Liz Mullinar

Honours

She was awarded the A.M. (Member of the Order of Australia) in the 1997 Queen's New Years Honours List for her services to the performing arts and entertainment as a theatrical and film casting consultant and to the community.

She was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal in the 2001 Queen's New Years Honours List for her services as co-founder and advocate for ASCA. In 2011, she was a State Finalist in the Australian of the Year Awards.

Film casting director

Liz Mullinar was born Elizabeth Laura Hopkinson. She was a casting director in the Australian film industry for more than 25 years. She worked as a consultant in the early careers of actors including Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush. Her company was responsible for casting such films as Picnic at Hanging Rock, Shine and Babe.

Advocate for survivors of child abuse

After an aura reading, Mullinar was told by a psychic that she had been sexually abused as a child. She then proceeded to undergo sessions with both a body therapist and a hypnotherapist, with whom she claims to have recovered memories of the alleged abuse. Subsequently, she went on to form the Australian Association for Recovered Memories in 1995. The organization later changed its name to We Remember, then Advocates for Survivors of Child Abuse. In 1997, she co-founded The Mayumarri Healing Centre with husband Rodney Phillips. The centre promotes itself as providing affordable effective healing for survivors of all forms of childhood trauma. According to Mayumarri's financial records, the centre received more than $1 million between 2003 and 2005, of which nearly half was in the form of government grants. The centre has been the subject of a number of complaints to the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission.

Recovered memories and satanic ritual abuse

Mullinar is on record as advocating belief in two social phenomena that are considered controversial, namely the veracity of recovered memories and the widespread practice of satanic ritual abuse in the community. Regarding recovered memories, she states that "Anyone who recovers memories, who has flashbacks, their child is telling the truth. The child at the age it happened to them is telling the truth of what happened to them. A therapist cannot create the truth…" However, professional peak bodies such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists have advised their members to avoid use of any "memory recovery techniques", citing a lack of evidence to support the accuracy of memories recovered by such methods.

Based on her own experiences, Mullinar strongly advocates the use of hypnosis for the recovery of memories of child sexual abuse. This is contrary to the Code of Ethics of the Australian Hypnotherapists' Association. According to her organization's published research, 8% of Mayumarri clients claim to be victims of SRA. Satanic ritual abuse is now widely considered to be an example of a moral panic.

In spite of advertising a 90% success rate, former guests and volunteer staff, as well as a former board member the Heal For Life, have called for an independent investigation into damaging practices. They include allegations of inadequate staff training, insufficient health professionals on staff, a high incidence of self-harm and false recovered memories of ritual abuse. Mullinar is reported to have suggested that a number of staff and guests are victims of satanic abuse. They claim, however, that they have no experience or memory of such abuse or that memories recovered during Heal for Life therapy have proven false. It is also reported that Mullinar has attributed criticism of the organisation to detractors' involvement in a satanic cult.