Recognizing these patterns may make the reader less vulnerable to cult recruitment in the first. Exit loan counseling is required for all students who are either graduating or withdrawing from the university. While that may be a desired outcome, the purpose is to give the group member the information that enables them to make a fully informed choice. Cult leaders commonly make outlandish claims or appear to have paranormal powers like telepathy, bilocation, spirit contact, mental healing, teleportation, and so on. Exit counseling is required even if the student begins a new program of study the next semester. Deprogramming and exit counseling, sometimes seen as one and the same, are distinct approaches to convincing a person to leave a cult. Student borrowers who are graduating, leaving school, or dropping below halftime enrollment are required to complete exit counseling. Even if you plan to enroll again, loan exit counseling at the time you take a break from your education beyond summer term provides valuable information on your loans. Skeptical societies and research by scientists regarding paranormal claims and events are valuable resources for exit counselors who deconstruct cult activity for their clients. Who i am rosanne henry, lpc, psychotherapy and also cult. That said, bonnie does not ram anything down your throat thank god.
Exit counseling can help you readjust to life outside the cult. The cult mind control model assumes that a combination of pressure and deception necessarily disables personal responsibility. Social control in scientology carnegie mellon school of. Fact support services families against cult teachings and. Deprogramming providing members with information about the cult and showing them how their own decisionmaking power had been taken away from them exit counseling, is an intervention designed to persuade an individual to leave a group perceived to be a cult. Author bonnie zieman was born and raised as a jehovahs witness, leaving after thirty years to gain the higher education that she was denied and build. But when it comes to providing help to individuals in the process of exiting and recovering from the effects of membership in the cult, few compare with exiting the jw cult. Counseling and support for friends and family of cult members. What is your position on deprogramming or exit counseling. Steven works continually to develop further as a cult expert. Frequently asked questions about exit counseling q.
Exit counseling provides you with contact information for your loan servicer. Direct loan exit counseling guide the art institutes. Counseling is a process that can be done in varying environments and processes which depends on the reason why counseling has been deemed necessary. A recent christian research journal article on exit counseling angered many exit counselors in large part because it failed to stress the distinctions between exit counseling and deprogramming. Exit counseling provides important information to prepare you to repay your federal student loans. As they recognize the deceptive, stepatatime influence program that led them into the group, they will be less hard on themselves. Federal student loan borrowers are required to complete exit counseling before they graduate, leave school, or drop below halftime enrollment in preparation for repayment. In exit counseling, counselors help the cult members loved ones find the most effective way to reach the member, who may not willingly communicate with people outside the cult. This allows the department of education to confirm. Dec 29, 2005 exit counseling is a voluntary approach to helping those involved in cults make informed decisions about their group affiliation. Il a evolue aux etatsunis vers une procedure appelee exit counseling. Becoming informed is the first step to finding your way out of a destructive cult, and the path to helping your loved ones escape. Exit counseling provides important information you will need as you prepare to repay your federal student loans.
Note, however, that some counselors claim exit counseling can be either voluntary or involuntary. Steven hassan, cult counselor and mind control expert, explains his breakthrough approach to help loved ones rescue cult mind control victims. Pdf gillie jenkinson describes the sophisticated techniques used by cults to. We do endorse voluntary counseling that encourages and facilitates independent, critical thinking.
Workshop for former cult members who were parents in the cult lorna goldberg only former members of cultic groups who were parents in the cult may attend this session. Turn in pages 19, 21, 22 of exit counseling guide if you dont have all the information with you, turn it in to. Today most professionals engaged in cult intervention work prefer other labels to describe their work. If individuals choose to stay involved with the cult after exit counseling sessions, they are free to do so.
When counselling this type of excultist, it is important not to assume that he has any real understanding of the of the group he has just left. Psychotherapy with former cult members by patrick oreilly a specialist in cults discusses a reallife example of a former cult members struggle to recover from his traumatic experiences within the group, and offers treatment advice for this unusual and challenging population. Exit counseling requirements student loan repayment. Its normal for them to think often about various experiences from cult days and sometimes feel as they felt back in the cult. Park cities combining identity development theory and trauma counseling in helping heal sgas cyndi matthews hillcrest thursday 30 june 2016 continued 12. In other words, all concerned parties, including the cult member and her family and friends, meet voluntarily with an exit counselor for an agreedupon length of. Therefore, unlike many other websites that deal with the issues we address, many topics on this site include links to christian, nonchristian and secular. Colorado organization of victim assistance conference beaver creek. Exit counseling guide for federal student loan borrowers. A walkaway is a cult member who has left a cult without having had any form of counselling to provoke the exit from the cult.
