After exiting a cult or high demand group, you may feel that your reality has been turned upside-down and experience overwhelming feelings of shame, betrayal, grief, and fear.
Cults and high demand groups use abusive tactics of coercive control and undue influence to control their group members. It may be difficult to function in the real world after exiting a group and losing a support system that has been your whole world.
The most important work for survivors in recovery is to establish emotional and physical safety, foster autonomy, build an understanding of how cult dynamics controlled their life, and to process their experiences.
Psychotherapy can be part of your healing as a safe place to process what has happened to you, understand how it happened, and rebuild your autonomy.
Cults and high demand groups use abusive tactics of coercive control and undue influence to control their group members. It may be difficult to function in the real world after exiting a group and losing a support system that has been your whole world.
The most important work for survivors in recovery is to establish emotional and physical safety, foster autonomy, build an understanding of how cult dynamics controlled their life, and to process their experiences.
Psychotherapy can be part of your healing as a safe place to process what has happened to you, understand how it happened, and rebuild your autonomy.
Key Components to Therapy for Recovery from Abuse
Emotional Safety
A safe and supportive space where you do not feel pressured to go anywhere that you are not willing or able to go. You will be treated gently with kindness and respect. Therapy is a supportive space free from judgment and criticism.
Autonomy
You will decide what you are and are not willing to explore in therapy. You are invited to speak as openly as you feel ready to in the moment. It can take a while to get to know somebody and feel emotionally safe to open up, and that timeline is solely determined by you. The goal is for you to process trauma in therapy, not to be dependent on therapy, and to develop other aspects of your life that keep you supported and fulfilled.
Informed Consent
You have the right to end sessions without repercussion, and you are never obligated to continue booking sessions if you do not want to. For therapy to work, it needs to be the right fit, and you will be asked to trust yourself in determining that. Therapy does not have to be forever, it is here for you when you need it.
A safe and supportive space where you do not feel pressured to go anywhere that you are not willing or able to go. You will be treated gently with kindness and respect. Therapy is a supportive space free from judgment and criticism.
Autonomy
You will decide what you are and are not willing to explore in therapy. You are invited to speak as openly as you feel ready to in the moment. It can take a while to get to know somebody and feel emotionally safe to open up, and that timeline is solely determined by you. The goal is for you to process trauma in therapy, not to be dependent on therapy, and to develop other aspects of your life that keep you supported and fulfilled.
Informed Consent
You have the right to end sessions without repercussion, and you are never obligated to continue booking sessions if you do not want to. For therapy to work, it needs to be the right fit, and you will be asked to trust yourself in determining that. Therapy does not have to be forever, it is here for you when you need it.