage-reduction", "compression therapy", "rebirthing", "corrective attachment therapy", and "coercive restraint therapy") is a pseudoscientific child mental health intervention intended to treat attachment disorders. It is found primarily in the United States, and much of it is centered in about a dozen clinics in Evergreen, Colorado, where Foster Cline, one of the founders, established his clinic in the 1970s. The practice has resulted in adverse outcomes for children, including at least six documented child fatalities. Since the 1990s there have been a number of prosecutions for deaths or serious maltreatment of children at the hands of "attachment therapists" or parents following their instructions. Two of the most well-known cases are those of Candace Newmaker in 2000 and the Gravelles in 2003. Following the associated publicity, some advocates of attachment therapy began to alter views and practices to ...
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Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome problems. Psychotherapy aims to improve an individual's well-being and mental health, to resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviors, beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions, and to improve relationships and social skills. Numerous types of psychotherapy have been designed either for individual adults, families, or children and adolescents. Certain types of psychotherapy are considered evidence-based for treating some diagnosed mental disorders; other types have been criticized as pseudoscience. There are hundreds of psychotherapy techniques, some being minor variations; others are based on very different conceptions of psychology. Most involve one-to-one sessions, between the client and therapist, but some are conducted with groups, incl ...
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Attachment Therapy
Attachment therapy (also called "the Evergreen model", "holding time", "rage-reduction", "compression therapy", "rebirthing", "corrective attachment therapy", and "coercive restraint therapy") is a pseudoscientific child mental health intervention intended to treat attachment disorders. It is found primarily in the United States, and much of it is centered in about a dozen clinics in Evergreen, Colorado, where Foster Cline, one of the founders, established his clinic in the 1970s. The practice has resulted in adverse outcomes for children, including at least six documented child fatalities. Since the 1990s there have been a number of prosecutions for deaths or serious maltreatment of children at the hands of "attachment therapists" or parents following their instructions. Two of the most well-known cases are those of Candace Newmaker in 2000 and the Gravelles in 2003. Following the associated publicity, some advocates of attachment therapy began to alter views and practices to ...
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Attachment Disorder
Attachment disorder is a broad term intended to describe disorders of mood, behavior, and social relationships arising from unavailability of normal socializing care and attention from primary care giving figures in early childhood. Such a failure would result from unusual early experiences of neglect, abuse, abrupt separation from caregivers between three months and three years of age, frequent change or excessive numbers of caregivers, or lack of caregiver responsiveness to child communicative efforts resulting in a lack of basic trust. A person's ''attachment style'' is permanently established before the age of three. A problematic history of social relationships occurring after about age three may be distressing to a child, but does not result in attachment disorder. The term attachment disorder is used to describe emotional and behavioral problems of young children, and also applied to school-age children, teenagers and adults. The specific difficulties implied depend on th ...
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Quackery
Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, qualification or credentials they do not possess; a charlatan or snake oil salesman". The term ''quack'' is a clipped form of the archaic term ', from nl, kwakzalver a "hawker of salve". In the Middle Ages the term ''quack'' meant "shouting". The quacksalvers sold their wares on the market shouting in a loud voice. Common elements of general quackery include questionable diagnoses using questionable diagnostic tests, as well as untested or refuted treatments, especially for serious diseases such as cancer. Quackery is often described as "health fraud" with the salient characteristic of aggressive promotion. Definition Psychiatrist and author Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch defines quackery "as the promotion of unsubstanti ...
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John Bowlby
Edward John Mostyn Bowlby, CBE, FBA, FRCP, FRCPsych (; 26 February 1907 – 2 September 1990) was a British psychologist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachment theory. A ''Review of General Psychology'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Bowlby as the 49th most cited psychologist of the 20th century. Family background Bowlby was born in London to an upper-middle-income family. He was the fourth of six children and was brought up by a nanny in the British fashion of his class at that time: the family hired a nanny who was in charge of raising the children, in a separate nursery in the house.Van Dijken, S. (1998). John Bowlby: His Early Life: A Biographical Journey into the Roots of Attachment Theory. London: Free Association Books Nanny Friend took care of the infants and generally had two other nursemaids to help her. Bowlby was raised primarily by nursemaid Minnie who acted as a mother figur ...
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Mary Ainsworth
Mary Dinsmore Ainsworth (; December 1, 1913 – March 21, 1999) was an American-Canadian developmental psychologist known for her work in the development of the attachment theory. She designed the strange situation procedure to observe early emotional attachment between a child and its primary caregiver. A 2002 ''Review of General Psychology'' survey ranked Ainsworth as the 97th most cited psychologist of the 20th century. Many of Ainsworth's studies are "cornerstones" of modern-day attachment theory. Life Mary Dinsmore Salter was born in Glendale, Ohio on December 1, 1913, the eldest of three daughters born to Mary and Charles Salter. Her father, who possessed a master's degree in history, worked at a manufacturing firm in Cincinnati and her mother was a nurse. Both her parents were graduates of Dickinson College who placed "high value on a good liberal arts education" and expected their children to have excellent academic achievements. In 1918, her father's manufacturing firm t ...
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Candace Newmaker
Candace Elizabeth Newmaker (born Candace Tiara Elmore, November 19, 1989 – April 19, 2000) was a child who was killed during a 70-minute attachment therapy session performed by 4 unlicensed therapists, purported to treat reactive attachment disorder. The treatment, during which Newmaker was suffocated, included a rebirthing script. She was wrapped in flannel to represent a womb and told to free herself. Newmaker was unable to free herself, lost consciousness, and later died. Early life and childhood Candace was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, on November 19, 1989 to a teenage mother and an abusive father, Angela and Todd Elmore. These circumstances influenced the way she grew up. At a young age, she and her younger brother Michael and sister Chelsea were removed from the home for neglect and separated by social services. When she was five, her parents' parental rights were terminated. Two years later she was adopted by Jeane Elizabeth Newmaker, a single woman and pedia ...
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United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a governor's appointment. Congress has 535 voting members: 100 senators and 435 representatives. The U.S. vice president has a vote in the Senate only when senators are evenly divided. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members. The sitting of a Congress is for a two-year term, at present, beginning every other January. Elections are held every even-numbered year on Election Day. The members of the House of Representatives are elected for the two-year term of a Congress. The Reapportionment Act of 1929 establishes that there be 435 representatives and the Uniform Congressional Redistricting Act requires ...
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