SAFE Resources

Cult Intervention and Mediation Services by Ashlen Hilliard, MSc Psychology of Coercive Control

  • Support & Community Group Offerings:

    People Leave Cults is proud to offer unique support groups for former cult members.

    Each support group offers former group members the opportunity to meet with a mental health professional and other former members in a safe virtual environment.

    These sessions are hosted by People Leave Cults in collaboration with licensed professionals.

    Disclaimer: The community group services provided by People Leave Cults, LLC are not meant to be a substitute for individualized professional counseling from mental health professionals. These session are NOT an emergency service, therapy, or medical in nature.

    You can review our current support groups here: https://www.peopleleavecults.com/services/support-groups

    Cult Survivor Consultation

    Learn about your experience and the road to recovery. This 50-minute session is an opportunity to have a conversation with a cult recovery specialist.

    You can read the full details and book here: https://www.peopleleavecults.com/services

  • Concerned About a Loved One's Cult Involvement? Unsure of What to do Next? Interested in a Potential Intervention?

    Book a 90-minute Evaluation With Cult Intervention Specialist Ashlen Hilliard, MSc:

    About This Service:

    People Leave Cult's process is built on the mentorship and instruction of Joseph Kelly and Patrick Ryan — Cult Interventionists with more than 40 years of hands-on experience and hundreds of successful interventions.

    Time Commitment: 90 Minute Consultation ​

    Book a consultation: https://www.peopleleavecults.com/services/cult-intervention-process

Local Partner: People Leave Cults

Kent Burtner’s Resource:

Negotiating the Potholes on the Road to Recovery

Observations for Those Newly Emerging from Cultic Groups

by Wm. Kent Burtner

In this article I look at the issues common to healing from a cult or high-control group which can be broadly categorized as those affecting your internal life and those related to your relationship to the “outside” world.

I gained my experience in this field as a pastoral counselor (I was a Roman Catholic priest for twenty years), as a program manager for an interfaith social-services agency, director of the agency’s Cult Resource Center, and interviewing numerous former members and what I present here is my take on the insights that have come to me through speaking with many former members of a wide variety of high control organizations over forty-five years and much reading and research, including the work of Dr Margaret Singer whose cornerstone article, “Coming Out of the Cults,” (1979), which helped me understand the issues.

There is a place that promises acceptance, spiritual growth, and friendship, but instead delivers criticism, abuse, and exploitation. A place that declares marriages will be strengthened, treasured, and protected, but instead weakens, diminishes, and marginalizes them. A place that claims to obey the word of God, but in practice weaponizes the word against those who disagree or doubt. A place where the good news of a tenderhearted, loving Savior is blurred by leaders who are controlling, traumatizing, and self-serving. A place that calls loudly to the storm-tossed at sea, only to lure them to the rocks where they flounder and fall apart. A place that appeared to be a house of friendship but was a place of betrayal.

“That place might be a Christian church. It might be a cult. It is probably both.”

—Ken Garrett

Ken Garrett’s book, In the House of Friends: Understanding and Healing from Spiritual Abuse in the Christian Church (Wipf and Stock Press, 2020) describes the inner workings of high-control churches, the pastors who lead them, and the process of leaving and recovering from the abuse inflicted by such churches.

Ken Garrett’s Resources:

In the House of Friends: Understanding and Healing From Spiritual Abuse in Christian Churches

Wounded Faith: Understanding and Healing from Spiritual Abuse is a new collection of essays edited by the Reverend Dr. Neil Damgaard. It has two audiences in mind: recovering victims and the religious community at large. While is was written as an aid to help victims who are grappling with their faith, the book also seeks to clarify the meaning of spiritual abuse and instruct religious communities on how to effectively welcome victims of spiritual abuse.

“The book’s authors come from a background in Christianity and have each, in their own way, experienced spiritual abuse.”

— Book introduction

The audience for whom this book is intended includes but is not limited to: clergy, churches, seminarians, mental health professionals, survivors of spiritual abuse, family and loved ones of survivors, and anyone emerging from or involved in fringe Christian groups.

Contributors: Harold L. Bussell, DMin; Ray Connolly; Neil Damgaard, DMin; Doug Duncan, MS; Wendy Duncan, MA; Kenneth Garrett, DMin; Maureen Griffo, MA; Heidi I. Knapp; Patrick J. Knapp, PhD; Michael D. Langone, PhD; Judy Pardon, MEd; Diana Pletts, MA; Eric K. Sweitzer, PhD

Wounded Faith: Understanding and Healing From Spiritual Abuse