Advocates for Children in Therapy
Advocates for Children in Therapy (ACT) is a non-profit U.S. advocacy group led by Linda Rosa, RN, Executive Director; her spouse Larry Sarner, Administrative Director; and Jean Mercer, Chairman of Professional Board of Advisors. Their mission is to provide advocacy by "raising general public awareness of the dangers and cruelty" of practices related to attachment therapy. The group describes itself as "an educational and public advocacy organization dedicated to halting the dangerous cruelty done to children by attachment therapy....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." Articles and reports from ACT often appear on Quackwatch.
ACT and Attachment Therapy
ACT defines attachment therapy as "the imposition of boundary violations - most often coercive restraint - and verbal abuse on a child, usually for hours at a time...Typically, the child is put in a lap hold with the arms pinned down, or alternatively an adult lies on top of a child lying prone on the floor." The group describes attachment therapy as "a growing, underground movement for the 'treatment' of children who pose disciplinary problems to their parents or caregivers." The group further notes that attachment therapy "almost always involves extremely confrontational, often hostile confrontation of a child by a therapist or parent (sometimes both). Restraint of the child by more powerful adult(s) is considered an essential part of the confrontation." The organization refers to attachment therapy as "the worst quackery in our nation today."
The group has advocated for the elimination of holding therapy, rebirthing therapy, and other invasive and coercive methods, none of which are generally considered acceptable practice by licensed mental health providers. The group is also critical of the practice of judges and other state workers referring children for government-funded attachment therapy, referring to such practices as "state-sponsored torture." ACT has published two books on these methods, including Attachment Therapy on Trial: The Torture and Death of Candice Newmaker, as well as its periodic newsletter "AT News."
The group reports that its three leaders were directly involved in prosecution of the Candace Newmaker case. "All three authors assisted the prosecution in the “rebirthing” trial that resulted in historic 16-year sentences for therapists Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder."