              COUNSELOR DEFENDS HIS PAST AND PRESENT
                   Satanic-trial [sic] Therapist
                      Has Critics, Supporters

                                By
                 Pat Brennan and James V. Grimaldi

                    The Orange County Register
                          April 14, 1991
                          Pages A1 & A26



    The  softly  lit  suite  of  offices opens into a waiting room
with  a  burbling  fish  tank and carefully layered stakes of news
and  nature  magazines.  But  behind  the  heavy  wooden  doors of
therapy  rooms,  clients  known  as "multiples" are switching from
one personality to another.

    They  are homemakers and parents, professionals and teen-agers
[sic],  and  some  are  recounting  tales  of satanic [sic] rites,
human sacrifice, group sex, torture and mutilation.

    Horrific  and  bizzare  [sic]  tales,  to be sure, but nothing
Timothy Hugh Maas hasn't heard before.

    Few  people  doubt  that  Maas'  clients  believe what they're
saying.  What  a  lot of them want to know, though, is whether the
accusations  leveled  against  him  in recent weeks in a Santa Ana
courtroom  are true: Is the defrocked [sic] Lutheran minister from
Huntington  Beach planting memories in his clients' impressionable
minds?

    The  case  centered  on  two  of Maas' patients accusing their
76-year-old  mother  of forcing them as children, and later one of
their  daughters,  now  11, to participate in bloody satanic [sic]
orgies, incest, cannibalism even murder.

    In  a  compromise  ruling Friday, a five-man, seven-woman jury
found  in  favor  of the plaintiffs, but awarded no money to them.
Jurors  voted  10-2 that the mother was only negligent, and did no
intentional harm.

    Jurors  raised serious questions about the methods of Maas and
his  Seaview  Counseling Inc., the Huntington Beach-based chain of
therapy centers he founded six years ago.

    "We  felt  Tim  Maas  and  his  whole  Seaview organization is
lacking--  lacking in professionalism," juror Richard Thieren said
after   the  verdict.  "He  seems  to  have  concluded  they  (the
plaintiffs)  were all multiple-personality syndromes based on just
nine hours of session."

    Maas'  testimony convinced juror Delores Thomas of Orange that
Maas was simply using the women for his own personal gain.

    "He  sees  it as a money opportunity for his Seaview clients,"
said  Thomas,  who  was  one  of  the two jurors who voted for the
mother.  "All  of  his  therapists  are  really  inexperienced. He
didn't even ask for medical records."

    It  was  when  Maas  was  treating the two Orange County women
that  they  first  realized they had formed multiple personalities
to  repress  more  than  three  decades  of satanic [sic] abuse by
their mother, a Mission Viejo resident, the women testified.

    But  Tom  R.  Allen,  their  mother's  attorney,  labels  that
nonsense.   Rather,  Maas,  a  certified  hypnotist,  planted  the
stories  in  the minds of the daughters now 35 and 48, Allen said,
and   encouraged   them   to  sue  so  he  could  win  fame  as  a
satanic-abuse [sic] expert.

    "I think he's scary," Allen said.

    Maas  denies  ever  suggesting  or pushing satanism [sic] on a
client.  He  is quick to dismiss the criticism, saying his methods
are sound.

    "If  they  weren't  accurate  and they weren't helpful then we
wouldn't have more and more people coming in," Maas said.

    Seaview  Counseling,  a  tax-exempt, Christian-oriented center
with  six  locations and 23 therapists, now treats about 50 ritual
abuse  clients  a  week,  and  typically  signs  up two new ones a
month,  Maas  said.  Ritual abuse, he adds, now accounts for about
20 percent of his business.

    Maas'  colleagues  at  Seaview say the criticism being leveled
at  him  is the result of misunderstanding how he helps victims of
satanic [sic] rituals overcome years of abuse.

    Seaview   staff   members   believe  Maas  heals  patients  by
carefully guiding them through their long-repressed memories.

