Behind the Scenes at the RTC: The Event & Beyond

Sam: 00:00:06

I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work, the Gundagara land and people. I pay my respects to their elders, past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

I also want to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which you, our listeners, are joining us from today.

I recognize the deep connection that first nations people have to this land, their enduring culture and their commitment to the preservation and care for their country. This land was never ceded and it always was and always will be Aboriginal land. Welcome to beyond the Surface.

This is a space for conversations that sit at the edges of faith, identity, power and recovery, especially for those of us who have been shaped so stretched or harmed by fundamental religion or high control systems. Some episodes are personal, some are reflective, some are educational or curious or quietly disruptive.

All of them are grounded in lived experience and a deep respect for the complexity of leaving, questioning and rebuilding meaning.

We will be talking about religious trauma, various forms of abuse, cult dynamics, queerness and recovery, not in answers, but in honest conversations. In listening to these conversations, some parts might be heavy or activating for you.

Please take care of yourself while listening and feel free to pause or step away if you need to. I'm Sam and I'm really glad that you're here with us.

Sam: 00:01:50

Okay, welcome to this episode of beyond the Surface. Today we are doing honestly, it's just a bit of a Shameless Plug episode. I can't get around it any other way.

I'm joined by Elise who I don't need to introduce Elise anymore. You kind of just part of the furniture of the podcast. You were here like six weeks ago, but say hello to everyone nevertheless.

Elise: 00:02:11

Yeah, hi. It's nice to be part of the furniture.

Sam: 00:02:13

Today's episode is going to be focused all on our upcoming RTC event.

As you are hearing this, registration is open and so if you want to grab our all access pass for our early bird rate, make sure you jump over and do that. It is available until the 31st of May. And so as you heard, Shameless Plug episode.

But we are hoping that you will also get a bunch of information about the event. Hear it directly from us and we are also going to drop something really exciting.

Well, we think it's exciting anyway, but we are going to drop that towards the end of this episode, so make sure you stick around for that. So Elise, we are back for Round two, our second annual annual event.

Just to sort of like we talked about this last year but like, what did it actually feel like for you to put that event out and now to be doing a second year?

Elise: 00:03:05

Yeah, I think the first year we kind of had an idea of what we were building but maybe we didn't quite know how it was going to land with people until it actually like went out into the world and we had people starting to respond to that. So I think it just makes a lot of sense now that we're doing it again. And it wasn't necessarily the number of people that connected with it for us.

It was the messages that we were receiving. People saying things like they, you know, they'd never heard something explained that way.

They finally felt like they weren't the only one that was experiencing these different kind of things. And that really told us something that we have listened to for this year's event.

Sam: 00:03:42

Absolutely. I think like there was some feedback that was like. It was. I remember one person saying that it was.

It felt life changing for them to hear so many people in one space talking about. About stuff that they had just never heard people talk about publicly. And I was like, that's just like really cool. That was really cool for us.

And yeah, I don't think any of us thought that it was going to go as well as what we thought and it definitely exceeded expectations. So we are excited about this year's event.

We have a kickass lineup that if you haven't seen, go and check out the event website and have a look at that and we are going to talk about some of them in this episode as well.

But let's talk about what is different because there is a few things that are different, including the fact that we have a few extra people who would not have been included last year. But what are the key differences in terms of this year's event?

Elise: 00:04:34

Yeah, I think we've definitely kept the warmth of it and the same kind of tone that we've had from last year. So the sessions very much feel like a conversation.

We hope that you don't sit there feeling like you're being lectured at or spoken to, that you're actually invited in to be part of that conversation with people. It is still very much survivor centered and survivor led, not just survivors referenced. And so that's been really important for us to keep.

Something that you've kind of alluded to a little bit that has changed is that we have gone a little bit international and we know that religious trauma and cultic abuse is not just an Australian problem, it's not just a New Zealand problem. It's a global one and there are so many incredible experts in these fields that exist on the global stage.

And so while a vast majority of our sessions and our speakers and the voices that we have speaking are from Australia, Australia and New Zealand, we felt like it was really important to actually make this a little bit broader than it was last year. So if you want to tell people who those speakers are, Sam, you can have the privilege.

Sam: 00:05:41

Yeah, we've gone rogue, essentially. We've gone rogue and, well, only a little bit, but we think that you will love it. So we have three incredible US based speakers.

