SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
The Sydney Morning Herald
September 30, 2017
By Michaela Whitbourn
[See the article that Kezelman is responding to: ‘Those events never happened’.]
A leading child abuse activist linked to the $500 million child abuse royal commission has hit back at claims by her family that her psychological treatment triggered “false memories” of abuse at the hands of her father as she comes under fire over her role advising on a compensation scheme for victims.
Cathy Kezelman, a former GP who heads the influential Blue Knot Foundation representing adult victims of childhood trauma, helped co-write national counselling guidelines for sexual abuse victims and was appointed last year to a panel advising the Turnbull government on the rollout of a $4 billion redress scheme for victims of institutional child sexual abuse.
But in an article published in the Weekend Australian Magazine on Saturday, Dr Kezelman’s brother and emergency doctor Claude Imhoff said he “utterly refute[d]” his sister’s claims that she suffered horrific abuse at the hands of her father and a group of paedophiles led by her paternal grandmother.
“I can categorically state that those events never happened,” Dr Imhoff said.
He said his sister had “simply ignored the professional guidelines and not mentioned anything about the dangers of false memories” being created in counselling sessions and he was speaking out to prevent a wave of false accusations against alleged perpetrators.
Dr Kezelman told Fairfax Media it was “completely false” to suggest her own memories of childhood trauma were triggered by her psychological treatment.
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