Sunday Lecture: Invisible England: The use of Holding Therapy in the UK

Holding Therapy is a dangerous and unscientific treatment in which therapists deliberately provoke and then restrain children (in this case children in care) often for many hours at a time.; Author of Invisible England Anya Chaika will describe the search for survivors of the programme and the civil and criminal investigations that followed when one of these survivors was able to fully tell his story. There will also be an account of the origins of Holding Therapy in the USA – from its beginnings as the Z-process as developed by the psychologist Robert Zaslow and its use on Russian adoptees in the Evergreen area of Colorado.; At worst it could be argued that the practice of Holding Therapy could sometimes be taking away an aspect of a child’s humanity the ability to respond independently and critically to their environment . In other words it is a version of the Clockwork Orange debate – the merits of state-sponsored brainwashing of children and young people. The wider question is why has society allowed this practice to continue in the UK for so long (16 years in relation to this programme)? There has been no significant public debate but some professionals and members of the public have heard something of the practice. Why have they not investigated further? Why weren’t further questions asked? It is what this tells us about the society that we live in that raises the really important issues.; Anya Chaika is a British social worker who has worked in children’s services for 9 years.; 11.00 £3 on the door/free to members