    "He's  a  good teacher," said Seaview therapist Judy Possnack,
a  former  Los  Angeles  County sheriff's deputy, who testified at
the  trial. "He shows us how to just be with somebody, and not try
to lead them in any way."

    There  is  nothing weird or mystical about the kind of healing
Seaview  practices,  said  Colleen  Yoder,  an  intern-trainee who
joined  the  center  about seven months ago. And certainly nothing
suggestive.

    "I  have  absolutely zero doubt that these clients are telling
the  truth  (about  ritual  abuse),"  Yoder said. "I think it's so
bizzare  [sic]  and  so  awful  it's really beyond what people can
take in."

    Maas  said  he usually tries to determine whether any physical
pain  his  patients feel is caused by a repressed memory. The idea
that  physical  symptoms  are  precursors  to emerging memories is
common in psychology, he said.

    Few  psychotherapists  in  Orange County and elsewhere know of
him.  Those  psychologists  who  are  critical  of  him decline to
comment  publicly, citing an unwritten rule that therapists do not
openly criticize other therapists.

    Orange  psychologist  Pamela A. Reagor, who also treats ritual
abuse  patients,  said  she  differs  with  Maas  over some of the
treatment methods he uses.

    Reagor  says  she  uses  a  battery  of psychological tests to
determine  whether her patients have multiple personality disorder
[MPD],  which  is caused by severe child abuse in most cases. Maas
acknowledges he normally does not administer such tests.

    Multiple   personality   disorder   "got   dramatically   more
attention  in  the  early 1980s," Reagor said. "That means we have
to  counter  anything  (suggesting)  fads  or  that  sort  of cult
phenomenon  (among therapist). We just have to be real careful not
to diagnose it when it is not there."

    Since  the  so-called  "Satan  trial" began last month, two of
Maas'  former  clients  have alleged that he suggested memories to
them that they later realized were false.

    A  man  identified in court as Greg D.-- the former husband of
the  35-year-old  plaintiff in the case-- testified that Maas once
suggested  during  a marital therapy session that he may have been
molested as a child.

    When  he told Maas he had a cold, the man said, Maas suggested
to his that it could be the sign of a hidden memory.

    Maas said he did not know the man's past.

    Maas'  ex-wife,  Robin,  said  her former husband also was her
therapist  at  one  time  and  interpreted her dreams as revealing
satanic   [sic]  abuse.  She  said  he  hypnotised  her  and  also
suggested  that  she  had been molested as a child by her parents,
which she said is untrue.

    "He  told me I sat in this throne thing, with this black cape,
and  I watched baby sacrifices," Robin Maas said. "It's worse than
a cheap book."

    Maas  declined  to comment on his wife's claims citing doctor-
patient confidentiality rules.

                               # # #

    Maas  first  encountered  tales of satanic [sic] ritual abuse,
he  said, in 1983 when he was a minister working as a marriage and
family counselor at Lutheran Social Services in Garden Grove.

    A  patient  told  him she was one of several young women raped
on  an  alter  by  men  in black robes. His common sense rebelled,
Maas said, and he rejected it as fantasy.

    "My  reaction  was  one of disbelief, except for the fact that
she  was telling these stories with great pain and conflict," Maas
said.

    When  another  woman  came  in with a similar story, Maas said
his  skepticism  was  shaken. About that time, other Orange County
therapists  began  reporting similar stories, he said, so they met
in  groups  at  the  University  of California, Irvine, to compare
notes. Maas became a believer.

    Maas  said  it  wasn't a difficult leap. He had his own hidden
memory  of being sexually abused by his grandfather when he was 5,
and  again by a returning World War II soldier who stayed with his
family when he was 7, he said.

    "It's taken me a long time to deal with that," Maas said.

    Ordained  a  minister  in  1971,  Maas split from the Missouri
Synod   seven   years   later   in  a  dispute  over  the  literal
interpretation   of  the  bible.  He  joined  the  Association  of
Evangelical  Lutheran  Churches,  before  it  merged  with another
branch of the Lutheran church.

