This short documentary was made in 2013, following the publication of Professor Mercer’s article “Holding therapy in Britain: historical background, recent events and ethical concerns” in the BAAF journal Adoption and Fostering.
The full article, which references this website and the associated book, can be read below
Adoption_&_Fostering10.1177_0308575913490498 (1)
Further developments have included the formation of The International Working Group on Abuses in Child Psychotherapy, which met in London in 2013 and included representatives from the England, the USA the Czech Republic and Russia.
Equally important has been the interest of Craig Whittaker MP (member of the Education Select Committee) in the Holding Therapy issue, culminating in a meeting involving MPs and leading academics at Portcullis House in October 2013.
As a Lancashire MP, Mr Whittaker may wish to reflect on the recent publication of the US Senate report on the use of torture by the CIA. It remains a lesser known fact that, across the Atlantic, hundreds of Looked After Children experienced their own , tax-payer funded, version of “enhanced interrogation techniques” between 1995 and 2011 in the small Lancashire mill town of Rossendale.
The lawsuits by at least two survivors of the Rossendale programme continues to progress into its third year, with the law firm Foot Anstey and numerous experts having been funded by legal aid for all of this period.
Invisible England 