We have Dr. Hilary McBride, who everyone knows and loves. I think everyone knows her from her podcast and book of the same name, Holly Hurt.

And she is an incredible voice in terms of spiritual trauma and embodiment and just the Wisdom of your Body is another one of her books. And so we were absolutely thrilled to have her as part of our event.

Our second that we have, which was really exciting for me, it was just a really fucking cool conversation, is Tia Levings, who is a author, advocate and content creator on Christian fundamentalism and Christian patriarchy. If you haven't read any of her books, she has a well trained wife and I Belong to Me, which is her recent book on religious trauma recovery.

They are both incredible books. And our third is Ashley Buckner, who, if you've listened to this podcast for a little while, you would have heard her a couple of times.

She is our resident ex Mormon therapist in Utah and she was also a part of the conversation around Secret lives of Mormon Wives, which was good. And so I have a really fun conversation with her. So they are our three U.S. guests.

And I don't know about you, Elise, but I was, it was an absolute, absolute thrill to have them a part of our lineup.

Elise: 00:07:04

Yeah, absolutely.

To have people who have been working in this space for such a long time and who have the voice and the expertise and the experience, not just professionally but also personally, has always been really important to us.

Sam: 00:07:20

Yeah, absolutely. Now I'm going to give you the privilege of we have another big name, but he's not us. He's a Kiwi.

So we kind of, we can't group him in our US speakers, but he does live in the US So we're kind of. It's a mess extension there, but do you want to tell everybody about that one?

Elise: 00:07:36

Yes.

So I had the privilege of having a really fun conversation with David Ferrier, who, I mean, I have followed his, his work and his journalism for a very long time, which would make Sense.

If you've heard my story with mega churches, he's covered quite a few of those and he does now live in the U.S. he also covers a lot of conspiracy theories.

And so we had a really, really interesting conversation around the crossover between conspiracy theories and Christian fundamen and mainstream religion and Christianity. So it was, it was a real privilege to be able to sit and talk with him.

And he's just such a lovely guy and I think you'll really enjoy that conversation.

Sam: 00:08:15

Yeah, I think it's, it's just really cool. Like these are cool people for us.

Like, like it's, you know, we are not immune to just being like, we love their work as much as you all probably love their work as well. And so it was just fun for us to have these conversations with incredible people in these fields.

Another thing that we are bringing that's new this year is a private Facebook group for event attendees, which is gonna, I just think is really fun. So much of what people miss is the connection in the spaces that have come from. We want people to be able to ask questions.

We want to increase that interaction and potentially just like connecting with other people.

And I think that's what we want to try and replicate what we would have had in an in person conference or event, essentially, if those, I think you called it, those hallway conversations, Elise.

Elise: 00:09:04

Yeah. Because there's so much that these sessions can bring up for people or just remind people of that they can connect with.

And we wanted to create a space where they can then go and connect with other people to go. You know, I just listened to this part of this session and this is what it reminded me of in my experience. And there was a little bit of that.

We had some space in our platform to be able to put comments in.

So you also have 12 weeks after the event to continue that connection because we don't want you to feel like there's different things that this has brought up for you or different ways that you've connected with the material or the conversations. And then it's all over after three days. And so that will be.

There'll be space for that ongoing connection because again, if you decide that you would like to get the all access pass and you've got longer to watch it, you may not be watching all of the sessions in three days and you might watch it a couple of weeks later and want to connect over one of the topics. And so we're really excited to add that to this year's event.

Sam: 00:10:05

Absolutely. And just as like a side note that all of the finer details of what we're talking about is on the event website.

So if you're hearing language and you're like, what on earth is that? Just head there. The link will be in the show notes for you to be able to have a look at all of those finer details.

We don't want to bore you with all of that information in this conversation. I'm sure many people are listening to this going is this event for me.

And I think, you know, we are the religious trauma collective and I think potentially people will hear the word religious trauma and assume potentially it's not for them. And so it might be really helpful to just sort of go through who is this event for, who is going to benefit from listening to these conversations.

And whilst I kind of want to say everyone to that answer, you might have a far more articulate answer than I do.

Elise: 00:10:50

I was going to say it might.