From deprogramming to exit counseling to thought reform. Please check with your school to see how paper or web it expects. The long hours are due to the depth and challenge of the topic for all involved and not because anyone wants to. Exit counseling for federal loans financial aid office. Each loan counseling session takes approximately 25 minutes to complete, and uc will receive record of your successful completion within 48 hours. Cult exit counseling in a voluntary process often takes several days of up to 10 to 16 hours a day of open dialog and information sharing to succeed. It is used instead of the controversial process of involuntary deprogramming, which involves coercion note, however, that some counselors claim exit counseling can be either voluntary or involuntary. Exit counseling leaves out the kidnapping and focuses instead on employing psychological techniques that might get the cult member to voluntarily submit to debriefing. In both exit counseling and thought reform consulting, the purpose of the intervention is not to get someone out of a cult.
This includes many trained professionals, but also many lay people who may or may not be skilled in counseling techniques. This allows the department of education to confirm that you are receiving up to date information on your. Your loan servicer is the company that you will make payments to and who you should contact if you need to change your repayment plan. Families against cult teachings is a nonprofit 501c3 that raises awareness and educates the public about dangerous cults, provides victim support in various capacities like intervention services and rehabilitation, in addition to many other anti cult related activities. Exit counselors guide the family in the most effective ways to get a cult member to communicate with outsiders. If the total amount you receive over the course of your education reaches. During these meetings, exit counselors might provide educational material about a given cult, facilitate a discussion of family matters and try to assess relevant identity issues. Counseling and support for friends and family of cult. Direct loan exit counseling guide federal student aid. Intervention index, deprogramming, exit counseling please see our new site.
Families against cult teachings is a nonprofit 501c3 that raises awareness and educates the public about dangerous cults, provides victim support in various capacities like intervention services and rehabilitation, in addition to many other anticult related activities. If you were in the cult for a long time, or if youre having severe emotional withdrawals, a counselor will be able to help you change your thought patterns and live independently. Exit counseling can be completed on paper or on the web. The exit processes for federal direct and perkins loans are different and explained below. Many were generalists, counseling cultists and families across america and, increasingly, in other countries. Suspicions about the deprogramming manuals authenticity quickly surfaced in. But it is possible too, i would hope, that these models may sensitize any reader to recognize them if such types of experience occur in his or her own life. In short, exit counseling is a session loan students are required to do whenever their loans enter grace period. In other words, all concerned parties, including the cult member and her family and friends, meet voluntarily with an exit counselor for an agreedupon length of time. Often at the request of family members who believe the cult member is being. For example, exit counseling, thought reform consultation, or.
The long hours are due to the depth and challenge of the topic for all involved and not because anyone wants to work that long on any given day. The problem with exit counselling is that former cult members must forge their own path, which automatically makes most of this book useless. It is used instead of the controversial process of involuntary deprogramming, which involves coercion. The term deprogramming was coined in the 1970s, when the emergence of new religious movements peaked across the usa.
During exit counseling, families should be told that floating is likely to occur for a time after the cult member leaves the group. Exit counselor hassan recognizes that the cult mind control model which he has adopted is incompatible with the traditional philosophical and christian view of man as a responsible moral agent. Help for victims of psychological and spiritual abuse, edited by michael d. It is also acceptable to email exit counseling information to the students personal not school email address. Cults and the mindbody connection psychology today. Exit counseling is required even if the student transfers to another school and is enrolled at least halftime there. Subsidized and unsubsidized loans, or the pdf version of the federal direct plus loan master promissory note mpn for a graduateprofessional student. In fact, the desire for a quick and easy recovery may be in itself a residual effect of the cult. Cult expert steven hassans freedom of mind resource center. Hassan has appeared on the tv news programs 60 minutes, nightline, and. Part of exit counseling and the subsequent psychoeducational work is helping former cult members analyze their involvement. The vast majority of ex cult counselors are associated with for the most part christian countercult organizations and ministries of which there are over 700 in the u. Exit counselors we talked with, many of them onetime sect members themselves who had gone on to acquire clinical training and credentials, were testing a wide range of eclectic approaches, some more successful, some less so.
An exit counselors perspective by carol giambalvo, in recovery from cults. Based on the information provided to them, most cult members will then make a decision on whether to stay involved with the group or leave. Description cult mind control is a real and serious phenomenon. Fact support services families against cult teachings. The act of counseling allows individuals to reflect about their actions and behavior and how these affect people, procedures, or even a companys operations. They are advised to exmember to talk about and deal with these episodes. Often guised as an intervention, deprogramming was the practice of convincing cult members to renounce their groups ideology using whatever methods were deemed necessary. While we recognize that some movements employ psychological manipulation tactics in their efforts to maintain members, we do not endorse or practice deprogramming either voluntary or involuntary we have never engaged in deprogramming. In fact, the name cult deprogramming itself has become something of a politically incorrect term. This includes socalled exit counseling, particularly as offered by those counselors who subscribe to the ethical guidelines for thought reform consultants. For other sources of useful information, please check out the exit zone projects index. Because some persons who perform deprogrammings like to call themselves exit counselors, the two terms are sometimes confused. Below are the links based on your classification in which you may access an online exit loan couseling session.
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