For Cult or Abusive Relationship Survivors

Upcoming Successful, Small, Personalized, and Secure

 HIPAA-Compliant Zoom Online Workshops/Support Sessions for Former Members of Cults or High Demand Groups or Relationships, Including Those Born and Raised

Alternate Saturdays, 12:00 Noon to 2:00 PM PDT  With exception for holidays

(Please note the time zone)

Facilitators:  Colleen Russell, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT) and Certified Group Psychotherapist(CGP), Licensed since 1992, Area of Expertise in Cult or High Demand Group Education and Recovery, Trauma, and Loss,  and Janja Lalich, PhD, Professor Emerita of Sociology, Co-Author of Take Back Your Life, Recovering From Cults and Abusive Relationships (2006) and Escaping Utopia, Growing Up in a Cult, Getting Out, and Starting Over (2018)

Sharing Wisdom, Challenges, Successes, Supporting One Another in Small Personalized Sessions

About 10 Participants Each Session

These are educational workshops, not therapy groups. 

Educational, supportive, interactive, offering participants opportunities to address issues you want to explore and which are relevant to your life.  We gain support and learn from each other. Topics participants discuss include:

• Healthy and coercive relationships -- all kinds, including family, partner, friends, work
• Who Am I?  Identity Negotiation Prior, During, Post-Cult
• Boundaries, communication, personal rights, and other tools for living
• Communication with parents or other family members still involved
• Intimacy and Trust
• Trauma and PTSD symptoms, triggers, and how to navigate through them
• Coping with the pandemic and poilitical environment
• The "Bounded Choice" model of coercive control and influence
• Freedom from coercive control in groups and relationships
• What former members have found helpful to their recovery
• Evaluating charismatic authorities in your life; red flags and how to protect oneself
• Rules and dynamics of dysfunctional systems in families, relationships, workplaces and other groups
• Ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief
• Disconfirming Inaccurate, self-limiting beliefs from ideologies, family of origin, other relationships
• Physical and psychological process of leaving
• Self-Esteem and Self-Care
• Personal goals, challenges and successes

Upcoming Workshop Schedule 

Alternate Saturdays, January 23rd, February 6th, February 20th, March 6th, March 20th 2021

12:00 Noon to 2:00 PM PT

 Based on participant's requests and needs, each workshop will focus on specific topics participants address for in-depth exploration. Janja and I provide some resources for the upcoming workshop/support session to assist in the discussion and learning opportunity. These resources are sent prior to our workshop session to allow for in-depth discussion.  You can say as much or as little as is comfortable.

 For Parents, Partners, and Family Members Affected by Cults, High Demand Groups, or Abusive Relationships

Facilitators:  Colleen Russell, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT) and Certified Group Psychotherapist(CGP), Licensed since 1992, Area of Expertise in Cult or High Demand Group Education and Recovery, Trauma, and Loss,  and Janja Lalich, PhD, Professor Emerita of Sociology, Co-Author of Take Back Your Life, Recovering From Cults and Abusive Relationships (2006) and Escaping Utopia, Growing Up in a Cult, Getting Out, and Starting Over (2018)

Topics Participants Discuss Include:   

• Self-Care
• Strategic Communication
• "It's Not Your Fault"
• Vulnerability to Recruitment
• Indoctrination/Thought Reform
• Maintaining Positive Rapport if Possible
• Reasons for Leaving
• Process of Recovery
• Disenfranchised Grief

Saturdays, February 13 and February 27, 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM Pacific Time

$150 per person or couple in family Per Session, Five-Minute Break Every Hour

Here are the steps if you are interested:

1)If you are interested in the workshop send me (Colleen) an email: [email protected] so I can review your brief history of how you were affected by coercive control in a cult or high demand group or relationship for screening purposes.

2)I then contact you so you can make a payment of $50 as a former member or $150 for parents, partners or family members via this website "Make a Payment" on the menu.  Please state your name clearly when you pay. Your payment will save your place and I'll add you to the participant list for the upcoming workshop(s).  

3) The day before the scheduled workshop, I will email  PowerPoint resources including the workshop guidelines for your review.

4) On the morning of the workshop, I'll send you a secure link that will take you into the Zoom workshop/support session. Please arrive 5 minutes early so we can start on time.

Workshop Participants' Comments:

"I think I am learning in the group. It's as if we are all wrestle with the same things and imagine writing and fighting and teaching and prosecuting and maybe even erasing it from ourselves. But I think the way forward is with connection and probably just one intimate long term connection. One person who gets it, accepts us and loves us and accepts our love. I don't really think anything else matters more than human connection. We are social. It nurtures our brains. And I like the group because its a place where we see ourselves in others.  Thank you for the group"  (Workshop Participant, 2020)

"I've had individual therapy, but after attending my first workshop I realize that what I need now is learning from the group of former members."

"You and Janja are balancing the complexity of needs in the workshop pristinely!" 

"These workshops are really helpful to me in understanding and processing my experiences in a cult."  

"I don't feel like such an alien, and can openly talk to others who understand." 

"I'm learning how others have survived 'outside' -- and how I can survive."

"I wasn't aware until listening to others in the workshop and reading the educational material you provide, how many  relationships I've been involved in that have been coercive."  

"These workshops have given me invaluable insights."

"Thanks again for last week's meeting.  It was really powerful."

"By having compassion for others in the workshop, hearing their stories, I'm gaining compassion for myself."

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I (Colleen) use secure Zoom with added security.  If you decide to participate, you will need a video camera and speakers for your laptop or desktop and a one-time download of the Zoom app .   Some participants use their IPhones but this is a smaller view.  I will send resources regarding the workshop prior to it for your review and reflection.  Downloading Zoom is easy and free, a one-time process, as are the steps for participation.