Cornish pellars

1. Introduction

Version followed: the historical folk tradition as historians, folklorists and Cornish archives document it (Davies 1997; White 2023; Semmens 2005 as summarised in Whelan 2024; nineteenth-century collections by Hunt, Courtney and the Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall series), set beside the psychotherapist's own culturally responsive work as framed by the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI). Modern revivals are labelled as reconstructions.

What it is. “Pellar” (also “peller”) was the term used in parts of Cornwall for what the rest of England called a cunning-man or cunning-woman, conjuror or (in educated speech) white witch. Davies treats pellar as an Old Cornish word; popular and later accounts explain it as one who “repels” evil or ill-wishing. The two derivations differ and neither is settled here [uncertain] [source: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/id/eprint/3510/1/906673.pdf] [source: https://ebsco.com/research-starters/history/tamsin-blight]. Across England and Wales such practitioners combined fortune-telling, astrology, herbal and veterinary remedies and “witch-doctoring”: removing bewitchment, identifying witches and thieves, finding stolen goods and selling protective and written charms. Clients were mostly farmers, tradespeople and craftspeople, who might travel tens of miles to a practitioner of reputation [source: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/id/eprint/3510/1/906673.pdf]. Cornish belief centred on being “ill-wished” or “overlooked”: misfortune, illness, or sick cattle caused by someone one had offended. Pellars claimed to prevent or reverse it [source: https://kresenkernow.org/SOAP/detail/886943/] [source: https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/54637/pg54637-images.html]. Separate from pellars were charmers, found in every parish west of Hayle by one nineteenth-century account. Charmers treated burns, bleeding, thorns and boils, tetter and toothache with charms passed on by word of mouth; a charm was said to lose its power if written down [source: https://sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/swc2/swc255.htm].

Tamsin (Thomasine) Blight, called “Tammy Blee”, of Helston is the best-known Cornish example. A portrait in the Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery, Truro, dated 1856, gives her dates as 1793–1856 and calls her the best-known cunning woman of West Cornwall [source: https://batch.artuk.org/discover/artworks/thomasine-blight-17931856-the-white-witch-of-helston-14290/search/2024--terms:hands/page/3/view_as/grid]. An encyclopedia summary places her practice from about 1830 to 1856, with clients from Scilly, Hayle, St Ives and Swansea. It says she was known for lifting ill-wishes and supplying amulets, and that much of her story rests on oral legend collected by the folklorist William Henry Paynter and analysed by Jason Semmens, who called her the greatest Cornish cunning person of the nineteenth century [source: https://ebsco.com/research-starters/history/tamsin-blight]. The birth year differs between sources (the encyclopedia gives none) [uncertain].

Core idea of change, as attributed. Within the tradition, harm came from another person's ill-will or witchcraft, and relief came from a practitioner with greater power who could counter, block or return it, often with an ongoing protective object or arrangement [source: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/id/eprint/3510/1/906673.pdf]. This is described as practitioners and clients held it, not stated as fact or dismissed. For the psychotherapist, change happens through their own work: understanding the client's explanatory model, separating culturally shaped meaning from illness, reducing fear and exploitation, and restoring a sense of safety and agency [synthesis].

What remains today and who holds authority. There is no licensing body, college, council or recognised lineage for pellars. A continuous pellar lineage into the present is not documented in the sources used [uncertain: not verified]. Authority over the historical record rests with historians and archives: Kresen Kernow (Cornwall's archive) holds the literature, and the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle (founded by Cecil Williamson in 1951, moved to Boscastle in 1960, owned and directed by Simon Costin since 2013) holds folk-magic collections and a research library [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Witchcraft_and_Magic] [source: https://museumofwitchcraftandmagic.co.uk/?p=18917]. A modern “Cornish traditional witchcraft” presents a twenty-first-century adaptation of the lore of white witches, charmers, conjurors and pellars. It describes itself as distinct from Wicca and neo-paganism and should be treated as a modern reconstruction (e.g. Gary 2011) [source: https://kresenkernow.org/SOAP/detail/735167/]. Living practitioners speak for their own practice, not for the historical pellars. Whether hereditary charmers still work in Cornish parishes today is [uncertain: not verified]. Courtney (1890) recorded that belief in charms and charmers was then still widespread [source: https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/54637/pg54637-images.html].

