On this page I have drawn together lots of books, podcasts, videos and tv programmes. You can go straight to each of the sections by clicking these links:
- About Spiritual Abuse
- Healing From Spiritual Abuse
- Healing From Trauma
- Rebuilding Your Life
- Understanding Cults and Indoctrination
Please proceed with caution. Depending on what you’ve been through, some of these things might be triggering for you.
If you start to feel overwhelmed, visit the Help for When You Feel Overwhelmed: Getting Through Hard Moments.
Or if you need to reach out for support, go to the Get Help for Spiritual Abuse page.
I hope you find these resources useful. If there are any you think I have missed, you can always email me a suggestion!
About Spiritual Abuse
Escaping the Maze of Spiritual Abuse
Lisa Oakley and Justin Humphreys
Written for Christians in the UK. The writers give lots of quotes from interviews with survivors. It looks at what spiritual abuse is and what a healthy culture looks like.
Laura Anderson
Written by a therapist in the USA who was raised in evangelical Christianity. A deep look at ‘Adverse Religious Experiences’ with lots of helpful advice for healing.
Marlene Winell
An older book, again written by a therapist who was raised in evangelical Christianity in the USA. It has lots of helpful ideas for healing.
The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse
David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen
The original book which coined the term ‘spiritual abuse’. Quite dated now. Written for Christians. Helpful context for anyone interested in how the definition of spiritual abuse developed.
Healing from Spiritual Abuse
Gillie Jenkinson
A very detailed guide to healing from spiritual abuse and coercive control.
Janja Lalich and Madeline Tobias
Two cult experts bringing together lots of research to help us understand coercive control and how to heal.
Laura Anderson
Written by a therapist, this books has lots of practical advice for people who have trauma from being in a religious setting.
Marlene Winell
An older book, written by a therapist. A validating look at religious trauma with helpful ideas for healing.
Recovery and Self-Help: Finding a Way to Recovery and Growth After Abuse in a Cultic Setting
Gillie Jenkinson
Healing from Trauma
There are a lot of people on YouTube talking about trauma and how to heal. It’s great that people are talking about it, but we need to be careful.
There are a lot of online influencers and groups promising quick healing. Some of these people and groups are not safe. Some even work just like other cults, looking to get your money and loyalty by promising you a better life. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
The resources I have here are from authors and content creators I trust.
Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma
Janina Fisher
A fantastic work book helping us understand some key ideas about healing trauma, with worksheets and exercises to help us apply it.
Lucia Capacchione
A lovely book using journalling and creativity to help parts of us who feel scared, angry or ashamed to feel safe.
8 Keys for Safe Trauma Recovery
Babette Rothschild
A brilliant introduction to the science of trauma and ways to recover from PTSD. More relevant to one-off traumatic events, but still helpful for long-term abuse.
Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory
Deb Dana
A beautiful guide to helping our body feel safe in the present, with lots of exercises to try out.
Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving
Pete Walker
A detailed guide for understanding what C-PTSD is and how to recover. It emphasises childhood trauma.
Deirdre Fay
Helping us find feelings of safety in our body after trauma. It uses meditation, if you were abused in a group which used a lot of meditation it might not be helpful.
Arielle Schwartz
A helpful workbook helping us understand how our bodies and brains are working in C-PTSD and how to heal.
Peter Levine
One of the original books looking at healing trauma. Full of practical exercises to help us feel safe in the present.
How the body keeps the score on trauma
Bessel van der Kolk
Your Past Trauma Is Triggered & Ways To Heal (PTSD and CPTSD)
Psych
Polyvagal Theory Explained Simply
Lewis Psychology
How to do Grounding Exercises for Anxiety and Overwhelm
CAMH
Rebuild Your Life
These books are personal recommendations from me – books which I have found useful in supporting me in rebuilding my sense of self, my view of the world, and my life. You might like the look of some of them, and be put off by others. That’s okay!
I don’t agree with everything written in these books, and no one book has all the answers. You get to choose what makes sense to you.
