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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barbara Snow (therapist) | 1/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Snow_(therapist) | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T15:58:34.343520+00:00 | kb-cron |
Barbara W. Snow is a practicing therapist based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. She was a central figure in the Satanic ritual abuse moral panic in Utah in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
== Academic career == In the 1980s, Snow was a member of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists (AMCAP) and published research centered on the issue of sexual abuse. In collaboration with Teena Sorenson, she developed a framework that identified four stages children go through when disclosing sexual abuse. According to the study, the first stage, denial, occurs when a child claims the abuse did not happen. Disclosure is subdivided into two phases, tentative and active, which occurs when a child acknowledges the occurrence of abuse. Recant is a retraction of a prior disclosure. The final stage, reaffirm, is the final reassertion that the abuse happened. Also in collaboration with Sorenson, in 1990 Snow authored a major academic article that helped fuel the Satanic panic titled "Ritualistic Child Abuse in a Neighborhood Setting." The study supported the notion that secretive ritualistic abuse was widespread but difficult to detect. The abstract states, "The majority of children showed little symptomology at initial referral with significant increases during the disclosure process. ... This study suggests that ritual abuse in neighborhood settings appears secretive, coercive and complex." The study attributes the difficulty in detection in part to disassociation and repression of memories by victims.
== Therapeutic career == In the 1980s, Snow worked as the clinical director of the Intermountain Sexual Abuse Treatment Center in Salt Lake City. Snow was involved in a string of prosecutions in Utah during the 1980s. She led the investigation that in December 1986 convicted Arden Bullock of sexually abusing his children. The case was appealed to the Utah State Supreme Court in 1989, which upheld the conviction, but criticized Snow's "disturbing and irresponsible conduct." Snow responded to the criticism by saying, "Probably the best statement is simply that the jury heard the information that I heard and they convicted him on felony counts, ... It was my role to offer the information that the children had offered me. I testified to what I had heard and what I had seen." In 2018, a daughter and son-in-law of Russell M. Nelson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, were accused of participating in a Satanic ritual abuse ring in Bountiful, Utah, in 1985. Nelson himself was accused of using his influence to cover up the abuse. Snow was the therapist of the accusers in the 1980s, a fact used by defense attorneys to discredit both the lawsuit, and the therapeutic techniques used in uncovering the memories of the alleged abuse. The suit was dismissed in July 2020 due to it exceeding the statute of limitations. Snow continues to believe Satanic ritual abuse (SRA) is a problem, but feels the term is too general. In 2018 she wrote, "It's not accurately portrayed by the generalized term SRA. Child abuse in this context may include any one or combination of the following: multi-dimensional child abuse sex rings, medical/military sponsored mind control, commercial pornography and domestic sex trafficking of children, etc." Barbara Snow was the therapist of Teal Swan in the early 2000s.