A Blog of Weird, Bizarre and Creepy Things

Rebirthing is another term for attachment therapy, commonly used amongst foster or adoptive parents and caseworkers. It’s usually considered a controversial category of alternative child mental-health interventions used to treat attachment disorders suffered by adopted children. We say controversial, because it seems to spark a bit of interest any time it kills the patient — as there have been at least six documented cases of child fatalities.

In 2000, a ten year-old girl died of asphyxiation when her rebirthing session went horribly wrong. The girl, Candace Newmaker, was wrapped tightly in layers of blankets, and then forced to struggle — in order to be “reborn.” The child had to fight against the combined weight of her therapists and adopted mother — totaling almost 700 pounds. Candace couldn’t make it out of the suffocating blanket rolls, and died. In the videotape of the session, Candace is heard begging the psychotherapists to be let free. “I’m going to die. Please, I can’t breathe.” “You want to die?” a therapist said. “OK, then die. Go ahead, die right now.” When she was finally unwrapped, Candace had lost consciousness and was pronounced dead on arrival to the the hospital.

Ms Watkins, 54, and Ms Ponder, 40, and their two assistants were only sentenced to 16 years in prison, and the rebirthing method was banned in Colorado after the incident.