ISSN: 2710-4028 DOI: https://doi.org/10.54208/0008 121
• educational neglect and intellectual abuse
• medical neglect
• child labour and financial exploitation
• sexual coercion, exploitation, assault, and rape
• cruel corporal punishment and extreme physical
abuse
• spiritual abuse and threats, and
• emotional and psychological abuse.
These negative experiences and emotions certainly exist
within the lives of former COG/The Family members,
and they have parallels in accounts from people who
grew up in other abusive sects and cults.59
1
As an advocate for survivors recovering from the
complex traumas that they experienced in The Family,
especially those of the second and third generations
who were born and/or raised in the group, I have heard
countless stories of how difficult it is to find therapists
who understand the dynamics of cult involvement
or specific issues related to religious trauma.60 I
experienced that myself on my path to recovery from
my life in that cult.61 No psychiatrist or psychologist I
saw could relate to my cult experiences.62 I loaned my
copy of the book, Cults In Our Midst,63 and the 1994
documentary, Children of God,64 to one psychologist,
yet she still admitted that she did not know how to
counsel me.
Many survivors of religious trauma in other sects,
churches, and organizations also have difficulty finding
therapists who are familiar with the various issues
they suffered because of religious and spiritual abuse.
For example, in her 2022 memoir Behind the Dress,65
Christine Faour told the story of her involvement
with The Institute in Basic Life Principles,66 an ultra-
59 Robert H. Cartwright and Stephen A. Kent, “Social Control in
Alternative Religions: A Familial Perspective”, Sociological Analysis 53, no.
4, (1992): 345-361.
61 See Singer.
62 Bulwer, Misguided.
63 Doni Whitsett &Stephen A. Kent, “Cults and Families,” Families
in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services, 84, no. 4, (2003):
491–502.
64 Margaret Thaler Singer and Janja Lalich, Cults in Our Midst: The
Hidden Menace in our Everyday Lives rev. ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
1995, 2003).
65 Christine Faour, Behind the Dress: One Woman’s life in a religious
cult and the healing that came later, Legal Deposit Library and Archives
Canada, June 3, 2022
66 “Institute in Basic Life Principles,” Wikipedia, last modified January
13, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_in_Basic_Life_Principles.
conservative evangelical organization that is part of the
Christian Patriarchy Movement. She described seeking
“help from psychologists but found that none of them
could relate to what happened to her,” which was the
same experience that I and other ex-COG/The Family
members have had.67
1
Krystal Shipps is a mental health therapist who can
relate to survivors of spiritual abuse and religious
trauma since she has experienced them personally. She
described her deconversion after leaving a spiritually
abusive, fundamentalist Christian church, and the
difficulty she had finding a suitable therapist certainly
speaks to the difficulties that former COG/The
Family members typically have. Her initial therapists
were experienced, well-meaning, but nonreligious
professionals who made her feel invalidated by
downplaying of religious background, and only later
did she find one who understood the trauma and
harm that she had experienced in her previous group.
She discerned that a therapist working with a former
member coming out of a totalistic, highly demanding
religion had to be able “to attend to all facets of their
[client’s] history, development, social attachments, and
sense of self—all without losing sight of their presenting
problem.”68 Like other ex-members, she was having
to unravel social and family relations that had been
central to her identity and re-think issues related to her
“own mind, body, sexuality, and self-worth.”69 Now,
subsequently, as a therapist herself, she based her own
therapeutic practice on attending to these multifaceted
but interconnected counselling needs because, as a
person who deconverted from one of these religions,
she has been through the transition process herself.
While a few former ex-COG/The Family members
have themselves gone into mental health professions,
most ex-members seeking counselling must hope that
they find counsellors who understand religious-based
abuse and trauma.
67 Diane Crocker, “How a Newfoundland woman found herself
trapped in a cult by her ex-husband,” PNI Atlantic News, February 21,
2023. https://www.saltwire.com/newfoundland-labrador/news/how-a-
newfoundland-woman-found-herself-trapped-in-a-cult-by-her-ex-husband-
christine-faour-sharing-story-of-her-life-with-the-advanced-training-i-
nstitute-100826846/
68 Krystal Shipps, “Leaving A High Demand, High Control Religion:
What Is a Therapist’s Role?”, Psychotherapy Networker Magazine, January/
February 2023. https://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/article/leaving-
high-demand-high-control-religion.
