Sarah Waters is an adult psychotherapist who also specialises in Dyadic Developmental Practice (DDP) ¹ which is attachment focused family therapy.  She is a member of  HART Group ² (Health Advisory Recovery Team) and is on the steering group of Therapists for Medical Freedom³. Both include psychological experts that share concerns about policy and guidance relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The following is a story presented in a particular form of narrative research, where findings from the therapy room are presented in a fictional format to explore clinical processes and ethical dilemmas– all of the characters and the situation itself is entirely fictitious – no client confidentiality has been compromised.

Within the piece, Sarah has explored what it might have been like to encounter the behaviours and rituals required by COVID-19 health advice & mandates in a world before COVID-19. What would we have made of them in 2019 as counsellors and therapists? If you were to strip away the fear of a virus and the media-led normalisation of the bizarre rituals that have now become part of our everyday landscape – what might our reaction have been to encounter a fixation with mask-wearing, germs, constant handwashing, testing, surveillance and enforced social distancing?

Without the endless media messaging which links the behaviours to virtue and safety, might we have been able to see more clearly the profound harms being caused by the measures, and been more honest with ourselves as a profession about the way they can be detrimental to both client and therapist in the relational work we do?

These are important questions to sit with as you read the following piece:

A therapist’s duty of care……

It is January 2019, and I am waiting in my therapy room for a new client, Daisy, who is 12 years old and being brought in by her mother. I am an experienced therapist, working for a charity supporting children and adults who are affected by Domestic Abuse:  

When they arrive, I am startled and alarmed to see them both wearing masks, plus mum has brought her 6-month-old baby with her.  Daisy looks pale, thin and her eyes are full of fear. They both seem terrified to take their masks off when I gently ask if they would like to. They sit down on the small sofa opposite me and huddle together.

The masks create a barrier and I find it very difficult to hear what Mum is saying, let alone start to forge a therapeutic relationship, as face coverings are so alien to human interaction and psychological safety⁴.

Daisy sits quietly and holds the baby whilst mum explains why she feels her daughter needs support. Daisy was once lively and vibrant, Mum says, but has lost her joyful zest for life. She spends most of her days in her room either behind a screen, or listlessly, lying on her bed. Even when she is ‘allowed’ out Daisy feels fearful being around other people, in case she infects them.

“Infects them with what?” I gently ask her. Daisy looks down, lacking the confidence to speak. Mum explains that her partner, J, has increasingly become obsessed with illness and dying, demanding that they all wear masks and stay away from people. J says they must sanitise everything they touch and test ourselves repeatedly with some plastic, test kits that had been ordered from China.

J expects all in the family to stick these tests up their noses and down the back of their throats, sometimes every day.  Mum is worried that Daisy is now starting to show signs of OCD and health anxiety. Mum also explains that she’s concerned about what is in the test kits⁵, and whether they even worked? Some days they tested positive but had no symptoms at all and on other days if one of the family had a cold or felt a bit unwell, the tests would show a negative result. Mum sounded so very confused by it all….

As the story unfolds, I become more concerned by the minute.  I’ve done a lot of Domestic Abuse, Attachment and Trauma training over my 20 plus years of working as a therapist and all my alarm bells were ringing, very loudly. The description of their daily lives just gets worse:

..J, who before this had been outwardly trustworthy and caring, insists it is for their own good and that if they don’t follow the rules they might die or kill others. J told them that the illness didn’t really affect young people⁶, but that Daisy could pass it on easily, particularly to the elderly, even if she didn’t have symptoms herself. Mum explained how bewildering it all was, as she had never known of an illness before that could be passed on if you didn’t have any symptoms. However, Mum and Daisy have always trusted J, so they go along with what they are told to do, even though it was damaging Daisy’s mental health and was making Daisy’s asthma much worse.

The fear messaging never stops, Mum continues, it is repeated, every day, all day. Life is dangerous, they must follow the rules or very punitive measures would be put in place. Posters have been put up in the house telling them what to do, they couldn’t get away from it.  The messaging has been going on and on for months and months without break. Neither Mum nor Daisy are allowed to speak to any friends or family who don’t believe in the illness. J even tracks their phones to make sure they don’t go anywhere or speak to anyone who doesn’t think like they do – it is a living nightmare.