Maybe it's easy to list who it wouldn't benefit because I think whether you're a survivor of religious trauma, of spiritual abuse, of a high control group, whether it's religious or non religious, if you're an advocate that is working in this space, if you're a practitioner, even if you're a practitioner who doesn't necessarily work solely with clients or people that have experienced this, chances are that there are people you're connecting with that could have this in their background. And it could be really helpful to just be aware of some of these conversations and how things are landing for survivors.

So yeah, if you're a survivor yourself, if you love someone who's a survivor and you want to understand their experience or maybe this just really interests you as a topic because it has been spoken about a lot more, which is a really good thing. And so there is just some genuine interest in wanting to understand these stories and experiences.

And if I've left anyone off, then Sam, you can add the others. I think I'm pretty much saying everyone.

Sam: 00:11:56

Yeah, I'm the one who said everyone. So I'm not going to add anyone else specific. I'm going to like. It's interesting, it's informative, they're like, they engaging conversations.

The people are really fcking cool that we're speaking to. And so I just think anyone who finds anything interesting come along basically. So literally anybody is what I'm going with.

Elise: 00:12:17

Yes.

Sam: 00:12:18

So I mean we're not going to take you through every session or anything like that.

We do have like a little vague structure I guess to the three days in terms of we move from like Foundations and frameworks and things like that into systems identity, into, like, advocacy and relationships and rebuilding.

And so rather than going into, like, any of the sessions in detail or telling you, listing you anything in particular, what was your favorite to record or what was the one that surprised you the most? Elise?

Elise: 00:12:49

I think my favorite to record was the conversation around indoctrination and conditioning.

It was interesting to record because we had three different people coming from three different directions, three different groups, actually, some of them from multiple different ways of what indoctrination and conditioning had looked like for them. And yet all three of us were able to connect to the same patterns, the same tactics. So it was just really, really interesting to go.

There is something foundational in all of our stories in how all of us have experienced indoctrination, yet we were in different parts of the world. We were in different kinds of high control groups, but there was still something that connected the experience for all of us.

So I really enjoyed that conversation.

Sam: 00:13:36

Yeah, I think for me, obviously, like, I've kind of already alluded to it, that my favorite conversation that I had was with tia.

It was a real kick for me, but in terms of beyond that, I have never said sex so much as what I did in my conversation on sex, pleasure, and purity culture.

And I never thought that we would have a session where I would need to, like, screen the reels around the words like kink and fetish and BDSM and all of that sort of thing. So that was good fun for me. I think that will be a really great and a really practical conversation for people who have lived through purity culture.

And, yeah, I think it's just, you know, we talk about things very like, we just, like, name the shit that people don't want to name and talk about. And so I really loved that conversation. That was good fun.

And, yeah, I think I've made my way through them, and I think they're all just incredible conversations. I really think there is something in there for everyone.

Elise: 00:14:33

Yeah.

And I think, like, one of the groups that I would like to specifically say that this is also for is people who are still part of faith groups or faith organizations. Another. And I know I'm not allowed to pick more than one favorite.

Sam: 00:14:46

Oh, you can pick whatever.

Elise: 00:14:48

Another one was the, like, the conversation with pastors who were, you know, ex pastors who are navigating religious trauma to go, what, like, what does this look like at all levels of the system and the organization?

And also, how does it impact people who are continuing with spirituality or with faith and so we always say that we, we are not anti faith, we're not anti church, we are anti harm and abuse.

And so this is also a space for people who are still in churches who would still identify as being spiritual or having a faith and how that can be done without harm and with lots of safety.

Sam: 00:15:26

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think, you know, the like, while we're just like continually naming sessions, I think, I think the session that communicates that also the most is like there is a beautiful session with Steph Fenton around gender expansive faith and how trans people and gender expansive people illuminate the divine rather than them being like a problem to solve within faith communities.

And so I think, you know, that session alone is a really beautiful space for people who want to still engage with their faith, but in new and more expansive ways. And so, yeah, I think that's a really beautiful conversation that allows people to sit with something that they might not have before.

How was we obviously wanted to have, you know, a very hot thing at the moment is because the cult inquiry has been happening and you know, we are sort of now just. We've done hearings, we've talked about it already in, on social media and in public conversations.

And I know many of the people listening have been following along. And so you had what? I can only.