Legal context (England and Wales). Historically, prosecutions used the Witchcraft Act 1736 and, more often, section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824 [source: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/id/eprint/3510/1/906673.pdf]. The Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 repealed the Witchcraft Act and was itself repealed on 26 May 2008 by the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraudulent_Mediums_Act_1951] [uncertain: secondary source]. How those regulations now apply to individual spiritual service providers is [uncertain: not verified].

2. Framework

This is a folk tradition, mostly historical, not a therapy with phases. The therapist does not practise it: no unwitching, charming, amulets or fortune-telling. The framework below is the psychotherapist's own culturally responsive course of work with a client for whom pellars, charming, ill-wishing or modern Cornish witchcraft are meaningful. Its structure follows the CFI's four domains and APA's guidance that the supplementary modules can be used at first evaluation, later or repeatedly [source: https://www.psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Practice/DSM/DSM-5-TR/APA-DSM5TR-CulturalFormulationInterview.pdf] [source: https://psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Practice/DSM/APA_DSM5_Cultural-Formulation-Interview-Supplementary-Modules.pdf]. Phase labels, session counts and transition criteria are [synthesis]. No source sets them.

Phase A: Engagement and cultural assessment (usually sessions 1–2, individual, informant if the client agrees). Goal: hear the problem in the client's own terms. Use the core CFI (16 questions across four domains: cultural definition of the problem; cause, context and support; self-coping and past help-seeking; current help-seeking). Move on when the client's name for the problem, perceived cause, and past and current help-seeking, including folk or spiritual consultation, are recorded. How long the core CFI takes is [uncertain]. The field trial reported that later interviews took less time [source: https://experts.umn.edu/en/publications/feasibility-acceptability-and-clinical-utility-of-the-cultural-fo/].
Phase B: Explanatory model and differential (about sessions 2–4). Goal: understand belief in ill-wishing or protection as the client and their family hold it, then judge whether it is culturally shared meaning, a symptom (delusion, obsession, overvalued idea), or both. Move on when there is a working formulation, risk to self and others has been assessed, and any consulted practitioner or fees are known.
Phase C: Collaborative plan (ongoing). Goal: agree treatment for any disorder present; decide with the client what role, if any, folk, spiritual or religious resources play; address exploitation, accusation risk and safeguarding. Move on when the client has a plan they endorse and safety issues are addressed.
Phase D: Integration and review (every 4–6 sessions or at transitions). Goal: help the client integrate meaning (heritage, family charming, spiritual identity) with treatment gains. Repeat CFI modules when the problem or help-seeking changes.

3. Guiding principles

The therapist works alongside, not within, the tradition. Do not offer counter-magic, charms, protection or readings, and do not imply that therapy replaces them [synthesis].
Attribute, don't adjudicate. Describe ill-wishing, overlooking and protection as the client and the tradition hold them. Do not affirm them as fact or dismiss them [synthesis].
Treat the history as history. Much of what is known about figures such as Tamsin Blight comes from legend and later folklore collecting, and sources note that her feats may be legendary [source: https://ebsco.com/research-starters/history/tamsin-blight]. Do not present folklore as established practice or as the client's own heritage unless they say so.
Label modern reconstructions. A client practising contemporary Cornish traditional witchcraft, Wicca or another Pagan path is following a living religious or spiritual identity. Assess it as such, not as the historical pellar tradition [source: https://kresenkernow.org/SOAP/detail/735167/] [synthesis].
Separate normative belief from illness, in both directions. DSM-5-TR treats cultural concepts of distress as idioms, explanations or perceived causes. Possession or trance that is part of broadly accepted cultural or religious practice is excluded from disorder in both DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 [source: https://www.psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Practice/DSM/DSM-5-TR/APA-DSM5TR-SectionIII.pdf] [source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9199574]. In practice: neither pathologise a shared belief nor miss psychosis, OCD or trauma behind it.
Do not reproduce charms. Charming traditions are oral and held to lose power if written [source: https://sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/swc2/swc255.htm]. Ask about meaning and experience, not the words, and do not record charm texts in notes.
Watch for accusation. Unwitching historically included identifying the supposed witch, and Davies records threats and violence against suspected witches [source: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/id/eprint/3510/1/906673.pdf]. In practice: whenever a client names a person as the ill-wisher, assess risk to that person.
Watch for exploitation. Davies records re-bewitchment fraud (being told a curse was lifted and then returned), protection payments and extortion [source: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/id/eprint/3510/1/906673.pdf]. In practice: ask about money, escalating fees and threats.
Physical illness goes to medical care. No folk practice is presented here as treatment for physical disease. Route new symptoms to the GP, and never advise on starting, stopping or changing medicines or herbal remedies [synthesis].
Safeguard children. Belief in witchcraft and spirit possession can lead to children being blamed and abused. UK guidance addresses this [source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-action-plan-to-tackle-child-abuse-linked-to-faith-or-belief].
Client choice and consent. Any contact with a folk practitioner, Pagan community, minister or family member happens only at the client's request, with written consent and agreed limits on what is shared [synthesis].
Touch. The therapist uses no touch. If a client describes a practitioner's hands-on work, ask about consent and any sexual or coercive contact [synthesis].

