Pseudomemories: Therapy Fraud in Walla Walla 2015

Our adult child, Grace, was in postpartum depression and sought help while living 2000 miles away in Walla Walla, Washington in June of 2015. A long discredited therapy now r ejected by expert therapists and known to cre a te horrid false memories was used to “help” her. These "pseudo memories" were nurtured by a well meaning but uninformed “therapist”, “life coach” and/or friend(s) armed with "Do it Yourself Therapy Books" or one of the debunked "prayer minist ries" using suggestive questioning, imaging techniques, trances, medication and blackouts to nurture suggestions of abuse. Our understanding of this event is based on eyewitness written accounts of a person in Walla Walla at the time, from screenshots of online messages by her to siblings, captured and provided to us, from Grace’s Facebook posts where she personally detailed the medication she was being given and from emails that she provided since that time.

Grace and her then common law husband Kevin both had been married previously but told us they wanted to have a wedding in the church and invited us to come. We traveled 2,463 miles by car towing a trailer to be there in time for the wedding they had invited us to. The brief visit was traumatic and shocking and involved emotive displays of horrid accusations that we had never witnessed before or since. Grace repeatedly referred to “repressed memories” and described horrid events that never happened. A "friend" called “Juanita” was present and encouraged Grace’s animated false “recollections” during that visit. Juanita was someone we had never met before and she had no personal knowledge or contact with anyone in the family.

Following that traumatic visit to Walla Walla we returned home. My husband informed his immediate supervisor, our pastor and offered to be fully investigated by his employer. He called the police to provide a statement (they declined). Following an interview by his employer’s representative copies of the bizarre Facebook posts by our daughter were used to document the accusations. We also spoke with a lawyer for over 3 hours who informed us that the use of "repressed memories" had long been discredited and in fact reliance on them was an indication of case weakness and a reason to have all charges dismissed. Statements by friends and family in a position to know of the pseudo-events recollected were offered to all concerned authorities but were declined based on the interview and content of the Facebook submissions. We remained traumatized by the experience.

Our ongoing research repeatedly confirms that Grace was a victim of a widely used but f raudulent approach to spiritual healing and mental health. Thousands of clients in a vulnerable state seeking help have suffered great harm at the hands of the practitioners of this therapy. Thankfully fe d e ral courts no longer accept testimony emerging from these memory based therapies. The predicted outcomes of this therapy are now being realized including continued family estrangement, increasing isolation from those who knew her as a child, loss of custody and worse.
We now have reason to believe that Grace may also have a metabolism common in our family that results in adverse reactions to medications that use Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRI). Several members of the family have taken these medications and gone into psychosis but with competent and informed care they were properly treated. Since the initial false accusations by Grace we have had 7 in our immediate family obtain blood checks. Five have a metabolism known to be vulnerable to adverse reactions to SSRI medications. These checks confirm a strong possibility that Grace has a physiological vulnerability that would explain her false memories, delusions and hallucinations. A known SSRI medication was referenced by Grace on her Facebook posts as one she was taking in 2015. A family history OR blood check are needed to determine if the adverse reaction may have happened.

In 2016 Grace's husband's ex-wife read this blog and recognized that she had experienced implantation of false memories of childhood abuse that led to her estrangement from her family while married to the same Kevin previously. She read our blog content and learned about the fraudulent memory based counseling techniques and realized that she was also a victim of the same techniques. Family members of the ex-wife supplied written statements to us that described the false memories and estrangement which lasted while she remained married to Kevin. The ex-wife noted that history was repeating itself with his new wife Grace because the same thing was happening to us as happened to her family. Repeated slander in emails and posts detailed bizarre memories and false allegations against her parents and a variety of of family members . We displayed restraint and encouraged others to do so as well. We wanted for her to recover with a minimum of damage to her new family if possible.
My husband decided to resign, retire early and focus on helping his family. He is researching ways to help those harmed by fraudulent therapies, the resulting false accusations and the real (physical) causes of mental illness. Many including police, professionals and counselors we dealt with appear totally ignorant of the true roots of mental illness. We shudder to think of how many stricken by mental illness fail to get diagnosed and also send innocents to prison with the help of an uninformed criminal justice system. We are also spending lots of happy time with the nine grandchildren of 2 other families and with the other adult children in our retirement. Our youngest daughter accepted a full scholarship to college and we visit her often as well. Grace alone remains estranged due to her lack of competent psychiatric treatment, delusions created by a fraudulent therapy and sustained by those who do not know any of her family.

In 2019 Grace's step-daughter (from her husband's previous marriage) generated false accusations of abuse against the present husband of Kevin’s ex-wife as part of an ongoing custody battle. This resulted in another investigation that once again found the accusations without sufficient evidence and the accused slandered. According to sources in Walla Walla familiar with the situation a family court ruled that trust was violated and both visitation and joint custody was terminated between Grace and her present husband with the children of his ex-wife. The pattern of creating false memories and false accusations is now legally documented and has been repeated with four different accused all found untrue after investigations. Kevin's ex-wife, Grace, our family member now in recovery and Kevin’s minor daughter have all falsely accused others (though not the same person). Those around her in Walla Walla, thousands of miles away from where she grew up are ignorant of her family and past except for her fabrications. We are shocked that even a “professional writer” published a story but never interviewed a single family member to verify horrific claims that never happened. We realize that delusions can persist indefinitely if supported by such conditions. Pseudo memories are resistant to change unless those still in contact gently point out facts and ask questions that make the accuser aware of discrepancies.

We are fully convinced that Grace suffers from the same metabolic dysfunction as her mentally ill family member but has not obtained competent treatment. According to reports of those who know her in Walla Walla she remains vulnerable to mood swings, displays of rage and committed to delusions of abuse. Ignoring the untreated physical dysfunction and surrounded only by those who support her delusions only adds to the likelihood that she will remain ill. Data on outcomes using "recovered memory therapy" has correctly predicted what is happening as time passes. Grace remains estranged from nuclear family members. Grace’s accusations have spread and expanded to include other extended family and other bizarre false accusations. According to reports from those in Walla Walla Grace and her new husband have lost custody and visitation to Kevin’s children with his previous wife. Grace in 2019 has written emails disavowing her past Christian faith. We hope that someday her circle of acquaintances who do not know us will eventually encourage her to get physically checked and competently cared for. We have and will always love, respect and cherish Grace. We also hope that one day Grace will be properly cared for.
In spite of the bizarre and false memories we will never give up on reconciliation. We are still allowed to hope!