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Recordings

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Some recordings on this page are available to the public on ICSA's YouTube channel.  Most are only available to members through links on this page.
Sample Videos
Families
Recovery Issues
Spiritual Abuse
Former Jehovah’s Witness Recovery Series
Mental Health Professionals Series
Cult Stories
ICSA History Series

Sample Videos

Coercive Control & Cults: An Overview.  Steve Eichel

Families

  • Building Bridges; Leaving and Recovering from Cultic Groups and Relationships: An 8-Week Webinar for Families and Former Members. Rachel Bernstein, Joseph Kelly, Patrick Ryan

  • Session 1: Overview

  • Session 2: Why Join Stay Leave

  • Session 2: Q & A

  • Session 3: Why do Families Become Concerned

  • Session 4: Approaches Famiiles have Used

  • Session 5: Intervention 101 Approach

  • Session 6: The Value of Information

  • Session 7: Evaluating and Communicating Across Worldviews

  • Session 8: Why Relatonships are Important

  • What Do I Tell People? Empowered Ways that Cult Survivors and their Families Can Tell their Stories. Rachel Bernstein

What Do I Tell People? Empowered Ways that Cult Survivors and their Families Can Tell their Stories. Rachel Bernstein

Recovery Issues

  • Generation Cult: Using New Media to Share Your Story. Dhyana Levey.

  • Learning From Former Members' Experiences of Receiving Professional Help. Catherine de Boer.

  • Reawakening Your Spirituality After a Cult Experience. Doug Duncan. Wendy Duncan.

  • Leaving and Recovering from Cultic Groups and Relationships. Michael Langone, Patrick Ryan

  • Paradoxes and Dilemmas.  Doni Whitsett

  • The Challenges of Parenting as an Adult Former Cult Member.  Eva Mackey

  • Leaving a Cult.  Margaret Singer

  • Saved by Our Son. Russ Bradshaw, Gunilla Bradshaw

  • What Do I Tell People? Empowered Ways that Cult Survivors and their Families Can Tell their Stories.  Cults, Recovery and Podcasts. Rachel Bernstein

  • The Neurobiology of Sexual Abuse: Flashbacks, Triggers and Healing. Doni Whitsett (introduction by Steve Eichel)

  • Therapy with Former Cult Members. Lorna Goldberg

  • Coercive Control and Cults: An Overview. Steve Eichel

  • How to Choose a Therapist. Bill Goldberg

The Neurobiology of Sexual Abuse: Flashbacks, Triggers and Healing. Doni Whitsett

Therapy with Former Cult Members. Lorna Goldberg

Spiritual Abuse

  • Panel: All Life is Suffering - Cultic Tendencies and Student Abuse in Buddhism. Christopher Hamacher. Stuart Lachs. Tenzin Peljor.

  • Regaining Your Footing: First Steps of Recovery from Spiritual Abuse. Ken Garrett.

  • We Started as a Church, and Ended up as a Cult . Ken Garrett.

  • Purity Culture as a Form of Sexual Abuse. Alice Greczyn .

  • Rev. Neil Damgaard interviews Rev. Robert Pardon, founder of MeadowHaven, a residential facility for victims of spiritual abuse

  • Christian Cults and the Concept of Hell.  Robert Pardon

  • Punishment and the Concept of Hell.  Michael Langone

  • Understanding the Experience of African-American Families in Religiously Abusive Organizations. Alisha Powell

  • Spiritual Manipulation in Pseudo-Christian Cults: A Panel Discussion with Former Cult Members. Wendy Duncan, Doug Duncan, Cindy Matthews

Regaining Your Footing: First Steps of Recovery From Spiritual Abuse (Ken Garrett)

What is a Cult?    Margaret Singer

Former Jehovah’s Witness Recovery Series 

The objectives for this series are to help former members identify psychological challenges that may arise when they leave the faith, provide relevant background information for therapists working with former Jehovah’s Witnesses, and provide information that will help former Jehovah’s Witnesses in therapy better understand the issues with which they are dealing.

  • Interview with Michael Shemwell.  (Interviewer, Ashlen Hilliard)

  • Interview with Gillie Jenkinson.  (Interviewer, Ashlen Hilliard) 

Interview of Michael Shemwell

Mental Health Professionals Series

  • An Overview of SNAP. Zach Hiner. Barbara Dorris. 