4. Intervention inventory

These are the psychotherapist's own interventions. None of them is a pellar's or charmer's practice, and none reproduces one. Every “Example language” line is illustrative wording.

4.1 Cultural humility and self-examination

Purpose / when: before and during work with clients who speak of ill-wishing, cursing, charmers, white witches or contemporary witchcraft. The aim is to surface your own reactions (amusement, alarm, romanticism about “Celtic” heritage, assumptions about Pagans) before they shape the assessment [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Note what you assume witchcraft beliefs say about a person's education, rationality or mental state. (2) Note whether you hold the tradition as a heritage curiosity, a threat or a spiritual path. (3) Learn the local context: Cornish ill-wishing belief, charmers, and modern reconstructions (section 1). (4) In supervision, review any case where belief and symptom are hard to separate. (5) Return to this when you notice urgency to correct or to collude [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative, to self or supervisor): “Am I treating her fear of being overlooked as a symptom because it is unfamiliar to me, or because of how it behaves?”
Watch for: jokes about “witches” in notes or team talk; treating a Pagan or traditional-witchcraft identity as a risk factor in itself; over-identifying with heritage and missing illness. It is working when your formulation would read the same if the client's belief came from a mainstream religion [synthesis].

4.2 Core Cultural Formulation Interview

Purpose / when: at intake or whenever culture, spirituality or folk help-seeking seem relevant. The CFI clarifies the problem from the perspective of the person and their social network: what it means, possible sources of help, and what they expect from services. It supports clinical judgement and is not meant to be the only basis for a diagnosis. It is designed for any clinician, with any person, in any setting [source: https://www.psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Practice/DSM/DSM-5-TR/APA-DSM5TR-CulturalFormulationInterview.pdf] [source: https://www.psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Practice/DSM/DSM-5-TR/APA-DSM5TR-SectionIII.pdf].
Steps: (1) Download the official APA form. Clinicians may reproduce it for use with their own patients, but modifying or translating it needs APA permission. (2) Introduce it as a way to understand the problem in the client's own words. (3) Work through the four domains in order: cultural definition of the problem (Q1–3); perceived causes, stressors, supports and the role of cultural identity (Q4–10); self-coping, past help-seeking and barriers (Q11–13); current preferences and the clinician–patient relationship (Q14–16). (4) Record the client's own terms verbatim, e.g. “ill-wished”, “overlooked”, “someone's put something on me”. (5) Mark subtopics to expand with a supplementary module (4.3) [source: https://www.psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Practice/DSM/DSM-5-TR/APA-DSM5TR-CulturalFormulationInterview.pdf].
Example language (illustrative): “People describe problems in different ways. How would you describe what's been happening, and is there a word you or your family use for it?” / “Have you sought help from anyone outside medicine, a charmer, a reader or someone in your spiritual community?”
Watch for: the client offering a medicalised account to please you, then revealing the folk explanation later; shame about “old superstitions”; Q16 concerns that you will think them “mad”. It is working when the client corrects or adds to your summary in their own terms [synthesis].

