WHAT ARE YOUR QUALIFICATIONS FOR CULT COUNSELING?

First, I'm a licensed therapist in New York State. I have been trained — and have successfully treated — post-traumatic stress and personality disorders that are common among cult veterans.

Next, in the past 12 years, I've counseled over 2,000 current and former members of cults over the Internet, the phone, and in person.

I also have significant personal experience. When I was younger, I belonged to what the field refers to as an "Eastern Meditation Cult." Since leaving that organization in 1995, I have counseled individuals struggling to define their relationships with groups they consider cultic.

Finally, I'm the founder of trancenet.net and a co-founder of TM-Free Blog, critical Internet resources on organizations that critics consider cultic.

An Important Note about Exit Counseling
You may have heard about "deprogramming,"exit counseling," or "strategic intervention therapy."

"Deprogramming" was a term that referred to interventions by professional deprogrammers. Usually hired by the cult member's family, deprogramers attempted to forcefully remove members from groups considered cultic. It is largely not practiced anymore.

The practice "exit counseling" — or "strategic intervention therapy" — has replaced deprogramming. Exit counseling is most often a specific procedure for assisting cult members to make the initial decision to leave a cult and to ease them back into mainstream society. It requires special training — and practitioners may have credentials from the International Cultic Studies Association. If you or someone you know needs to work with an exit counselor, I provide links and contact information here.

I am not trained as an exit counselor and do not practice exit counseling. As a licensed psychotherapist, I specialize in counseling individuals who have already left their cult but who continue to experience difficulty functioning in their daily lives due to their experiences while in their cult. My clients may experience depression, anger, post-traumatic stress, self-defeating behaviors, difficulties with intimacy with others, financial dysfunction, or other challenges — even years after leaving.

People who have been in cults frequently have difficulty reaching out to professionals for help. Your group may have treated psychotherapists as taboo. Or perhaps members with health or mental health issues were abandoned by the cult, making it difficult for you to ask for help. Or you may have the natural human tendency to feel you're not the one with the problem, the cult had the problem — so you don't need counseling. I ask you to consider that people who have the courage to turn to others for help recover most quickly and completely.

If you believe you had a cultic relationship with an organization and continue to have difficulties, please consider contacting me. I'll make an appointment for an initial consultation. Together we'll explore whether I am the right therapist to help you find solutions to your problems.