I haven't actually listened to this session yet around the inquiry, but it's with some really cool people and some really chaotic people. So I imagine it was just the best of conversations.

But I wonder if you can more so answer why it felt important for us to bring this conversation into the event. Because like, it's primarily aimed at practitioners and survivors and survivors alike. But why was this conversation important?

Elise: 00:16:58

Yeah, cool and chaotic is we should have just named the session that it was. Look, these, these conversations are really important because survivors are the reason that legal conversations need to happen.

And so also the fact that the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into cults and high control groups groups was started by survivors and is really being pushed through by survivors. So I spoke with Catherine and Ryan Carey who were the ones that got the whole thing off the ground.

So it was amazing to be able to hear from them and to see where the inquiry is now and kind of what we're hoping for, what continuing legal conversations we need to have because survivors deserve that survivors deserve to have people fighting for not just their, their, their personal like mental health safety, but fighting for justice on their behalf. Because there's a lot of survivors that don't have the energy, the time, the resource, even the internal Safety to be able to do that for themselves.

And so when we do have survivors that are doing that, it's absolutely a conversation that we should be centering.

Sam: 00:18:06

Yeah, absolutely. And it is.

I, I loved that we were able to, to have Ryan and Catherine in that conversation just to be able to talk about how this came about and also the like cost that it brings because any sort of survivor advocacy comes with a cost. And, and so I, yeah, I just love that we were able to have them in that conversation. We very strategically put. Well, I say we.

I very strategically wanted to put a session around pop culture in here.

And, and it was kind of a bit of a, again, it was kind of a bit of a rogue choice because it's not necessarily like there is some education in there, but it is kind of just a conversation that was deliber. Lighter than others. Not every conversation in the space of religious trauma, cult recovery needs to be fucking heavy.

We can have conversations that feel lighter and that even have humor and sarcasm in them. Sarcasm is our love language in. Even though I just like pulled apart the Love languages book. But I'm going to use it there because it fits.

But like sarcasm is like, is just second nature for us particularly.

And so I had a really cool conversation with Ash Buckner around just the way that humor and pop culture plays a part in our recovery and in allowing us to create some meaning in what has happened to us throughout our experiences of existing in these systems.

And we talk about, you know, just humor in general and we pull apart the reasons why things like the Book of Mormon and sex education and Schitt's Creek have just been like really pivotal things for so many people. And I think it just is a nice way to sort of end the event, which was just like quite a fun, light conversation. It was a good chat.

Elise: 00:19:55

Yeah. And it's. So it's really important that we can kind of sit on both ends of that spectrum to go.

There's space to hold this really seriously and really deeply.

And there's also space to go, you know what, within a five minute window we can be talking about something really serious and then it's okay to be joking, it's okay to need to laugh, to need to find humor in that, which I, which I think we also did in this session on Armageddon and End Times and Hell, which is really heavy. But we laughed a lot in that session.

Sam: 00:20:29

Yes, absolutely. I mean, even just like here we've gone from like, you know, coercion and law reform to pop culture and humor.

To like Armageddon, like, we've got some variety in this event. We wanted it to feel like there was a vast range of conversations happening.

And so alongside all of the, like, the recorded sessions, we've obviously mentioned that we've got the Facebook group. But as a way of connection, we are also doing our in person gatherings again this year and hopefully in a couple of new locations.

And so potentially, like, Elise, where are we running these?

Elise: 00:21:06

They will be running in Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide and in Auckland and Christchurch. And these are really just casual get togethers. You could come for 15 minutes, you can come for the whole time.

There's no, no agenda, there's no pressure to share anything.

We just wanted to create a space where you can go and have a drink, have something to eat, meet some other people, talk about whatever you want to, but to have that space where it kind of moves offline into real life, if that's what you're looking for and that's what you feel comfortable with. So you can find out more in terms of the details on the website.

But they are just a really casual space to go and to connect and to meet some other people. And again, they're not compulsory, you don't have to, but they are there if you would like to.

Sam: 00:21:57

And we had a blast last year at them. Like, it was just really nice to meet in person. They were very chilled. They're like, there's no facilitation here.

It's literally just, it's very social.

And yeah, it is just essentially trying to, you know, you get to potentially find other people in similar spaces and you're all in the same room who are all in the same area likely, or at least somewhere close by. And so, yeah, they were really fun last year.