    One  of  Maas'  former  supervisors,  retired  Lutheran Bishop
Nelson  Trout,  said  Maas  was asked to surrender his ministerial
office  in  1984  for misconduct. "He did not take his call to the
ministry seriously," Trout said. "He leaves no good impression."

    Maas  said  he  was  forced  to  resign  from  Lutheran Social
Services  in  Garden  Grove  and  the  Association  of Evangelical
Lutheran  Churches because, "to the best of my recollection is had
to do with a divorce."

    But  Trout  and another retired bishop, Will L. Herzfeld, said
many divorced ministers currently serve in the Lutheran church.

    Maas  said  the  abuse  he  suffered as a child led to trouble
with  alcohol  and  with forming lasting relationships. He said he
now only drinks socially. He has been married three times.

    "I  would  be  inclined throughout my career to want to try to
help  other  people  as  an  indirect way of helping myself," Maas
said.

    Maas  said  he  does  not  mind if some people outside Seaview
portray him as a renegade among psychotherapists.

    "I  am  quite  willing  to  try  to  learn,  or  at  least ask
challenging  questions about treatment procedures, and not be sort
of  molded  into  a  certain  kind  of direction clinically," Maas
said.  "But  of  course,  unless  you [sic] know what you're [sic]
doing,  it's  easy  to  get  lost in the client's word rather than
being objective."



           Roe Case Delved Into Ritual Abuse, Repressed
                      Memories And Disorders
                            SIDEBAR ONE

    In  the  landmark  civil case that ended Friday, two daughters
accused  a  Mission  Viejo  grandmother  of  subjecting  them to a
lifetime of satanic [sic] terror and sexual abuse.

    The  women  claimed  their  mother  and late father introduced
them  to a secret cult at infancy. Their litany of alleged horrors
was  unrelenting:  human  sacrifices of kidnapped transients; baby
stabbings; animal mutilations; torture by electric shock.

    The  mother,  identified in court documents as Ellen Roe, said
she  was  bewildered by the allegations. Roe said her family was a
normal,  healthy  one  until  her  daughters started therapy three
years ago.

    An  Orange County Superior Court jury returned a mixed verdict
that  may  further  muddle  the satanic [sic] debate. Jurors found
the  mother negligent ut also found that she neither intentionally
harmed  her  daughters  nor  her  11-year-old  granddaughter. They
awarded no monetary damages.

    Jurors  said  afterwards  that they believed the daughters had
been  abused,  but  they  weren't  sure who was responsible. [IT'S
QUITE OBVIOUS MAAS WAS! -D.R.]

    The  Roe  case  delved  into  the largely uncharted legal area
involving   ritual   abuse,   repressed   memories   and  multiple
personality disorders.

    Both  sides--  those  who  believe in the existence of satanic
[sic]  cults  and  those  who seek to debunk ritual abuse claims--
have  followed  the  case closely because they believe the outcome
will affect whether other alleged victims follow a similar path.

    At trial's end, both sides declared victory.



                         Timothy Hugh Maas
                            SIDEBAR TWO

    49, director of Seaview Counseling Inc.

    $36,622  salary,  plus  $30,000 for housing, according to 1989
    tax  return.  Seaview's  net  revenue  $344,665  with reported
    deficit of $6,890, according to 1989 tax returns

    First  obtained  marriage, family and child counseling license
    from  state  Board  of  Behavioral Sciences Examiners in 1981.
    License  is  current,  with  notation  that he is certified to
    practice hypnotism on his patients.

    Founded  Seaview  Counseling Inc. in 1985 in Huntington Beach.
    Other  offices  in Westminster, Los Alamitos, El Toro, Tustin,
    La  Habra, Lakewood, and another planned in Fullerton. Seaview
    also   works   through   Parkcrest   Church   in  Long  Beach.
    Twenty-three  therapists  work at six locations, including six
    licensed  marriage  and family counselors, three psychological
    assistants,  one  clinical  psychologist, nine interns working
    towards their state licenses, and four student trainees.

