ABSTRACT

There are many different ways in which minority religions and counselling may interact. In some cases there can be antagonism between counselling services and minority religions, with each suspecting they are ideologically threatened by the other, but it can be argued that the most common relationship is one of ignorance – mental health professionals do not pay much attention to religion and often do not ask or consider their client’s religious affiliation. To date, the understanding of this relationship has focused on the ‘anti-cult movement’ and the perceived need for members of minority religions to undergo some form of ‘exit counselling’. In line with the series, this volume takes a non-judgemental approach and instead highlights the variety of issues, religious groups and counselling approaches that are relevant at the interface between minority religion and counselling.

The volume is divided into four parts: Part I offers perspectives on counselling from different professions; Part II offers chapters from the field leaders directly involved in counselling former members of minority religions; Part III offers unique personal accounts by members and former members of a number of different new religions; while Part IV offers chapters on some of the most pertinent current issues in the counselling/minority religions fields, written by new and established academics. In every section, the volume seeks to explore different permutations of the counsellor-client relationship when religious identities are taken into account. This includes not only ‘secular’ therapists counselling former members of religion, but the complexities of the former member turned counsellor, as well as counselling practised both within religious movements and by religious movements that offer counselling services to the ‘outside’ world.

chapter 1|16 pages

Minority religions and counselling

An overview

part I|45 pages

Perspectives on counselling

part II|47 pages

Practitioners’ approaches

chapter 6|16 pages

The psychological development and consequences of involvement with new religious movements

Counselling issues for members, former members and families

chapter 7|14 pages

Show the fly the way out of the fly bottle

Using art and philosophy to counsel those impacted by controversial new social movements

part III|79 pages

Member and former member experiences

chapter 9|13 pages

Scientology auditing

Pastoral counselling or a religious path to total spiritual freedom

chapter 12|7 pages

Scammers or saviours?

part IV|45 pages

Some current issues in the counselling field

chapter 14|16 pages

Emotional exchange

Anxiety to hope in two new religious movements

chapter 15|14 pages

Attachment

Buddha and Bowlby

chapter 16|15 pages

Twelve step mutual aid

Spirituality, vulnerability and recovery