4.3 CFI supplementary modules and informant version

Purpose / when: for in-depth assessment, as add-ons to the core CFI or on their own, at first evaluation, later in care or repeatedly. APA lists 12 modules, including Explanatory Model; Spirituality, Religion, and Moral Traditions; Cultural Identity; Coping and Help-Seeking; Social Network; Psychosocial Stressors; Older Adults; School-Age Children and Adolescents; and Caregivers. The Informant Version (17 questions) is for a family member or friend [source: https://psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Practice/DSM/APA_DSM5_Cultural-Formulation-Interview-Supplementary-Modules.pdf] [source: https://psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Practice/DSM/APA_DSM5_Cultural-Formulation-Interview-Informant.pdf].
Steps: (1) Choose modules from what the core CFI showed: Spirituality, Religion, and Moral Traditions for clients with a Pagan, traditional-witchcraft, Christian or mixed identity; Cultural Identity for Cornish identity and family heritage (e.g. a charming family); Coping and Help-Seeking for consultations with practitioners; Social Network when family or neighbours share or contest the belief. (2) With consent, use the Informant Version with a relative to learn whether the explanation is shared in the family. (3) Record differences between the client's and informant's accounts. (4) Repeat modules when help-seeking changes [source: https://psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Practice/DSM/APA_DSM5_Cultural-Formulation-Interview-Supplementary-Modules.pdf] [synthesis for the module choices].
Example language (illustrative): “You mentioned your grandmother could charm burns. What does that part of your family mean to you now?” / “Does your family see this the same way you do?”
Watch for: an informant who uses the belief to control the client, or one who ridicules it. A belief shared across the family weighs against reading it as a delusion. A belief the family finds strange and new weighs towards it [synthesis].

4.4 Eliciting the explanatory model (Kleinman)

Purpose / when: whenever a client attributes illness or misfortune to ill-wishing, a curse or loss of protection. Kleinman, Eisenberg and Good (1978) proposed eliciting the patient's model of illness. Commonly used paraphrases cover eight questions: what the problem is called; its cause; why it started when it did; what it does and how it works; how severe it is and how long it will last; what treatment the person thinks they should receive; the chief problems it has caused; and what they fear most [source: https://tanenbaum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/HANDOUT-Explanatory-Models-of-Illness.pdf] [source: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/F99D9D36838A8207D377730DEB445F7B/core-reader].
Steps: (1) Ask the questions conversationally, not as a checklist. (2) For ill-wishing, add: who is thought to be behind it, whether anything was done to counter it, and what it cost. (3) Write the client's model beside your clinical formulation and note where they agree (e.g. both see stress and conflict) and differ. (4) Negotiate a plan that makes sense within both [source: https://tanenbaum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/HANDOUT-Explanatory-Models-of-Illness.pdf] [synthesis for steps 2–4].
Example language (illustrative): “Why do you think this started when it did?” / “What would need to happen for you to feel protected again?” / “What worries you most about it?”
Watch for: a named ill-wisher (go to 4.9); fear of death (assess risk); a model that leaves no role for treatment, which you then negotiate rather than override. It is working when the client sees that you understand their model and agrees to at least one shared goal [synthesis].

4.5 Asking about folk, spiritual and commercial practitioners without judgement

Purpose / when: at intake and whenever help-seeking changes. Clients may consult charmers, psychics, readers, modern witches, clergy or online “curse removal” services alongside therapy [synthesis]. Historically, consulting pellars and cunning-folk was common, with long journeys to practitioners of reputation [source: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/id/eprint/3510/1/906673.pdf].
Steps: (1) Normalise: many people combine sources of help. (2) Ask who they saw, what was suggested, how it felt, what it cost and whether anything was asked of them (money, secrecy, cutting off family, stopping medical care, physical contact). (3) Ask what was helpful. (4) Record facts without charm texts or ritual details. (5) If medicines or herbal remedies were suggested, note them and route the client to the prescriber or GP. Give no advice on taking, stopping or changing them [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): “Lots of people see someone else as well as a therapist. Has anyone tried to help with this, like a charmer or someone who deals with curses?” / “Was anything asked of you in return?”
Watch for: secrecy instructions; repeated or escalating fees; being told the problem has returned; advice to stop medication; any sexual contact. It is working when the client tells you about later consultations without prompting [synthesis].

