April 15, 2001

Rebirthing Therapist Worked Miracles, Supporters Say:
But Critics Say Techniques Border On Quackery

One of the two psychotherapists on trial for allegedly causing the death of a 10-year-old girl during a "rebirthing" session worked miracles with severely troubled children, supporters said.

Prosecutors and critics, however, have portrayed the techniques used by Connell Watkins as part of a fringe movement bordering on quackery.

Watkins, 54, and Julie Ponder, 40, are charged with reckless child abuse resulting in death, a felony. Candace died a day after the April 18, 2000, session, in which she was completely wrapped in a flannel sheet to simulate a womb.

Doctors testified last week that she died of asphyxiation.

Watkins, who may testify this week, is known for her work with reactive attachment disorder, which makes children resistant to forming loving relationships and frequently violent and unmanageable. Her supporters believe that she reaches children in ways traditional treatments cannot.

"I was impressed with the level of insight she had into children," Bill Goble, a North Carolina clinical psychologist, testified Friday.

Defense lawyers said that Candace's death was a tragic accident.

The girl was told to kick out of the sheet to be reborn to her adoptive mother, Jeane Newmaker, who said that Candace was violent and out-of-control.

But on a videotape of the session, Candace can be heard screaming that she can't breathe, has vomited and defecated and wants to die. The therapists, Watkins' office manager, Brita St. Clair, and St. Clair's boyfriend, Jack McDaniel, taunt Candace and casually talk while pushing on her to simulate labor pains.

Seventy minutes after she was wrapped up, Candace is uncovered and found not breathing. Ponder and Newmaker, a nurse at Duke University Hospital, are seen frantically trying to revive her.

Several jurors and audience members cried when the videotape was played in court on April 5.

The tape has been key to the prosecution's case. Dave Ziegler, director of a Eugene, Ore., treatment center for children with attachment disorder, testified Friday that he thought that the rebirthing and earlier taped sessions showing Watkins restraining and yelling at Candace were cruel.

The defense, which began its case Friday, has raised questions about Candace's health and whether the combination of medications she was on caused her death.

A North Carolina mother whose 8-year-old adoptive daughter went through rebirthing with Ponder and Watkins in November 1999 called it "the best thing" for the girl.

"When she came out and I held her in my arms, it was the first time her little eyes really sparkled and connected with mine," said Pam Molinatto, from the Durham area.

A tape of the earlier session, however, shows Molinatto's daughter, Tanya, being helped out of the sheet just three minutes and 51 seconds after the start. When Tanya said that she had to go to the bathroom, Ponder said that the rebirthing wouldn't take long and asked if she could wait.

"It seemed relatively responsive and compassionate, didn't it?" asked prosecutor Steve Jensen.

"Yes," Molinatto replied.

She also responded that she didn't know Watkins had done only two or three similar sessions before her daughter's. She wasn't told of potential risks or alternative therapies, she said.

Psychologist Goble defended Watkins' methods, saying that he has referred many people, including Newmaker, to her practice in Evergreen. Newmaker paid $7,000 for a two-week program.

Goble said that grabbing children's faces, screaming at them and making them scream back isn't appropriate for ordinary children, but is for those with attachment disorder because they need to confront their rage.

The children are dealing with fear, grief and sadness and need to get in touch with their emotions, give up control to and trust adults, Goble said.

"They are very deep emotions. It's like an infection. In order for the healing to begin, it has to be drained off," he said.

The case is expected to go to the jury later this week. If convicted, Ponder and Watkins could face up to 48 years in prison.

St. Clair and McDaniel will be tried in September on the same child-abuse charge.

Newmaker, 47, is scheduled to be tried in November on a lesser charge of criminally negligent child abuse.