  • Where Have All The Young Ones Gone? Eileen Barker. 

  • Domestic Violence in a Fabricated Family: Reflections on a Cult Next Door. Elizabeth Burchard. 

  • Working With Former Cult Members: How do we Deal With Transference Reactions and our Countertransference Responses?   Lorna Goldberg,  Bill Goldberg (Santa Fe, 2019)

  • Toward a Positive Sexuality: What is it, and how do I Help People get There?  Steve Eichel; Doni Whitsett (Santa Fe, 2019)

  • Unlocking Painful Secrets With Art Therapy.  Nori Muster (Santa Fe, 2019)

  • The Psychology of Coercive Control Online Masters Program Overview.  Linda Dubrow-Marshall, Rod Dubrow-Marshall (ICSA 2020 Webinar)

Working with Former Cult Members. Goldbergs. Santa Fe Edited.mp4

Working with Former Cult Members. Lorna Goldberg; William Goldberg (Santa Fe, 2019)

Cult Stories

In Cult Stories former members of cultic groups or relationships are interviewed by ICSA to explore how they became involved in a group, what their life was like in the group, why they left, and how they dealt with departure. 

  • Interview with Joseph Szimhart (12 October 2019) - Bio of Joe Szimhart

  • Interview with Paul Lennon (26 October 2019) - Bio of Paul Lennon

  • Interview with Patrick Ryan (7 November 2019) - Bio of Patrick Ryan

  • Interview with Dan Shaw (9 November 2019) - Bio of Dan Shaw

  • Interview with Nori Muster (16 November 2019) - Bio of Nori Muster

  • Interview with Charlene Edge and her daughter Rachel Chase (18 January 2020) - Bios of Charlene Edge and Rachel Chase

  • Interview with Elizabeth Perry (28 March 2020) - Bio of Elizabeth Perry

Edge and Chase.mp4

Cult Stories: Interview with Charlene Edge and her daughter Rachel Chase

ICSA History Series

  • 40 Years of ICSA (Michael Langone) Presented by Lorna Goldberg. Presentation by Lorna Goldberg at the International Cultic Studies Association annual conference in Manchester, UK in 2019. International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) was founded as American Family Foundation (name changed in 2004) in 1979. Hence, 2019 is ICSA’s 40th anniversary. This talk will review high points in ICSA’s history, changes in ICSA’s constituencies, problems the organization has confronted, and prospects for its future. 

  • Interview of Kay Barney.  Robert E. Schecter  interviewed Mr. Kay Barney, on November 10, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA’s history.  Mr. Barney founded the American Family Foundation (AFF), which in 2004 changed its name to the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA). Mr. Barney discusses the personal situation that first got him interested in cults, the events that led to the formation of ICSA (then AFF), early challenges, and current prospets.

  • Interview of Michael Langone. Robert E. Schecter  interviewed Michael Langone, on April 7, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA’s history. Dr. Langone, long-time executive director of ICSA, discusses his work in the early 1980's with Dr. John Clark and the American Family Foundation (ICSA's original name), the changes he has observed in the organization and the cultic studies field, and his views on ICSA and its future.

  • Interview of Michael Kropveld.  Robert E. Schecter interviewed Michael Kropveld on April 7, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA’s history. Mr. Kropveld discusses how he first got interested in this field, the founding of the organization he now heads (Info-Cult/Info-Secte), changes he has observed in the field over the years, and his views on ICSA and its future.

  • Interview of Marcia Rudin.  Robert E. Schecter interviewed Marcia Rudin on July 5, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA’s history. Ms. Rudin discusses her early work in this field, including the publication of one of the first books on the subject. She also discusses her work as director of ICSA’s International Cult Education Program and her views on ICSA and its future.