4.6 Using DSM-5-TR cultural concepts of distress

Purpose / when: to place ill-wishing, overlooking and bewitchment within DSM-5-TR's framework. DSM-5-TR says cultural concepts of distress include idioms, explanations or perceived causes, and syndromes, and it revised its examples to avoid stigmatising or generalising language [source: https://www.psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Practice/DSM/DSM-5-TR/APA-DSM5TR-SectionIII.pdf]. Cornish ill-wishing is not among the named concepts. It functions as a cultural explanation, a perceived interpersonal cause [synthesis]. The DSM-5 glossary included maladi moun (“humanly caused illness”) as an example of such an explanation [source: https://revistapsiquiatria.pt/index.php/sppsm/article/download/139/69]. The DSM-5-TR wording of the corresponding entry is [uncertain].
Steps: (1) Record the client's term as a cultural explanation, not a diagnosis. (2) Assess any disorder separately on its own criteria. (3) In the formulation, state how the explanation shapes symptoms, help-seeking and expectations. (4) Do not code ill-wishing itself as a symptom [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative, formulation): “Client attributes low mood and livestock losses to being ‘ill-wished’ by a former business partner, an explanation shared by her father. Depressive episode assessed separately.”
Watch for: treating the explanation as proof of psychosis, or using “culture” to excuse missing a disorder. It is working when the record shows both the cultural meaning and a separately justified diagnosis, or no diagnosis [synthesis].

4.7 Distinguishing culturally normative belief from disorder

Purpose / when: when belief in ill-wishing, curses, protection or spirit influence is intense, new, unusual for the client's circle, or tied to distress, functional decline or risk.
Steps: (1) Establish whether the belief is shared: family, friends, the client's spiritual community (use 4.3). (2) Look at form, not content: fixity, preoccupation, idiosyncratic elaboration, self-reference spreading to strangers, and other psychotic features weigh towards psychosis. Intrusive, ego-dystonic fear of curses with neutralising rituals weighs towards OCD. Hypervigilance tied to past harm weighs towards trauma [synthesis]. (3) For trance or possession-like states, use the manuals' cultural exclusions. ICD-11 6B62 trance disorder and 6B63 possession trance disorder require the state to be involuntary and unwanted, and not part of accepted cultural or religious practice [source: https://www.findacode.com/icd-11/code-1807490186.html] [source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9199574]. DSM-5-TR keeps, in substance, the exclusion of a normal part of broadly accepted cultural or religious practice for dissociative identity disorder and dissociative trance [source: https://umsystem.pressbooks.pub/aswbprep/?p=1299]. The exact DSM-5-TR wording is [uncertain]. A DSM-5-TR note on culturally sanctioned beliefs versus delusions is [uncertain: not verified]. (4) With consent, consult someone who knows the client's community or spiritual path, such as a family member, a co-religionist or a local folklore specialist, about whether the belief is typical [synthesis]. (5) Reassess over time.
Example language (illustrative): “Do others in your family or your group see it this way too?” / “When you think about the curse, does it feel like something you believe, or something your mind won't stop throwing at you that you'd rather be rid of?”
Watch for: missing early psychosis because “it's cultural”, and pathologising a Pagan or traditional-witchcraft identity. It is working when the formulation states both what is culturally shared and what is clinically abnormal, with evidence for each [synthesis].

4.8 Working with fear of being ill-wished or cursed

Purpose / when: when the client is distressed, avoidant or hypervigilant because they believe someone has ill-wished them, whatever the diagnosis [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Acknowledge the fear and its effects without arguing about whether ill-wishing is real. (2) Map what the fear does: avoidance of people or places, checking, sleep loss, conflict, spending. (3) Separate the belief from the costs, and agree goals on the costs, such as sleeping, going to work or reducing payments. (4) Use evidence-based treatment for any disorder present (e.g. CBT for anxiety or OCD, trauma-focused work), framed so the client does not have to renounce their worldview. (5) Build safety and agency the client endorses: routines, supportive relationships and, if they choose, their own legitimate spiritual or religious practice. Do not prescribe protective rituals or objects [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): “We don't have to settle whether someone has ill-wished you to work on how much this is costing you. What would you most like back?”
Watch for: belief hardening when challenged; new protective rituals becoming compulsive; spending. It is working when functioning and distress improve even if the belief stays [synthesis].

