Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1997, page 93
Sexual issues and sexual abuse have different implications and different
aftereffects from some of the other experiences typically found in cults. If a man
becomes involved in a group whose sexual mores are very liberal and
unstructured, he might come out and say, “I slept with 12 women.” The woman
who comes out of the same group and says “I slept with 12 men” will experience a
tremendous difference in her social adjustment afterwards. Consequently, we must
draw a distinction between men‟s and women‟s experiences as they try to resume
conventional roles in society. (p. 191)
Eventually the former cult member will need to develop new relationships and a social
network, and integrate back into mainstream society. For a time, the therapist may be the
only relationship the survivor has, and it is important to empower the client to develop new
relationships outside of therapy when she is ready. When a client begins to develop new
social interests, encouraging her to conduct her own power analysis might be useful in
preventing her from getting involved in other types of domineering and controlling
relationships.
Control and Empowerment
The damage done to women in the cultic relationship is similar to that found in survivors of
abuse by authority figures. In fact, in certain cultic relationships, the leader exercises sexual
domination and control over the female members, implying that they have a “special”
relationship with the leader and this relationship must be kept secret (Rosedale, 1995
Tobias &Lalich, 1994). Because of their client‟s previous experience with domination and
control, counselors are recommended to give clients control with regard to pace and
direction of the counseling process (Brier, 1989 O‟Hare &Taylor, 1983 Siegel &Romig,
1988 Westerlund, 1984). Giving the client control requires counselors to take themselves
out of expert roles and allow the client to be the authority in session. Thus, the context of
the therapy sessions needs to be egalitarian. McWhirter (1994) suggested that in order to
empower others, counselors must give up aspects of power, such as control and immunity
from criticism. Counselors must be willing to accept that clients may not always like
something the counselor says in therapy. Counselors must be willing to process
disagreements with the client. Sometimes clients will indicate their disagreement in
nonverbal ways, such as breaking eye contact or manifesting anxious body language.
Counselors must be intuitive enough to recognize when clients are disagreeing on nonverbal
levels and address this with clients in such a way that they will feel safe to express their
disagreement. Thus, clients will feel empowered to own their opinions and judgments.
Having clients take control in the session can be done through the use of the creative arts.
Writing and drawing can be empowering modalities. Of utmost importance is that clients
have the authority to decide which modality will be most helpful for expressing themselves.
For example, it can be very helpful for the counselor to ask the client how she expresses
herself most effectively. If the client enjoys drawing, encourage her to draw something that
symbolizes or portrays her strength or courage, which she can hang in her room. One
survivor drew a picture of herself and the cult leader, and then cut the cult leader out and
tore him up while she told him that he couldn‟t control her any longer. This process seemed
to give the client a sense of taking back her personal power. By having clients take control
during therapy, a parallel process can occur in which they will feel more in control of their
lives outside the therapy sessions.
Working with the client to assist her in ridding herself of her cult pseudopersonality and
regaining her sense of self can be done through a variety of methods. Encouraging the
client to remember who she was prior to cult involvement can be done by having her
daydream about the past (precult life): what she enjoyed, which activities she engaged in,

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1997, page 94
what she thought about. Daydreaming is safer than using any other kind of imagery with
cult survivors because induced imagery might have been a method used as one of the cult‟s
thought-reform processes (Singer with Lalich, 1995 Tobias &Lalich, 1994).
Having the client daydream about the past, and then helping her incorporate her former
(precult) self into her current life can be beneficial to developing self-worth. Daydreaming
about the future can be useful in helping the client gain some hope of life beyond the cult.
For example, the counselor might suggest, “Let‟s say that it is 3 years from now and you
are not having to deal with this healing as much as you do now, what are some of your
dreams? What does a day look like to you?”
Recovering from cultic relationships and feeling empowered takes time. It is crucial that the
therapist be patient and empathetic throughout the process. However, if the therapist feels
at an impasse with the client, a role-reversal technique might help. This technique would
consist of the client becoming the counselor, and the counselor taking the role of the client.
In order to be effective with this technique, the therapist shares a current therapeutic issue
as the client, and the client as the counselor provides feedback. It is important to process
what it was like for the client to take on that role, and also for the therapist to share what it
was like to be the client. Role reversal can also be useful in helping the client determine if
she is ready to cut back on or leave therapy.
The therapist who can be vulnerable and creative within the therapeutic relationship will be
able to employ various techniques in an empowering manner. When the woman cult
survivor begins to feel empowered, she begins to gain personal power and recapture her
sense of self and recover from the devastating effects of the previous cultic relationship.
Conclusion
Working with female survivors of cultic relationships can be overwhelming and complex for
any therapist. Once a trusting relationship has been established, clients can explore the
context of the cultic influences in a safe environment. They can learn how they were
manipulated into becoming a cult member, how thought reform worked in the cult, how the
leader was self-appointed, and how their independent life was taken from them. The
counselor who encourages and validates clients will help them believe in themselves and
come to understand that they were powerless in the cult. They can learn how to get rid of
the unwanted attributes of their cult pseudopersonality and head toward a genuine and
authentic self. Now, as survivors, they can take power in their healing which can help
increase personal power and self-worth. Thus, an empowerment model used in the therapy
session will have lifelong impact on clients‟ self-empowerment--which means empowerment
coming from within the self--and ultimately therapy will no longer be necessary.
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