Practical books
Emily and Amelia Nagoski
A practical guide to understanding and managing stress in daily life.
Holly Richmond
For anyone who has experienced sexual trauma, this book helps us overcome shame and reconnect with pleasure in our bodies.
The Complete CBT Guide for Anxiety
Roz Shafran, Lee Brosan and Peter Cooper
A detailed self-help guide to using CBT for managing anxiety and phobias.
Inspirational Books
Desmoond Tutu and the Dalai Lama
Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama in conversation, sharing wisdom about how to live joyfully and spread hope.
Etty Hillesum: A Life Transformed
Patrick Woodhouse
Biography of a little-known but remarkable woman who developed a deep, mystical spirituality which gave her strength during the holocaust.
Glennon Doyle
Glennon Doyle’s story of her choices to stop living by society’s expectation and to listen to her own wisdom instead.
Seeing Ourselves and the World
Part of recovering from an unhealthy group is to rebuild our own view of the world. These books helped me as I re-thought lots of things, like what it means to be alive, how society works, and how to cope with pain, suffering and death. It has been hard to narrow this list down, but these are a few which you might find interesting.
Kathy Escobar
From an American Christian perspective, but still useful for others. Looking at the process of our faith unravelling, and how some people rebuild and others walk away.
Kathryn Mannix
One palliative care doctor’s perspective on death and what it means for how we live. Filled with heartwarming stories.
Rutger Bregman
A hopeful look at humanity across history, arguing that our innate nature is good. I also recommend Bregman’s books ‘Utopia for Realists’ and ‘Moral Ambition’.
Robert Lifton
A great read about how we can look at big overwhelming issues like climate change and still have hope and take action.
Ruby Warrington
For anyone who grew up believing the only right way to live was to have kids, this book shows a different option.
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race
Reni Eddo-Lodge
A great introduction to understanding race relations in the UK, introducing some key ideas and understandings of British history.
Susan Cain
A wonderful look at how sadness is a helpful, creative and spiritual emotion. Draws on diverse spiritualities to make meaning out of being human.
Francis Weller
A beautiful book about grief. Draws on ancient indigenous practices to explore how ritual and community can help us hold grief.
Poetry
Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver’s beautiful poetry centres on nature as a source of beauty, meaning and spirituality.
Rainer Maria Rilke, arranged and translated by Ian Crockatt
Rilke’s incredible poetry explores the meaning of life and death, suffering and beauty from an atheistic perspective.
Nicola Lee
A book of feminist poetry using Christ’s passion as a metaphor for women’s liberation from oppression.
Eknath Easwaran
A gathering together of poetry from the mystical traditions of many religions.
Cults & Indoctrination
Janja Lalich and Madeline Tobias
Two cult experts bringing together lots of research to help us understand coercive control in cults and how to heal.
International Cultic Studies Association
Various Authors
A huge online library of research about cults and indoctrination. You could easily spend many hours investigating these archives (as I have!)
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism
Robert Lifton
The original book about thought reform, a classic in understanding cults. A lot more research has happened since.
Stephen Hassan
A brilliant look at how cults work and how to undo indoctrination, with lots of stories.
Alexandra Stein
Has lots of stories, and shows how anyone can be pulled into a cult no matter what their background.
Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery
Daniel Shaw
A look at how abusive leaders operate in cults, with lots of examples.
Max Cutler
Lots of real-life stories from cult survivors, as well as a look at the cult leaders and how cults work.
Robert Lifton
A look at how politics and cults are sometimes more similar than we think. Looking at extreme political leaders as cult leaders.
Podcasts About Cults & Indoctrination
There are tons of podcasts about cults out there. I have chosen to share my favourites which look broadly at cults, rather than focusing on one cult. I have also shared ‘A Very British Cult’, which is great at showing how these things can happen in the UK too.
With Sarah Steel
With Sarah and Nippy
Laura Anderson
From the BBC
TV Shows About Cults
Again, there are so many documentaries and TV shows about cults. I have shared ones here which are based in the UK, and one on Disney+ which features a lot of different stories.
