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When you've come out of a high-control group or a harmful religious environment, one of the hardest parts can be finding words for what happened. This free guide brings together the key terms and concepts used in religious trauma and cult recovery spaces, explained in plain language.
It covers what religious trauma is, how it differs from other forms of trauma, and what a religious trauma response can look like in everyday life. It also defines cults and totalistic groups, including those organised around political, commercial, wellness and therapeutic ideologies, and the tactics they use to recruit and keep members.
Terms include:
Spiritual abuse, religious abuse and spiritual trauma
Adverse Religious Experiences (AREs), purity culture and eternal conscious torment
Deconstruction, moral injury and post-religious identity crisis
Spiritual fawning, spiritual bypassing and religious OCD (scrupulosity)
Undue influence, thought reform, information control and lovebombing
Exit trauma and second-generation harm
These definitions reflect how the concepts are commonly understood in trauma-informed and survivor-informed spaces, and they're offered as a starting point. Use what fits your experience and leave the rest.
When you've come out of a high-control group or a harmful religious environment, one of the hardest parts can be finding words for what happened. This free guide brings together the key terms and concepts used in religious trauma and cult recovery spaces, explained in plain language.
It covers what religious trauma is, how it differs from other forms of trauma, and what a religious trauma response can look like in everyday life. It also defines cults and totalistic groups, including those organised around political, commercial, wellness and therapeutic ideologies, and the tactics they use to recruit and keep members.
Terms include:
Spiritual abuse, religious abuse and spiritual trauma
Adverse Religious Experiences (AREs), purity culture and eternal conscious torment
Deconstruction, moral injury and post-religious identity crisis
Spiritual fawning, spiritual bypassing and religious OCD (scrupulosity)
Undue influence, thought reform, information control and lovebombing
Exit trauma and second-generation harm
These definitions reflect how the concepts are commonly understood in trauma-informed and survivor-informed spaces, and they're offered as a starting point. Use what fits your experience and leave the rest.