Several things are running through my mind at this point as I try to understand the story that comes tumbling out, muffled behind the white paper mask. Is this a case of Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another⁷ (Which used to be known as Munchausen’s by Proxy) in which a parent fakes or induces illness in their child? Or is this a form of narcissistic abuse⁸, in which reality distorting, isolation and learned helplessness are well-known hallmarks and something I hear about on a day-to-day basis? My heart goes out to Daisy and the baby, who should surely be protected from this abuse, and to her mother, who seems completely hypnotised⁹ by her partner.  A web has been spun around them all, justified to keep them and others safe:

…Mum goes on to explain that J is a good person, has provided for them financially and has always seemed to have their best interests at heart. Plus, J speaks with such urgency and conviction. Mum had trusted this person for so long and yet now many things just do not make sense. Why would J want to harm her and her two daughters after looking after them so well for so many years?

I wonder how Daisy’s mum can allow this to happen and not see the terrible damage that it is doing to her daughters. Her fear levels are so high she doesn’t seem to be able to rationalise what’s going on. I remember a video I watched the week before about the reptilian brain¹⁰ and how being in fear limits being curious, open, and engaged. It keeps us stuck in survival mode. I also know how difficult it is for those subjected to narcissistic abuse to have a real grasp on reality.

Even if there is an illness out there that affects mainly the elderly, treating a young person like this must surely be a form of child abuse?  What I am witnessing feels so manipulative that Daisy and her mum are oblivious to the fact they are experiencing abuse at all. The more I think about it and the more Daisy’s mum speaks – I know that this is a very clever form of narcissistic abuse. However, the physical masking and constant testing is something I have never heard of before. It does chillingly remind me of Baderman’s Chart of Coercion¹¹. This describes communist methods for eliciting individual compliance used by the Chinese and Koreans against the American soldiers in the 1950’s. It is so cruel and potentially damaging on every level of development – both physical and emotional. Treating a young person like this is just not acceptable in the year 2021, surely?

My trauma training (and intuition) emphasises the necessity for safety, love, acceptance, connection, close relationships, play, empathy and most importantly, the absence of fear. All these are necessary for healthy emotional development. What I am witnessing here is the total opposite of that. Bowlby, plus all child development experts that have followed him, have emphasised time and time again that children are extremely vulnerable, but they must be resilient to survive. I can’t help thinking that he would be turning in his grave! Poor Daisy and her baby sister are clearly adapting in various ways to the hostile environment they are in, to ensure their own survival.  They may be permanently damaged by this. I feel sick to my stomach.

Looking at the confused face of the baby as it searches its sister’s and mother’s masked faces for comfort, my mind flits to the attachment workshop that I attended a few years before and I remember watching the video of the Still Face Experiment¹². It showed the devastating effects, in a very short time, on a baby whose mother stops smiling at it for only a few minutes.  This poor baby would have great difficulty in determining what facial expressions J, Daisy and Mum would be exhibiting behind their masks which surely will present severe challenges for it as it grows up. Babies particularly depend on their parent’s facial expressions, coupled with tone and/or voice to regulate their reactions toward others.

I wonder if J understands the potential effects of prolonged mask-wearing? Or has thought about the potential long-term impact on the baby’s development? Maybe the threat of getting ill overrode all these concerns, but in my book, this is just not good enough. Surely baby’s emotional development must come first. The room soon fills with crying as the baby becomes completely dysregulated and inconsolable, unable to feel safe in the room, as it cannot read the cues of its mother’s blank and expressionless face.  A baby’s worst nightmare has, it seems, come true.

I switch my concern from the baby to Daisy, common sense telling me that wearing a mask all day, or even for a few hours, could surely not be good for her¹³, emotionally or physically. It must be restricting her breathing and reducing her oxygen intake plus possibly infecting her with expelled germs. Goodness knows how it will be affecting her immune system. On top of this, not being allowed out much to breathe fresh air and being separated from her friends and family, is a complete and utter recipe for disaster. With the persistent use of toxic sanitiser and being full of fear, I can’t think of a worse breeding ground for sickness.

