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Narelle Anne Merritt
111 Ryhill Rd Sunnybank Hills, QLD, 4109
Phone 33458249
Email nmerritt31@optusnet.com
An Open Letter to All Mental Health Practitioners, Counsellors, Politicians, Church Healing Ministries and Psychologists:
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN,
This is an open letter warning about dangerous forms of therapy including repressed/recovered memory therapy (which includes therapy based on Multiple Personality Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder ) and a new and rampant proportedly Christian healing ministry called Theophostic Prayer Ministry marketed by Ed Smith In the U.S.A. This therapy is DANGEROUS and can and has resulted in the destruction of countless (thousands) of families including my own and is even statistically proven to lead to Suicide in individuals involved in the therapy. It is an irresponsible form of therapy which statistics and scientific evidence are now revealing this to be the case. As a concerned and deeply wounded (from the therapy) mother of 3 (aged 47) I write this letter because I was once an accuser as a result of these victim mentality therapies, then became a retractor and broke free of the mind altering techniques involved and became a TRUE VICTIM who lost everything. This included my husband (to the therapist) and my only two daughters who continue to believe the 'False Memories' of childhood sexual and ritual abuse arising from the unproven and unethical forms of therapy. My daughters have cut off all contact despite efforts on my part to reconnect I know they have been advised by this therapist in conjunction with their father to cut off all communication.
This Repressed Memory/ Theophostic Prayer Ministry used the following techniques on my family and I: Guided imagery, reference to 'Body memories', hypnotic trances, suggestibility, heavy emphasis on 'abreaction', constant reinforcement of the fact that all the bizarre memories were true because the therapist had heard it all before, reference to 'alters or 'parts' (up to 20 different parts) and labeling me an SRA (Satanic Ritual Abuse) victim before I even started the therapy based solely on the fact I had depression and Lupus SLE. There was absolutely no attempt to substantiate or co-oberate any of the 'imaginings' but instead the therapist tried to drag up more and more bizarre visualizations to the point where I was totally out of touch with reality and in a place of severe mental breakdown and tried to commit suicide. Initially before breaking free from this dangerous therapy I was advised to cut off from all extended family (because they were supposedly the root cause of my pain) told to stop taking antidepressants and not to seek professional medical help.
I openly encourage all mental health workers, therapists and church counselors to become more aware of this dangerous form of therapy and of the enormous, sometimes irreversible damage it can cause to an individual and to the many family members it can ultimately destroy. ( this also includes all those innocent people that have been accused of gross crimes because of repressed memory therapy and have and still continue to serve time in gaols for crimes that they did not commit.) This dangerous therapy also takes away justice and diminishes the severity of true and actual sexual crimes which are perpetrated and have been scientifically proven to have occurred. I implore all of you involved in mental health fields and church healing ministries to keep up to date with current research and statistics that are now very clearly showing the damage created by such irresponsible forms of therapy. To continue to use these therapies is malpractice to say the least and totally unethical and unprofessional. It CAN and HAS led to suicides, innocent people being imprisoned, and the total destruction of the family unit. I am one of those statistics and I can no longer sit idly by and know that there are still large numbers of you out there that are using these unorthodox and dangerous therapies. I also challenge you to keep up to date with research in the field of memory and how pseudomemories (false memories ) CAN and ARE being created by these types of therapies. Elizabeth Loftus is a leading researcher in the field. In respect to Ed Smith and his Theophostic Prayer Ministries, I ask all those who have involved themselves in some way with this 'psychoheresy' to take an extremely critical look at his theology and his writings in 'BEYOND TOLERABLE RECOVERY'. Jan Fletcher, a Christian journalist and reasearcher has written a very powerful e-book called 'Lying Spirits' which clearly and thoroughly discounts much of Ed Smith's teachings. It is a valuable resource for those who have suffered as a result of involving themselves in Repressed/ Theophostic therapy.
This is just a brief account of my true story. My name is Narelle Merritt and I reside in Brisbane Queensland, I have spent the last three years in total agony and emotional pain because I become involved with a freelance so-called therapist on the QLD Gold Coast who practices a mishmash of repressed memory, body memory and Theophostic Ministry on her unwitting patients. Before meeting this middle aged, female, divorced, freelance therapist who was and still is (to my knowledge) operating a business and preying on people's vulnerability; I had a loving family and adoring compassionate husband, two beautiful daughters and one son.. I had suffered from depression for many years and also have lupus SLE and high blood pressure. I met this woman in 2002, and was immediately labeled an SRA ( explained as Sexual Ritual Abuse) survivor. I then went through 18 months of intense and tortuous brainwashing therapy in which anything and everything was dragged up relating to sexual abuse by my father who died in 1989. I had previously had no memories of my childhood much earlier than 6 to 8 years of age. In fact I was quite sure I had had a normal happy childhood, but because of my present ailments this woman labeled me as an SRA victim and continued to pursue the root cause of my present day ailments. She followed all the same methods I have mentioned previously and used by many other such unethical counselors and eventually I became totally cut off from my extended family and indeed the real world. I did this only to please my husband who eventually was sucked into becoming involved with this woman and her dangerous therapy. He left me in September 2003 to support her and her dangerous therapy.
