Survivorship May Online Conference for Trauma Survivors and Clinicians

 

Survivorship May Online Conference for Trauma Survivors and Clinicians                    

Survivorship is now accepting conference registrations for their May 15 - 17, 2026 online conferences. They are extending their low prices until March 29th. CEs are available for the Friday conference. Conference topics include PTSD, trauma, dissociation, neurofeedback, DID, ritual abuse and mind control. More information is below. 

Please write info@survivorship.org if you are interested in attending their conference. Conference information is at https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-trafficking-and-extreme-abuse-online-conference-2026/

 

Conference Speakers

Ritual Abuse as Mind Control - Wendy Hoffman

Rituals are common practice in satanic culture. This presentation explores how every moment of a ritual is used for mind control. Its purpose is to capture the minds of its victims and enforce its programs. Traumatic emotions are also an important part of mind control, and they will be discussed.

 

Wendy Hoffman has published four memoirs, two books of poetry and a co-authored book of essays. She does consultations for therapists working in the field of dissociative disorders and presentations on mind control internationally. https://ritualabuse.us/smart/wendy-hoffman/ 

 

Traces of Western Practices of Ritual Abuse in Mary Daly’s

Gyn/Ecology and Other Texts - Lynn Brunet

Mary Daly (1928-2010), born in Schenectady, New York, was a philosopher and theologian and described herself as a radical lesbian feminist, intent on exposing the extent to which the patriarchy exploits women and working towards changing this. This paper will not get into the politics surrounding radical feminism, which is multi-faceted and extensive, but instead will examine one of her key texts, Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism (1978). In this text there are multiple references to the experience of spinning. She describes the book as “an invitation to the Wild Witch in all women who long to spin” (Daly 1978, xv).

 

This talk will explore Daly’s use of language throughout Gyn/Ecology to suggest that concealed/revealed in her writing may be traces of western practices of ritual abuse, practices that only began to come to public attention in the mid-1980s. It will suggest that the author’s search for the most extreme examples of ritual torture of women across cultures, coupled with the idiosyncratic metaphorical language of ecstatic spiral journeying used in Gyn/Ecology and other texts, may have been a means of expressing a deeply internalised and repressed experience of childhood ritual abuse. As the following discussion will outline, hidden cultic practices of a Druidic nature appear to have been exported to the United States alongside conservative religious practices amongst migrant groups such as the Irish, the culture that Mary Daly celebrates as her own heritage.

 

Lynn Brunet (PhD) is an Australian art historian whose research examines the coupling of trauma and ritual in modern and contemporary western art and literature. In particular, it traces the connection between Masonic and other fraternal initiation rites and complex trauma in the work of various artists and writers of the 20th and 21st centuries. https://independent.academia.edu/LynnBrunet1 

 

Remembering Wholeness: Trauma-Informed Writing in Support of Voice, Safety, and Self-Trust - deJoly LaBrier

As both a survivor of extreme abuse and a Life and Writing Coach, her work is informed by lived experience as well as years of supporting women on their healing journeys. In this presentation, she shares how trauma-informed writing practices can support survivors in reclaiming voice, coherence, and a sense of inner authorship after experiences that fracture identity and distort self-perception.

 

Rather than asking survivors to revisit traumatic material, this approach honors personal boundaries and nervous system readiness. Writing becomes a relational practice—one that allows meaning to emerge slowly, safely, and on the survivor’s own terms. This work reflects a deep belief that survivors are not broken, but adaptive—and that wholeness is not something to be earned, but remembered. This presentation recognizes dissociation and multiplicity as adaptive survival responses and offers trauma-informed writing practices that support safety, voice, and self-trust without requiring integration or disclosure.

 

deJoly LaBrier is a Life and Writing Coach, public speaker, and survivor of extreme abuse whose work focuses on trauma-informed writing practices for women impacted by trafficking, ritual abuse, and complex trauma. Drawing from lived experience as well as years of coaching, facilitation, and public speaking, she supports survivors in reclaiming voice, agency, and a sense of wholeness after experiences that fracture identity and distort self-perception. https://dejoly.com/shop 

 

Unraveling the Tangled Mind: Psychotherapy with Survivors of Mind Control - Faige Flakser, LCSW

This presentation offers a clinical roadmap for psychotherapy with survivors of Organized and Extreme Abuse (OEA), including cultic abuse, ritual abuse, trafficking, and other coercive systems. It describes how this work frequently presents with complex trauma and dissociation, with dissociative parts and self-states, often including DID. Participants will be oriented to the core psychological binds created by mind control: confrontation with profound human cruelty and the systematic destabilizing of reality-testing through confusion, coercion, and terror-based conditioning. The presentation highlights three predictable trust ruptures that shape treatment from the first contact: mistrust of helpers, including realistic fears that perpetrators may pose as helpers; mistrust within family systems where grooming and recruitment have often occurred; and mistrust of one’s own mind in the aftermath of sustained manipulation. These ruptures complicate the formation of a therapeutic alliance and require a paced, relational approach that honors the protective functions of doubt, vigilance, and withdrawal.

