Cult Trauma Needs a Different Lens: An Introduction to Cult-Informed Therapy

Oct 7

2 min read

Mark Ottley is a registered Clinical Psychologist and National Psychology Lead for Habit Health. He is also an active member of the Cult-Informed Professional Network (CIPN).

Cults and coercive groups can be difficult subjects to talk about and understand from within conventional mental health practice. When people leave these groups, they may present to psychologists, counsellors, social workers and other health professionals with experiences that, to the health practitioner, are unfamiliar, complex and sometimes easily misunderstood.

That is one of the reasons I have been involved in developing and presenting training for health professionals on cultic and coercive dynamics, their psychological impacts, and therapeutic approaches for survivors.

Beyond defining what constitutes a "cult", the more important question is what happens to people when they become embedded in systems characterised by coercive control, manipulation, isolation, dependency and profound changes in how they understand themselves and the world around them.

These experiences can have consequences long after someone has left. Survivors may struggle with relationships, identity, trust, anxiety, guilt, shame, decision-making, sexuality, spirituality, or simply knowing how to live independently. Many have difficulty making sense of what happened to them, particularly when the experience involved people and beliefs that were once central to their lives.

A person may arrive in therapy with symptoms that look familiar, after sexual abuse for example, but the context that produced or maintained those difficulties is anything but familiar. We can risk missing the mechanisms that matter. Worse, well-intentioned interventions can sometimes inadvertently reproduce aspects of the control, invalidation or loss of autonomy that the person has already experienced.

This is why I think professionals need a better understanding of coercive and cultic environments, not to impose a particular interpretation on someone's experience, but to develop the knowledge and clinical sensitivity to recognise when these dynamics may be relevant.

The 50 minute training video below, created by Mark, is aimed at mental health professionals. In it Mark further explores the complexity of the post-cult recovery experience, describing a structured approach to supporting cult survivors in therapy. It is an excerpt from a workshop he co-presented to the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists in Christchurch in Nov 2025.

The video covers core concepts to help therapists gain understanding of coercive and cultic dynamics, what survivors may experience after leaving, and some of the implications and interventions for responsive therapeutic practice.

A significant amount of the content of the video is based on and uses images from the PhD work of Dr Gillie Jenkinson, who has written a workbook for therapists and clients called "Walking Free from the Trauma of Coercive, Cultic and Spiritual Abuse: A Workbook for Recovery and Growth". Mark attended one of Dr Jenkinson's workshops when she came to New Zealand in 2024.