My mind is racing about all the physical consequences that it hardly has space to think about the emotional. What must this poor child be going though? Surely her emotional development will also be affected, especially as her mother and partner are also wearing the masks. My mind flits to Steven Porges Polyvagal Theory¹⁴ – a subconscious system for detecting threats and safety and what he terms ‘neuroception’. Poor Daisy’s sympathetic nervous system must be being constantly activated by the fear messaging she is subjected to, day in day out.  The potential long-term consequences of this make me shudder.

Surely this is not all being done on purpose I think to myself – no one could be so cruel, surely?

I now recall my knowledge around narcissistic abuse and emotional blackmail. It is another tell-tale sign that I know from experience is intended to elicit feelings of fear, guilt, and compliance.  This is precisely how Daisy, and her mum are feeling. They are being gaslighted, which leaves them second-guessing, doubting reality, and their own judgements or perceptions. It sounds highly psychologically abusive, and dangerous to me. J is trying to isolate the family by keeping them away from others and demanding they stay 2 meters apart if they do meet anyone.

I know from my experience that this gives abusers a sense of control and power. It describes the split and alienation the narcissist will create to set their victims apart from others. This is often done through division and bullying. This serves to weaken and isolate leaving it easier for the narcissist to maintain control in the dynamic of the relationship. Abusive partners (or governments), aim to achieve this in a variety of ways. These include: trying to be seen to have another person’s best interests at heart, but through negative judgements and manipulation, slowly aiming to keep them away from loved ones. This creates an unhealthy over-reliance/dependence on the perpetrator.  This behaviour instils a form of trauma bonding¹⁵that is very difficult to break. The conditions for this to take place are to be threatened with, and to believe, that there is a real danger. This is coupled with harsh treatment interspersed with very small kindnesses, isolation from other people’s perspectives and a belief that there is no escape.

Everything Daisy’s mum is pouring out to me in our session suggests to me that this is what is going on.

Judging others is another defence mechanism commonly seen in narcissistic abusers: they will comment, both negatively and harshly, on other people’s actions, choices, speech, and beliefs. Passing judgement on others serves to make them feel better about themselves and helps them to maintain a position of superiority. I am thinking about this at the same time Mum is telling me that J had more recently started criticising everyone outside the family that doesn’t believe in what J is saying and about the illness. Apparently, J is making out that everyone that doesn’t follow the same safety practices as them are are unclean, spreading germs and should be locked up! The list of narcissist characteristics goes on and on. Finger-pointing, lying, projecting, not taking any responsibility, slander and withholding. This is really one of the worst cases of psychological abuse I had ever heard about.

As we come to the end of our session, I gently ask Daisy’s Mum if she has thought about leaving J and taking her daughters with her. From her passive response, it is obvious that she is in a state of learned helplessness¹⁶.  This occurs when an individual continuously faces a negative, uncontrollable situation and stops trying to change their circumstances, even when they could do so. I gently explain to her that I will have to report what she has told me to the local safeguarding team as a matter of urgency.  This is my duty as a therapist when told about any form of abuse towards a child or young person. She was informed of our safeguarding policy prior to our appointment so is aware that confidentiality is waived in such circumstances. She looks at me with her large, fearful eyes and I can see that deep down she knows that what is happening is very, very wrong.  I can sense she feels grateful and relieved, as finally a trained professional is now going to take charge and call out the abuse.

Mum, Daisy and the baby leave the session and I immediately pick up the phone, my inner supervisor telling me this must be done straight away, no questions asked. I make the call and it is recorded.  I am assured that it will be dealt with as a matter of priority. The trained social worker at the other end of the phone is as shocked as I am. At last, I reassure myself, this young family will now get the help and support they deserve in the face of such shocking violations of everything it is to be human.