 

Faige Flakser, LCSW, is a trauma therapist, consultant, and educator with a clinical focus on trauma, dissociation, and DID, as well as Organized and Extreme Abuse (OEA), including mind control and coercive systems. She holds leadership roles within the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), where she is the former Chair of the OEA Special Interest Group and has presented at ISSTD conferences. She is Director of the Trauma Division at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy (ICP).

An Introduction to Neurofeedback for Trauma - Joshua Moore MA, LMHC, BCN

Neurofeedback is a non-invasive, evidence-based therapeutic modality that helps individuals to self-regulate brain activity through real-time biofeedback of brainwave patterns, often referred to as EEG entrainment. In the treatment of trauma, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), neurofeedback targets key neurophysiological features such as hyperarousal, emotional dysregulation, and altered brain connectivity resulting from traumatic experiences. By identifying specific neuro-markers associated with PTSD, practitioners can transform the often intangible nature of psychological trauma into visible representations on a computer screen or printout, facilitating targeted training to normalize brain function.

This approach serves as a promising adjunct to traditional trauma therapies, effectively reducing core PTSD symptoms—including intrusive thoughts, avoidance behaviors, and heightened arousal—without necessitating direct exposure to traumatic memories, which many clients find aversive. Recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses indicate moderate beneficial effects on PTSD symptoms, with neurofeedback demonstrating clinically meaningful improvements in symptom severity. Neurofeedback is also discussed for its potential utility in Bessel van der Kolk's book, The Body Keeps the Score, which highlights innovative, body-oriented interventions for trauma recovery (van der Kolk, 2014). In this lecture, key research and outcomes will be reviewed, alongside clinical principles and skills, emerging protocols, practical resources for locating practitioners, and training to become a certified neurofeedback practitioner.

 

Joshua Moore is a licensed mental health counselor who incorporates a variety of treatments, including talk therapy, EMDR, QEEG brain mapping, family systems work, and neurofeedback. Joshua is passionate about making evidence-based quality neurofeedback more available to the community. Joshua provides neurofeedback mentorship to several clinics and creates online workshops for beginners and advanced clinicians in the field of healthcare. Clinically, he works with difficult cases, including dissociative identity disorder, PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, and complex or unclear diagnoses. Joshua holds a Master’s degree in Counseling from Multnomah University and a Bachelor’s degree in Theology, and he is board-certified in neurofeedback through the Biofeedback International Certification Alliance (BCIA).

 

Intergenerational Occult Families, and One Father’s Fight for His Abducted Daughter - Iain Bryson

Iain Bryson’s daughter was taken fifteen years ago by his first wife and her family after his first wife told him that her family is a “cult,” and that she would be taking their daughter back to them because of “mind control.” Iain had no idea what ritual abuse and trauma-based-mind-control were until his daughter was taken. He had to reconcile that fact with what his wife had warned and the signs that his mind had refused to see. Iain tried to get help from local authorities and international authorities. Despite the fact that his daughter is a United States citizen, the only advice given by the Embassy was to re-abduct his daughter given that Poland is out of the Embassy’s jurisdiction. Having to take matters into his own hands, Iain ended up in the Polish criminal justice system. He was incarcerated for fifty months in Poland because of his attempts to make the system aware on his daughter. Iain was released in 2015.

In 2024, Iain Bryson published an evidence-based, documentary style memoir of his daughter’s abduction. He continues to fight for his daughter, and for other survivors of the horrendous atrocity we know as ritual abuse.

Clinical Discussion Group - How Ethics and History Effect Present Practice

The Survivorship Board Members will moderate a discussion on how ethics and history in the field of psychology effect present practice. The discussion will include historical events in the field of psychology, allegations of ethical lapses that happened in different psychotherapeutic settings and how historical misconceptions of the field and different diagnoses may effect present practice.

None of the material on this page, on linked pages or at the conference is meant as therapy, or to take the place of therapy.

 

 

Hidden in Plain Sight: Lessons From International Case Studies of Child Sexual Abuse in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings

 

Hidden in Plain Sight: Lessons From International Case Studies of Child Sexual Abuse in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings                           

 

Woodlock D; Olejníková L; Salter M; Singh S; Young A; Whitten T; Rouse J; Griffiths P, 2026, 'Hidden in Plain Sight: Lessons From International Case Studies of Child Sexual Abuse in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings', Child Maltreatment, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10775595251414844 

Abstract

Child sexual abuse (CSA) in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings is sometimes perceived as rare or the subject of a “moral panic”. Recent high-profile cases challenge this characterisation, exposing systemic failures within contemporary childcare environments that enable the sexual abuse of very young children. This article examines six prosecuted CSA cases from high-income countries involving serial offending against children under the age of five to explore how such severe abuse can persist despite regulation and apparent safeguards, and contrary to persistent scholarly claims that child sex offenders do not target ECEC settings. Using gendered organisational theory, our analysis reveals how organisational cultures, gendered power dynamics, and failures in accountability contribute to the occurrence and concealment of abuse. By situating these cases within broader patriarchal structural contexts, the article offers a critical rethinking of institutional responsibility and proposes reforms to strengthen child protection in ECEC settings.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings have long been associated with controversies over child sexual abuse (CSA). While high-profile allegations in the 1980s, such as the McMartin Preschool trial, led to widespread skepticism and claims of “mass hysteria” (Cheit, 2014; Jenkins, 1992), contemporary evidence challenges the view that such abuse is merely the product of moral panic.

