Utah jettisons holding therapy
State orders last practitioner to end the controversial practice
And that could mean the end of holding therapy in Utah.
If Jennie Murdock Gwilliam who used to run Cascade Center for Family Growth with the late Larry VanBloem violates the terms of her probation, her license as a clinical social worker will be revoked.
"She and Larry believed in attachment therapy very much," said Craig Snyder, an attorney who represented Gwilliam and VanBloem in legal matters pertaining to their licenses to practice therapy. "(Gwilliam) feels that holding therapy is appropriate and that it helps people, but she doesn't intend to practice in that arena anymore."
Holding therapy has been decried as medical quackery and physical abuse by its detractors and celebrated as a miraculous balm to severely troubled children by its supporters.
There are still two pending lawsuits against Gwilliam by former clients who say they were physically and mentally abused during therapy sessions at the Orem treatment facility.
Snyder said Gwilliam had decided to stop practicing holding therapy even before the state ordered her to do so.
The sudden death of VanBloem in a December car crash devastated her, Snyder said.
Rather than disputing allegations of abuse at a scheduled January hearing before the state's Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, Gwilliam agreed Jan. 26 to a stipulation.
"She was not admitting or denying any of the allegations," Snyder said. "After Larry's death it didn't make sense to go through with a five- to six-week hearing on stuff she doesn't plan to do anymore."
According to the stipulation, Gwilliam "may use restraint techniques on the client only to protect the client or another person from physical injury" and may not use "restraint techniques for therapeutic purposes."
Allegations of abuse at Cascade first surfaced in 1997, and in 2002 the state filed a petition seeking to revoke the licenses of VanBloem and Gwilliam. The petition detailed five cases in which VanBloem and Gwilliam lay on top of children who were restrained by "methods including sitting on the child's legs or wrapping the child in a blanket."
The petition, which was disputed by VanBloem, Gwilliam and their supporters, also alleged that therapists at Cascade used their hands and knuckles to press into the child's abdomen and ribs, causing pain.
Then in 2002 Cascade was linked to the death of 4-year-old Cassandra Killpack.
Killpack was allegedly killed by her adoptive parents, who forced her to drink water until she passed out as punishment for taking a sibling's soft drink.
Recent comments
My name is Derrick and I have personally been through holding therapy...
Derrick M. Tuning | Aug. 14, 2007 at 11:34 p.m.
- Funds for new courthouse approved 1:48 a.m.
- Godfrey vetoes Ogden budget 1:48 a.m.
- Odd Fellows Hall move 1:47 a.m.
- 2 country groups to perform 1:47 a.m.
- Rumor has Boozer with Bulls 1:20 a.m.
- Jazz in back of line for free agents 1:19 a.m.
- Okur signs two-year extension 1:18 a.m.
- Marion to Mavs, Stackhouse to Griz 1:16 a.m.
- Price for redistricting plan challenged 1:04 a.m.
- Basketball campers learn service 1:02 a.m.
- Rumor has Boozer with Bulls
- Stadium of Fire flag burning was fake
- Jazz in back of line for free agents
- Okur signs two-year extension
- Restaurant destroyed by fire
- Jazz won't meet Lopez on Europe trip
- A primer for the 6th Potter film
- AK will not play for Russia this summer
- Jazz rally for OT win at Orlando
- Blazers may offer Millsap a contract
- Bronco collecting a galaxy of recruits
139 - Letters: Palin mistreated
136 - Teachers struggle with district cuts
134 - Blazers may offer Millsap a contract
123 - Rumor has Boozer with Bulls
88 - Fairness of BCS debated
81 - Moon landing: Let's hear from you
74 - Chaffetz eyes challenging Bennett
72 - Services bids farewell to Jackson
70 - Letters: Time for a revolution
69
As more and more dads are put out of work in this economy, I've been...
The photographs are mysterious, brooding, dark. They show dimples and...
"Hermione Granger (Emma Watson): .... And she's come to have certain feelings...
Stadium of Smoke - cough, wheeze, cough!
There is so much more to Dave than ever could be told. We've know him as the...
A very realistic, fair assessment D-News. Well done.
California is the poster child of how too many social programs and unions can...
This is normal in the business world, take out several loans on the same...
It is a well know fact that the need for meaningful service practically never...
Americans advanced across a relatively unexploited landscape, and logged old...
My apologies in advance for the violent example I use to make my point below....
It feels like I'm living in the twilight zone. Global warming when the...