Covid Rules are blamed for 23% dive in young children’s development – with face mask rules among possible culprits¹⁷

Only six healthy children died of Covid in a year, but lockdowns fuel a youth health timebomb.⁶

The damage of masking children could be irreparable.¹³

REFERENCES

1. https://ddpnetwork.org/about-ddp/dyadic-developmental-practice/
2. https://www.hartgroup.org
3. https://www.therapists4medicalfreedom.org
4. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1460-6984.12578
5. https://www.steris-ast.com/techtip/overview-ethylene-oxide-residuals/
6. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/11/six-healthy-children-died-covid-year
7. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/factitious-disorder-munchausen-syndrome
8. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/toxic-relationships/201709/how-spot-narcissistic-abuse
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLDpZ8daIVM
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSXhpailcs0&list=WL&index=5
11. https://safeguardingchildren.salford.gov.uk/media/1438/biderman.pdf
12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apzXGEbZht0
13. https://brownstone.org/articles/the-damage-of-masking-children-could-be-irreparable/
14. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c1d025fb27e390a78569537/t/5ccdff181905f41dbcb689e3/1557004058168/Neuroception.pdf
15. https://paceuk.info/child-sexual-exploitation/what-is-trauma-bonding/
16. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/learned-helplessness
17. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10247315/Face-masks-harm-childrens-development-Study-blames-significantly-reduced-development.html

Sarah Waters is a psychotherapist experienced in working with the effects of abuse, neglect, and childhood trauma. She also specialises in the Dan Hughes family therapy and parenting model, Dyadic Developmental Practice (DDP) ¹. 

Sarah is a Steering Group member of Therapists for Medical Freedom, as well as a member of HART ² (Health Advisory Recovery Team) where this article was originally published. HART is a group of highly qualified UK doctors, scientists, economists, psychologists, and other academic experts who came together over shared concerns about policy and guidance recommendations relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.  This paper examines trauma informed principles and practice, particularly in relation to babies, children and young people and asks:

Can any therapist, practitioner or organisation that calls itself trauma informed ethically do so if it is adhering to Covid-19 guidelines?

• Half of 16–25-year-olds said their mental health has worsened since the start of the pandemic.³

• As many as 10 million people^, including 1.5 million children⁴, are thought to need new or additional mental health support.

• There has been a 20% increase in babies⁵ suffering non-accidental harm.

• Two-thirds of domestic abuse victims⁶ were subjected to more violence from their partners during lockdown.

• There has been a 25% reduction⁷ in pre-pandemic learning for primary school children and a 30% reduction for secondary school children.

What is Trauma Informed Practice?

Trauma informed practice⁸ has been a popular concept over the last 10 years particularly within schools. Councils, charities and even police forces have also fully embraced the idea and adopted the venerated tagline. Trainings of between a few hours or a few weeks have been provided, after which trainees have considered themselves trauma informed. While it is acknowledged that some of these practitioners will have undertaken more rigorous and in-depth trauma/child development training, many will have not. Despite the claims by trauma training organisations that children and young people’s wellbeing, mental health and social/emotional needs are top priority, in a Covid world of unchallenged restrictions can they still claim this to be true?  

To put things more into context, a programme, organisation, or system that is trauma informed^8,  as defined by the US Government (also used as the benchmark in the UK):

• realises the widespread impact of trauma and understands potential paths for recovery
• recognises the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, family, staff, and others involved in the system
• responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices
• seeks to actively resist re-traumatisation

Rather than following a prescribed set of policies and procedures, a trauma-informed approach adheres to five key principles:

• Safety 
• Trustworthiness 
• Collaboration
• Empowerment
• Choice

The struggle to prioritise children’s emotional needs 

It was only at the beginning of this century that neuroscientists were able to visibly identify (through fMRI scans) the devastating effects of trauma⁹ on children’s brains. And only then was it acknowledged by governments who, rather than support families to try to mitigate it happening by investing in early intervention¹⁰, ploughed their resources into trying to deal with its devastating effects. This strategy however has huge financial and emotional implications, outlined most recently and extensively by the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood¹¹ set up by The Duchess of Cambridge. The devastating consequences, such as an increased risk of long-term mental health difficulties and the intergenerational repetition of abuse, has already been proven, but persistently ignored, or dabbled in then discarded, such as the Sure Start Initiative¹² launched in 1998. Today Sure Start has dwindled to a shadow of its former self, a reminder of the lack of foresight/care that politicians and councils have around the importance of supporting parents at the most critical point in a child’s development – pregnancy and the first 2 years of life.