Some scholars continue to frame concerns about CSA in ECEC as exaggerated (Munk et al., 2013). Others, such as Parkinson and Cashmore (2017), have argued that ECEC environments are relatively low risk for CSA as compared to those involving older children, claiming that child sex offenders are rarely interested in very young children and there is limited opportunity for abuse. Nonetheless, large-scale offending persists. Recently in Australia, over 1200 children were referred to health authorities after a childcare worker was charged with 70 sex offences (Brown & Higgins, 2025). This case, occurring alongside the prosecution of Australian childcare worker Ashley Griffith (Smee, 2024), exposes a recurring pattern of premeditated exploitation and child sexual abuse material (CSAM) production that mirrors earlier decades (Cheit, 2014), now facilitated by digital technologies.

This study presents a qualitative analysis of six prosecuted cases from high-income countries involving serial offending against children under the age of five. Collectively, these cases document the abuse of at least 245 children. The primary aim is to identify the institutional conditions that enable such abuse and undermine safeguarding mechanisms. Drawing on gendered organisational theory, our analysis seeks to understand how abuse is enabled, concealed, or disrupted by gendered organisational structures and patriarchal cultures (Acker, 1990). The article reviews existing research, outlines our gendered organisational framework, applies this lens to six international case studies, and proposes actionable recommendations for reform....

Case Study Analysis

This case study analysis draws on six contemporary, prosecuted cases of CSA in ECEC settings, spanning the period from 2009 to 2024. Each case was selected based on its alignment with the study’s inclusion criteria and capacity to reveal broader institutional patterns. By analysing these cases through the lens of gendered organisational theory, the study identifies recurring dynamics that allowed abuse to persist across varied settings. A detailed account of each case follows, highlighting the organisational conditions that facilitated harm....

Offender Networks and the Lone Offender Myth

These case studies challenge the prevailing view of CSA offenders as isolated individuals, revealing instead the existence of networks that facilitate the sharing of CSAM, the exchange of strategies, and mutual encouragement. The evidence in these cases demonstrates that offenders commonly operate within online communities, facilitated and camouflaged by encryption technologies, that normalise and reinforce abusive behaviour and share CSAM of children in their care. McCoole, for example, was a central figure in The Love Zone, a forum on Tor hidden services (the so-called “dark web”) dedicated to the exchange of CSAM, which also included Griffith (Staff Writers, 2023). McCoole later had his sentence reduced for assisting international investigations, including cases in Denmark (Opie, 2018). Once dismissed as the product of moral panic, claims about organised CSA offending have now been substantiated through forensic evidence (Salter, 2012). Indeed, organised offending has been a consistent theme in allegations and investigations of CSA in ECEC for over forty years (Cheit, 2014). However, the proposition that ECEC may be targeted by organised offender networks for the purpose of CSA has not been taken seriously in child protection frameworks and measures. This oversight can be understood through Acker’s (1990) concept of cultural symbols. The persistence of the “lone offender” myth serves a protective function for the institution; it allows ECEC providers to treat abuse as the result of a singular “bad apple” rather than interrogating how the gendered structure of the workforce might attract and shield organised abuse networks....

Internal Safeguarding Failures

In each case study, internal safeguarding mechanisms within the ECEC context failed to detect or respond adequately to CSA, and the abuse was discovered only after CSAM investigations or, in one instance, sexual assault of a child in public. As seen in the cases of Griffith, Doyle, George, McCoole, and Robert M., it was the discovery of CSAM that compelled institutions and authorities to take action. In the case of D.N. in Sweden, abuse only surfaced after a separate police investigation unrelated to institutional safeguards. Some institutions repeatedly dismissed or downplayed concerns raised by mothers and female staff, until external, undeniable evidence emerged. This systemic dismissal of female voices points to gendered workplace interactions (Acker, 1990), where the professional status of the male worker is privileged over the evidence provided by mothers and female colleagues. These patterns underscore how institutional responses often depend on proof rather than trust, suggesting that ECEC safeguarding systems may be structured to respond only when abuse becomes irrefutable, rather than working to prevent it.

Tolerance for Grooming Behaviour

Most of the offenders in the six cases were well-regarded by colleagues, trusted by families, and liked by the children in their care. Simply presenting as professional and caring often proved sufficient to gain the trust of colleagues, management, and parents, which often continued even after concerns were raised. In some instances, offenders socialised with management and parents, offered private babysitting, and were welcomed into families’ homes. For example, sentencing remarks in the case of Griffith noted that he was often cruel and mocking towards children during the abuse, as revealed in CSAM he produced (The King v Griffith, 2024). Despite this, he was invited to children’s birthday parties and formed close relationships with their families. The case studies corroborate previous research on how offenders often actively groom not only children, but also co-workers, parents, and the institution itself (Briggs, 2014)....

