1314: A Cautionary Tale of Repressed Memory Therapy Pt. 1

Today on Mormon Stories Podcast we continue our series on the history of Repressed Memory Therapy and claims of Satanic Ritual Abuse within Utah Mormonism.

Today’s interview is with “Kim,” who tells her experiences of being subjected to techniques of hypnosis and repressed/recovered memory in Provo/Orem Utah between 1988 and 1992. In the interview Kim discusses her traumatic childhood - which led to her conversion to Mormonism, and left her vulnerable to Repressed/Recovered Memory techniques in adulthood while she was attempting to recover from childhood PTSD.

While living in Provo/Orem, UT and struggling in her early marriage, Kim was referred to Mormon therapists Rex Kocherhans and Ruth Kilpack - both of whom were practitioners of Repressed/Recovered Memory therapy. Interestingly, Ruth Killpack was referred to Kim by her LDS bishop, and was also a therapist to Martha Beck, who controversially claimed that her late father, Mormon scholar and apologist Hugh Nibley, sexually abused her. Martha Beck has acknowledged that her memories of abuse were recovered through these same Repressed/Recovered Memory techniques.

As Ruth engaged in therapy with Mormon therapists Rex Kocherhans and Ruth Kilpack, Ruth was pressured in therapy using hypnosis to “remember” being sexually abused during her childhood, which resulted in her accusing several family members of sexual abuse - even though she was never convinced that the “memories” produced under hypnosis were real. As these accusations left Kim increasingly paranoid, ostracized from her family, and ultimately re-traumatized - and as Kim grew increasingly uncomfortable with her therapists’ lack of appropriate boundaries and unethical therapeutic ethics -- Kim determined that her “memories” of family abuse were in fact implanted or manipulated by her therapists.

“Kim” was later directly interviewed by Mormon General Authority Glenn Pace as a part of his investigation into Satanic Ritual within Mormonism, and eventually Kim spoke out as an advocate against “”Repressed or Recovered Memory” Techniques in newspapers, and on TV.

This is Kim’s story.