Day 712. Survivors found: 10
Read part one of this account here first.
Over the years, I was “treated” by attachment therapists Nonie and Bruce Wilson in Portland, Oregon, Kathie Leah Bishop in Eugene, Oregon and Tom Gill and Beverly Cuevas in Washington.
There are so many things that happened, it is so hard to narrow it down or write it in linear format. I’ve often thought that it would take writing a book to get the whole terrifying story out, but I don’t have the patience or the gift for writing to do that.
Kathie did a lot of weird things, but at the same time managed to maintain the outward appearance of a perfectly normal suburban family. Our whole lives and attachment to Kathie (I was very “attached” to her) was wrapped around religion.
When I came to live with them (I was there for two years), they were going to a Mennonite church. We all had to wear homemade dresses, which Kathie made, and have our hair braided at all times. She taught me how to sew and bake. We did not watch TV or listen to the radio, and our home schooling was Mennonite based in curriculum.
After the Mennonite phase, we joined a small Baptist church where we were all “saved.” There were several times where I was made to stand up in front of the congregation and give my ‘testimony’ about how I had allegedly abused Kathie’s children. It was humiliating and it hurt. After that, the other kids from church who were my friends before that, would throw rocks at me when we went hiking and call me names and tell me I was going to hell.
Somewhere during this time, Kathie decided to have me exorcised. I have no idea why.
She had converted her garage into a sound-proof office with an inner room that had a two way mirror/window pane attached to an observation room. I watched them build this and later found out that it was my parent’s money that had funded it, along with the 15 passenger van that she bought.
Anyway, one day she took me into the office and sat me down on the couch. There were two men there, holding bibles, and she told me they were there to get the demons out of me. I felt rather silly sitting there on the couch while these men shouted Bible verses and yelled at the supposed demons in my face.
Looking back, I am rather grateful that these men were from the church and not the therapy circle for I’m sure things would have been a lot worse if they had.
I had learned by that time how to ‘play the game’ and exhibit the actions, emotions, and words that Kathie expected from me. Once I realized what game we were playing this time, I threw in a couple of growls and said a couple of things that might have sounded demonic and then acted like something left my body. This seemed to satisfy the two men and Kathie as well.
That was the only exorcism I went through, and while it was weird, it was not near as dangerous or damaging as some of the other things that went on with Kathie. I think that incident bought me almost a week of ‘family time’ with no punishments, ‘therapy’, or respite care.
My experience leaving Kathie was traumatic. She kidnapped me and took me to her parents home in Ashland, Oregon. She even renamed me to “Hazel Bishop” and told me it was her grandmother’s name, and as long as I behaved and acted like part of the family, she would call me Hazel.
My mother later described in a statement that “it was like trying to get my daughter out of a cult.” The police finally contacted her and had her drop me off at a juvenile detention center. I think she was not arrested because technically she had permission from my parents for me to live with her, and even though she packed me up and left and would not let my parents know where we were or answer phone calls from them, they still couldn’t legally prosecute it as a kidnapping.
I’ll never forget that day… I was so messed up emotionally. Through all the brainwashing and abuse, I had become very attached to Kathie and felt like a baby being ripped away from its mother’s breast. I cannot describe any better how much it hurt me to say goodbye to that evil woman that I had grown to love. I defended her for months to various psychiatrists and other doctors.
From what I remember my mother telling me, Kathie had no credentials whatsoever and should never have been practicing any sort of therapy. I think my parents may have attempted to do something, but I have no idea what… they never told me.
They have both since passed away.
Her name then was Kathie Leah Bishop and she lived in Eugene, Oregon. She commonly went by Kathie L. Bishop. Her husband was Donald Eugene Kennedy, but I think she made him legally change his last name to Bishop. Her kids were Mandy, Kimberly, Heather, Evan, and Jane. Her parents lived in Ashland and her dad’s name was Guy Bishop. I can’t remember her mother’s name.