Numerous psychologists since the 1950’s, most notably John Bowlby¹³, have campaigned diligently to reform antiquated and abusive child rearing attitudes and practices, particularly focusing on the very early years in a child’s life. Experiences of loss, fear, control, abuse and neglect, often caused by what are now termed ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s)¹⁴ have been scientifically and irrefutably proven to inhibit the development of children’s brains and to negatively affect their emotions, behaviour, relationships and life chances. It is now widely accepted amongst psychologists and psychotherapists that, if children and young people are to thrive, these harmful factors need to be avoided at all costs.

It is also widely accepted that if this has not been possible, these harmful factors need to be fully understood and mitigated in a trauma informed way as children get older. Considering this, those of us in these professions (and others), have felt a huge relief over the last 10 years that children were finally starting to be treated humanely at last. The grim, genetic-deterministic view of human relations seemed to be fading into the past. The greatest contribution that Bowlby and all that have followed him have made to the wellbeing of our culture, is the understanding that children are extremely vulnerable but must be resilient to survive. Most importantly, we have learnt that this resilience, in its most damaging form, means adapting in various ways to a hostile environment to ensure this survival.

For the first time in history, the idea that a society’s destiny rests upon how it treats its children had scientific foundations and was being acted upon and promoted – at least in schools and other trauma informed organisations. Children’s needs were at last being put first and professionals (but unfortunately to a lesser extent parents) were trained to understand, recognise, and promote these needs as, after all, how we treat our children will shape our future. A trauma informed army was born – championing the necessity for safety, love, acceptance, connection, close relationships, play, empathy and most importantly – the absence of fear.

Then along came Covid 19…

And with it a catalogue of guidelines (not laws), taken up at great speed, without any psychological risk assessments whatsoever. All trauma informed knowledge and practice was abandoned as adults, some fuelled by unions, demanded that they were kept ‘safe’ – despite what this might mean emotionally for the children and young people in their care. A disease that has a median Infection Fatality Rate¹⁵of 0.05% for under 70-year-olds globally seemed to derail trauma informed practice entirely. There was no mention of how emotionally damaging the measures potentially would be, at all, in the back-to-school trainings (that I attended) provided by numerous child development/trauma ‘experts’ across the UK. What happened to the trauma informed principles of realising, recognising, responding to, and most importantly resisting trauma inducing practices?

It does not seem to matter that babies, children and young people are having to bear the emotional brunt of a pandemic that mainly affects the over 80’s^16. In fact, it even feels as if some schools relish in masking and segregating their pupils, acting as if the guidelines were in fact law and that they have no choice in the matter. No one can deny that the mental health of the young¹⁷ has been catastrophically impacted over the last year and the question I would like to ask is how can children’s emotional needs so easily be set to one side like this? My understanding is that adults are meant to protect children and not the other way around. Why aren’t trauma informed practitioners and organisations recognising this devastation and standing up for the children in their care? It is astonishing and heart breaking that children’s emotional needs have been so quickly trampled upon and disregarded after the long-fought journey to get these needs recognised.

From new-born babies to teenagers – all are potentially being made to emotionally suffer in their own way. One of the most pernicious and potentially damaging practices that I can see is the routine wearing of face masks around the very young. Anyone who has done any trauma informed training will know of the Still Face Experiment¹⁸. It shows the devastating effects, in a very short time, on a baby whose mother stops smiling at it for only a few minutes. A recent discussion paper in The Journal of Neonatal Nursing¹⁹ highlights the difficulty in determining what facial expression a person is exhibiting behind a mask which may present severe challenges for infants and young children. They depend on their parents’ facial expressions, coupled with tone and/or voice to regulate their reactions toward others. They advise that health professionals should understand the potential effects of prolonged mask wearing to minimise any potential long-term impact on neonatal development and optimise psychological outcomes for babies, infants, children, and their parents. I have not seen one piece of literature that warns of the dangers of this distressing practice. Everywhere I go, every day I go out, I see evidence that this message is not being passed onto parents by those that are trained to know better. 

