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Resources for Therapists

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Cracking the Cult Code for Therapists: What Cult Victims Want Their Therapist to Know

Have you been wanting to find a therapist to help you with your recovery from your years in a cult? Perhaps you found a therapist only to discover once working with them that the therapist had little, if any, understanding of the dynamics and controls experienced in cults, nor the emotional after-effects of having been deceived, controlled, exploited and shunned? It seems you are not alone.

Every week in FB groups for cult survivors you can read reports from frustrated therapy clients describing how their therapist, although well-intentioned, really has no idea what their client has been through in a cult, and sometimes even seem to minimize or discount it.

My book, “Cracking the Cult Code for Therapists: What Every Cult Victim Wants Their Therapist to Know”, has been a welcome resource for therapists as they find themselves working with more and more with this unique and growing client population.

As well as therapists, if you as a former member of a cult would like to offer your therapist a comprehensive understanding of cult dynamics, their abuses, and the ensuing psychological effects, check out this book on Amazon HERE.

Friends and family members unfamiliar with cults and the psychological aftermath of being a member can also better understand what their loved one has endured and the challenges they now face, by reading this book.

If you don’t feel you need to share a book with your therapist to help bring them up to speed on the damaging effects of cult abuse, you can still download my free two-page document that offers a brief overview of how cults operate and the damage they do to members’ emotions, self-esteem and sense of competence in the world HERE. Of course, a more comprehensive description is offered in the book.

Testimonial

“Bonnie Zieman has created an easy to understand, quick reference tool [Cracking the Cult Code for Therapists: What Every Cult Victim Wants Their Therapist to Know] to help therapists understand clients who have cult involvement… Each chapter defines the techniques used and the effects on the person. She pulls together research to define a cult and their techniques, and uses examples from various cults to illustrate her points.

“Zieman discusses the after-effects of love-bombing, isolation, identity formation, control, threats, fears and repression of needs, and much more. She does a good job explaining the differing needs of people who join cults as adults and those who are born in. She does not tell therapists how to treat the client, but shows them the possible issues that may need to be addressed during the therapeutic process. This book can be given to therapists by ex-cult members to ease the transition into therapy.

“I hope this book becomes mandatory reading for students preparing to join the ranks of therapists…”  ~ Amazon Customer

The Challenge to Heal

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It’s been two years since my first book “Exiting the JW Cult: A Healing Handbook” was released. So much positive feedback about this book has been received since its publication. Nothing is more satisfying than hearing how much this book has helped people recover from the consequences of being deceived, controlled and then once they dare to leave that particular cult, shunned.

The response has made all the work involved in writing and publishing the book so worthwhile! Some individuals appreciated the book so much that they came back and purchased 5 and 10 books at a time, with one person even purchasing 25 copies of the book! Now that’s positive feedback! Thank you everyone for your support and invariably positive feedback.

I’m excited to announce a revised and expanded version of “Exiting the JW Cult”. The new book is entitled, “The Challenge to Heal – A Recovery Guide to help reclaim your life after leaving any high-control group.”

This new book does not negate the value of “Exiting the JW Cult”, and if you have that original book you have a great recovery guide and do not need to purchase this new book, unless upon viewing the new Table of Contents, you decide there is new and valuable information you wish to access.

Here are three paragraphs from the Preface to the new book which describe its evolution and application: “This book is a revised and expanded version of one of my previous books entitled, “Exiting the JW Cult: A Healing Handbook”. While that book has been well-received by its niche market of current and former members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses pseudo-religious sect, feedback was received from a highly-respected anti-undue-influence activist expressing disappointment that the book had been designed for victims of only one high-control group instead of offering the vital recovery information to the entire spectrum of victims of coercive groups around the globe.

The rationale for the original book had been to write for victims of the cult with which I was most familiar – the one in which I had spent thirty long years – before leaving, attending university and becoming a psychotherapist. The feedback about adapting the original book for all who have suffered at the hands of high-control groups had merit – thus this revised and expanded version entitled, “The Challenge to Heal”.

“The Challenge to Heal” is, for all intents and purposes, a new book. It has eight new chapters and most chapters still included from the other book have been edited and/or expanded. “The Challenge to Heal” addresses several topics in greater depth, including: fear, anger, loneliness, trust, grief, suicide, forgiveness, learned helplessness, the hero’s journey and psychotherapy – which are not included in any significant measure in the other book. There are also many new tips in Chapter 20 of this book on how to manage the difficult situations and emotional states that arise after being deceived, coerced, exploited, controlled and even ostracized.

The Challenge to Heal is designed as a psychoeducational resource for people who have endured and escaped traumatic, challenging situations in: radical extremist groups, terrorist cells, counterculture communes, Eastern religion cults, multi-marketing schemes, polygamist sects, fundamentalist religious factions, radical political movements, sex-trafficking rings, racial supremacist groups, extremist human potential movements, rehab/therapy cults, new age cults, cults of personality, human trafficking organizations, criminal gangs, high-control abusive relationships, etc.”

The above pictured, revised, and expanded book contains 280 pages packed full of helpful information for recovery from coercive controls of any kind. “The Challenge to Heal – A Recovery Guide to help reclaim your life after leaving any high-control group” is now available on Amazon.com in both Kindle and print versions.

The companion volume to the above book (pictured to the right) is now available and entitled: “The Challenge to Heal Workbook & Journal“.  It is an 8.5″ x 11”, lined workbook based on “The Challenge to Heal“.   Check it out here.