We got some really beautiful feedback that just being able to have those like, pop up in person gatherings was just, it was a nice little touch. And so we were, yeah, hopeful that we could expand them a little bit more and potentially, who knows, we might even add some last minute, who knows?

Just stay tuned, keep an eye on it. Who knows? Anything can happen, realistically.

Elise: 00:22:49

Yeah, and it will.

Sam: 00:22:51

Anything can and will happen. Um, and I think just like, connection is something that, you know, we all want, we all need, we are hardwired for connection.

We all want it in different ways. And that is the biggest thing that we wanted to be able to do. Whether you are here in Australia, in New Zealand or somewhere international.

To us, we wanted there to be a way to connect either online or in person. Person. So, yeah, is There anything else about the event that you want to mention? Plug anything before we go into what we're excited about?

Well, not that we're not excited about the event. About the event too.

Elise: 00:23:28

Yes, we are very. Yeah, look, I want to plug everything about the event, but we won't do that here.

So, yes, there's a lot more I would share, but you just have to wait.

Sam: 00:23:40

Yeah.

And you know, I think the only international guest that we didn't mention is like, we obviously have Dr. Hilary McBride and she has a really beautiful conversation with Jane around spiritual trauma and grief and the body and connection and community and all of those really complex layered experiences. And I think most people just sit and listen when Hillary speaks. And I'm sure that you will also do the same.

She has the most beautiful meditative voice. So I think, you know, we've, we've told you about like a good chunk of those sessions in there. So, you know, we have how many? We got 18.

We have 18 sessions. And so we certainly haven't told you about all 18. So make sure that you go and have a look about what those sessions are.

Check out all of the details and things like that.

And let's get into the other part of this conversation, which if you have already registered for the event, you might have just been listening to this now up until. To get to what we've been waiting to talk about.

So we are rebranding the Religious Trauma Collective, which, don't worry, before anybody freaks the fuck out, we're not going anywhere. We are sticking around. We are just going to, to expand it. We're just expanding. We're not, we're not changing.

So before we actually tell you what we are rebranding into, I might actually just let you, Elise, explain why we are doing this.

Elise: 00:25:14

This. Yes. So the work that we do has always been broader than the name suggests.

So we see clients and we work with practitioners who connect with survivors who come out of all different kinds of high control groups, religious and non religious. There's wellness groups, MLMs, political extremist movements, therapeutic cults. And so the harm that we see is the same.

And the recovery needs are generally similar.

But the name Religious Trauma Collective has sometimes meant that people didn't think that we were necessarily there for them, that what they had experienced wouldn't fit into the work or the resources that we were offering.

Sam: 00:25:56

Yeah. So we thought, let's change that. And so we are. And so we are going to change from the Religious Trauma Collective to Religious Trauma and Cults.

And so you Will still know and love us by rtc. We wanted to keep that. It's nice and catchy and easy and we don't want to change that.

We wanted to expand out to be able to bring in some of those non religious cultic systems and high control groups so that everybody belongs in this space, not just those who have come from high control religious spaces.

Our tagline is also nice and catchy and trying to sort of make sure that everybody knows that you belong here if you have come from a high control system. So we are religious, trauma and cult. No group is exempt, no survivor is excluded. And so I'm excited. Are you excited, Ali?

Elise: 00:26:46

Yes, I am. I feel like it's been a long time coming and we are keeping everything that the community knows about us.

But we're expanding and now the name actually fits the work that we're doing.

Sam: 00:26:57

Yeah, absolutely. We are doing fun things like redesigning the website and redesigning logos and all of that fun behind the scenes stuff.

And so all of those things will slowly come out of the woodwork over the next four to five weeks with hopefully our website. Fingers crossed, guys. I'm doing all of the behind the scenes with the website, so fingers crossed. If tech likes me.

Our new website will be launched the day after or a couple of days after the event. So nice and close. You won't have to wait around too long. And so yeah, I'm really excited.

I think it, like Elise said, it has felt like it has been building for some time and I'm just excited that we are able to expand that out to, to be able to offer some. I'm just excited to be able to expand that out into, into other spaces so that we don't get the questions of can I seek support through this place?

Can I seek support through you? Do you understand what I mean when I say like a business cult or a commercial cult or something like that?