4.9 Accusation and third-party risk assessment

Purpose / when: whenever a client names, or is pressed to name, a neighbour, relative, colleague or ex-partner as the ill-wisher. Historically, unwitching included identifying the witch. Davies documents threats to burn a suspected witch, blood drawn from a man to break a spell, and assaults on suspected witches by people who had consulted wise-men [source: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/id/eprint/3510/1/906673.pdf]. A woman accused of witchcraft, Joan Wytte, died in Bodmin Jail in 1813 [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Witchcraft_and_Magic] [uncertain: secondary source].
Steps: (1) Ask who is thought responsible and how the client feels towards them. (2) Assess intent, plans, access, past violence, substance use and command-type experiences. (3) Ask whether anyone, including a practitioner, has suggested confronting or harming the person. (4) Follow your jurisdiction's procedures on risk to others and duty to protect, and consult. (5) Work on de-escalation and on non-retaliatory ways to feel safe [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): “When you think about him, what do you feel like doing?” / “Has anyone suggested you do something to her?”
Watch for: stalking, threats, property damage, harassment online; family groups joining against one person, often an older woman or a child. It is working when fear of the named person no longer drives action [synthesis].

4.10 Exploitation and consumer-protection check

Purpose / when: when a client has paid or is paying someone to lift a curse or provide protection. Davies documents cunning-folk who told clients a curse had been lifted and then put back, demanded regular protection payments, sold remedies or protective papers that did nothing, and used tricks to appear powerful [source: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/id/eprint/3510/1/906673.pdf]. Similar patterns can appear in modern paid psychic or curse-removal services [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Ask what has been paid, to whom, and whether demands are growing. (2) Ask whether there were threats that stopping would bring harm. (3) Reflect the pattern without attacking the client's beliefs. (4) Support the client in seeking advice, for example from consumer advice services or the police where fraud or threats are involved. The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 replaced the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 in England and Wales [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraudulent_Mediums_Act_1951] [uncertain: secondary source]. Exactly how they apply in a given case is a matter for advisers [uncertain]. (5) Assess adult safeguarding needs for clients at risk [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): “It sounds like each time it was lifted, it came back and the price went up. How does that sit with you?”
Watch for: shame and secrecy; debt; isolation from family encouraged by the practitioner. It is working when the client can decide about payments without fear [synthesis].

4.11 Safeguarding children and adults at risk

Purpose / when: whenever a child, or an adult with care needs, is described as cursed, bewitched, possessed or the source of a household's bad luck. The Department for Education's 2012 national action plan warns that belief in witchcraft, spirit possession and other supernatural ideas can lead to children being blamed for misfortune and abused, and that fear of the supernatural is used to coerce children in trafficking [source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-action-plan-to-tackle-child-abuse-linked-to-faith-or-belief].
Steps: (1) Listen for blame directed at a child. (2) Ask about any treatment, “cleansing”, restriction of food, sleep or contact, beating or isolation. (3) Follow local safeguarding procedures and consult your safeguarding lead without delay. (4) Do not frame belief itself as abuse. The concern is harm or risk of harm [source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-action-plan-to-tackle-child-abuse-linked-to-faith-or-belief] [synthesis for steps 1–4].
Example language (illustrative): “You said things went wrong after your nephew came to stay. How are people treating him at the moment?”
Watch for: a child singled out, kept from school, or described as “bad” or “evil”. Never name minors in notes shared outside the record. Act when you see harm or risk of harm.