In September 2003, my whole world fell apart, I became suicidal and took pills, I couldn't stand any more of the pressure placed on me by both the therapist and my now very different self obsessed and blameful husband who was consumed with hatred for my family. He left me and went on to continue to support the therapist. My daughters now 23 and 21 became involved in the same Repressed/Theophostic Therapy. They cut of all ties and to this day (two long and painful years) will have no contact despite my desperate attempts to reconnect. I was left alone to battle through what I had been left me , which had once been my life and reason for living. My son is still with me he is 16 but now has developed severe emotional problems including OCD and eating disorder. These conditions were not present before my husband left me.
The trauma had almost destroyed me and I was ready to end my life but I reached out to a registered Psychiatrist who has gradually bought me back to a place where I can at least function and work. I am a primary school teacher. I am still deeply and chronically depressed but this is controlled somewhat by antidepressant medication. MY life is one of existence with out my daughters whom I love deeply and my husband who is under great deception and may even be delusional and in dire need of psychiatric help, which he refuses to have because this therapist will not allow it. She is very clever and manipulative and seems to have enormous power in being able to suck people in who are particularly vulnerable and are susceptible because of a deep need to feel the victim. She cleverly tapped into this need as well as her need to have some sort of ego trip in being able to control the outcomes of other people's lives. She used information against me from my initial therapy sessions to manipulate and put herself in a position where both my husband and her were in a codependent relationship. Neither of them could survive without communicating several times a day to each other and they got to the stage they were going away to motels and holiday houses to work on each other's healing. My husband and this counselor would not make any decisions without consulting each other. It was impossible to break in because they both remained unaccountable to anyone and kept telling me they only had to be accountable to God .It was almost sect and cult-like. My husband is a totally changed individual who was once a compassionate, unselfish and caring man of integrity. After getting involved with this therapist in 2002 his whole personality deteriorated to the point of withdrawal from his family and the whole situation. My husband and I no longer communicate because the hurt and the hatred that is exchanged is just to much to bear.
This is only a small extract of the damage created by BAD and UNETHICAL therapy. I wish to seek help and I wish to get involved with bringing these crazy therapists who destroy whole families to some sort of justice and accountability. I want to help in lobbying politicians and churches and the wider community into becoming aware of the dangers of this kind of therapy. There desperately needs to be some protections put in place for the public at large. Why can't we in Australia have regulatory boards for all people involved in counselling. There is no code of ethics in Australia which extends to those who are unqualified yet practicing 'quackery' and making financial gain in the process. At present it seems these are limited, anyone in Australia can call themselves a counselor and do whatever they like. This is beyond belief owing to the incredible damage to lives and destroyed families out there in the community at large. This whole experience has shaken my faith enormously but it hasn't destroyed it. God will cause these false prophets who masquerade as angels of light to be bought to justice some day and he will not allow the suffering to go on indefinitely.
Can you please make some sort of response in reading this letter, it a cry from a deeply wounded mother of three who has lost everything and now has no family connections. This is all because I became involved with a therapist who practices highly suspect and dangerous methods of therapy, including repressed memory which has led to false accusations that cannot be cooberated. She uses other practices such as 'body memory', massage along with guided visualization and aspects of the dangerous Theophostic Prayer Ministry of Ed Smith in the U.S.A. I really am very alone in all this and it has taken an enormous toll on both Andrew my son and I, healthwise. I feel I have nothing, it has all been taken from me and I am still reeling from the shock of the last three years (lost Years) still. I would be grateful for your assistance and support and for your attention to the content of this letter. The numbers of hurting people out there are enormous. Therapists, psychotherapists, counselors, church workers and psychologists all need to be held accountable for the damage they may have created as in my case. I have no money to fight this therapist in court but have very detailed accounts of the times I spent in therapy with her and have records of my husband's payments to her over a two year period. The total is quite enormous. And for What? I was left a total mess with suicidal ideation and I lost everything that mattered to me, MY FAMILY!
Thankyou for your Time
Narelle Merritt
My address is 111 Ryhill Rd, Sunnybank Hills QLD. 4109
Phone(o7) 33458249
Email address: nmerritt31@optusnet.com
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