Certainty can feel like safety, especially when life hurts. Our conversation with Laura Dunson Caputo, an assistant professor and trauma counselor, and Alexis Gilan, a newly licensed clinician whose research centers on cultic dynamics, digs into how high-control groups trade belonging for obedience and why that bargain is so hard to recognize from the inside. Rather than chasing sensational headlines, we map the real mechanics: centralized, unquestionable authority, conditional acceptance, and morality framed in stark binaries that erode agency and redefine identity from the outside in.
We walk through the subtle ways this trauma shows up after someone leaves. Hierarchies can feel comfortingly familiar, fawn responses masquerade as “being good,” and choices feel threatening instead of freeing. We talk about the nonlinearity of healing—waves of clarity and doubt—and why quick fixes and premature forgiveness are just another form of pressure. For clinicians, we unpack blind spots from religious socialization to cultural normalization, plus the risk of turning therapy into a new control system. Practical steps include explicit consent and transparency, curiosity-driven questions, and motivational interviewing skills that avoid rescuing and return power to the client.
You’ll also hear concrete signs to watch for—needing permission to attend sessions, access restrictions, obedience language, moral rigidity, and diffuse trauma without a single precipitating event—along with the growing role of social media, Discord, and YouTube in modern recruitment. We highlight creative modalities like art therapy and the therapeutic relationship as a safe lab where clients practice saying no, disagreeing, and staying in connection. Beyond the therapy room, we challenge hyper‑individualism and make the case for community care that offers belonging without coercion.
If this conversation resonates, subscribe, share it with a colleague, and leave a review to help more listeners find thoughtful guidance on cultic trauma, ethical care, and rebuilding agency.
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If you’re a counselor in Ohio and would like to get involved as part of production or as a guest, or know someone who might be interested, please email us at ohiocounselingconversations@gmail.com!
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Created by the OCA's Media, Public Relations, and Membership (MPRM) Committee & its Podcast Subcommittee
·Hosted by Victoria Frazier
·Pre-Production & Coordination by Marisa Cargill & Victoria Frazier
·Editing by Marisa Cargill
·Original music selections by Elijah Satoru Wood