And so we want to be able to answer those questions before someone needs to ask them. And so that's really exciting for us. I know the work word cult is polarizing and we did consider that there is like a lot of.

It's a loaded word for sure and we'll have a lot of opinions around it. And so I don't, I don't think I personally had any hesitation around the word cult. What about you, Elise?

Elise: 00:28:24

Yeah, I didn't have much hesitation because it is generally the language that survivors of high control groups, religious or not, are landing with. Some are not. And that's fine.

That that's that's not the word that they connect to, but there are a lot of survivors that do connect with that word and do use that for their. To be able to describe their own experience. And it's also a word that is gaining traction in a lot of different contexts.

If we just look at journalism and media. And so that we also wanted to be able to kind of, I don't know if, like unsensationalize that. I don't know if that's a word.

Sam: 00:29:02

That's all right.

Elise: 00:29:04

Yeah, we wanted to be able to, where that word may be getting misused in spaces, to be able to bring context to what, what that actually is and what that means to survivors. And so I think it's, it's actually really important for us to be using that word.

And we also understand that not everyone will feel comfortable with that. And that's okay.

Sam: 00:29:24

I think also, like, we are, we have always been this whole time very big on language matters and we have language of high control and coerc control and high demand throughout our website, or we will throughout the new website. And so we want to be able to meet people with the language that they're using. And also that the word cult is okay to use.

Like, if that feels like it's the descriptive, correct, accurate word for you, we want you to know that that's also okay. And to be completely like, frank for just a moment. It's also just like a lot easier to put in the name. Just like real talk for a moment.

It didn't have quite the same ring to it to use other words. And so you. It's symbolic. There's meaning there. We wanted to just be able to demystify that actually we can talk about this and. Yeah.

And broaden it and expand it out.

Elise: 00:30:16

Yeah. Especially when historically the word cult has kind of brought up images of real fringe groups which absolutely exist.

But it's bringing it back to what are the, what are the cultic tactics? What are the control tactics? What are the mechanisms behind that?

And that a lot of those things can exist in a wide expansion, expansive range of groups, not just fringe groups. And so also being able to kind of bring a sense of inclusiveness into that word.

Sam: 00:30:45

Yeah, absolutely. So I, I know, like, if I was listening to this and I would be like, so when is this all happening?

And we sort of have alluded to that a little bit in terms of we will be launching the new website shortly after the event, but we are hoping that we might be able to give you a new, like, little sneaky Peek of the new logo next month in June, which will be exciting. And. And, yeah, I think just to sort of, like, reinforce that this feels expansive for us. We're not going anywhere.

We're not like, who we are and what we do and what we stand for and our values, they're not changing. We're just expanding the scope of who we're doing that for. It is an evolution, not a departure. We're not going anywhere here.

Elise: 00:31:28

Yeah. And we're even keeping our acronym. So you don't even need to remember a new name if you don't want to. You can just keep calling us Artiste.

Sam: 00:31:34

Exactly.

Sam: 00:31:36

Yeah.

Sam: 00:31:37

And that just. We see we think of you guys like we're just trying to make things easier. I wouldn't want it to be fair. I don't want to remember a new acronym.

It's easy for us to. Yeah.

Elise: 00:31:48

And it just makes. It makes sense. It fits with the work that we're doing. So it just happened to fit really well.

Sam: 00:31:54

Yeah, absolutely. And it means that in terms of, like, I think it may.

We've sort of already talked about what that means for survivors, but in terms of practitioners and our registry, it means we have a broader scope for people.

And so potentially just chat about, I guess, you know, what this signals to practitioners in terms of the registry and the resources that we are moving towards.

Elise: 00:32:17

This isn't just an expansion for the scope of rtc.

It's also an expansion for the scope of the practitioners who join our registry, that it's now not just practitioners who only work with religious trauma, but it's practitioners who work with religious trauma, cultic abuse, who are religious trauma informed, but might work in different ways. And so it is, like we said, nothing is changing. It is still what it was.

Plus it's now going to be offering more resources for survivors to connect with exactly the right practitioner for them for their experience, but also in the expansion of what we are going to be offering to practitioners who work, or would like to be working more in the space of culture recovery.

And so it gives us room to also be developing those different supports and trainings and resources for practitioners working with trauma that may be religious, it may be cultic. It might be a mix of both.

