I wouldn't stress out too much of trying to educate your therapist. As Awake&Watching stated, it should be your therapists job to do this research. If she is not comfortable with dealing with the cult topic ask her to recommend a therapist that is. You are the client and patient, you have every right to request another therapist or find a new one yourself.
Preparing information about cults and mind control to a therapist...
by confliction 25 Replies latest jw friends
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Lady Lee
confliction
I am with you 100% on giving your therapist information to help her realize the depth of the damage inflicted by cults or high control groups (same thing as far as I and many other professionals are concerned).
The fields of pshycholgy, social work and other counseling professions never touch the issue of spiritual abuse. They leave that to pastoral counselors who don't really deal with it either, mostly because they have their hands full dealing with the average issues that most people suffer from.
Let's say for example you get a counselor that has been working for 10 years. Well 10 years ago it wqas next to impossible to find any literature on cults in academic journals unless it was a The Cultic Studies Journal. No one wanted to talk about it. When I was thinking of doing my masters I wanted a program that would address spiritual abuse issues but no program would do that. Not one and I was living in a city with 4 universities. (McGill being one of them)
I realiazed I would have to design an independant program that would include courses in psychology, sociology, religion, social work, ethics and perhaps some other fields. It was just impossible to come up with a program that all departments would agree to.
IN researching the academic literature there was so little research and information available outside of The Cultic Studies Journal that supprting a thesis would be next to impossible because each department would want some support from their field.
You can find this journal online with many older articles http://www.csj.org/ and their sister site at http://www.icsahome.com/
Find a therapist who has experience can be difficult so good for you for realizing that with the ruight information you can find someone you know you can work with and give her the information he or she needs so you can work effectively together.
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confliction
Thanks Lady Lee, I think that's what I'm trying to say. No matter how experienced of a professional you are, chances are your education hasn't led you through much information regarding the effects of cults- it involves many areas of studies to really understand, like you said.
To all others, the reason I want to use and educate this counselor is because she is the only counselor I can possibly work with right now, due to my situation. I am a teenager, and as such, medical expenses and monitoring fall under my guardians. I just feel that it would appear too suspicious to my mother to try to lie my way making an excuse for another counselor- and she would have to help me in finding the right one anyways.
My mother is a regular pioneer JW, and my dad is an MS.If the idea that I'm looking for a counselor experienced in cult rehabilitation even crosses their mind, I'm in trouble- this is not part of my plan.
Therefore, I'm working with what I do have, and she seems like a caring enough person anyways. I have ready access to her without any fear of parents finding out, because they know I visit her for my "depression". Also, psychological health counselors are under oath to keep private information, private. I can explain to her what will happen to me if she informs my mother, and I want to do this through educating her about the religion and cults in general.
Thus why I'm posting here, lol.Anyways, thank you very much Lady Lee- I will definitely put this to use. Are there any particular things I should emphasize to her when presenting the information? Possibly, creating a summary of cults, compared to JW's, and then presenting references to more in-depth information regarding each subheading in the summary?
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Lady Lee
Take a look at the links I posted above. I think you will find them helpful
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alice.in.wonderland
“I'm currently visiting a psychologist/therapist to help me examine and work through my depression- I've had medical depression/anxiety all of my life.”
A psychologist/therapist doesn't treat medical depression/anxiety, a psychiatrist does. You can learn about your condition here (assuming you actually have one).
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml -
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jamiebowers
If she's rally curious and willing to talk to adults who have stood where you now stand, refer her here. She can ask all of the questions she wants.
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Black Sheep
She can ask all of the questions she wants.
I'm sure Alice would love to set her straight on a few things.
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alice.in.wonderland
http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/fear-cult-mind-control.php
Members of suicide cults and suicide bombers that sacrifice their own life and kill innocent members of the public
jwfacts, this sounds terrible.I've already stated this but there's no scientific evidence for mind control from the angle you are using: a person reads something and they are all of the sudden sucked into a destructive cult that is the equivalent of a vacuum isolated from society.
The world would be a much more precarious place if such a phenomenon did exist. Experimentation involving mind control has been conducted by the Department of Defense and this involved physical environmental factors working on a person's consciousness.
Google: mind control .gov
http://www.dod.gov/pubs/foi/02-A-0846RELEASE.pdf
Experimentation programs conducted by the Department of Defense that had CIA sponsorship or participation and that involved the administration to human subjects of drugs intended for mind-control or behavior-modification purposes
On the subject of Jihadist fundamentalists in the Arab world (suicide bombers): these extremists resort to violence because there are several social and physical environmental factors working on their consciousness.
http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5227
A jihad is a holy war against infidels, which means against anyone who doesn't think Islam is the true religion. Jihad is mentioned numerous times in the Koran. Many of the wars fought right after Islam was established in the seventh century were described as jihads. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the idea of jihad was revived by radicals and used to justify attacks on Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
For a Muslim fundamentalist, jihad is a win-win situation. If you conquer your enemies and live, Allah will give you the spoils of victory. If you die, you die a martyr and go to a blissful afterlife.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/sep2001/terr-s12.shtml
These acts of homicidal terrorism manifest a toxic combination of demoralized pessimism, religious and ultra-nationalist obscurantism, and, it must be added, political opportunism of the vilest character. Terrorist organizations—notwithstanding their anti-American rhetoric—base their tactics on the illusion that random acts of horrific violence will compel the US ruling class to shift its policies. Thus, in the final analysis, they hope to make a deal with Washington.
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In addition, longstanding poverty and victimization from tyrannical governments exacts a potent motivating force that drives a terrorist's agenda.
The reason the vast majority of Muslims in the US and other developed nations (even though they may have read the modern Jihadist agenda popularized by Osama bin Laden) don't randomly blow themselves up, is because they have access to enlightenment, opportunity and prosperity.Obscurantism (darkening) is the practice of deliberately preventing the facts or the full details of some matter from becoming known.
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jwfacts
Members of suicide cults and suicide bombers that sacrifice their own life and kill innocent members of the public
jwfacts, this sounds terrible.I've already stated this but there's no scientific evidence for mind control from the angle you are using: a person reads something and they are all of the sudden sucked into a destructive cult that is the equivalent of a vacuum isolated from society.
Goodness me Alice, you seem intent on taking things out of context. The first sentence you quote makes no sense without the preceding sentence. Also, you either did not read the article at all, or you deliberately are trying to be inflammatory when saying "all of the sudden sucked into...", as that is exactly the opposite point being made in the article.
A psychologist/therapist doesn't treat medical depression/anxiety, a psychiatrist does. You can learn about your condition here (assuming you actually have one).
That is not correct either. Both treat depression but in different ways.
And why do you make comments such as "assuming you actually have one"? It is as if you go out of your way to start an argument just so you can then play the victim.