http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcece ... /onesself/
Actually, the subtitle I would like to stick on this is *value* your assistance. Do a diploma in counselling and set yourselves up in business. This guy charges $ 100 for the first half an hour assessment ! ... There is gold in them thar cults but what he says is fair enough.
To truly recover from an undue influence situation, most people require specialized cult counseling. Traditional psychotherapy almost never works.
The reason for this, quite simply, is that most therapists are not trained to help someone with mind control and cult-related problems. I cannot tell you how many people have complained to me that they wound up spending their money on therapy sessions in which they had to teach the therapist about cult mind control. It is only after receiving specialized counseling that many come to realize the years of unnecessary suffering they endured. One of the most common complaints I hear from my clients is how their therapist ignored, minimized, or simply did not understand the deception, manipulation and mind control that are hallmarks of the cult experience. Many were mistakenly directed by their therapists to look at childhood issues to explain why they ‘joined’ the cult, ignoring the fact that most members are deceptively recruited. What I have learned as a counselor and ex-member is that dealing with childhood issues is usually best done after dealing with the entire mind control experience.
Many of the individuals I have counseled left the cult or abusive relationship years ago, some as many as 30 years ago, but have suffered from programmed cult beliefs ever since. Ex-members who have not yet gotten effective counseling often experience a variety of psychological and relationship problems—anxiety disorders, panic attacks, sleep disorders, lack of trust, paranoia, feelings of alienation. Untreated, they often become especially vulnerable to the normal stresses of life, such as health problems, the deaths of friends and loved ones, divorce and, especially in recent years, economic pressures and the threat of terrorism. In addition, ex-members are often unconsciously triggered by environmental cues that are part of their left-over cult programming. Some ex-members get to the point that they actually think about returning to the cult, or feel they must seek out some new guru, leader, or group. It takes time and effort to get beyond the black and white, us-versus-them, elitist mentality that cults tend to program into their members.