The story of young women who wanted to be healed that became a story about the healer, and what we risk when we let someone else into our mind, and our memory.
A ‘teacher of personal development’ encouraged paying clients to believe they had been victims of sexual abuse by close family members – allegations that are untrue. Now, three women tell Tortoise their disturbing stories, raising serious questions about the trust we put in the people promising to help us at our most vulnerable moments.
So what? The discussion and treatment of mental health problems has advanced hugely in the past two decades. Talking therapies are no longer on the fringes of healthcare, and we have all been encouraged to take stress, anxiety and depression seriously. As a result, there has been a significant rise in demand for mental health care.
According to the British Medical Association, the number of people with a common mental disorder, like anxiety, who are accessing treatment has risen from 23.1 per cent in 2000 to 39.4 per cent in 2014, an increase of more than two thirds. Covid created a parallel pandemic, too: a record 5 million referrals were made to mental health services in England in 2023, a 33 per cent increase from 2019.
More people are seeking therapeutic support but as demand has risen, supply has failed to keep pace. Getting quick, effective referrals isn’t straightforward. If you are hoping for help from the NHS, it won’t come quickly. The waiting list runs into the millions.
The grey area. Some people looking for help turn to the private sector. Outside of the NHS, there is a wealth of therapists and counsellors who you can pay to see. Many of these are members of organisations like the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, which stipulates that practitioners must have done an accredited course in their field and expects them to work in a professional and ethical manner.
But that is all optional.
As things stand in the UK, anyone can call themselves a “therapist”, “psychotherapist” or “counsellor” without standard qualifications or training. Unlike “clinical psychologist” or “general practitioner”, these are not protected terms.
This means when you step into the world of therapy, you are, in many cases, taking a leap into an unregulated world.
A place where people like Anne Craig, the person at the centre of Tortoise’s latest investigation, are able to offer their services with little or no formal training.
Our reporting reveals that Craig spent a career in professional development for businesses and in the public sector until she decided she would set up her own healing practice. She referred to herself as a “teacher of personal development” but in reality, so her clients claim, her particular form of healing extended well beyond that.
In the podcast, Dangerous Memories, three women allege that over marathon sessions which involved dream analysis alongside other idiosyncratic techniques, she encouraged them to believe that they had been victims of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of their parents. All of which was untrue.
Parents and friends who watched this unfold attempted to get the help of authorities to intervene, including the police, but Craig did not appear to be breaking any laws.
Now, years after the women ended their sessions with Craig, they have detailed their experiences to documentary filmmaker Grace Hughes-Hallett. They describe marathon sessions, taking place over years, as a result of which they severed ties with the people closest to them and became dependent on Craig. Despite breaking contact with this therapist years ago, they are still dealing with the consequences of their experiences with a person operating almost without rules.
Craig vehemently denies the allegations and claims they are baseless, false and defamatory. She says the details of events the former clients describe are fabrications.
A wild west: Regulation is not the only issue. Accountability here matters too. Because it isn’t mandatory for private practitioners to be regulated, it’s up to each individual whether they want to be associated with an accredited body. So, despite the serious allegations of unprofessional behaviour levied against Craig, there was no professional or regulatory body that could stop her from practising.
That continues to this day, which is part of the reason why some of the former clients have spoken out. As one told Tortoise: “If I can stop anyone from seeing that woman and stop a family from being broken then I can sleep better at night.”
Listen to Tortoise’s six-part audio investigation on the Tortoise app or wherever you get your podcasts.
