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Acknowledgments

It would be difficult to thank all the many people who have helped me over the years to recover from this very painful and disorienting experience. Family, friends, therapists, coworkers, CAN and AFF have helped me to heal and grow. I am very grateful to them all.

I would like to extend a special thank you to the Boston FOCUS group. They have been a wonderful example to me of how ex-cultists can grow and heal through courage, determination, and compassion for one other. I have learned so much from them. Without them, this handbook would still be on the back burner.

Thank you, also, to all the many people who have made suggestions on how to improve this handbook. You will find many of your suggestions in this second edition.

Thank you all!

What You Can Do to Help

Everyone connected in anyway to the ex-cultist can be helpful, even the brief encounter at a party or on a bus ride can be supportive. You can be supportive by listening to and sympathizing with the ex-cultist without judgment and without the offering of unsolicited opinions, such as "I never would have listened to them." (See Chapter Four.)

Most ex-cultists and their families do not get enough good information about what abusive groups are, how they work, and how to recover from the experience. There is so much more information available these days, so point them to their local library, bookstore, and the Internet.

The American Family Foundation (AFF) publishes reports and books that give advice to families and helping professionals. AFF also publishes a scholarly journal on cults. Many of their excellent articles are referenced in the Reference List at the end of this handbook. You can contact the American Family Foundation (AFF) by writing AFF at P.O. Box 2265, Bonita Springs, FL 33959-2265, by phone (941) 514-3081 , or you can visit the AFF website at http://www.csj.org/ and follow their links to many other excellent Internet resources.

For additional excellent information, please review the Recommended Reading and Additional Readings lists in the back of this handbook. You may also want to review the reading lists in both Steve Hassan's (1988) book and Carol Giambalvo's (1991) book. Their lists are excellent.

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