contact with them as we moved into the trauma-
processing phase.
I recommend using caution when you are
looking for why someone joined a group or why
someone didn’t leave, particularly in the early
stages of treatment. Those of us who have not
had an experience of emotional captivity would
like to think that we would be strong enough not
to succumb, but the research shows that many
others similar to us do get involved (Halperin,
1983 Herman, 1992 Symonds, 1982). I
contend that in Western culture the act of
questioning “Why?” regarding human behavior
can imply personal responsibility, which can
stimulate negative beliefs about oneself.
Therapists use similar caution when they are
working with women who have been in
domestic-violence relationships. If therapists
explore the question of why, which insinuates a
sense of personal responsibility, too early in
treatment, they risk increasing the clients’
experiences of self-blame. The question
“Why?” may also stimulate the trauma-related
phobias of internal experience. This outcome
will delay stabilization, the possibility of the
clients being able to process the traumatic
memories. In the course of treatment,
particularly during the trauma-processing phase,
clients often discover that some of their
habituated reactions from childhood, including
attachment styles, interpersonal patterns, and
freeze responses, may have contributed to their
vulnerability to cult recruitment and
involvement. We can see these patterns, like
holograms and fractals, in varied aspects of
clients’ experience: the therapy relationship, the
clients’ self-referential beliefs, their physical
movements, and other behaviors (Levenson,
1975 Marks-Tarlow, 2008 Ogden et al., 2006).
During this phase, the therapist may also
introduce possible connections or meaning
regarding these patterns (interpretations).
But these realizations may not be necessary for
healing. Cults invariably put too much personal
responsibility on members. If something is
painful or goes wrong, the member wasn’t good
enough, or was not praying or meditating or
recruiting enough. Former members make good
psychotherapy patients—they are experts at
looking at “their part in things.” In this realm,
former members of high-demand groups may
benefit more by gaining an understanding of
social contexts and the nuances of social
dynamics. The goals of trauma-informed
treatment are to reduce PTSD and C-PTSD
symptoms, and to create therapeutic conditions
that allow clients to find their own inner strength
and community, and possibly most importantly,
to develop positive meaning about themselves
and their experience (Prati &Pietrantoni, 2008).
The importance of friendship for stabilization is
not emphasized enough in trauma and therapy
literature. Having friends to call when one is
down, to enjoy activities with, and to seek
advice from impacts every other aspect of one’s
life. This issue is important to keep front and
center when you are working with former cult
members, particularly those who become
dependent on the advice of the therapist and fear
connecting with others. Friendship also takes
enormous pressure off of romantic relationships,
which are complicated at best and cannot
provide all of an individual’s need for support.
In addition, having friends to confer with is
enormously nourishing for cognitive problem-
solving abilities eroded by the cult’s simple
doctrine of “follow, don’t think.” Learning to
hear many opinions and to digest or reject those
opinions can be enormously centering. Former
members can find the self that listens, reacts,
and sifts the input.
Trauma Processing
In many ways, all psychotherapy is exposure
therapy. In good therapy, clients are supported
and stabilized by a cooperative relationship
while they look at or integrate previously
warded off, unattended to, or dissociated
elements of their experience. These elements
can be, among others, memories, body
sensations, meaning, conflicts, images, feelings,
and negative and positive views of themselves.
The best outcomes include the clients bringing
in these previously unintegrated elements of
experience and gaining a positive view of the
self in the present. Many of the quite varied
trauma-processing models all work well because
they are similar in a critical way: Each contains
powerful elements of both exposure and support.
And because each model is so distinct, the
24 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 5, 2014
processing phase.
I recommend using caution when you are
looking for why someone joined a group or why
someone didn’t leave, particularly in the early
stages of treatment. Those of us who have not
had an experience of emotional captivity would
like to think that we would be strong enough not
to succumb, but the research shows that many
others similar to us do get involved (Halperin,
1983 Herman, 1992 Symonds, 1982). I
contend that in Western culture the act of
questioning “Why?” regarding human behavior
can imply personal responsibility, which can
stimulate negative beliefs about oneself.
Therapists use similar caution when they are
working with women who have been in
domestic-violence relationships. If therapists
explore the question of why, which insinuates a
sense of personal responsibility, too early in
treatment, they risk increasing the clients’
experiences of self-blame. The question
“Why?” may also stimulate the trauma-related
phobias of internal experience. This outcome
will delay stabilization, the possibility of the
clients being able to process the traumatic
memories. In the course of treatment,
particularly during the trauma-processing phase,
clients often discover that some of their
habituated reactions from childhood, including
attachment styles, interpersonal patterns, and
freeze responses, may have contributed to their
vulnerability to cult recruitment and
involvement. We can see these patterns, like
holograms and fractals, in varied aspects of
clients’ experience: the therapy relationship, the
clients’ self-referential beliefs, their physical
movements, and other behaviors (Levenson,
1975 Marks-Tarlow, 2008 Ogden et al., 2006).
During this phase, the therapist may also
introduce possible connections or meaning
regarding these patterns (interpretations).
But these realizations may not be necessary for
healing. Cults invariably put too much personal
responsibility on members. If something is
painful or goes wrong, the member wasn’t good
enough, or was not praying or meditating or
recruiting enough. Former members make good
psychotherapy patients—they are experts at
looking at “their part in things.” In this realm,
former members of high-demand groups may
benefit more by gaining an understanding of
social contexts and the nuances of social
dynamics. The goals of trauma-informed
treatment are to reduce PTSD and C-PTSD
symptoms, and to create therapeutic conditions
that allow clients to find their own inner strength
and community, and possibly most importantly,
to develop positive meaning about themselves
and their experience (Prati &Pietrantoni, 2008).
The importance of friendship for stabilization is
not emphasized enough in trauma and therapy
literature. Having friends to call when one is
down, to enjoy activities with, and to seek
advice from impacts every other aspect of one’s
life. This issue is important to keep front and
center when you are working with former cult
members, particularly those who become
dependent on the advice of the therapist and fear
connecting with others. Friendship also takes
enormous pressure off of romantic relationships,
which are complicated at best and cannot
provide all of an individual’s need for support.
In addition, having friends to confer with is
enormously nourishing for cognitive problem-
solving abilities eroded by the cult’s simple
doctrine of “follow, don’t think.” Learning to
hear many opinions and to digest or reject those
opinions can be enormously centering. Former
members can find the self that listens, reacts,
and sifts the input.
Trauma Processing
In many ways, all psychotherapy is exposure
therapy. In good therapy, clients are supported
and stabilized by a cooperative relationship
while they look at or integrate previously
warded off, unattended to, or dissociated
elements of their experience. These elements
can be, among others, memories, body
sensations, meaning, conflicts, images, feelings,
and negative and positive views of themselves.
The best outcomes include the clients bringing
in these previously unintegrated elements of
experience and gaining a positive view of the
self in the present. Many of the quite varied
trauma-processing models all work well because
they are similar in a critical way: Each contains
powerful elements of both exposure and support.
And because each model is so distinct, the
24 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 5, 2014