Bliss^, a charity for babies born premature or sick, have stated that 70% of parents²⁰ have said they are more likely to have found it difficult to bond with their baby if the neonatal unit where their infant was being cared for had put time limits in place, as part of Covid parent access restrictions . Equally I have heard distressing stories of women being made to wear masks when in labour. Many of us know of the devastating restrictions that were put in place around partners and family being allowed to be with women when they were giving birth, often leaving them vulnerable and distressed. This will have a knock-on effect to the birth and bonding process, which can have lifelong affects. These same women have been denied face to face support after the birth, leading to an increase in Post Natal depression and loneliness. All for a disease that, as of March 2021, sits at no 24 in the UK as the leading cause of death²¹.

Enough has been written in other studies about the numerous detrimental  effects, both emotionally and developmentally,  on school children over the past year²² particularly around the wearing of face masks and social distancing. The trauma informed might find it interesting revisiting Steven Porges Polyvagal Theory A subconscious system for detecting threats and safety²³ and what he terms neuroception; a subconscious system for detecting threats and safety. No wonder there is an explosion of psychiatric disturbances, learning difficulties and dysregulated behaviour in children whose nervous systems have been activated by the fear messaging they have been subjected to in schools (and almost every other environment) every day for over a year. And what is the governments answer to this trauma reaction, again with little protest from the trauma informed professionals? Behaviour Hubs²⁴ – as “parents and teachers know that orderly and disciplined classrooms are best”.

Being exempt from facemask use brought its own traumas with it – it is excruciating for a young person or teenager to stand out at school and be different to everyone else. I have heard numerous stories of coercive and bullying behaviour, from teachers and other pupils, against the very few with the strength to stand up for their human rights and not wear a facemask or be invasively tested every week. The list of indignities goes on and on – with the lateral flow/PCR testing pantomime throwing up enormous efficacy, safety, and ethical considerations. Children’s and young people’s lives and education are being continuously disrupted by a flawed system that seems to fish for positives²⁵ amongst this age group and cause misery and loss of income for the adults in their lives. The indignity of being tested and the potential dangers²⁶ from the ethylene oxide used to sterilise the tests again are ignored or deemed worth the risk so that adults can feel safe and damn the effects on the children.

New groups quickly mobilise to safeguard the young

Groups of concerned parents have had to set up campaigning groups, such as UsForThem²⁷ to fight for our children’s human rights and to try and safeguard them. They very quickly realised last year that the professionals, trained and paid to look after our children’s mental health weren’t and aren’t realising, recognising, responding, or resistingthe traumatic measures being put in place. The wearing of face masks in therapy sessions²⁸ is another example and a practice that was also taken up speedily by charities and agencies who support traumatised children and young people (and adults). Again, this was a guideline and not a law, yet therapists put their own physical safety concerns over and above the psychological safety of the children and young people under their care, despite the fact they could sit 2m apart and supposedly ‘keep safe’. Research has shown that wearing face masks in sessions could have a highly detrimental effect upon communication success, with a plethora of undesirable consequences. These include reductions in safety and wellbeing, impacting upon overall clinical outcome levels. Is this another example of adult’s fear levels superseding the emotional needs of young people and therapists putting their own fears higher on the agenda than the psychological safety of their clients?

Government use of a Psychological Campaign to Effect Compliance 

Maybe the psychological campaign²⁹ orchestrated by the government’s behavioural unit, Spi-B (of whom members openly admit to ‘ethically questionable’ use of fear tactics to encourage mass compliance of the UK populace) has something to do with all of these extreme measures being so rapidly put in place? Have professionals who are trained to recognise and be alert to psychological and abusive tactics been as unable or unwilling as the rest of the population to spot the psychological behavioural tactics? One theory is that the vast majority of the population are now so fearful they are operating from the reptilianpart of their brain³⁰ that limits being curious, open and engaged and merely keeps us stuck in survival mode. But again, brain development and its workings are a large part of trauma informed training, so it is extremely puzzling as to why this is not being recognised or challenged.

