Find Connection & Understanding

Our peer support groups are for anyone who has experienced religious trauma, cult involvement, or high-control group harm, regardless of the type of group, their faith background, or where they are in their recovery. Whether you left last month or last decade, whether you have language for what happened or are still searching for it, these groups are designed to offer a space where your experience is recognised, your story is believed, and you are not navigating this alone.

Available online for people across Australia and New Zealand.

Who Are These Groups For?

A green fern plant in a dark green pot on a small wooden stool with black metal legs, placed against a white paneled wall. A colorful rainbow decoration leans against the wall on a ledge above the plant.

Our support groups are for anyone experiencing:

  • Religious or spiritual trauma

  • Cult involvement or cultic group dynamics

  • Coercive control or high-control environments, religious or non-religious

  • Faith-based pressure, fear, guilt, or shame

  • Loss of identity, belonging, or community after leaving a group

  • Deconstruction and identity rebuilding

  • Confusion, grief, or internal conflict related to your group experience

  • Spiritual abuse, purity culture harm, or indoctrination

  • The long-term impact of growing up in a high-control environment

You do not need a specific story or a particular level of trauma to belong here. These groups welcome people at every stage of recovery, from those who have only recently left, to those who left years ago and are still making sense of the impact.

Practical Details

Duration: 6 weeks
Session Length: 90 minutes (online)
Closed Group Size: 6–8 participants (no new members join after Week 1)
Cost: $50 per week ($100 deposit + $200 due the week before groups begin) Payment plans are available on request

These groups are peer support, not therapy; if you're looking for one-on-one clinical support, our practitioner directory can help you find someone.

Meet Your Facilitators

“Sam's groups have a kind of quiet steadiness to them; being structured enough to feel safe, but never so tight that there's no room for movement. She brings genuine warmth and a good dose of humour to the work, which helps to make the heavier conversations a little more possible. People often describe feeling truly heard in her groups; not analysed or steered, just met where they are. Sam draws on her own lived experience alongside her facilitation training, and has a particular gift for holding space without rushing it. Expect honesty, the occasional laugh, and the feeling that you can finally say the thing you haven't quite been able to say out loud yet.”

Sam Sellers

Close-up of a woman smiling, wearing black glasses, a nose ring, and earrings, with brunette hair with red tips, dressed in a cream-colored collared shirt. Sam Sellers

"If you have ever wanted a support group that feels less like a formal session and more like a real conversation with someone who genuinely gets it, that is what Elise brings. Her facilitation style is warm, casual, and grounded, creating space where people feel comfortable enough to show up as they actually are rather than how they think they are supposed to be. Elise brings her own lived experience of high-control religious environments alongside her professional training, which means she can sit with the complexity and the parts that are hard to explain without rushing toward resolution. Expect honesty, care, and a lot of room to breathe.”

Elise Heerde

Close-up of a young woman with long brown hair, wearing glasses and a white button-up shirt, smiling at the camera in a well-lit room. Elise Heerde

Express Your Interest

A bouquet of white daisies with yellow centers in a glass vase.

Online Open Peer Support Group

A monthly online space for people recovering from religious trauma and cultic harm.

Sometimes you just need to show up with whatever's on your mind and sit with people who get it.

This monthly 90-minute monthly online support group is a space to bring your questions, your story, or whatever you're processing right now. There's no agenda, no expectation to share, just connection with others who have lived experience of religious trauma or cultic harm.

Whether you're newly out, still unpacking years later, or somewhere in between, this group is for you.

How It Works

  • Max 10 people - small enough to stay intimate and real

  • Register below for the month you want to attend

  • 90 minutes of connection from the comfort of your own space

  • $50 AUD per session and open to those is Australia & New Zealand

Sunlight streams through a window, illuminating a cozy interior filled with numerous houseplants on shelves and on the floor, including a potted fern, pothos, and other leafy plants. A black cat with glowing eyes is standing on wooden floorboards near a blue upholstered sofa and a woven rattan ottoman. A wooden shelf with books and potted plants is mounted on a dark blue wall.

Therapeutic Benefits of a Support Group

Understand What Happened

Make sense of coercive control, indoctrination, purity culture, and fear-based systems through trauma frameworks.

Reduce Shame

Share experiences in a community that reflects compassion instead of judgement.

Rebuild Identity & Belonging

Explore who you are outside religious expectations or control.

Feel Less Alone

Meet others who “get it” without needing long explanations or caveats.

Build Nervous System Awareness

Learn grounding, regulation, and safety-building tools that support recovery.

Create New Patterns of Connection

Practice boundaries, communication, and self-trust in a supportive environment.

Move Toward Life Beyond Trauma

Begin imagining and embodying a future shaped by autonomy not fear.

How We Create Safety in Every Group

Morning sunlight streams through a window, casting shadows of a coffee mug and a plant on a wooden table, with a cityscape in the background.

Trauma-Informed Foundations

  • You choose how much or how little you share.

  • You can take breaks or regulate as needed.

  • Facilitators help pace conversations to minimise overwhelm.

Confidentiality & Respect

  • What is shared in the group stays in the group.

  • No recording or screenshots - ever.

  • Participants speak from their own experience; no unsolicited advice.

Spiritual Safety

  • No proselytising, debate, or attempts to correct others’ beliefs.

  • All experiences are respected, whether you have left your group entirely, are still navigating your relationship with the group, or are somewhere in between.

LGBTQIA+ Affirming & Inclusive

  • The RTC affirms all identities.

  • Misgendering or exclusionary comments are not tolerated.

Online Safety

  • All participants attend from a private space where they feel safe to share.

These guidelines ensure that the group feels predictable, inclusive, grounded, and respectful for all participants.

Ready to Join a Group?

If you would like to register your interest in one or more groups, head to the form below. You can select which groups feel most relevant to you, and we will be in touch once numbers are confirmed and a group is ready to run.

You don’t have to navigate this alone. We’re here, and there’s a group waiting to welcome you.