The aim of this presentation is to analyze the process by which former members recognized and named forms of control, experiences of abuse and experiences of violence during her or his life within a religious cultic group after leaving the group.
ICSA Annual Conference: Unpacking Belief Systems
How do people get trapped in cults? One tool cults use is emotional and mental coercion to exercise undue influence keeping people stuck in the group. Even without physically holding people prisoner, it is possible to hold them by building a closed system of beliefs and isolating them from other ideas.
ICSA Annual Conference: Cultic Gaslighting
refers to attempts by cult leaders to manipulate their followers by creating an environment in which the cult members doubt their own thoughts, observations, interpretations, and memories.
ICSA Annual Conference: Pursuing Counseling after Having Been in a Psychotherapy Cult
I work with many people who were terrified about getting help again and waited for years to come for therapy or participate in my support group because their last counseling experience had been so traumatizing, abusive and manipulative.
ICSA Annual Conference: The Power of Story
It’s human nature to make up stories, and we all make up our own story. We piece it together with the events we feel shaped our lives. Once we have a fixed story, we learn to play the role of the protagonist.
ICSA Annual Conference: Catholic Cults in our Midst? Catholic orders and movements accused of being cult-like
Opus Dei, Legionaries of Christ/ Regnum Christi Federation, Neo-Catechumenal, Charismatics, Focolarini
Sugar Coated Panacea w/ Dr. Willoughby Britton
Dr. Britton provides more details about the resistance she came up against in the science and meditation communities after publishing data that contradicted their narratives of meditation as an infallibly positive pursuit.
ICSA Annual Conference: Pathways to Healing: The Importance of Psycho-education in the Process of Recovery and Healing After Leaving a Cult
and schizotypal disorders. While these symptoms can affect all former cult members, they are particularly problematic among young people who have left cults, and especially those born into one
ICSA Annual Conference: Going Off The Derech – leaving Jewish Ultra Orthodoxy.
I argue that efforts required by former Ultra Orthodox Jews to adjust to
ICSA Annual Conference: After the Teacher: Developing Personal Ethics in the “Real World”
Clinical psychology and professional counseling can serve as a profound aid in cult recovery, training in the counseling professions often leaves new clinicians unequipped to handle lasting questions of faith and self-trust in the aftermath of spiritual abuse.