The decision by the government to scare us into submission was a strategic one. The minutes³¹ of a meeting of the Government’s expert advisors (SAGE) on 22/03/20, a forum that includes psychological specialists, displayed a clear intention: ‘The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent’ by ‘using hard-hitting emotional messaging‘. They knew that a frightened population is a compliant one. And haven’t they delivered. Just like a highly abusive parent or partner our government is employing coercive, gaslighting, fear mongering tactics to seemingly scare its citizens into complying. Isolation, restriction of movement, threats, intimidation, occasional indulgences, humiliation (shaming those who don’t comply/making us stand in line) and enforcing of trivial demands have all been used. The list is endless – and is exceptionally traumatising – and unquestionably highly unethical. 

Those of us who work or have worked within the field of domestic abuse will recognise these tactics within families and try to protect children (and adults) who are under threat. Being trauma informed needs to be all encompassing, not only considering the effects of trauma, but also understanding, challenging, and trying to change any psychologically manipulative behaviours we are witnessing.  Why are trauma specialists, psychologist’s, therapists, teachers, and child behaviour experts not recognising and challenging what is going on now?  These are the questions that need to be asked as the UK’s children and young people hurtle towards the ultimate sacrifice for the adults in their lives – being psychologically coerced, and therefore unable to give Informed Consent (let alone be Gillick Competent), into taking a highly controversial, experimental ‘vaccine’³² for an illness that they are at very low risk from that has a 99.997% survival rate³³.

Conclusion

Considering the authorities and organisations that have implemented the Government’s suggested Covid-19 guidelines and medical interventions for young people impulsively, without risk assessment, reflection, or critical analysis; I wonder if trauma informed practitioners and organisations are denying their experimental nature alongside the potentially long term, harmful, physical, and psychological effects. The long awaited and so warmly welcomed trauma informed world, that championed children and young people’s emotional needs, is now, in my opinion, supporting them, in collusion with the government. They are supporting them to adapt to a hostile, fearful, abusive, and hence traumatic environment that inhibits the long awaited healthy emotional development that we have all be waiting for. It is imperative to remember:

THE UN CONVENTION ON THE
RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

ARTICLE 3: THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD MUST BE A TOP PRIORITY IN ALL DECISIONS AND ACTIONS THAT AFFECT CHILDREN

TRAUMA INFORMED PRACTICE:

• SAFETY FIRST – ENVIRONMENTS & RELATIONSHIPS
• PLAY
• THE IMPORTANCE OF TOUCH
• BEING SOCIALLY ENGAGED
• ENRICHED ENVIRONMENTS
• CONNECTION
• ACCEPTANCE
• CURIOSITY
• EMPATHY 
• LOVE

COVID MEASURES:

LOCKDOWNS:

• Isolates and deprives children of social support/play
• Being forced to stay at home creates tension and fear
• Threats of fines/criminalisation causes emotional & psychological distress
• Isolation/loneliness affects sleep and physical health
• Increases risk of and escalation of all types of abuse/family discord
• Lack of in person support – one to one or in groups (although support groups of up to 15 have been ‘allowed’ throughout)
• Takes away support of school and potential safeguarding measures
• Disproportionately affects/sets back learning more for the vulnerable/ disadvantaged
• Minimises opportunities for outdoor exercise and vitamin D (needed for healthy immune function)

FACE MASKS:

• Activates the fear system (threat/death/contamination/danger)
• Less socially engaged adults/minimal social engagement system (hostile face)
• Activates the social defence system (neutral/cold/blank face)
• Interferes with neuroception: detecting cues of safety
• Minimises emotional availability/Increases the chances of miss attunement/not connecting
• Offers lowest level of safety cues and signals “All is not well in my world”
• Creates minimal pro-social environment
• Minimises “Connection as a biological Imperative” (Dr Stephen Porges) 
• Minimises playful atmosphere
• Signals people are dangerous

