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.
In addition to a loss of freedom of movement and autonomy, a child typically endures during therapy sessions:
- Forced eye contact at close range
- Shaking, bouncing or jerking the head
- Screaming at him or her at close range
- Knuckling the ribs
- Relentless tickling
- Being poked
- Forced kicking for extended periods
- Having an adult lie on him or her
- Licking the face
- Swearing at him or her (again at close range)
- Having a hand held over the mouth
- Looking under his or her clothes
- Sitting on an arm or arms
- Sitting on both legs
- Pinching
- Having hair pulled out
- Being forced to repeat hateful things
- Being told what s/he feels
- Repeated accusations of lying
- Hearing predictions that he or she is going to kill
- Being deliberately scared and frightened
- Told of events in infancy (or earlier) to evoke anger or resentment
- Receiving believable threats of abandonment
- Being blamed for all of a family’s problems
- Elbows pressed hard into the abdomen
- Disregarding all pleas for relief or to stop
- Not being allowed to visit a bathroom
- Belittlement and ridicule
- Separating him or her from the parents
- Demonization of the birth parents
- Wrapping in a sheet to immobilize
- Being directed to defecate or urinate in his or her clothes
A child does not receive:
- genuine encouragement
- empathy or understanding
- recognition of personal dignity and autonomy
- non-violent patterns after which to model his or her own behavior
- reassurances of safety and reunion with parents
- empowerment