4.12 Collaboration and referral with community and spiritual supports

Purpose / when: when the client wants their spiritual, religious or folk resources involved. No body licenses or sanctions pellars or charmers today, so there is no formal referral pathway as there is for regulated traditional medicine systems [uncertain: not verified]. Collaboration means working, with consent, alongside whoever the client recognises: a minister or chaplain, a Pagan or traditional-witchcraft community they belong to, or a family member who charms [synthesis]. Trials of collaboration with traditional and faith healers come from other settings. In Nigeria and Ghana, the COSIMPO cluster randomised trial of shared care between healers and primary care workers for psychosis (Gureje et al., The Lancet, 2020) reported a greater fall in PANSS symptoms and in harmful practices [source: https://pubannotation.org/docs/sourcedb/PubMed/sourceid/32861306] [source: https://centreforglobalmentalhealth.org/node/839]. In a Ghanaian prayer-camp trial (Ofori-Atta et al., Br J Psychiatry 212(1)), adding psychiatric medication lowered symptoms, but days in chains were not significantly reduced [source: https://www.mentalhealthdataprizeafrica.aphrc.org/repository/paper/33405/joining-psychiatric-care-and-faith-healing-in-a-prayer-camp-in-ghana-randomised-trial]. How far these findings transfer to Cornish or British folk practice is untested [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Ask whom the client trusts and why. (2) Get written consent that specifies what will be shared and for what purpose. (3) Agree shared aims: the client's safety, functioning and peace of mind. (4) Set boundaries. The therapist does not endorse or prescribe rituals, and the other party does not advise on medicines or discourage treatment. (5) Do not direct clients to practitioners you have not vetted, and never steer them towards paid curse-removal services [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): “Would it help if I spoke with your minister, or with your coven's elder, about how to support you? You decide what I say.”
Watch for: a supporter who undermines treatment or seeks payment; confidentiality slips in small communities. It is working when the client experiences their supports as aligned, not competing [synthesis].

4.13 Heritage, identity and meaning work

Purpose / when: when Cornish identity, family charming or folk lore, or interest in figures such as Tamsin Blight carries personal meaning. Examples: a client whose grandparent was a charmer, or who feels connected to Cornish tradition [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Explore what the heritage means: belonging, pride, protection, burden, stigma. (2) Separate the historical record from family story without forcing a choice. (3) If the client wishes, point to public sources of history, such as Kresen Kernow's collections and the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic's library and archive, which has a registration process for researchers [source: https://kresenkernow.org/SOAP/detail/886943/] [source: https://museumofwitchcraftandmagic.co.uk/?p=18917]. (4) Use the meaning in therapy, for example as a resource for resilience or as material for grief work [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): “What did it mean in your family to be someone people came to for charming?”
Watch for: romanticising, or feeling obliged to inherit a role. It is working when heritage becomes a source of identity rather than pressure [synthesis].

4.14 Supporting clients who practise modern Cornish traditional witchcraft or other Pagan paths

Purpose / when: when the client identifies as a witch, Pagan or practitioner of a contemporary reconstruction drawing on Cornish lore (e.g. Gary 2011, which presents a twenty-first-century version distinct from Wicca) [source: https://kresenkernow.org/SOAP/detail/735167/].
Steps: (1) Use the CFI Spirituality, Religion, and Moral Traditions module. (2) Treat the path as the client's religion or spirituality: ask what it gives them, who their community is, and what experiences they have in practice. (3) Assess unusual experiences within that context (4.7). (4) Ask about discrimination or stigma, including from services (CFI Q16). (5) Do not ask for ritual details, and do not reproduce charms or workings in records [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): “How does your practice help you when things are hard? Is there anything about it you'd prefer I understood before we go on?”
Watch for: fear of being judged as mentally ill for their beliefs; practice used to avoid treatment of a clear disorder; spiritual crisis with sleep loss and agitation, which needs medical assessment. It is working when the client can discuss experiences openly [synthesis].

4.15 Integrating a consultation or spiritual experience

Purpose / when: after the client has seen a charmer, psychic or other practitioner, or had a meaningful spiritual experience, and wants to make sense of it [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Invite an account of what happened and how they felt during and after. (2) Explore meanings and any changes in hope, fear or behaviour. (3) Check for anything harmful: payments, threats, touch without consent, advice to stop treatment. (4) Link any gains to the client's own capacities and goals. (5) Update the CFI help-seeking items [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): “What's different for you since you saw her? What would you like to keep from that?”
Watch for: new fear (“it's worse than I thought”), new demands, or sudden elation followed by collapse. It is working when the experience supports, rather than replaces, the client's plan [synthesis].