    Handles   45   to   50  abuse  patients  who  Maas  said  were
    ritualistically  abused.  Gets  two  new  satanic-abuse  [sic]
    clients per month.

                        Previous Experience

    Pastoral  counselor  with  Lutheran  Social Services of Garden
    Grove from 1980 to 1984.

    Counselor in St. Louis from 1976 to 1979.

    Minister  at  two  Lutheran churches in Tennessee from 1971 to
    1976.

                     Education and Background

    Associate of arts degree, Santa Monica College, 1962.

    Bachelor's  degree in business administration with an emphasis
    in    marketing-management    research,    California    State
    University, Los Angeles, 1965.

    Divinity  studies,  Concordia Theological Seminary in Clayton,
    Mo., 1965.

    Ministry  degree  in  pastoral  counseling,  Eden  Theological
    Seminary, Webster Groves, Mo., 1979.

    Ordained  in  the  Lutheran  church, Missouri Synod, September
    1971.  Split  from the Missouri Synod in 1978 to join a branch
    group;  asked to resign from Lutheran Synod Services of Garden
    Grove  and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in
    1984.

                             Personal

    Born in Los Angeles, April 24, 1941.

    Married  three  times,  including  to  a former patient he met
    while  counseling at Lutheran Social Services of Garden Grove.
    Has two daughters.

                              SOURCES

    SEAVIEW COUNSELING
    STATE REGISTRY OF CHARITABLE TRUSTS
    STATE BOARD OF BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE EXAMINERS
    INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICES
    INSTITUTIONS CITED
    REGISTER'S SACRAMENTO BUREAU.

               Transcribed by d. rice April 23, 1991



  Commentary and My Two Cents' Worth By Transcriber D. Rice.


    It  is  always  distressing  to see people manipulated and taken
  advantage  of  by someone they had put their trust in--- even more
  so  when  these  people come to that person out of pain, fear, and
  confusion.  Maas  may or may not be acting out of good intentions;
  he  may very well believe in the "'Satanic' Abuse" myth, or he may
  have  so much invested in bolstering the myth, he cannot entertain
  any  objective,  unbiased  reasoning  or  critical  thinking which
  threatens his paradigm.

    "Covariance"  [M. Snyder] and "cognitive dissonance" [P. Clance,
  S.  Imes,  et  al]  tends  to  make  some  people more inclined to
  believe  the  irrational,  improbable,  and  even impossible, when
  presented  with  convincing--- even irrefutable--- evidence to the
  contrary.  Couple  these self-defense mechanisms with economic and
  social  gain,  and  an occult theism that has a stake in believing
  magically  (both  of  which Maas demonstrates), and one encounters
  an  individual  who quite literally cannot observe and internalize
  information that does not meet his preconceived world-view.

    Unfortunately,  the  best  way to buttress a flagging conviction
  in  the  magical  thinkers' paradigm, and quiet those murmuring of
  doubt  welling  in  his subconscious, is to infect others with the
  same  information disease. Maas, a certified hypnotherapist, is in
  an excellent position to plant such memes in his victims.

    What  Maas  did  (and  continues to do!) to his victims, to make
  them  believe  his  tales  of  "'Satanic' Abuse" to such an extent
  that  they  brought  civil  suit  against  their  mother, is quite
  despicable  for  anyone to do, whether out of ignorance or intent,
  but for a licensed therapist do to so it is utterly abominable.

    For  those  who  wish  to  query Maas concerning his phantasies,
  write  to  the  address below. One may be tempted to send him good
  information  that  demonstrates  his phantasies invalid, but it is
  probable he will immediately reject it. Give him a call and ask.


  Mr. Timothy Hugh Maas
  Care Of Seaview Counseling
  22772 Centre Drive
  El Toro, California
  92630
  1-714-951-9596