When I was living with her, she was going through law school. I don’t know if she ever finished or not. That’s all the info I have as of 1994 when I left. She likes to change religions, she likes to change careers, and she likes to change husbands.
I’ve spoken to therapists, but its not the same as someone who actually went through it. I read this story last night, and it was painful and amazing at the same time. The first time in 15 years that I realized someone else knows exactly how it feels.
Comments 26
Considering that much of AT/P says that “attachment disordered” children pray to and worship the devil, and AT itself has been compared to an exorcism, I’m not surprised someone performed an actual exorcism in its process.
Posted 08 Feb 2010 at 17:40 ¶Glad your Mum was able to tell you the truth about Kathie (what truth there was).
“My name is not Hazel”.
And there are so many trusting, decent, religious people out there.
Their faith is not a game.
So all this was through the late 1980s and the early 1990s, until 1994?
Posted 08 Feb 2010 at 19:39 ¶Adelaide, the Nonnie & Bruce Wilson time was about 1987 to 1991 and the Kathie Bishop time was about 1992 to 1994.
Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 06:19 ¶From press reports, it has sometimes been hard to determine if a child has been killed by an “exorcism,” by Attachment Therapy/Parenting (AT/P) — or perhaps even by both. Certainly beliefs in demonic possession and satanic influence are not uncommon in AT/P.
A major snake oil salesman of attachment nonsense is Nancy Thomas. This AT/P icon writes in “Dandelion on My Pillow, Butcher Knife Below” about a boy being kept in her home whom she believed to have come out of a satanic cult. Curiously, while proponents of Attachment Therapy claim that children with “Attachment Disorder” lie all the time, she swallowed whole this boy’s stories about being in a satanic cult. (Thomas even asked for a police investigation, which was a waste of police time, of course.)
In an online FCAC workshop (which awards continuing education credit), Thomas stated:
“I had one little boy who was in a ritualistic cult. … He had been a cannibal and had taken part in the rituals. He knew how to worship Satan, full blown.” “Blood, fire and gore … all ritualistic abuse is followed by this preoccupation. A doctor who I worked with … said that they implant in their mind through something like hypnosis for them to come back to the cult at a certain age — usually about 14 or 15 — the time when they impregnate them so that they can use the fetuses for some of the ceremonies. This is planted into the unconscious of the small child so that when she reaches that birthday, she will start to seek them out. … so if you suspect this, check it out.”
I myself have little doubt that many children caught up in Attachment Therapy/Parenting have been continually pressured into making up wild stories…and perhaps even growling occasionally. Anything to make it stop.
Thank you, Katrina, for this remarkable first-hand account. If you have a book inside you — and I don’t doubt that you do — I hope you write more.
Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 08:44 ¶Thank you so much for your courage, Katrina. I´m not a religious person, so no prayers, but I will keep you in my thoughts and cross fingers for you, and all the other survivors, and the many victims of those evil predators.
Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 08:47 ¶Thank you so much for telling your story – I had never heard about AT before waywardradish began their campaign. If it weren’t for people like you, I still wouldn’t fully understand just how horrible this must have been for you. I still don’t, but I hope I’m getting closer to being able to understand this and help somehow.
Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 11:20 ¶Dates much appreciated, Katrina, and your courage and strength even more.
Regarding Dandelion on my pillow, butcher knife underneath: satanic ritual abuse reminds me all too much of The Big Lie.
Very often it is the police, because of their wanting concrete evidence, who go with some Satanic rituals/stories. An example of this is towards the end of Ghost girl (1991).
In Ghost Girl, though, six was held to be the magical number, as it was a multiple of 3.
Have heard and read about “blood mares” and thus forth.
Aren’t there developmental stages where people do become interested in blood, fire and gore?
And, yes, I am aware that for fundamentalist Christians and those on the religious and political right, satanic ritual abuse is a Very Real Thing.
Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 16:47 ¶Thank you for this, Katrina. I look forward to whatever more you decide to share about your experiences – especially with Beverly Cuevas and Tom Gill. I continue to be intrigued by the connections that seem to exist between attachment therapy and “extreme” religious beliefs (nothing against religion or “typically religious” people here at all). You are the second person that I have been made aware of who seemed to experience both attachment “therapy” and an immersion in an extreme “religious” philosophy. I am interested in how you were transitioned from the religious to the attachment therapy and how the two systems were connected in your experience. You are very brave and courageous to have come forward with this and many of us, for sure, are extraordinarily grateful.
Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 09:09 ¶I cant’ tell how current this page is, but down toward the very bottom there is a reference to Kathy Bishop still being a foster parent (?!) and having a child in attachment therapy with Beverly Cuevas and Tom Gill, both of whom apparently encouraged “Elizabeth” to publish a book about her supposedly “positive” experience with this therapy.
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:t8iwPhLkg4kJ:www.deborahhage.com/resources/links.html+Beverly+Cuevas&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 15:58 ¶Yes, I ran into that link a few years ago. I thought the first line said it all: “Elizabeth is in therapeutic foster care due to the stress she placed on her adoptive parents.” The therapy was 100% focused on the behaviors of the child, when in every case, the behavior of the parents should definitely have been called into question as well. Attachment therapy is very one-sided with the child being the root of the problem and the adoptive parents being the innocent bystanders of the destruction caused by the evil child…..
Anyway.
That address is in Ashland which is most likely her parents address. Kathie had hopes of building a cabin on her parents land at one point, but she had so many dreams and changed her way of life so often I have no idea if she ever did it or not.
In all honesty, I really liked Tom Gill and Beverly Cuevas. Of course, I was brain-washed at the time, but I idolized them when I was 12/13 and believed everything they said. I wanted to please them.
Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 16:19 ¶I remember being in the office and doing holding therapy on the couch and I was terrified. I told Tom “what if I throw up? I’m scared, my stomach hurts.” and he just held up a wastebasket and said “puke in this. Problem solved. Now lets cut the crap and get back to work.”
He was a very No-BS kind of guy, but very charming and charismatic. Like the favorite uncle that you couldn’t wait to hug and felt important if he favored you with a smile. And any sort of accolade from him was an instant self-esteem booster.
I liked him. I know you guys are looking for reasons to hate him….but I can’t give you one. He did everything by the book (if there was one) and neither him nor Beverly Cuevas did any of the monstrous things that Kathie Bishop did, or any of the life-altering trauma that Bruce and Nonnie Wilson did.
I was actually very shocked to hear the news about Tom being a pedophile. I disagree with the service they were providing, but their respite care was nothing like the abuse and neglect I suffered under Kathie. I remember one of Tom and Beverly’s respite care ladies, Nona I think was her name, and she lived in a nice apartment and gave me real food and let me sleep in a real bed. She was very caring and treated me like a real human being…even made me warm milk before bed and hugged me when I was sad.
I also have no reason to hate Tom Gill.
Thanks for the information on the respite care which you received.
It is hard to call into question the behaviour of parents and carers. The whole culture may stand against it.
It’s good to know one person treated you as a human being during this mess. It may just have kept you alive and strong.
But sometimes, people kill with kindness.
Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 17:15 ¶Thank-you Katrina for your moving story.
And i do mean moving!
I googled Bishop, and found her listed as still practicing in Oregon. (yeah-that was me who left a warning to potential victims on rate the therapist site *))
Also, she’s listed as a very active Scientologist circa 2006-fits well with what you said about her changing religions/cults/marriages. If that is the same Bishop, she left-out the fact that she is also a kidnapper! And if it is the same Bishop, her connections bringing Scientology to inmates is a little scary-how could a criminal still have a liscense to practice, and have priviledeges to minister to inmates? I guess she was not convicted or charged?
Thanks for being brave and facing what happened to you, and sharing it because this is still going on.
Even Oprah has been fooled by these wack-jobs who use helpless children.