Poor Oversight and Cross-Institutional Tracking

The case studies demonstrated how weak regulatory structures, including a lack of oversight of staffing and hiring practices, enabled offenders to move between services without adequate scrutiny or shared information. In a context where child safety should be the central concern, these failures in information sharing and employment vetting reflect a lack of institutional accountability. Across the case studies, offenders gained access to ECEC roles through informal networks, as in the case of McCoole, or without standard hiring procedures, as was the case with George. In other cases, long professional experience led to misplaced trust. Even when concerns were formally raised, such as McCoole being deemed unsuitable to work with children, this did not prevent further employment with children. These vetting failures expose a dangerous organisational logic (Acker, 1990). By treating applicants as abstract, gender-neutral units of labour, the system failed to account for the specific risk profiles associated with the glass escalator phenomenon, where scrutiny was lowered to facilitate the rapid entry of men into the workforce.....

Conclusion

Our case analysis challenges prior claims that ECEC settings are a low risk for CSA or that concerns about child maltreatment in ECEC are a moral panic or otherwise exaggerated. It is perhaps timely to reflect on the legacy and consequences of such claims, which have received broad scholarly and media support in previous decades, given the cumulative evidence of serious and serial CSA offending in ECEC settings. Patterns across the case studies reveal the same institutional weaknesses: failure to act on concerns, over-reliance on external investigations, and a reluctance to question those in trusted roles. The development and evaluation of proactive safeguarding strategies tailored to the unique vulnerabilities of preverbal and very young children in ECEC environments, including the effectiveness of institutional grooming prevention, the promotion of institutional courage and workplace cultures of accountability and transparency, is needed.

This article has highlighted the paucity of research into the prevalence and characteristics of CSA in ECEC. There is a clear need for research into rates of suspected, reported and substantiated CSA cases in ECEC, the response of educators, institutions, regulators and the criminal justice system, and the impact of such abuse upon children and their families. Forensic studies of offenders targeting preverbal children would help to elucidate their specific motivations and strategies.... 

 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10775595251414844 

Survivorship Notes - March/April 2026 https://survivorship.org/notes-and-journal/

 

Survivorship Notes - March/April 2026
https://survivorship.org/notes-and-journal/

 

 

Articles: 
Survivorship Conference Speakers: Wendy Hoffman, Lynn Brunet, Joshua Moore, Iain Bryson, Faige Flakser, deJoly LaBrier
The Survivorship Trafficking and Extreme Abuse Online Conference will be in May 2026 https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-trafficking-and-extreme-abuse-online-conference-2026/
Survivor Conference - Saturday and Sunday May 16 - 17, 2026
Clinician's Conference - Friday May 15, 2026
Low prices until March 15th – as low as $50 per person.

 
Jeffrey Epstein murder evidence
Jeffrey Epstein trafficking allegations
'Satanic' paedophile ring
Living with Dissociative Identity Disorder

SMART Ritual Abuse Newsletter - Issue 187 - March 2026, Survivorship Online Conference May 2026 Speakers

 

SMART Ritual Abuse Newsletter - Issue 187 - March 2026, Survivorship Online Conference May 2026 Speakers 

 

The new SMART Newsletter is available online at

https://ritualabuse.us/2026/02/issue-187-march-2026/ To subscribe, please write via email: smartnews@aol.com  

 

Articles include:

The 2026 Online Annual Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Conference August 2026

The Survivorship Trafficking and Extreme Abuse Online Conference 2026 Conference Speakers 

    The mounting evidence Epstein was murdered... the doctor who says he was strangled

    60 Minutes investigates the death of Jeffrey Epstein 

    New Epstein files reveal he may have trafficked girls to others despite official denials

    Epstein survivor Juliette Bryant says she was trafficked from South Africa and soon realized it was "not a modeling opportunity, I've been kidnapped"

    Sydney property manager with alleged ties to 'satanic' paedophile ring denied bail

    What It’s Like to Live With One of Psychiatry’s Most Misunderstood Diagnoses -  dissociative identity disorder

    A Randomized Controlled Trial Assists Individuals With Complex Trauma and Dissociation in Finding Solid Ground 

    

 

The Survivorship Trafficking and Extreme Abuse Online Conference 2026 https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-trafficking-and-extreme-abuse-online-conference-2026/   

Prices as low as $50 until March 15th. Survivor Conference – Saturday and Sunday May 16 – 17, 2026   Clinician’s Conference – Friday May 15, 2026  Please write info@survivorship.org  if you would like to get on their conference mailing list. 

