The Satanic Temple filed a complaint against Clinical Social Worker Tara Tulley asserting that her “compromised mental state” rendered her unfit for practice

The Satanic Temple, a nontheistic religious organization based out of Salem, MA, and with congregations worldwide, is claiming victory after a hearing of the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners last Friday, February 11th, 2022, which resulted in the revocation of the license of a clinical social worker who performed exorcisms on some of her clients, allegedly waved a gun during a therapy session, and led one client to believe that her throat was inhabited by demons, provoking that client to repeatedly stab herself in the throat with toothpicks.

The hearing addressed two formal complaints brought against Tara Tulley, one filed by The Satanic Temple. Aside from performing exorcisms, Tulley, a member of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), a controversial organization of mental health professionals that holds annual conferences where speakers often endorse conspiracy theories related to “Satanic Ritual Abuse” and “mind control,” is alleged to have entered into inappropriate “dual relationships” with clients, and alleged to have misrepresented herself on an application for license renewal in Arizona.

Evan Anderson, the director of The Satanic Temple’s Grey Faction campaign, which works exclusively to push back against anti-Satanist conspiracy theories and pseudoscience, was present at the hearing where he stated for the record that “Ms. Tulley has promoted the conspiracy theory of Satanic ritual abuse -- she claims that there are multigenerational Satanic cults that routinely engage in bizarre forms of abuse and mind control in order to gain absolute power over their victims. In fact, Ms. Tulley herself has claimed to be a victim of such a cult, going so far as to state that the cult branded her uterus with Satanic symbols. In Utah, Ms. Tulley ran group therapy sessions -- 80% of participants, according to her, were victims of ritual abuse and mind control.”

According to The Satanic Temple’s spokesperson, Lucien Greaves, “We are very happy that the board moved to revoke the license of Tara Tulley, but Tara Tulley is only one member of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, an organization largely comprised of mental health professionals who subscribe to bizarre and harmful conspiracy theories that some of them impose onto their clients, burdening the mentally vulnerable with crippling, fearful delusions, and propagating destructive QAnon-like paranoia. It is our position that the mental health profession should do more to rid itself of this embarrassment and ensure that those licensed in the field adhere to empirically-supported clinical practices. It is our position that the ISSTD should lose all professional standing, and they should not be allowed to administer Continuing Education Units to professionals who attend their conspiracist lectures.”

Full audio of the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners’ February 11th hearing for Tara Tulley can be found here: https://azbbhe.us/board-meeting-data (Tulley hearing begins at 25:00).

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