Cult Exit Counselling Ethics Research
Exit Counselling for Adults: Are We Repeating the Same Coercive Patterns?
When adults leave high-control groups, the support they receive can either restore their autonomy or unintentionally replicate the coercive dynamics they have just escaped.
This research paper examines the ethics of cult exit counselling and asks a confronting question of the field: are our own practices free of the patterns we help clients recover from?
Why This Research Matters
Exit counselling, deprogramming, and cult recovery work have evolved considerably over recent decades, yet the ethical frameworks guiding this work have not always kept pace.
Practitioners supporting former members of cults, high-control religious groups, and coercive organisations navigate complex questions of compromised voluntariness, informed consent, and adult safeguarding.
Without clear ethical guardrails, well-intentioned intervention risks substituting one form of undue influence for another.
What the Paper Covers
Drawing on peer-reviewed research into coercive control, group psychological abuse, and post-exit adjustment, the paper examines where current exit counselling practice sits in relation to established ethical standards.
It introduces a six-phase autonomy-protective practice framework designed to keep client self-determination at the centre of recovery work, alongside guidance on imminent danger, acute crisis response, and safety planning within scope of practice.
The analysis is grounded in the Australian legislative and practice context, with adaptation guidance for practitioners working internationally.
Who This Research Is For
This paper is written for counsellors, psychologists, social workers, peer support workers, and other practitioners who support adults recovering from cultic groups, spiritual abuse, and coercive control.
It will also be of interest to researchers, educators, and policy makers working in adult safeguarding and religious trauma.
About the Author
Elise Heerde is a mental health practitioner and coach specialising in religious trauma, coercive control, and cult recovery.
She is co-founder and co-director of Religious Trauma & Cults and contributed to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Recruitment Methods and Impacts of Cults and Organised Fringe Groups.
Author of Holy Hell: Saved So Hard I Needed Therapy and After The Exit: The Long Tail of Coercive Control.
Her work is informed by both professional practice and lived experience of a high-control religious environment.
Download the Paper
Access the full paper below to explore the framework and the ethical questions it raises for practice.