Speakers: Ritual Abuse as Mind Control - Wendy Hoffman, Traces of Western Practices of Ritual Abuse in Mary Daly’s Gyn/Ecology and Other Texts - Lynn Brunet, Remembering Wholeness: Trauma-Informed Writing in Support of Voice, Safety, and Self-Trust - deJoly LaBrier, Unraveling the Tangled Mind: Psychotherapy with Survivors of Mind Control - Faige Flakser, LCSW,  An Introduction to Neurofeedback for Trauma - Joshua Moore MA, LMHC, BCN  

 https://ritualabuse.us/2026/02/issue-187-march-2026/

What It’s Like to Live With One of Psychiatry’s Most Misunderstood Diagnoses - Dissociative Identity Disorder

 

What It’s Like to Live With One of Psychiatry’s Most Misunderstood Diagnoses - Dissociative Identity Disorder

 

- What It’s Like to Live With One of Psychiatry’s Most Misunderstood

- Diagnoses- A Randomized Controlled Trial Assists Individuals With Complex       Trauma and Dissociation in Finding Solid Ground 

- Finding Solid Ground program

 

 

What It’s Like to Live With One of Psychiatry’s Most Misunderstood Diagnoses - Spurred by her past struggles with dissociative identity disorder, she has devoted her professional life to studying it. By Maggie Jones

Maggie Jones interviewed more than two dozen people who have been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder along with nearly 20 experts.  Jan. 30, 2026.... Experts in trauma have long argued that D.I.D. is an ingenious survival tool born in childhood. It typically begins by the time a child is 5 or 6 as a response to repeated abuse, often by a caregiver. Before about 6 years old, children generally have not yet formed a coherent sense of self. They may have imaginary friends or displace their own thoughts or feelings onto stuffed animals. (“My bunny is sad. He hates school.”) They may believe they will become a princess or Superman. It’s all psychologically typical, and over time, most children develop a unified self.

But for a small subset of abused children who have a capacity to dissociate — which experts theorize is in part genetic — developing a unified self becomes disrupted. To endure the physical and emotional pain, their mind makes it seem as if it is not happening to them but to someone else, someone inside them. “When it’s too overwhelming to feel such fear, too dangerous to feel what is happening to their body, they feel like that’s not me,” Kaufman says, noting that the phrase “me, not me” captures a core feeling for people living with D.I.D. And because children frequently don’t tell anyone about the abuse, the feeling of having inside people can be soothing.

Often people with D.I.D. unconsciously create an angry “part” as a protective mechanism, which tries to silence other parts that bring up traumatic memories. Many girls create boy parts, explains Richard Chefetz, a psychiatrist who treats people with complex post-trauma and dissociative disorder, because they believe if they were male, the abuse would not have happened. Other parts — like Kaufman’s nice lady who helped her speak in class — have certain skills that keep children engaged in school and in the larger world and help them experience humor, joy, hope.

That’s the adaptable aspect. But the flip side is that if a child has D.I.D. their mind doesn’t follow the usual developmental pathway to form a coherent self. “It’s like a jigsaw puzzle, where the pieces have never fully been put together,” explains Richard Loewenstein, a pioneer in dissociative research and treatment and the founder of the trauma program at Sheppard Pratt, a psychiatric medical center in Baltimore. While we all have self-states — a work state, a social state, a family state and so on — “most people who are well integrated can move among their different parts” without feeling unstable, says Frank Putnam, an expert on child abuse and dissociative disorders and a professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Most people, too, experience some dissociation — when they drive from the grocery store to home with little memory of how they got there, or they lose track of time while immersed in a video game. But for those with dissociative disorders, the experiences are more pervasive, intense and disruptive. They may regularly feel disconnected from their thoughts, feelings or bodily sensations, a psychological phenomenon known as depersonalization. They may also experience derealization, in which the world seems blurry, dreamlike or unreal.

People with D.I.D. have both, along with fragmented self-states, which often cause them distress and can make daily functioning difficult: Among other things, one self-state can be unaware of actions taken by another state....

But in contrast to the 1980s and 1990s, neuroscientists now have more clues about how severe dissociation appears in the brain. In the late 1990s, Ruth Lanius, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who is the director of the PTSD research unit at the University of Western Ontario, was running a PTSD study using a standard approach for measuring responses to trauma memories: A person narrates a memory, which is recorded and then played back during an fMRI scan. Typically, the subject’s heart rate, blood pressure and activity in their amygdala — which facilitates the fear response — increases.

One subject had been so horrifically abused as a child that Lanius expected the narrated memory would trigger a flashback and the woman would feel as if she were reliving her trauma, causing her heart rate to spike. Instead, to Lanius’s surprise, as the woman lay in the scanner, her heart rate dropped. Lanius had her listen to her trauma narrative two more times with the same result. When she interviewed the woman afterward, the subject said she felt numb and completely disconnected from her body. In further studies, Lanius was able to pinpoint areas of the brain that suggest subjects like her have a dissociative subtype of PTSD. In response to trauma, their brains — unlike classic PTSD patients’ — blunt arousal: Activity in their amygdala decreases, while processing in a part of the frontal lobe, where emotions are controlled, increases..... 

