What You Need to Know About Reunification Therapy
Betrayal Trauma Recovery
Anne Blythe, M.Ed.
4.7 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 6 June 2023
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tina Swithin from One Mom's Battle is on the BTR.ORG Podcast to tell you what you need to know about Reunification Therapy. Tune in and read the full transcript below for more.
Reunification Therapy Disempowers Children
Therapy should, first and foremost, empower children. Reunification therapy does the exact opposite:
"[The abused children] are told that nothing in the past matters. We are only focused on here and now and future movement. And then when the kids bring up, but he did this to me or this, they redirect them back to present day. The past does not matter. And we are talking about children who have been sexually abused."
Tina Swithin, One Mom's Battle
Reunification Therapy is Traumatizing
"In cases where there is abuse, this is further traumatizing these children. When these children are not complying or going along with the program, then the extreme situation would be for the reunification therapist to stamp off on the case and recommend reunification camp. That's a very extreme and further traumatizing direction that I wouldn't wish on anyone. I'm haunted by the stories that I hear."
Tina Swithin, One Mom's Battle
Children who are subjected to reunification therapy are re-abused by the "professionals" who are trying to gaslight them into blaming their protective parent for the negative feelings they have for the abuser.
How Do Reunification Therapies and Camps Traumatize Children?
Not only are the children traumatized by the gaslighting itself, but children are:
* Often forced into participation against their will.
* Accused of lying about the abuse.
* Forced to spend time with their abuser.
* Isolated from their protective/preferred parent.
"It is traumatizing for these kids - they are cut off from all contact with their preferred parent."
Tina Swithin, One Mom's Battle
Abusers Weaponize Reunification Therapy
Considering how harmful Reunification Therapy is, how can it possibly exist?
It's a "lucrative cottage industry" that abusers have weaponized in order to gain access to their child victims while causing inexpressible pain to the protective parent.
And those in the reunification industry continue to push for it because it lines their pockets.
"[Reunification therapy] is a lucrative cottage industry.
And so when the judge's calendars are overbooked and people are being forced through this system like cattle, and the judges are in this state of overwhelm, they almost have, I call it the a la carte menu on their desk: oh great, I can push this case off on this person who has the ability to dive in and investigate what's going on. But that person is financially motivated to label a parent as alienator."
Tina Swithin, One Mom's Battle
BTR.ORG Is Here For You
If you are in experiencing the trauma of the family court system, please attend a BTR.ORG Group Session today - you are not alone and you do not have to endure this on your own. We love you, we believe you.
Full Transcript:
Anne (00:00):
Welcome to BTR.ORG. This is Anne. I have a super special guest on today's episode. It's Tina Swithin and so many of you are familiar with her. She is the author of Divorcing a Narcissist: One Mom's Battle, one of the best selling divorce books of all time. She has also authored three additional books in the Divorcing A Narcissist series:
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to BTR.org. This is Ann. No matter what you're going through right now, |
| 0:05.5 | no matter if you thought things were under control, no matter if you have a |
| 0:10.2 | holiday coming up or you're on vacation or it's just a regular time of year, |
| 0:14.4 | no matter if you had hope that things would get better, if you realize you're |
| 0:20.0 | back to square one, if you find yourself needing support, we're here. If you're |
| 0:26.2 | new to the BTR podcast, you may want to consider starting with the oldest |
| 0:29.5 | episodes first and then working your way forward chronologically. If you do |
| 0:33.4 | that, you'll hear a change in my voice as I grow in my confidence and skills. |
| 0:37.6 | Before we get to today's episode, there are a lot of so-called betrayal |
| 0:42.3 | trauma therapists or coaches or groups out there, but they don't approach |
| 0:46.3 | pornography use or infidelity as an abuse issue. Here at BTR.org we do and we |
| 0:53.4 | know how to help you. No matter where you are on your journey to a peaceful, |
| 0:57.8 | stable home, everyone needs to know the foundational principles for strategic |
| 1:02.1 | communication with an abuser so you can make real progress toward emotional |
| 1:06.1 | safety. We've developed the BTR.org living free workshop to teach you these |
| 1:10.8 | life-changing principles. To get up to date information about when this workshop |
| 1:15.3 | runs, go to our website BTR.org scroll to the bottom and join our community. |
| 1:20.0 | BTR.org coaches who run our daily group sessions are not only professionally |
| 1:25.2 | trained in trauma and abuse, they've lived through it themselves. They get it. |
| 1:30.4 | BTR group sessions run every day and when you gain access, you have at least |
| 1:34.8 | 21 plus sessions a week to choose from. Our group sessions are for women victims |
| 1:40.8 | of emotional and psychological abuse and sexual coercion. So if you're |
... |
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