High Control Groups

About this event

Please note that there is the option to attend online or face-to-face.

Increasing numbers of people are leaving high-control groups (commonly referred to as cults). Given worldwide recent developments and investigations of some of these groups, e.g. the Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in England and Wales and similar inquiries set in countries including Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, paired with clear evidence that leaving a highly controlled religious environment can impact psychological wellbeing, ‘Religious Trauma Syndrome’ (Winell, 2011), it is important that professionals have knowledge about the lived experience of former members and an understanding of the social environment which they previously inhabited.

Various forms and sizes of high-control groups and relationships exist, spanning from one-to-one high-control relationships, for example domestic abuse, to religious high control groups and secular groups, such as political or commercial groups.

The focus of this course lies predominantly on understanding religious…