Cult Involvement

Therapy for Cult Involvement & High-Control Groups

Maybe you left years ago. Maybe you only recently started to wonder: Was that normal?

Maybe it was a fringe religious group.
Maybe it was a wellness “community,” a startup, or a therapist-led “healing retreat.”
Maybe it didn’t call itself a cult, but your gut says otherwise.

And now here you are: confused, angry, grieving, rebuilding.
Possibly Googling: “Can you be in a cult without knowing it?” (Answer: yes. That’s kind of the point.)

Whether you were part of a religious organisation, a therapeutic community, a “wellness” collective, a self-help group, or something harder to define, you might now be struggling with shame, grief, confusion, or even identity loss.

I’m not here to “fix” you, convert you, or tell you who to be. I won’t quote you back to yourself in affirmations or assign you spiritual homework.

My job is to hold space for your story. We’ll work together to help you reclaim your voice, grieve what was taken, and rebuild a self that feels like yours.

Also: we can totally talk about your deconstruction playlists, cult documentaries, and how weird it is to go to brunch now.

Common Experiences After Leaving

Leaving a high-control group isn’t just about walking away. It often brings:

  • Confusion, derealisation, or identity loss

  • Grief for lost relationships, faith, or meaning

  • Intense guilt, fear, or shame (especially if you were told “bad things will happen if you leave”)

  • Difficulty trusting your own thoughts, feelings, or decisions

  • Anxiety, flashbacks, or difficulty sleeping

  • Social isolation or fear of being judged or disbelieved

  • Feeling stuck between “I chose this” and “I was manipulated”

You might also feel like you're rebuilding yourself from the ground up — trying to figure out who you are without the group’s voice in your head.

How Therapy Can Help

There’s no one “right” way to recover from coercion. But in our work together, we can gently explore:

  • Naming what happened without shame, minimisation, or having to justify it

  • Exploring the techniques of coercive control and how they show up psychologically

  • Gently untangling fear-based beliefs about the outside world, your worth, or what will happen if you "disobey"

  • Validating that you were targeted (often because of your kindness, idealism, and desire to do good)

  • Processing complex grief: lost time, identity, family, community, faith

  • Rebuilding trust in your own judgment, intuition, and inner compass

And sometimes it’s about learning how to buy a candle, choose a dinner, or disagree with someone without spiralling.

 FAQs

  • If you're asking that question, something probably didn’t feel right. You don’t need a specific label to seek support. We can explore it gently, together.

  • High-control groups can look like:

    • Religious or spiritual movements

    • Therapy groups or self-development workshops

    • Fitness, diet, or lifestyle “coaching” spaces

    • Online communities or influencer-led circles

    • Tight-knit family systems that don’t allow questioning

    • “Alternative healing” spaces with rigid hierarchies

    • Even workplaces or business mentorship programs

    If it used thought reform, fear, identity erasure, isolation, or authoritarian leadership and you weren’t allowed to think critically, it counts.

  • High-control groups often involve:

    • Authoritarian leadership (someone who claims to have the truth, answers, or divine insight)

    • Rigid rules around relationships, sex, gender, identity, or expression

    • Us-vs-them thinking, isolation from family or non-members

    • Emotional or spiritual manipulation, fear-based teachings

    • Love-bombing followed by intense control

    • Suppression of doubt, guilt for questioning, secrecy

    • Demanding full loyalty or obedience to stay in good standing

    This can happen in spiritual or religious groups but also in coaching programs, wellness communities, political spaces, and even families.

  • Yes. You’re welcome here whether you're still involved, recently left, or left years ago. There's no requirement to “be sure.”

  • This is a psychologist’s office, not a spiritual one. That means you’re free to bring in your beliefs, doubts, and spiritual identity without pressure to keep or leave them behind.

Say Hello

Got questions, doubts, or a million tabs open? You’re welcome to get in touch.