International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation Volume 9 2026 134
and others as her harsh attitude softened. She could
allow herself the freedom to experience a full range of
emotions instead of protecting herself by dissociating
from anxiety, shame, or anger.
Through this combination of therapy and support
groups, Anika’s harsh conscience has softened, and she
can now connect with and feel empathy for others and
herself. Anika discovered how other former members
also struggle with a hypervigilant nervous system. She
is aware that she still overcompensates to avoid anxiety.
Anika now finally recognizes the full impact of what
it meant for her to grow up in a cult as a second-
generation cult member and to raise her children in
the cult. She believes she is finally getting to know
herself and, thus, developing her unique identity. This
happened only after leaving the cult, as she reclaimed
her agency, chose what she believed, understood her
likes and dislikes, reclaimed her ability to feel, and
decided how she wanted to live the remainder of her
life. She is grateful that this reconsideration also helped
heal her relationship with her son. Anika states,
David also has been on a journey of healing. He
initially went to several therapists who did not focus on
understanding the impact of the cult on his personality.
More recently, he found a cult-informed therapist
who encourages self-reflection to help him reframe
and deepen his understanding of his experience. He
believes he’s developing a healthier sense of self and
is better at assessing and regulating his emotions.
However, he still struggles with a hypervigilant nervous
system. This attracts him to highly stressful situations,
repeating the stressful environment of the past, just as
many former cult members find themselves repeating
Some former cult members can pinpoint their
date of departure. For my family and me,
leaving has taken many years. At first, I just
wanted to distance myself from certain parts
of the cult, even though I still held the cult
leader and their teachings in high regard. As
time went by, I came to understand the many
layers of belief I had acquired from growing up
and becoming an adult in the cult. Each belief
and cult-derived thought pattern needed to be
recognized and addressed. The hardest was
recognizing the harm done to me by the two
leaders whom I revered and loved deeply.
their early traumatic experiences (Freud, 1914 van der
Kolk, 1989).
As with many individuals who have been born and
raised in cults, David has felt most comfortable relying
on himself (rather than an all-knowing authority) to
drive his recovery process. He reports that in the last
few years, he has found Buddhist meditation helpful
because it allows him to access his body’s emotions at
his own pace rather than defend against them as he had
done in the cult. David also felt aided in the past by
medication and psychedelic-assisted therapy. He states
that he consciously attempts to replace the cult’s harsh
attitude with kindness towards himself and others he
seeks emotional acceptance of his and others ‘ fallibility.
As a result of this change in attitude, his relationships
with others, particularly his fiancée, have flourished.
Therapy for Cult Parents and Their Children
Therapy focuses on helping the client understand
and heal from cult-induced dissociation and a harsh
conscience it examines the cult’s harms that prevented
cult parents from becoming the best possible parents
(Goldberg, 2017).
To heal, the therapist primarily addresses these
destructive cult dynamics. In contrast to a cult life
without empathy, therapy centers on the therapist’s
empathy as a model for the client to relate to others
and themselves. In doing so, the therapist addresses
the harsh conscience that former cult members, such
as Anika and David, have incorporated.
The following sections describe therapeutic strategies
centering on the needs of former cult members,
especially those who were parented or raised in a cult.
These strategies emphasize and create a relationship that
fosters self-reflection, particularly emotional and body
awareness, and trauma processing while cultivating a
safe, trusting relationship with the therapist.
Psychoeducational Approaches
The therapist explains the larger context of how
cults manipulate members through psychological
and emotional control, providing a framework to
understand the cult experiences. Child-rearing is one

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aspect of an extensive control process. Additionally,
suggesting books, articles, or conferences helps
former cult members understand and objectify these
experiences (Goldberg, 1995).
Psychoeducation demystifies the cult and aids former
cult members in reflecting on how the cult has
influenced post-cult patterns of behavior. To achieve
this, therapy brings the unconscious repetition of
learned cult behaviors into consciousness. For example,
Anika became aware of feeling uncomfortable when
she was not “productive.” Exploring how this emotion
originated in cult control allowed her to engage in
various pleasurable activities. Thus, this process
strengthened Anika’s self-reflection capacities and
allowed her to consider her individual beliefs and
desires, leading to a more balanced life (Goldberg,
1995).
Safe Base and Empathy
The therapist provides a safe base that increases
feelings of trust and encourages the free expression
of memories and spontaneous reactions (Bowlby,
1988). They become an emotionally empathic witness,
allowing previously dissociated parts of their client’s
personality to come alive in therapy. For instance, while
collaborating on this paper with the author, after Anika
and David began to share their emotional reactions to
cult memories, they deepened their empathy for one
another. According to Whitsett (2014), after a life
centered on ignoring the right brain, therapists need to
enhance right-brain communication by helping clients
identify and resonate with their affective states.
This therapeutic environment sharply contrasts with
the control and judgment that former cult members
likely faced while in the cult (Goldberg, 2022). To
change such critical attitudes, therapy also explores
the cult personality impacted by identification with the
aggressor (Fenichel, 1949).
Child-Rearing and Intergenerational Trauma
Examining how cult control impacts parenting, as
Anika experienced, helps reduce shame, lessen post-
cult moral injury, enhance agency, and promote
healing. This approach also assists those raised in a cult,
like David, in gaining perspective on their childhood
and developing empathy for parents who might have
been more devoted had they not been cult members
(Goldberg, 2017).
Sometimes, joint sessions with cult parents and their
adult children can be beneficial for the therapist to
conduct. These sessions should occur when parents
are receptive to hearing their adult children describe
the harm received from cult parenting. Joint sessions
allow adult children to listen to the conditions under
which the parents became cult members and how the
cult influenced them. Hearing if their parents were
conflicted about certain child-rearing attitudes and
practices is helpful for adult children (Goldberg 2017).
Addressing a Harsh Internalized Conscience
This style of therapy acknowledges both Freud’s (1914)
concept of unconscious repetition compulsion and
somatic repetition in trauma (Levine, 1997). It addresses
and ultimately softens the harsh conscience by linking
past experiences of attack to the re-experiencing of
present self-attack or fear of attack.
Therapists promote self-compassion and self-
acceptance. For example, when either the former
cult member or the therapist makes a mistake, the
therapist can serve as a model of compassion and self-
compassion (Goldberg, 2002 Goldberg, 2024).
As former cult members become more self-accepting,
they become more open to expressing themselves
and, consequently, to becoming their authentic selves.
Their unique identities can emerge, including genuine
preferences and favored aspects of their personalities.
Understanding Transference and
Countertransference
Former cult members may project feelings and
expectations that originated in the cult onto
their therapist. Therapy, which incorporates an
understanding of transference, focuses on the former
cult members’ present experience of the therapeutic
relationship and identifies unconscious repetitions of
past relationships played out with the therapist and
others (Freud &Breuer, 1895). For example, a cult
member might expect her therapist to have a critical
reaction to hearing that she joins her friends in the