 

More recently, Simone Reinders, a neuroscientist at King’s College in London, has published multiple imaging studies about D.I.D., including those in which actors were told to mimic different dissociative states. The actors could not match the neural responses of those diagnosed with D.I.D....
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/magazine/dissociative-identity-disorder-mental-health.html?smid=url-share

A Randomized Controlled Trial Assists Individuals With Complex Trauma and Dissociation in Finding Solid Ground - Brand, B. L., Schielke, H. J., Putnam, K., Pierorazio, N. A., Nester, M. S., Robertson, J., Myrick, A. C., Loewenstein, R. J., Putnam, F. W., Steele, K., Boon, S., & Lanius, R. A. (2025). A randomized controlled trial assists individuals with complex trauma and dissociation in Finding Solid Ground.Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 17(8), 1717–1727. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0001871

Objective: Evidence-based treatments are urgently needed for individuals with trauma-related dissociation (TRD), including severe dissociative disorders, the dissociative posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) subtype, and complex PTSD (International Classification of Diseases-10). TRD is strongly associated with severe trauma, a more refractory treatment course, and high suicidality and nonsuicidal self-injury. We evaluated changes in symptoms and adaptive capacities in individuals with high TRD through participation in an adjunctive online program based on the Finding Solid Ground (FSG) psychoeducational program. Method: We provide an interim report on an ongoing, randomized controlled trial of FSG on an international sample of 291 outpatients with dissociative identity disorder, dissociative PTSD, other specified dissociative disorders, complex PTSD, or dissociative disorder, unspecified (International Classification of Diseases-10). Outpatient therapists continued to provide psychotherapy. Participants were randomly assigned to either receive immediate access to FSG or be on a 6-month waitlist before accessing FSG. We did not exclude for suicidality, nonsuicidal self-injury, recent or concurrent hospitalization, or substance abuse. Results: Although initially comparable on outcome measures, at 6 months into the study, the Immediate FSG group showed significant improvement in emotion regulation, PTSD symptoms, self-compassion, and adaptive capacities in comparison to the Waitlist group. At 12 months, the Immediate group showed large effect size changes in these areas compared to study entry (tra_17_8_1717_math1.gif s = 0.95–1.32). The Waitlist group showed comparable improvements after accessing the FSG program for 6 months. Conclusions: This randomized controlled trial demonstrates that adding FSG to psychotherapy of individuals with TRD results in improvements in emotion regulation, PTSD symptoms, self-compassion, and adaptive functioning.

Prospective and retrospective cross-cultural studies in clinical and general population samples of children, adolescents, and adults find that dissociation is a partially genetically mediated, transdiagnostic psychobiological process related to trauma (American Psychiatric Association, 2022; Loewenstein, 2018). Studies demonstrate that high levels of dissociation are linked to multiple types of severe trauma, most commonly childhood maltreatment and/or neglect. Dissociation is associated with earlier age of onset, greater severity, and longer duration of maltreatment and, particularly, maltreatment by primary attachment figures (Dutra et al., 2009; Lyssenko et al., 2018; Vonderlin et al., 2018). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, text revision dissociative disorders (DDs) are strongly linked to antecedent trauma, particularly the most symptomatically severe and complex DDs (CDDs), dissociative identity disorder (DID), and other specified dissociative disorders....

These findings indicate that FSG offers an evidence-based method to assist dissociative patients and the therapists that work with them. Such materials may also be of particular help to clinicians learning how to better serve these populations (Kumar et al., 2022; Nester, Hawkins, & Brand, 2022). A major strength of FSG is its systematically structured, sequential approach to psychoeducation and skill-building that emphasizes individualized pacing. This program allows for repeated access to educational materials and appears to help both patients and therapists to conceptualize and work systematically on basic goals of trauma treatment: stabilization of severe symptoms and development of safety and recovery-based ways to self-regulate. This is the antithesis of the approach proposed by researchers who advocate rapid, intensive focus on trauma processing (e.g., van Minnen & Tibben, 2021) and who aver that stabilization is unnecessary for trauma treatment. In our model, stabilization is defined as developing recovery-oriented self-regulation that reduces reliance on high-risk behaviors, including NSSI and substance abuse. These behaviors drive treatment at more restrictive levels of care and may disrupt therapy; increase treatment costs; and reinforce a sense of failure, shame, and demoralization.
Stabilization of dissociative symptoms is another defining aspect of stabilization. Dissociation declined over time for participants in both groups....

This RCT shows that FSG is an evidence-based stabilization-focused program for individuals demonstrating high levels of trauma-related dissociation and substantial comorbidities. The effect sizes were large for symptom improvements after 1 year of FSG. In view of the challenges and high health care costs associated with trauma and dissociation, it is promising that this program is associated with amelioration of severe symptoms, adaptive capacities, and self-compassion. The inclusion of patients irrespective of the severity of their symptoms, safety issues, or other comorbid conditions suggests broad applicability of this program.  https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2025-86664-001.html

EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND SUMMARY: FINDING SOLID GROUND PROGRAM
What is the Finding Solid Ground program, and how is it unique?

