International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 10, 2019 7
Psychoeducation
Psychoeducation about cultic groups is one of
the interventions whose importance has been
emphasized consistently throughout the
development and understanding of cult theory
(Hassan, 1990 Herman, 1997 Lalich &
McLaren, 2018 Lifton, 1963 Nunes &
Timoner, 2007 Rosen, 2014 Singer, 2003).
Psychoeducation serves to empower survivors
by helping them understand and develop a
language to talk about their experiences. It also
helps survivors realize they are not alone in
going through the recovery process.
Additionally, understanding how cults function
contributes to survivors’ ability to recognize
warning signs and avoid repeating their
experiences with other relationships or groups.
Survivors may also benefit from understanding
common responses to existential terror and
worldview threats (Hayes, Schimel, &Williams,
2008). For many trauma survivors, the healing
process is painful and can be long and
overwhelming (Herman, 1997). By giving
survivors a framework within which to
understand both their cultic experiences and
their process in recovery, clinicians also give the
survivors a sense of purpose in their pain. Many
survivors, in turn, find that educating others
about the cultic experience and participating in
actions to help others is itself rewarding and
healing (Lifton, 1963 Matthews &Salazar,
2014).
Eye Movement Desensitization and
Reprocessing
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing
(EMDR) has been gaining popularity as a
trauma treatment because of its high rates of
success in resolving trauma in adults, along with
growing indications of its successful application
with children (Boukezzi et al., 2017 de Roos et
al., 2017 van der Kolk, 2015 van der Kolk et
al., 2007). EMDR involves a client tuning into a
distressing memory while undergoing bilateral
stimulation, the most common of which involves
visually following the fingers of the clinician to
stimulate a kind of rapid eye movement (EMDR
Institute, n.d.). Recent neuroimaging research
indicates that EMDR leads to increases in gray-
matter density in the medial prefrontal cortex, an
area of the brain that is often inhibited following
a traumatic event but which is key to emotion
regulation and higher-order processing
(Boukezzi et al., 2017 van der Kolk, 2014).
However, DeYoung (2009) has cautioned that
“cult members frequently remain afraid of any
type of procedure that hints of ‘mind control’ or
hypnosis-like techniques” (p. 148) and
recommends that clinicians help clients
understand how the process works. Survivors
may especially need to know that EMDR does
not require them to lose their orientation to
reality (EMDR Institute, n.d.). Rather, EMDR
assists a client in encountering a traumatic
memory in order to process and reintegrate it,
using an associative process that seems to mimic
the role of dreams (DeYoung, 2009 van der
Kolk, 2014).
In a 2009 case study, DeYoung related how he
used EMDR to successfully help a former cult
member process and integrate certain aspects of
her trauma, with a 3-year follow-up indicating
that treatment remained successful for the
specific targeted memories. However, DeYoung
(2009) noted that EMDR was not sufficient on
its own as a treatment and that other
interventions were necessary to address other
aspects of recovery. Van der Kolk and
colleagues (2007) found similar results related to
complex trauma in a study comparing EMDR to
fluoxetine and placebo. Although EMDR was
highly effective overall in the study, the
researchers found that it was most effective for
adult-onset PSTD, concluding that short-term
EMDR may not be sufficient for complex and
developmental trauma (van der Kolk et al.,
2007). Although EMDR is designed to help a
client remain engaged, Rosen (2014) has
expressed concern that EMDR may lack pacing
elements to prevent a client from becoming
overwhelmed with dissociation therefore, for
clients who lack the capacity to moderate their
dissociative responses, other interventions with
built-in stabilizers may be more appropriate.
Sandtray
In working with survivors who experienced
trauma, particularly developmental or relational
trauma, methods of externalizing and
symbolizing can be helpful in making the trauma

8 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 10, 2019
feel safer to explore (Malchiodi, 2015). Sandtray
offers a method of utilizing alternate states of
consciousness that blends absorption with
conscious engagement in ways similar to active
imagination (Boik &Goodwin, 2000).
Depending on the approach of the practitioner,
sandtray therapy can involve an exploration of
family and social roles or patterns, a method of
safely reexperiencing the trauma and resolving
it, a means of seeking meaning around the
trauma, or a method of interacting with parts of
the self or internalized representations of others
(Eberts &Homeyer, 2015 Graham, 2016
Webber &Mascari, 2008). Because of the use of
figures and symbolism, sandtray is particularly
useful at helping clients create meaning around
their experiences.
Meditation and Mindfulness
Like EMDR, mindfulness is currently in vogue
as a means of therapy and boasts impressive
evidence as to its effectiveness (Baer, 2015 Doll
et al., 2016 Porges, 2017 Singleton et al., 2014
van der Kolk, 2014). Mindfulness can be used to
treat anxiety and depression and also trauma
(Baer, 2015 Desmond, 2016 Doll et al., 2016
Rothschild, 2000). It can also be effective at
helping individuals learn new ways to relate
interpersonally with others or to develop self-
compassion toward themselves (Baer, 2015
Desmond, 2016). Like EMDR, mindfulness
seems to have neurophysiological effects on
brain structures affected by trauma (Doll et al.,
2016 Porges, 2017 Singleton et al., 2014).
Porges (2017) has highlighted how mindful
breathing can stimulate the neurophysiological
state associated with safety, healing, and growth,
thus successfully combatting the
neurophysiological states associated with
mobilization or freezing. Neuroimaging studies
show that mindfulness can help calm
hyperactivity in the amygdala and increase
prefrontal-cortex control, thus increasing
emotional regulation (Doll et al., 2016).
However, although mindfulness may be
effective with some survivors, mindfulness as a
therapeutic intervention comes with a warning.
There is a tendency for clinicians to view
meditation as if it were a panacea, despite the
fact that it is not appropriate for everyone and
can create severe negative reactions in some
(Rosen, 2014 Rothschild, 2000 Singer, 2003).
This attitude may be particularly problematic
with cult survivors since meditation has been
heavily coopted by destructive groups as a
means of control, disconnection, and
dissociation (Lalich &McLaren, 2018 Rosen,
2014 Singer, 2003). For example, one of the
therapeutic goals of mindfulness is often to help
clients relax and engage the senses as a means of
mitigating anxiety and dissociation. For the
many cult survivors who have trauma related to
meditation practices, however, mindfulness that
resembles meditation can exacerbate rather than
help symptoms of anxiety or dissociation
(Rosen, 2014 Singer, 2003). In such cases,
finding other ways of accomplishing that goal
may be needed. Rothschild (2000) outlined
several ways that clients can disperse anxiety
and tension if mindfulness exercises create
negative reactions. Exercising, progressive
tensing, or body training, for instance, may be
more relaxing for many survivors than sitting
meditations. Yoga can also be an avenue
through which a survivor can access the benefits
of mindful breathing without the traditional
meditative sitting (Porges, 2017).
Survivors who exit meditation-based cults
may still be able to use meditation
techniques as part of healing, with it perhaps
offering an opportunity for them to reclaim
the same techniques from a different
standpoint. Whereas in the cult survivors
may have had meditation used to disconnect
them from their emotional responses,
particularly anger or doubt (Hassan, 1990
Lalich &McLaren, 2018 Singer, 2003),
they may still be able to use this technique
as a means of connecting with alienated
emotions and learning acceptance and self-
compassion within their healing process
(Desmond, 2016). With that being said, the
ultimate decision of whether to engage with
and reclaim mindfulness practices (or any
practice formerly used within a cult) should
reside with the individual.