Andy Ashby’s slipshod response to my complaint funnelled my grievance inexorably towards the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman . ‘Local resolution’ had been exposed as a pretense. It was another weapon to be deployed in a war of attrition, the strategy of exhausting a protestor’s will and capability to fight over time. I guessed that Andy Ashby’s unspoken remit sought to erode my resolve and morale, to undermine my determination and draw a crumbling chalk line under proceedings.

I was likely expected to just give up. Other complainants probably had. But not me.

I had already enlisted the help of Maria Miller, MP for Basingstoke at that time. Maria had advised me, in a letter received on the 12^th August, 2022, that she had written to the Chief Executive of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust on behalf of my daughter and myself. Maria went on to suggest forwarding my complaints against CAMHS, Bramblys Drive, Basingstoke to the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman.

Wanda Reynolds had done her utmost to mislead and obfuscate while Andy Ashby simply refused to get to grips with the substance of my complaint while for over five months Sally Mungall had remained conspicuously silent. I hadn’t heard anything from her since the formal and somewhat dismissive ‘closing’ letter received by email on the 14^th March, 2022.

I decided to send Sally Mungall an earlier version of the same document, ‘MY COMPLAINT REVISED 30th July 2022’,  that I had delivered to Andy Ashby. The covering email went on to inform her

‘…I’m sorry if you are alarmed at this email from me. I am writing to you after much deliberation and maybe against my better judgement. I have endeavoured to treat you with respect and have maintained self-imposed boundaries that have kept me from contacting you until now. I see that you have recently updated your art therapy web page and that all of your contact details are in the public domain. You have an open channel of communication for the rest of the world so why not me? You have never had cause to tell me that my attention towards you is unwanted. You have never told me not to contact you . Hopefully you will accept this message without undue concern or the need to report to Camhs. I am contacting you privately. I wanted you to be aware of the complaint that I am pursuing against Camhs and the Bridge Centre. My complaint is partly a protest against the culture of dishonesty and deceit fostered by staff at Camhs and the Bridge Centre. I believe that I have been treated appallingly by both healthcare providers and recent disclosure of my medical records provides damning evidence. I wanted to keep true to my own word and not contact you and have, instead, requested of Wanda Reynolds that she occasionally act as a medium to alert you to pertinent information. I am, however, certain that I can no longer trust Wanda. Having just finished compiling this complaint document and while details are painfully fresh in my mind I thought it would be right to send you a copy and so be assured that you were aware of all the details…’

At this point it I want to take the opportunity to remind the reader of the arrangement made during the final sessions of ‘parent work’, mutually understood and agreed between Sally and I. We had agreed that I contact CAMHS, as and when I felt ready, to make an appointment to meet with Sally and review the art therapy drawings that I had made during the intergenerational trauma therapy while under her therapeutic supervision. I will also remind the reader that the same  intergenerational trauma work had elicited intense ‘transference’,  the ubiquitous and expected psychological phenomenon in which a patient directs feelings or desires towards someone who is not the original source of those feelings, from me. My ‘transference’ manifested in an expression of heartfelt love for Sally, complicated by intense physical attraction and other romantic feelings so powerful they that remain largely unresolved even at the time of writing.

I had made Sally absolutely aware of my feelings towards her, which she had accepted. In so doing I allowed myself to be completely vulnerable.

I also told Sally that I wanted to see her socially after the formal CAMHS therapeutic relationship was over. I told her that I wanted to invite her to dinner and, in an attempt to avoid any potential ethical repercussions, I thought it best to ask her at the end of the art therapy drawings review. Sally absolutely agreed to this.

I was convinced that she would reject my invitation but I needed to ask her, regardless. I was explicit in my 12 page letter, written to Sally and handed over on the 23^rd December, 2021, reiterating that I would be respectful of her and accept such a rejection. I was absolutely sincere with my words.

I had sent Sally Mungall a copy of my complaints mostly out of professional respect. Also, I believed that Wanda Reynolds had been dishonest in dealing with me and my complaints and thought it reasonable to believe that she had been likewise less than honest with Sally. I had found it hard to understand why Sally Mungall had remained so conspicuously silent. I guessed that she had found herself in hot water and was probably facing potential disciplinary proceedings. I had been genuinely concerned for her professional wellbeing since Wanda Reynolds intervention and had tried to divert blame away from Sally. Ultimately, I didn’t want her blindsided by my complaints.

I raised the dilemma in my therapy sessions with Isobel Brooks at Basingstoke Counselling Services but Isobel reminded me that I had been abused by Sally Mungall and by the CAMHS leadership. With Isobel’s guidance, I was beginning to understand that my therapeutic relationship with Sally Mungall had evolved into a ‘trauma bond’. ‘A trauma bond is an unhealthy emotional attachment to someone who causes you physical, emotional, or sexual harm. The abusive partner can fluctuate between extreme affection and extreme abuse. The episodes of affection serve as positive reinforcement to stay in a relationship.  Trauma bonding tends to form subtly, often without the abused partner ever realising it. People with a history of child abuse are vulnerable because they often have an altered perception of what a healthy relationship looks like.’ - https://www.verywellhealth.com/trauma-bonding-5210779

Sally Mungall had, herself, first raised the idea that she might be abusing me in therapy. She brought it up in one of our sessions together, asking for my opinion ( I have written about it in one of my earlier blog posts ). Damning evidence that supports this assertion was later disclosed by Katie Rees in Information Governance at SPFT at the beginning of October, 2022. ( I will write about this in the second post of Just Caws, the sequel to A Murder Of Conspirators ).

Back at the beginning of September, 2022, I was considering escalating my complaints to the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman. I paused to consider the consequences, the possible repercussions for Sally. I really didn’t give a fuck about any of the other clinicians at CAMHS who may or may not have been involved, nor the leadership that had managed my complaint with such contempt and dishonesty. While I was still genuinely confused about my therapeutic relationship with Sally Mungall, I was adamant in my mind that she needed to be protected.

My intentions were honourable.

But this was just the prelude to even more hysteria.