Getting help with leaving your religion
International resources
- Spiritual Abuse Resources (SAR) www.spiritualabuseresources.com
- Faith to Faithless – provides advocacy, public awareness and support for ex-religious people. www.faithtofaithless.com
- International Cultic Studies Association – provides information, education, and help to those adversely affected by or interested in cultic and other high-control groups and relationships. www.icsahome.com
- Recovering from Religion – an international non-profit organization. www.recoveringfromreligion.org
- The Secular Therapy Project will connect you with a therapist who will offer only evidence-based and non-religious treatment. www.recoveringfromreligion.org/the-secular-therapy
- RfRx Talks, which take place every Monday evening, feature a wide variety of speakers including survivors of religious abuse, and leading experts in religious trauma recovery, relationships, grieving, and more. https://recoveringfromreligion.org/rfrx
- SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) – support group for people wounded by religious and institutional authorities (priests, ministers, bishops, deacons, nuns, coaches, teachers, and others). www.snapnetwork.org
- The Tyler Clementi Foundation: True Faith Doesn’t Bully https://tylerclementi.org/true-faith/
- Beyond Ex-gay Resources. https://beyondexgay.com
- Daniel Enstedt, Göran Larsson, and Teemu T. Mantsinen, editors (2019), The Handbook of Leaving Religion. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion, Volume: 18.
ISBN: 978-9004331471 (eBook) / 978-9004330924 (hardback)
Available for download: https://brill.com/view/title/33911
In the USA and Canada
- What is Spiritual Abuse? [National Domestic Violence Hotline] (US) www.thehotline.org/resources/what-is-spiritual-abuse/
- Footsteps – a non-profit organization which supports people leaving Haredi or Hasidic Jewish communities in the USA. www.footstepsorg.org
- Indian Residential School Survivors Society – a website for Indigenous survivors of residential schools, also known as industrial schools. www.irsss.ca
- Survivors of Independent Schools Coalition Canada – A survivor-led coalition dedicated to truth, accountability, and lasting change for those harmed by Canada’s independent schools. https://siscc.ca/
In the UK
- Jenkinson, Gillian (2016) Freeing the authentic self: phases of recovery and growth from an abusive cult experience. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37507/
- Hope Valley Counselling resources: www.hopevalleycounselling.com/resources
- Hope Valley Counselling services: www.hopevalleycounselling.com/services
- To Think Again – Reclaiming lives from coercive control and psychological abuse in destructive cults and relationships. www.tothinkagain.co.uk
- Checklist of cult characteristics – www.icsahome.com/articles/characteristics
- Gillie Jenkinson (2019), Out in the World: Post-Cult Recovery, Therapy Today. www.academia.edu/38689948/Out_in_the_World_Post-Cult_Recovery
- The House of Survivors – a website for survivors of spiritual abuse and clerical abuse in the Church of England. https://houseofsurvivors.org/