Finding Solid Ground is a program that Ruth Lanius co-developed with Bethany Brand and Hygge Schielke, and they co-authored the book for clinicians and workbook for clients on this innovative approach for helping people with dissociative disorders. Finding Solid Ground is the first research-backed program for trauma-related dissociative disorders.  Finding Solid Ground is a program that Ruth Lanius co-developed with Bethany Brand and Hygge Schielke, and they co-authored the book for clinicians and workbook for clients on this innovative approach for helping people with dissociative disorders. Finding Solid Ground is the first research-backed program for trauma-related dissociative disorders.
Unlike trauma treatments that focus solely on narrative or exposure-based work, Finding Solid Ground begins by helping clients build the foundational skills needed for emotional and relational safety. The book and workbook guide therapists and clients through the program, which provides an evidence-informed, practical, and accessible approach for the stabilization and treatment of patients with complex trauma and dissociation. You can learn more about the book and workbook on our Books page.

The Finding Solid Ground program teaches 4 crucial skills:
    Grounding
    Separating past from present
    Healthy ways of regulating emotions
    Getting healthy needs met safely

Complex trauma refers to repeated and prolonged exposure to traumatic events - often during childhood, and at the hands of parents and/or other early attachment figures.  Dissociative disorders, including the dissociative subtype of PTSD, involve feelings of significant disconnection, including disconnection from one’s body, emotions, memories, surroundings, and/or personal identity.  Typically, this type of disconnection begins as a way to endure terrifying events when physical escape is not possible, for example during physical abuse, military combat, or a horrific car accident.

At its core, dissociation is a survival response, and one that can become automatic whenever a threat, or perceived threat, is present or approaching.  While this response can help someone get through horrible experiences, it is difficult to “turn off”, even after the person is safe and the threat is long gone.  Dissociation can really disrupt people’s lives by interfering with their ability to emotionally connect with family and friends, to notice sensations in their own body (hunger, pain, etc.), to know who they are/what they want, and to navigate their environment, to name just a few examples.  For this reason, it is important for us to find an effective treatment for dissociative disorders.  https://www.ruthlanius.com/finding-solid-ground-summaries

 

Survivorship Notes January/February 2026

 Survivorship Notes January/February 2026        

          
Information on Jeffrey Epstein, International satanic child sex abuse material ring, Trauma-based Mind Control, Clergy Abuse Settlements, Difficult Dates for 2026 https://survivorship.org/notes-and-journal/

 
Sex Crimes Squad charge four men for involvement in an international satanic child sex abuse material ring
Knesset hears harrowing new testimony of alleged ritual sexual abuse
Trauma-based Mind Control 
Thousands of new Epstein documents released
New York archdiocese seeks $300m to settle claims by clergy abuse survivors  
New Orleans Catholic clergy abuse survivors in line to collectively be paid $305m 
Difficult Dates - 2026

Knesset new testimony of alleged ritual sexual abuse, Clergy Abuse settlements: NY $300 million - 1300 victims, LA $880 million, New Orleans $305 million - 600 survivors, Nearly 1 in 3 women – est. 840 million globally – partner or sexual violence

 

 

- Knesset hears harrowing new testimony of alleged ritual sexual abuse; survivors demand action -  The testimonies describe patterns of abuse that survivors say were organized, repeated, ideologically framed, and allegedly carried out by groups of adults 

- New York archdiocese seeks $300m to settle claims by clergy abuse survivors Largest US Catholic archdiocese is raising funds, selling assets and cutting costs to compensate about 1,300 victims

- Archdiocese of Los Angeles and more than 1,000 people who accused its personnel of abuse, resulting in an $880m settlement in 2024.

- Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans and its insurers would pay $305m to about 600 abuse survivors of the clergy molestation scandal there

- Nearly 1 in 3 women – estimated 840 million globally – have experienced partner or sexual violence during their lifetime, a figure that has barely changed since 2000. In the last 12 months alone, 316 million women – 11% of those aged 15 or older – were subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner. Progress on reducing intimate partner violence has been painfully slow

 

Knesset hears harrowing new testimony of alleged ritual sexual abuse; survivors demand action -  The testimonies describe patterns of abuse that survivors say were organized, repeated, ideologically framed, and allegedly carried out by groups of adults.  By Sarah Ben-Nun December 3, 2025

Describes abuse and violence.

A series of profoundly distressing testimonies was delivered at the Knesset on Tuesday, as women described years of what they say were ritualized, organized sexual assaults they endured as children, including allegations of group rape, sadistic violence, and abuse that, in one case, was said to have occurred weekly in the office of a former MK.

The hearing, held jointly by the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women and the Special Committee on Youth, renewed urgent calls by lawmakers for law enforcement authorities to fully investigate the growing number of such accounts.
The testimonies, many of which have emerged publicly over the past several months, describe patterns of abuse that survivors say were organized, repeated, ideologically framed, and allegedly carried out by groups of adults, sometimes including figures in positions of authority. Though the accounts differ, they share recurring motifs: multiple perpetrators, use of drugs or intoxicants, coercive “ceremonies,” and violence far beyond conventional patterns of childhood sexual abuse.