BEHAVIOUR HUBS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

• Not understanding what vulnerable children need
• Isolation rooms as places of punishment will trigger rage/fear and/or panic/grief systems
• Threat of being punished/expelled creates anxiety and despair
• Enforcement of more ‘rules’ develops habits of compliance
• Led by behaviour advisors – not trauma experts
• Will more young people who aren’t able to manage their behaviour be expelled & recruited into County Lines? ³⁴

SOCIAL DISTANCING

• Play opportunities are diminished and isolation increases
• Law of propinquity = the less we interact with each other the less we perceive psychological safety
• Isolation/restriction of movement and gathering is a form of coercive control
• Making young people stand on circles/between lines/stay apart develops habit of compliance and is humiliating
• Minimises social support and connection
• Enforcing trivial demands such as having to stand apart, limiting how many people are allowed to be together reinforces who is in control
• Not being allowed to get close/hug family members creates fear, guilt & a lack of emotional closeness

MEDICAL INTERVENTIONS/ INFECTION CONTROL

• Enforcing demands such as hand sanitising creates fear and develops habit of compliance
• Hand sanitiser ingredients/cleaning products can be toxic/damage the skin
• Constantly testing healthy children is humiliating and may create germ phobia
• Some of the ingredients in the tests are at best dangerous and at worst lethal²⁶
• The efficacy of the tests is highly questionable²⁵
• Constantly cleaning teaching environments creates fear and may create germ phobia/OCD/Health Anxiety
• The experimental ‘vaccines’ have not yet proven to be safe ³²

This issue begs a final question:

Is the impact of Covid-19 governmental guidance the ultimate ACE ¹⁴ that is going to tragically reverse the upward trajectory of young people’s fortunes just as it had started?

REFERENCES

1. https://ddpnetwork.org/about-ddp/dyadic-developmental-practice/
2. https://www.hartgroup.org
3. Laura Dodsworth. A State of Fear p231. Pinter & Martin Ltd 2021
4. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/27/covid-poses-greatest-threat-to-mental-health-since-second-world-war
5. https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/news/10-million-people-england-may-need-support-their-mental-health-result-pandemic-says-centre-mental-health
6. https://www.nelsonslaw.co.uk/panorama-domestic-abuse-lockdown/
7. https://civitas.org.uk/publications/what-price-lockdown/
8. https://napac.org.uk/trauma-informed-practice-what-it-is-and-why-napac-supports-it/     
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYBUY1kZpf8
10. https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/case-investing-early-childhood-interventions
11. https://centreforearlychildhood.org/research/
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sure_Start
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bowlby
14. https://www.adversechildhoodexperiences.co.uk
15. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.13.20101253v3
16. https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/deathsfromcovid19byageband
17. https://www.hartgroup.org/covid-policies-and-harms-to-children/
18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apzXGEbZht0
19. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7598570/pdf/main.pdf
20. https://www.bliss.org.uk/news/2021/bliss-research-shows-devastating-impact-on-bonding-with-their-baby-when-parents-are-locked-out-of-neonatal-care-due-to-covid-19-restrictions
21. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/monthlymortalityanalysisenglandandwales/latest
22. https://usforthem.co.uk/potential-harms-of-face-coverings-in-schools/
23. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c1d025fb27e390a78569537/t/5ccdff181905f41dbcb689e3/1557004058168/Neuroception.pdf 
24. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/behaviour-experts-to-support-schools-with-poor-discipline
25. https://www.hartgroup.org/covid-19-testing-trap/
26. https://www.steris-ast.com/techtip/overview-ethylene-oxide-residuals/
27. https://usforthem.co.uk
28. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1460-6984.12578
29. https://www.coronababble.com/post/how-the-mean-psychologists-induced-us-to-comply-with-coronavirus-restrictions
30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSXhpailcs0&list=WL&index=5
31. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/887467/25-options-for-increasing-adherence-to-social-distancing-measures-22032020.pdf
32. https://www.hartgroup.org/covid-19-vaccination-in-children/
33. https://www.nbc26.com/news/coronavirus/cdc-estimates-covid-19-fatality-rate-including-asymptomatic-cases
34. https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/county-lines-how-drug-dealing-works-in-uk_uk_6033d072c5b66da5dba32b2c