Drawing on the groundbreaking work of Alexandra Stein in her book Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems, this course explores the psychological conditions that make cults possible, and crucially, how reconnection with the authentic self is always still possible.

Cultic harm is not caused by weakness, gullibility, or lack of intelligence. It arises from specific relational and psychological conditions that can affect anyone. In this course, we focus on three core conditions identified by Stein: isolation, engulfment, and terror without solution. Each condition disrupts a person’s natural capacity for self-trust, meaning-making, and relational safety.

Alongside this framework, the course introduces Focusing — a gentle, embodied practice developed by Eugene Gendlin — as a powerful tool for recovery.

Focusing helps participants reconnect with their own inner knowing after it has been overridden, silenced, or hijacked by an external authority, ideology, or group dynamic. Rather than telling participants what to think or believe, Focusing restores the capacity to sense what is true from the inside.

Each session combines:

• Clear psycho-education on cultic dynamics

• Guided Focusing practices to rebuild inner trust

• Reflective inquiry grounded in lived experience

• Space for integration without pressure to disclose

The course also weaves in the facilitator’s lived experience of cultic harm and recovery, including insights creatively explored in her Free the Stories podcast. This personal lens grounds the material in real-world complexity, avoiding both abstraction or clinical distance.

By the end of the course, participants will:

• Understand how cultic conditioning works psychologically

• Recognize its effects on nervous systems, identity and attachment

• Be introduced to Focusing as a tool that can support cultic recovery and connection with one’s authentic self

This course is not about replacing one belief system with another. It is about restoring the capacity to listen inwardly — and to live from that place again.