  • Interview of Steve Eichel. Robert E. Schecter interviewed Steve Eichell on July 7, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA’s history. Dr. Eichel, who has served as ICSA’s president, discusses his early work in this field, including co-founding the counseling organization RETIRN. He also discusses changes he has observed in the field and his views on ICSA and its future.​

  • Interview of Alan Scheflin.  Robert E. Schecter interviewed Alan W. Scheflin on July 6, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA’s history. In the interview, Professor Scheflin, a former president of ICSA, discusses how he became interested in cults, his research and writings, and his views on ICSA and its future.​

  • Interview of Eileen Barker. Robert E. Schecter interviewed Professor Barker on July 7, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA’s history. Dr. Barker describes her early work in this area, including the founding of the British organization, INFORM, and how the pro-anti-cult polarization diminished as a result of ongoing dialogue that began in the late 1990s. She also discusses her views of ICSA and its future.

  • Interview of Wendy Ford Wolfberg.  Robert E. Schecter interviewed Wendy Ford Wolfberg on May 3, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA’s history. Ms. Ford Wolfberg, who wrote Recovery From Abusive Groups, discusses her cult experience, deprogramming, and recovery. She also discusses changes she has observed in the field and her views on ICSA and its future.

  • Interview of Rod Dubrow-Marshall. Robert E. Schecter interviewed Rod Dubrow-Marshall  on July 5, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA's history. Dr. Dubrow-Marshall describes his initial contact with ICSA, early work in this area, development of totalistic identity theory, and his views on ICSA and its future.

  • Interview of Linda Dubrow-Marshall. Robert E. Schecter interviewed Linda Dubrow-Marshall on July 5, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA's history. Dr. Dubrow-Marshall describes her early work in this area, including the founding of the counseling organization, RETIRN, and her views of ICSA and its future.

  • Interview of David Clark, Joseph Kelly, and Patrick Ryan.  Robert E. Schecter interviewed tree exit counselors, David Clark, Joseph Kelly, and Patrick Ryan, on October 27, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA's history. The three men discuss the changes they have seen over the many years of their involvement in the field.

  • Interview of Marsha Addis. Robert E. Schecter, PhD, interviewed Marsha Addis on March 11, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA’s history. Ms. Addis discusses her early work in this field with Dr. Jolly West, including her work with the Los Angeles Jewish Family Service's Cult Clinic and her history with ICSA.

  • Interview of Carol Giambalvo. Robert E. Schecter, PhD, interviewed Carol Giambalvo on July 5, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA’s history. Ms. Giambalvo discusses her personal cultic experience, how she became involved in the field, the work she did for ICSA, and her views on ICSA and its future.

ICSA History Collection. Interview of Michael Langone, Executive Director of ICSA since 1980.

ICSA History Collection. Interview of Kay H. Barney, who founded ICSA in 1979 (then called American Family Foundation)

ICSA History Collection: Interview of Mike Kropveld

ICSA History Collection:  Interview of Alan Scheflin

ICSA History Collection: Interview of Carol Giambalvo

An Evening with Margaret Singer and Jolly West

Membership and Donations

International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) provides information on cults, cultic groups, psychological manipulation, psychological abuse, spiritual abuse, brainwashing, mind control, thought reform, abusive churches, high-demand groups, new religious movements, exit counseling, and practical suggestions for those needing assistance.
Views expressed on ICSA Websites or in ICSA's publications or events or other venues are those of the document's author(s) or speaker(s) and are not necessarily shared, endorsed, or recommended by ICSA or any of its directors, staff, or advisers.  
A listing on ICSA's web site does not mean that ICSA perceives any group to be a cult, practices coercive or destructive tactics, or is in violation of any law. It simply means that ICSA has information on the group and/or has received inquiries from current and former members, their families, professionals, researchers, the media, or the general public.  Groups listed, described, or referred to on ICSA's Web sites may be mainstream or nonmainstream, controversial or noncontroversial, religious or nonreligious, cult or not cult, harmful or benign.  We encourage inquirers to consider a variety of opinions, negative and positive, so that inquirers can make independent and informed judgments pertinent to their particular concerns.
Unless otherwise noted, articles published in ICSA periodicals and original content on web pages are copyright ICSA.
ICSA engages no professional solicitors. FL No. SC-07158; Federal tax-exempt No.: 04-2667-828. A copy of this organization’s official registration and financial information may be obtained from the Division of Consumer Services by calling toll free within the state. 1-800-HELP-FLA (435-7352). www.floridaconsumerhelp.com.
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