4.16 Medical routing for physical symptoms and medicines

Purpose / when: whenever physical illness, or illness in animals or livelihoods, is attributed to ill-wishing. Historically, cunning-folk offered medical and veterinary remedies, and Blight was credited with cures [source: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/id/eprint/3510/1/906673.pdf] [source: https://ebsco.com/research-starters/history/tamsin-blight]. These are described as attributed, not as treatments.
Steps: (1) Ask whether physical symptoms have been medically assessed. (2) Encourage GP or specialist assessment and, for livestock, a vet. (3) If remedies, herbs or changes to medicines have been suggested, refer the client to the prescriber and give no advice yourself [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): “Whatever is behind it, those chest pains need checking by your GP this week. Can we plan how you'll book that?”
Watch for: delay of urgent care; stopping prescribed medicines. It is working when medical assessment happens alongside the client's own understanding [synthesis].

5. Handling problems

The historical sources do not address therapy, so all guidance in this section is [synthesis] unless a source is tagged.

Client asks the therapist to lift the curse, “read” for them, or say whether the ill-wish is real. Decline warmly and explain your role. Keep curiosity about what they hope for. Illustrative: “That's not something I do, and I wouldn't want to pretend. What I can do is help with what this fear is doing to your life, and support you in finding help you trust.”
Client expects ridicule and withholds the folk explanation. Name it directly, using CFI Q16 on the clinician–patient relationship [source: https://www.psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Practice/DSM/DSM-5-TR/APA-DSM5TR-CulturalFormulationInterview.pdf]. Illustrative: “Some people worry a therapist will laugh at things like being ill-wished. I won't. It helps me to know how you see it.”
Stuck: belief dominates every session. Shift from the content of the belief to its costs and the client's goals (4.8). Re-run the explanatory-model questions to find shared ground. Review differential diagnosis (4.7) and seek a psychiatric opinion if fixity and functional decline grow.
Resistance to evidence-based treatment (“it's not in my head, it's a curse”). Do not require the client to give up the explanation. Offer treatment as help with sleep, fear or mood “whatever the cause”. Involve a trusted supporter if the client wishes (4.12).
Overwhelm: acute fear of death or catastrophe from a curse. Ground and stabilise. Assess suicide risk with standard practice and plan for safety. Assess risk to any named person (4.9). Arrange medical review for physical symptoms (4.16).
Non-adherence because a practitioner advised stopping medicine or therapy. Explore without blaming the client. Do not advise on medicine yourself; connect the client with the prescriber promptly. Look for coercion (4.10).
Rupture: client feels you have dismissed their beliefs or their Pagan identity. Acknowledge it specifically, apologise for the impact, ask what would repair it, and review your own reactions (4.1).
Escalating payments or threats from a practitioner. Work through 4.10. Consider adult safeguarding. Support reporting if the client chooses, while respecting their autonomy unless risk thresholds require action.
Client wants to confront or retaliate against the supposed ill-wisher. Treat it as risk to others (4.9). Davies' cases show how unwitching led to violence against suspected witches [source: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/id/eprint/3510/1/906673.pdf].
A child is blamed for misfortune. Act on safeguarding procedures (4.11) [source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-action-plan-to-tackle-child-abuse-linked-to-faith-or-belief].
Small-community confidentiality. In close Cornish or Pagan communities, the client may know everyone involved. Agree in advance what is shared, with whom, and how chance encounters will be handled.
Romanticised heritage displacing care. When a client idealises a historical figure such as Tamsin Blight, gently hold the difference between legend and record. Sources note how much of her story is legend [source: https://ebsco.com/research-starters/history/tamsin-blight].
Spiritual crisis versus psychosis in a practising witch or Pagan. Assess sleep, functioning, risk and the community's view of the experience (4.7, 4.14). If in doubt, arrange psychiatric assessment while staying respectful of the client's path.

Sources

Books cited: Davies O (2003) Cunning-Folk: Popular Magic in English History, Hambledon. Semmens J (2005) Witch of the West, Plymouth. Semmens J (2005) “Whyler Pystry”, Folklore 116: 75–94. White R (2023) Ill-wished: Witchcraft and Magic in 19th Century Cornwall, Antenna. Gary G (2011) Tradition Witchcraft: A Cornish Book of Ways, Troy Books. Hunt R, Romances and Drolls of the West of England (2nd ed., Hotten; first-edition date given as 1865? [uncertain]). Kleinman A, Eisenberg L, Good B (1978) “Culture, illness, and care”, Annals of Internal Medicine 88: 251–258 (pages [uncertain]). Davies, Semmens and White are cited here from the catalogue and summary records listed above.

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