Sam: 00:33:17

Yeah.

Sam: 00:33:18

And we're excited about some of those resources.

We are behind the scenes, scrambling like little ducks underneath the water, getting shit ready and doing a bunch of things that we're really excited about. And so if you are a practitioner listening to this and you are interested in that, make sure that you stay tuned Keep your eyes peeled.

If you're not on our mailing list, get there because you'll be the first to know when we have resources come out.

As part of the event for the All Access pass, we are doing a live three hour webinar for practitioners around cult recovery and orientation, which is going to be really fun. And I say fun, it's about a heavy topic, but Elise and I are doing it, so it's going to be fun.

Elise: 00:33:58

Yeah, it'll be fun.

Sam: 00:34:00

And so, yeah, if you are a practitioner, listening. Yeah, keep your eyes peeled for some of those things that will slowly start coming out over the coming months, which we're really excited for.

Elise: 00:34:11

Yeah.

And when we say practitioners, we are talking about counsellors, coaches, mental health practitioners, social workers, advocates who are supporting survivors in different ways. Some of these, these things that we're going to be putting out may also be of interest to family members and to survivors themselves.

But yes, we also have a very wide scope for what we mean when we talk about practice practitioners and we.

Sam: 00:34:37

Will always make it clear who this is best suited for. So if you are ever in doubt, it should, it will say who this is best suited for.

And some of those things will cross over and some of them will be like those who are doing therapy specific for people and some will be far more broader in nature. And so, yeah, we're excited about all of those things that we're creating. It's, it's good fun behind the scenes, but it.

And chaotic behind the scenes to be like, yeah, which is fine. We have a bit of chaos. Yours.

Elise: 00:35:08

Yeah. But also it means that there is, there's gonna be some resource for everyone. There will be something that will connect with.

Yeah, hopefully with everyone's different experience or what their scope of practice is.

Sam: 00:35:21

Yeah, absolutely.

We are also making space on our practitioner registry for those who are religious trauma informed rather than those who are wanting to directly work with religious trauma or cultic trauma.

And so if you are a practitioner who maybe works with grief, you're a bereavement counsellor, or you might be an eating disorder psychologist or something like that, but you might have lived experience of religious or cultic trauma or you are informed in that space, but you don't necessarily want to work with religious or cultic trauma. Specifically, you are still working with eating disorders. We have space now for you as well.

We want to be able to have space for those to just be able to find the support they need. They might be looking for a practitioner specific to a particular presentation, like I mentioned.

Eating disorders or OCD or something really hyper specific. And we want to be able to direct them to people who can work with them in whatever they are needing.

But also they also might want someone who understands religious trauma or purity culture or what it cult dynamics and what it is like to exist in a cult space and system. And so we have space for you now as well. So we are broadening the scope of who is on our registry as well in terms of practitioners.

And so that's exciting as well.

We're hoping that essentially we just want people to be able to find find the practitioners that they need for the things that they are needing them for. And that's exciting for us especially as people who have had those sit with us go. Actually sitting with a practitioner was worse.

Like it made things worse. And we want to try and minimize the gap of that happening.

Elise: 00:36:54

Yeah, absolutely.

Sam: 00:36:55

So quick like little mini episode for everybody today. So let's just like finish with some finer details. Elise, where can everyone go to find all of these. The event details.

Elise: 00:37:07

Details, yes. So go to our website. You can have a look at everything on the website. Sign up for the newsletter so that we can keep you up to date.

We'll be sending out regular updates for the event, but also with the rebrand to keep everyone up to date on that or come and follow along on Instagram on our social media. That's where we are always posting more regularly. So those two check out the website and our socials.

Sam: 00:37:31

Absolutely. And even though I just made you say all of those things, they'll also be in our show notes. So you could also just click there.

Either one of those options. Perfect. Well, thank you again for joining me, Elise, and I hope everybody will see us at the event. I look forward to connecting with everybody.

Elise: 00:37:49

Yeah, we'll see you there.

Sam: 00:37:52

Thanks for listening.

To be on the surface, if this episode resonated, challenged you or named something you've struggled to put words to, I'm really glad you found your way here. You'll find ways to connect, learn more and explore further in the show. Notes. As always, you are good.

You have always been good and your story matters always.