Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
ICSA International Conference 2025 - Montreal, QC
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Linda Dubrow-Marshall, Kate Amber, Jennifer French Tomasic, Ashley McLean
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Abstract: It has often been challenging for mental health professionals to establish trust with former cult members who have experienced significant deception, manipulation, and betrayal. Dr. Linda Dubrow-Marshall will begin the discussion with suggestions for how mental health professionals can overcome these obstacles to provide a safe space for former members to examine their cultic experience and to begin a healing process that promotes posttraumatic growth and resiliency, as well as guiding family members to embark on a parallel journey that promotes healing for the individual and the family as a whole. Kate Amber will discuss the application of The Quicksand Model™, a comprehensive trauma-informed and survivor-centered framework that amalgamates decades of research on coercive control. The QSM™ combines images, alliterations and the metaphor of quicksand to quickly and effectively train professionals on coercive control from the perspective of the entrapped target. Jennifer French Tomasic will discuss her MSc dissertation research on how the Internal Family Systems model can usefully be applied to psychotherapy with survivors of coercive control. Dr. Erin Falconer will analyze the application of evidence-based and guidelines-based approaches to recovery from complex trauma and dissociation to cult recovery.
Ashley McLean will discuss challenges therapists will face in the recovery processes of working with multigenerational victims who have experienced coercion and how it is important for therapists to find a balance betweenfocusing on pre-abuse life events when in therapy and building identity during the therapeutic process. Ashley draws upon empirical insights from case studies. Dr. Linda Dubrow-Marshall will conclude the session with overarching principles of best practice for mental health interventions with former members and their families.
ICSA International Conference 2025 - Montreal, QC
-
Linda Dubrow-Marshall, Kate Amber, Jennifer French Tomasic, Ashley McLean
-
Abstract: It has often been challenging for mental health professionals to establish trust with former cult members who have experienced significant deception, manipulation, and betrayal. Dr. Linda Dubrow-Marshall will begin the discussion with suggestions for how mental health professionals can overcome these obstacles to provide a safe space for former members to examine their cultic experience and to begin a healing process that promotes posttraumatic growth and resiliency, as well as guiding family members to embark on a parallel journey that promotes healing for the individual and the family as a whole. Kate Amber will discuss the application of The Quicksand Model™, a comprehensive trauma-informed and survivor-centered framework that amalgamates decades of research on coercive control. The QSM™ combines images, alliterations and the metaphor of quicksand to quickly and effectively train professionals on coercive control from the perspective of the entrapped target. Jennifer French Tomasic will discuss her MSc dissertation research on how the Internal Family Systems model can usefully be applied to psychotherapy with survivors of coercive control. Dr. Erin Falconer will analyze the application of evidence-based and guidelines-based approaches to recovery from complex trauma and dissociation to cult recovery.
Ashley McLean will discuss challenges therapists will face in the recovery processes of working with multigenerational victims who have experienced coercion and how it is important for therapists to find a balance betweenfocusing on pre-abuse life events when in therapy and building identity during the therapeutic process. Ashley draws upon empirical insights from case studies. Dr. Linda Dubrow-Marshall will conclude the session with overarching principles of best practice for mental health interventions with former members and their families.
