Counseling Survivors of Religious Abuse

This book identifies and analyses 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, group or 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, Counseling and Mental Health.