This book identifies and analyzes the forms, causes, and potential treatments of religious abuse. Religious abuse can include experiences of sexual, physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental abuse connected to a religious context. The book will help readers understand different types of religious abuse, including where the perpetrator is a religious leader, a group, or a system, as well as when there is an overtly spiritual element connected to the justification for the abuse. It also describes common experiences of those who have experienced religious abuse and some treatment approaches that will be useful to mental health providers when their clients present with these experiences. The rigorous scholarly approach of this book provides an academically grounded insight into this complex topic. As such, it will be a key reference for those studying and working in Religious Studies, Religion and Psychology, the Sociology of Religion, and Counseling and Mental Health.

Table of Contents:

Section I: Overview

1 Integrating Spirituality in Counseling

2 Defining Religious Abuse

3 Common Experiences of Victims of Religious Abuse

4 Assessing Religious Abuse

5 Characteristics of Healthy and Harmful Religious Systems

6 Common Victim Populations

Section II: Ethics

7 Ethical Principles in Treatment of Religious Abuse

8 Application of Ethics in Treating Religious Abuse

Section III: Treatment Approaches

9 The Importance of a Trauma-Informed Approach

10 The Healing Process

11 Interventions for Religious Abuse

12 Supervision and Consultation

13 Summary

Social issues, social work

Patient care

Religious sciences in general

Christianity

Psychotherapy, clinical psychology

Further readings in religion

Applied psychology

Further readings in psychology

Social issues, social work (charity campaign)

Patient care (charity campaign)

Religious sciences in general (charity campaign)

Christianity (charity campaign)

Psychotherapy, clinical psychology (charity campaign)

Further readings in religion (charity campaign)

Applied psychology (charity campaign)

Further readings in psychology (charity campaign)

Counseling Survivors of Religious Abuse

This book identifies and analyses the forms, causes and potential treatments of religious abuse.