Criminal investigations, people driven to the edge of sanity, and families torn apart: This is the harrowing story of the amateur therapist who convinced his patients they had been the victims and perpetrators of extreme sex acts.
"Where does your father rape you? Tell me what he's doing" - the voice of alternative therapist 'Matthew Meinck' emanates from a crackled tape-recording. Primary school teacher Britelle first went to Matthew "for someone to talk to". It was just a matter of months before he had convinced her that her whole family had raped her and that she was a paedophile herself. "We're all suggestible to some degree", says Professor Ian Hickie, "but when you're fragile, you can lose all touch with reality".
"Actually I don't even want to call myself a therapist. I'm really just a human being that understands that pain is a natural part of life." At first, Matthew's 'unconventional' methods seem soothing: "I just felt like someone had actually listened to me for once", says Joanna, who suffered from post-natal depression. The first regression is a positive experience - a necessary process of "unlocking the repressed memories we all have".
But the boundaries between client and patient begin to evaporate: he's going on holiday with you, playing with your kids. His 'regressions' intensify - "oh my god this is disgusting - they're all raping you!" And all of your certainties are called into doubt. Soon almost everyone in Meink's circle of patients admit that they've been raped, or that they've raped those they hold dear - one sobbing patient even admits: "I said to [my friend] Sara that I had raped her child".
Families are torn apart as the grotesque confessions of Matthew's patients come to light, and he encourages them to cut off all ties with the people who've abused them: "You need to get these fucking people out of your life". Yet when the confessions come to the attention of the police, all are proved to be untrue. According to a forensic psychiatrist: "He uses techniques that are aimed at building dependency, compliance, suggestibility; in common terms, mind control".
When patients distance themselves from Meinck, he leaves shrill threats on their answer phones: "you'd better start remembering this mate. You're one dangerous motherfucker". And though his patients are now beginning to move on with their lives, they and their families will never recover from his influence: "I don't think we're really a family anymore".
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ABC Australia
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| Making the film |
"How can anyone without qualification set up a service that allows them to delve into almost every aspect of a patient's life without any training? Why is there no regulation of these type of therapists? Is this an industry out of control and how many people's lives have been affected by it? Four Corners was determined to answer all of these questions in their latest investigation." |
| The Producers |
Sarah Ferguson joined ABC Australia's Four Corners team in February 2008. She began her career in journalism working in newspapers in the UK before moving to France where she worked for the BBC. In Australia she has worked for the SBS programs Dateline and Insight as both producer and reporter. For the past four years Sarah has worked for Channel 9's program Sunday. She has been nominated for four awards in the 2007 Walkley Awards for stories on the Garuda airplane crash, the Northern Territory Aboriginal Intervention and Broadcast Interviewing. |
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