cult life
-
I am thrilled to announce here that I have officially published my first book! The Journey Back to Self: A Beginner’s Guide to Recovery from Cultic & Narcissistic Abuse is available in print and ebook on a variety of platforms. You can find it here: The Journey Back to Self At the heart of this…
-
Hi folks, This is a scary one for me. I’m used to sharing some of my innermost thoughts and feelings here with you (all nine of my readers 🤣) but I’m not used to asking for help, especially from so many people. It’s been three years since I escaped the high control group and began…
-
Giving up is given such a bad rap. We’re continually admonished to “hang in there” and “don’t give up!” Certainly, these words of encouragement are designed to bolster our flagging spirits and push us through to the finish line. It is the “western culture’s” way: to just keep pushing. Often, there is no other choice…
-
[This is the second in a three-part series. I recommend that you read Part 1 first.] Work Days in the Life: I first came to work at the pet store in June of 2017. It was Keefy himself who suggested the idea. The store was owned by three of my friends (a husband, wife and…
-
[We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for this special anniversary post.] June 4th, 2023 It’s 7 pm on a Sunday evening and I’m sitting in my arm chair, laptop in my lap, candle flickering across the room, easy tunes playing in the background. My little apartment is tiny, but so cozy, and the natural light…
-
If you’re wondering what it’s like to be in a high control group or relationship, the first thing to know is that words cannot actually give the experience. It is an all-consuming way of life that impacts your being on every single level: physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual and physiological – all at the same time,…
-
When my sister reached out to me in an email in late Fall of 2020, my heart quickened in my chest. Once every year or two, she would throw out some little message or feeler. For the last decade, I had rarely responded, and the few times I did, the exchange was brief. It had…
-
I half-stood, half-slumped in the middle of his office, sobbing in his arms. He’d stood up in the midst of my confession, spreading his arms wide in an invitation to embrace. With great hesitance, weighed down by shame, I pulled myself up off the couch to meet his invitation with proper response. As soon as…
-
When I met the life coach, who would ultimately claim to be my “teacher,” in 2008, he offered me spiritual and metaphysical answers for every confusion, every fear, every doubt and every hurt I had ever experienced. He told me grand stories of his life and all the trials he had traversed. I learned that…
-
Between the ages of 9 and 18, I saw so many unusual things, interacted with people from almost every walk of life and coped with innumerable harrowing situations. Like the time my family was doing a Sunday morning outreach at the homeless shelter in downtown Savannah, right after we moved there… I was 13 years…
The Journey 