Predators in the church

[Ohio]

Welcome HappierNow!

Thanks for sharing your heart-breaking story. Though we on this forum are in no way professional counselors, we have provided some needed help for others who have left the LC. I can say that you are not alone and others have been thru similar ordeals, though yours is one of the worst. Many others like yourself, after leaving the LC, had to "put God in the closet" while they got their hearts and lives back together.

I just can't believe what a fighter you are. Congratulations on your academic achievements! I just marvel at your ability to persevere and aim your life in the right direction! I think you will accomplish great things in your life.

I do hope sometime soon you could obtain some healthy counseling to work thru the horrors of the past. Though this may be the last thing you want to hear, I can say with assurance that our Heavenly Father does love you, and does know all your sufferings. None of us can explain why all those around you, failed you, failed to protect you, and then blamed it all on you. I can say thru experience that often times the sanest person in the room gets blamed the most.

Thanks again for sharing.

[eDh22]

Originally Posted by Ohio

Welcome HappierNow!....Though we on this forum are in no way professional counselors...I do hope sometime soon you could obtain some healthy counseling to work thru the horrors of the past....Thanks again for sharing.

HELP! On counseling.

If you have sought out counseling in association with experiences in the Local Churches, how did you do it?

After almost three decades of aligning with behavior, thought and emotional control, how do you get comfortable calling a stranger for help? What do you look for in a counselor? How do you find the words to explain? What all does it entail?

I know that a section on therapy was removed from this forum some years back, so I'd like to testify that I successfully sought counseling for the self-harm behavior that I was practicing while in the Local Churches / Lord's Recovery. I did not bring up anything to do with the Churches and I was sufficiently "under the influence" at the time not to even consider it. We focused on how to safely channel my response to my anxiety through Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Managing my response to anxiety ended up going hand and hand with my retreat from the Local Churches, as one can imagine. I have not practiced physical self-harm since that time.

However, I found myself years later still practicing thoughts and emotions that were damaging to me and my family. I sought out a Christian counselor but I found that individual perhaps too defensive of Christianity to be comfortable with my speaking about a high-demand sect. I then met briefly with a non-Christian, but they didn't seem to understand the context and appeared to me a bit dismissive of the faith. To be clear, they were both helpful in their way. Critically, meeting with these counselors was helpful (necessary?) keep me safe from myself during trying periods.

ANY RECOMMENDATIONS HIGHLY APPRECIATED. THANK YOU.

[HERn]

As me and my wife were exiting we went to a PhD Christian Psychologist, I dropped several hints about being in a cult-like church but he did not offer any help in that area. So, it might need to be a counselor who understands the impacts a cult-like group can have on a person.

[aron]

Originally Posted by eDh22

If you have sought out counseling in association with experiences in the Local Churches, how did you do it?

Some good recent work is by Steven Hassan, the so-called BITE model. Find a counselor that appreciates that approach. People, including many counselors, don't appreciate how deeply this stuff gets into the brain, and drives one's thinking, and what that impinged-upon thinking does to one's behaviours. As if we weren't already sick enough!

I went to my LC 'elders' for help and they clearly were neither equipped nor interested in my case. "You're fine. Just pray-read Ephesians and go to another meeting and your problems will be gone." So I left the LC, and went back to my old Community Church but now I thought that the Pastor was horribly deficient because he wasn't teaching "God's economy" as Witness Lee outlined it!

Do you see what I mean? I left physically but my mind was pickled in LC juice!

https://freedomofmind.com/bite-model/

[awareness]

Originally Posted by aron

https://freedomofmind.com/bite-model/

Great link aron. Sure wish I had it when I left.