69 Krystal Shipps, “Leaving A High Demand, High Control Religion.”
• educational neglect and intellectual abuse
• medical neglect
• child labour and financial exploitation
• sexual coercion, exploitation, assault, and rape
• cruel corporal punishment and extreme physical
abuse
• spiritual abuse and threats, and
• emotional and psychological abuse.
These negative experiences and emotions certainly exist
within the lives of former COG/The Family members,
and they have parallels in accounts from people who
grew up in other abusive sects and cults.59
1
As an advocate for survivors recovering from the
complex traumas that they experienced in The Family,
especially those of the second and third generations
who were born and/or raised in the group, I have heard
countless stories of how difficult it is to find therapists
who understand the dynamics of cult involvement
or specific issues related to religious trauma.60 I
experienced that myself on my path to recovery from
my life in that cult.61 No psychiatrist or psychologist I
saw could relate to my cult experiences.62 I loaned my
copy of the book, Cults In Our Midst,63 and the 1994
documentary, Children of God,64 to one psychologist,
yet she still admitted that she did not know how to
counsel me.
Many survivors of religious trauma in other sects,
churches, and organizations also have difficulty finding
therapists who are familiar with the various issues
they suffered because of religious and spiritual abuse.
For example, in her 2022 memoir Behind the Dress,65
Christine Faour told the story of her involvement
with The Institute in Basic Life Principles,66 an ultra-
59 Robert H. Cartwright and Stephen A. Kent, “Social Control in
Alternative Religions: A Familial Perspective”, Sociological Analysis 53, no.
4, (1992): 345-361.
61 See Singer.
62 Bulwer, Misguided.
63 Doni Whitsett &Stephen A. Kent, “Cults and Families,” Families
in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services, 84, no. 4, (2003):
491–502.
64 Margaret Thaler Singer and Janja Lalich, Cults in Our Midst: The
Hidden Menace in our Everyday Lives rev. ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
1995, 2003).
65 Christine Faour, Behind the Dress: One Woman’s life in a religious
cult and the healing that came later, Legal Deposit Library and Archives
Canada, June 3, 2022
66 “Institute in Basic Life Principles,” Wikipedia, last modified January
13, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_in_Basic_Life_Principles.
conservative evangelical organization that is part of the
Christian Patriarchy Movement. She described seeking
“help from psychologists but found that none of them
could relate to what happened to her,” which was the
same experience that I and other ex-COG/The Family
members have had.67
1
Krystal Shipps is a mental health therapist who can
relate to survivors of spiritual abuse and religious
trauma since she has experienced them personally. She
described her deconversion after leaving a spiritually
abusive, fundamentalist Christian church, and the
difficulty she had finding a suitable therapist certainly
speaks to the difficulties that former COG/The
Family members typically have. Her initial therapists
were experienced, well-meaning, but nonreligious
professionals who made her feel invalidated by
downplaying of religious background, and only later
did she find one who understood the trauma and
harm that she had experienced in her previous group.
She discerned that a therapist working with a former
member coming out of a totalistic, highly demanding
religion had to be able “to attend to all facets of their
[client’s] history, development, social attachments, and
sense of self—all without losing sight of their presenting
problem.”68 Like other ex-members, she was having
to unravel social and family relations that had been
central to her identity and re-think issues related to her
“own mind, body, sexuality, and self-worth.”69 Now,
subsequently, as a therapist herself, she based her own
therapeutic practice on attending to these multifaceted
but interconnected counselling needs because, as a
person who deconverted from one of these religions,
she has been through the transition process herself.
While a few former ex-COG/The Family members
have themselves gone into mental health professions,
most ex-members seeking counselling must hope that
they find counsellors who understand religious-based
abuse and trauma.
67 Diane Crocker, “How a Newfoundland woman found herself
trapped in a cult by her ex-husband,” PNI Atlantic News, February 21,
2023. https://www.saltwire.com/newfoundland-labrador/news/how-a-
newfoundland-woman-found-herself-trapped-in-a-cult-by-her-ex-husband-
christine-faour-sharing-story-of-her-life-with-the-advanced-training-i-
nstitute-100826846/
68 Krystal Shipps, “Leaving A High Demand, High Control Religion:
What Is a Therapist’s Role?”, Psychotherapy Networker Magazine, January/
February 2023. https://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/article/leaving-
high-demand-high-control-religion.
69 Krystal Shipps, “Leaving A High Demand, High Control Religion.”