I know for a fact that a major TV network is doing a story on Tudu of finishingoffmyfamily blog, who in the past has been an accolite RAD-parent. (RAD-parent=an awesomely bad parent imo). But she’s now leaning towards mental illness.
I wish you (more) peace & strength Katrina. You deserve it, and your testimony helps those nameless children that you remember.
If not them exactly, the current victims.
Your truth and story is a painful one. And yes, I second the recommendation that you have a story that needs telling when and if you are ever ready to take those steps.
Posted 12 Feb 2010 at 12:42 ¶Well I’ll be mad at Tom Gill, he was having sex with a 15 year old client :( who had austism (double :(
thanks for sharing your story
Don’t blame RAD cults on Christians, most of the members of the RAD cult I belonged to were anything but …
RAD cults are mostly about the leader trying to make easy money and they don’t care who they hurt :(
and apparently most of the unlicensed treatment foster parents are kind of the same…
Posted 13 Feb 2010 at 20:25 ¶Rinda, I actually looked up Beverly’s number and called her to catch up (it had been 20 years.) I had a very healing conversation with her…she was unaware of the things that Kathie was doing to me and the other kids.
Posted 14 Feb 2010 at 07:02 ¶We did discuss Tom, which was my primary reason for calling…I was very shocked to hear the allegations against him, because when I knew him there were no indications of pedophilia or anything like that and I was in a position to know if something like that was going on.
Beverly told me that the autistic boy was taking a shower and got spooked and ran out of the bathroom naked and hid in the closet. There was nothing about Tom being naked too. Tom’s son walked in on this and didn’t see anything going on. It wasn’t until the next day when the autistic boy was at school and that the story evolved. She said Tom did not do anything to this boy and he took a misdemeanor and retired rather than have it all drawn out…its always the kids word against the adults, and in that situation even if the adult is innocent they never declare them so.
I understand this is a delicate matter, and having not been there myself, I cannot pass judgement or know exactly what happened for sure.
All I can say is while I disagree with attachment therapy, Tom and Beverly both treated me with dignity, respect, and kindness. They never violated me in any way, never abused me, and cared about my physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.
That is way more than I can say for kooks like Kathie Bishop, Mary Harless, Nonnie&Bruce Wilson, and some others who abused, tortured, brain-washed, neglected, and traumatized me.
I choose to believe that Tom is innocent, because I actually knew the guy and when in vulnerable positions as a child he treated me with care and respect.
You are free to choose to believe what you like as well.
Katrina, unless Tom’s son was some kind of psycho himself there is almost always something to do with it and the child victim is always considered a liar… having the child over to his house in just about every state would have been violation of appropriate client therapist procedures…. if he was not a licensed foster care provider and doing that only (no therapy with the child) then maybe a bit different…. and then there is another problem with treating a child with autism for RAD…. and so on….
I am happy you had a good relationship with them though…
many perps only go after a certain type (like boys, some older boys, some children that would not make good witnesses or get knocked up….)
the paper reports are saying they were both naked…. I have had foster children having to go through trials for being sexually abused, and in most states unless they really have evidence they do nothing to the perp… don’t even try (I know of one set of parents that even with videos, pictures, and physical evidence they only got 30 days Plea bargin…. in another they didn’t “waste their money” to prosecute because they felt the nut mom let the boyfriend do it and that most people wouldn’t…. but then I went to school with a teacher that gave out good grades for services and many people thought he was a great mad too… and I could go on for pages…
rarely does a man go to jail for that if he didn’t do it… and many of them walk :(
Posted 14 Feb 2010 at 11:24 ¶Well, I can’t really defend his actions since, like I said, I wasn’t there….you do have some valid points, and yes, there are a lot of people that get away with molesting children….I can’t even imagine. There is a special place in hell for those people.
Posted 14 Feb 2010 at 14:34 ¶I just couldn’t picture Tom doing something like that, and I have been around some very charming manipulative people…I never considered him one of them.
Maybe people change? Maybe he only went after boys? I have no idea.
I’d like to think he didn’t do anything like that.
