Article portrayed therapist unfairly

THE ELUSIVE AND sometimes inexact nature of truth was on display in The Pilot's July 6 story about an unconventional treatment for children with severe emotional disorders.

The front-page story, "Gifted Therapist or Super Salesman?" demonstrates how a collection of facts in a story can be true, yet the sum of those "truths" results in a misleading picture.

Written by veteran investigative reporter Bill Sizemore, the article aired the opposing sides of a controversy about Bryan Post's approach to treating autistic, abused and emotionally disturbed youngsters. But it did little to clarify the larger questions it raised about the effectiveness of that therapy, or whether Post should be treating children.

The story likely left some readers wondering whether Post is the charlatan his detractors describe, or the savior his admirers perceive. Several readers took offense to the cloud this story placed over Post and his treatment methods. They charge that fallout from the story will surely deprive the most troubled and desperate children of an effective therapy.

The article opened with the standard "she said-she said" blueprint favored by journalists in their quest for objectivity. Rinda Theibert, a former client, raised doubts about Post's therapeutic practices, academic credentials and fees. Wilma Ice, an enthusiastic client, ranked Post as a "gifted and compassionate therapist."

Overall, the article gave more weight to Post's critics than to his defenders. He emerged as a possibly shady character with a bogus Ph.D. who practices unorthodox therapies - for which he is reaping a windfall in taxpayer dollars.

Theibert, whose criticisms of Post are prominently featured in Sizemore's story, filed a complaint against Post in Oklahoma in 2006, according to the administrator of the Oklahoma State Board of Licensed Social Workers. Theibert's continuing pursuit of Post in Hampton Roads might be interpreted in some quarters as a vendetta. Sizemore said last week that he didn't know the source of the Oklahoma complaint and observed that Theibert "seemed well-intentioned."

Post works in Virginia in several capacities but is not a licensed social worker here. He trains foster parents and counselors for a licensed agency in Chesapeake. A private day school he operates, the Post Academy, also in Chesapeake, does not appear to be recognized by any accrediting organization sanctioned by the Virginia Council on Private Education.

Evelyn Brown, executive director of the state Boards of Counseling, Psychology and Social Work, notes that training counselors and operating a facility are "not the practice of social work." Licensure, however, is required if Post provides "therapy and treatment interventions to individuals or groups in a for-profit setting."

Sizemore's article correctly characterizes Post's Ph.D. as suspect. The Oklahoma State Board of Licensed Social Workers reprimanded Post in 2006 for unprofessional conduct in failing to include a disclaimer on his Web site, business cards and resume indicating that his degree, awarded by Columbus University of New Orleans, did not come from a state or federally accredited program.

However, in suggesting that Post practices "attachment therapy," a now-suspect approach to treating severely disturbed youngsters, Sizemore's story faltered. Post did study under "one of the pioneers of the movement," and online sites have attacked the therapy as "unproven, pseudoscientific and potentially dangerous," as the story noted.

Yet Post disavowed "attachment therapy" seven years ago, according to a quote in Sizemore's story. Moreover, in references Post makes to "attachment" on his Web site, most use the term as it relates to the need to nourish and sustain attachments that result in healthy relationships between parents and children.

Despite Post's disavowal, Sizemore revisited - and by inference linked Post to - a tragic consequence of attachment therapy. In recounting the 2000 death of Candace Newmaker, a 10-year-old adoptee who was asphyxiated during a "rebirthing" ritual in Colorado, the story insinuated Post was connected to two therapists in the case who were convicted of child abuse and sentenced to prison.

Sizemore told me that any examination of attachment therapy would be incomplete without some mention of the "best-known example of how this therapy had tragic consequences."

Later in the article, Jean Mercer's criticism of Post as "a super salesman" and the suspicions she raises about the effectiveness of his therapy have heft, because she is an emerita professor of psychology at Richard Stockton College in New Jersey. However, by not mentioning Post's speaking engagements at Old Dominion University and Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters, among others, the story omitted an important counterweight.

Taken as a whole, the Post story fell short of The Pilot's standard that requires fair, impartial and measured presentations of issues.

Joyce Hoffmann, the public editor, is an associate professor in the English Department at Old Dominion University. Reach her at (757) 446-2475 or public.editor@pilotonline.com.