Another survivor, identified as ‘S,’ described being kidnapped repeatedly as a child: “They tied me upside down. They electrocuted my intimate organs. They forced me to watch the murder of small babies. They made me dig my own grave. They are here among us.”  She said she gave the police detailed testimony, including names, places, and descriptions, but does not feel her account has been taken seriously.

A third woman, referred to as ‘M’ and whose testimony was read aloud, said she endured abuse by family members, a doctor, a psychiatrist, and rabbis throughout her childhood. She described what she called a “ritual assault” suffered while she was in advanced pregnancy and said she was forced to commit “horrific acts” to save her unborn child....
Police added that a unit within the Lahav 433 National Crime Unit – which specializes in sexual offenses involving minors and digital exploitation – is now handling the issue under direct senior oversight, acknowledging as well the complexity of cases involving decades-old allegations, multiple perpetrators, and victims who may struggle with fragmented memories due to trauma.

However, one survivor, identified as ‘A,’ sharply criticized the investigative process. She said she spent more than 100 hours giving statements to police, only to learn the investigator “didn’t know the case file” and told her she could not reopen or cross-reference past evidence....

Over recent months, a wave of testimonies flooded social media and news reports describing alleged ritualized patterns of abuse, some within insular communities, others in secular settings.

Experts from NGOs such as Lo Omdot Me’Negged (“not standing aside”) and the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) said they have been receiving increasing reports that include highly similar details: multiple offenders, use of drugs or sedation, enforced secrecy, and ritual framing meant to terrify children or bind them psychologically to abusers.

Clinicians interviewed by several outlets have said that even if not all accounts can be proven, the consistency of patterns across unrelated survivors warrants serious attention, not dismissal. Police and prosecutors told MKs on Tuesday that they are learning the field and are coordinating more closely, including reevaluating past files and considering legislative needs. https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-879095 

New York archdiocese seeks $300m to settle claims by clergy abuse survivors
Largest US Catholic archdiocese is raising funds, selling assets and cutting costs to compensate about 1,300 victims  Lucy Campbell Tue 9 Dec 2025     

 

The Roman Catholic archdiocese of New York – the largest organization of its kind in the US – is raising a $300m fund as it seeks to settle with about 1,300 survivors of clergy sexual abuse who have sued the church. Some of the money involved comes from the New York archdiocese’s cutting costs and selling off assets after Catholic priests, deacons and lay workers worldwide sexually preyed on children for decades – with the abusers being protected by their superiors....

Furthermore, the archdiocese agreed to engage retired judge Daniel J Buckley as a mediator between itself and survivors to reach a settlement. Buckley played a similar role in negotiations between the archdiocese of Los Angeles and more than 1,000 people who accused its personnel of abuse, resulting in an $880m settlement in 2024.

With civil litigation against the archdiocese of New York due to come to trial in 2026, the archdiocese agreed to negotiate settlements over the next two months, said attorney Jeff Anderson. Anderson, who represents about 300 of the reported 1,311 survivors in New York with claims dating from 1952 to 2020, said settlements would have to be accompanied by full disclosure of wrongdoing and measures to prevent future abuse....

The announcement of the New York settlement negotiations came on the same day that officials revealed the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans and its insurers would pay $305m to about 600 abuse survivors of the clergy molestation scandal there....
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/09/new-york-archdiocese-fundraising-abuse-claims 

New Orleans Catholic clergy abuse survivors in line to collectively be paid $305m  Attorneys for the victims struck deal with the church’s largest insurer to increase $230m settlement approved earlier  Ramon Antonio Vargas and David Hammer of WWL Louisiana Mon 8 Dec 2025

Roughly 600 survivors of the clergy molestation scandal that drove the New Orleans Catholic archdiocese into bankruptcy have secured the opportunity to collectively be paid $305m after attorneys for the victims and the church’s largest insurer struck a deal Monday, according to some of the lawyers....
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/08/payment-survivors-sexual-abuse-new-orleans 

Lifetime toll: 840 million women faced partner or sexual violence 19 November 2025 Violence against women remains one of the world’s most persistent and under-addressed human rights crises, with very little progress in two decades, according to a landmark report released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN partners.

Nearly 1 in 3 women – estimated 840 million globally – have experienced partner or sexual violence during their lifetime, a figure that has barely changed since 2000. In the last 12 months alone, 316 million women – 11% of those aged 15 or older – were subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner. Progress on reducing intimate partner violence has been painfully slow with only 0.2% annual decline over the past two decades.

For the first time, the report includes national and regional estimates of sexual violence by someone other than a partner. It finds 263 million women have experienced non-partner sexual violence since age 15, a figure experts caution is significantly under-reported due to stigma and fear.
https://www.who.int/news/item/19-11-2025-lifetime-toll--840-million-women-faced-partner-or-sexual-violence