Than you so much for bringing this to attention, I had no idea.
Posted 14 Feb 2010 at 19:04 ¶My understanding of the Tom Gill matter is that he plead guilty re the autistic boy after being presented with evidence that other boys had also been mentioned/identified and that one or more of them was prepared to come forward in addition to the the autistic one. I was also under the impression that Tom Gill’s son was not particularly surprised at what he walked in on – but maybe hadn’t had any real evidence before and/or had, very understandably of course, just not wanted to see and accept a “reality” about his father until it was right in front of him and he just couldn’t deny it anymore. It would take a lot for a child to go to the police about their own parent, i.e. there must have been much more that the son was aware of about his father than just what was briefly described in the newspaper. It has probably been hard for his former co-workers to accept this reality also; and let’s not forget that attachment therapists put it all on the child, never the adults. Blaming the victims?
Posted 15 Feb 2010 at 08:24 ¶I can see where you are coming from…she didn’t necessarily “blame the victim” she just called in an unfortunate misunderstanding.
Posted 15 Feb 2010 at 17:02 ¶I don’t really know anything other than what I’ve already said. I really need to believe that he didn’t do it and I’m not sure why. Maybe because him and Beverly were the bright spots in an otherwise horrifying childhood? I just need to believe that someone was real and someone cared….
:(
Katrina, I think I understand what you are saying. I have a totally unrelated matter going on in my own life right now in which I really need to believe that things are “more OK” than either much of the evidence and other people are pointing to. I think that there are times when we just have to do what we have to do. Sometimes self preservation requires us to deal with things in our own way and our own time, no matter what the actual truth might really be. I continue to appreciate your thoughts and comments. Thank you for them.
Posted 15 Feb 2010 at 18:31 ¶kind of way off topic… sort of anyway; But I ran across this web site called statbrain.com and it posts the web hits for just about any site (I don’t even know how legit it is or anything)
my school district of 78,000 students gets an average or 5,000 hits per day….
the monster and RAD selling adoption.com get 14,130
an anti-adoption and also for the most part anti-RAD cult site gets about 17 visits… apparently me and a few other people seem to care
we get here, I guess I won’t post it…. but more than the 339 the RAD cult leader we used to have gets per day….
every time I see a stupid news story I get mad now a days, or a new stupid law….
I guess the good thing about the government’s money problems they will probably stop some of the funding to RAD cult therapy though…
another funny thing, the one blog I thought had a bunch of readers only gets about 10 a day…
Posted 18 Feb 2010 at 16:28 ¶I meant to add that we need to keep getting the word out…. because that is the biggest problem is parents think the RAD cult is the only way to go and that is really helps kids and no one gets hurt… we have a lot to fight against…
Posted 18 Feb 2010 at 16:29 ¶I think its going to take more than just a blog to get people’s attention.
Posted 19 Feb 2010 at 06:28 ¶I think someone needs to do another documentary or something….its been awhile.
We could put out a book. How many survivors do we have? If everyone wrote a chapter….
Hey Wayward…. that is an idea… we could write chapters
Posted 19 Feb 2010 at 11:10 ¶Yes, there should be a book.
And a documentary.
Sooner rather than later.
But we should think this through.
Every year there are more survivors as the people affected turn 18 or some other age.
Rinda: really appreciate the statistics.
There is so much good work over the past 2 years.
There have also been strong independent documentaries on mental health issues and such.
Two I can think of are Generation RX and IEP.
Ah, victimless crimes! A tough one in the law and morally/ethically.
Posted 19 Feb 2010 at 16:24 ¶On Wikipedia, Attachment therapy gets about 130 hits a day and Reactive attachment disorder gets about 500 a day.
A book telling the stories of recipients of this therapy would be good. It would add to the body of knowledge from Jean Mercer’s book “Attachment Therapy on Trial, the special issue on the subject in Attachment & Human Development and the APSAC report.
Posted 20 Feb 2010 at 16:21 ¶Post a Comment