Table Of ContentBreaking the Silence on Spiritual Abuse
AlsobyLisaOakley
COGNITIVEDEVELOPMENT
Breaking the Silence on
Spiritual Abuse
Lisa Oakley
ManchesterMetropolitanUniversity,UK
Kathryn Kinmond
ManchesterMetropolitanUniversity,UK
©LisaOakleyandKathrynKinmond2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978–1–137–28286–6
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To the memory of:
Chris Jenkins, who inspired us to look closely into this area
and reminded us that we can be both academic and spiritual
Jeremy del Strother, a man of real integrity who was a source
of great support in academic work in this area
Contents
ListofTablesandFigures viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
LisaOakley&KathrynKinmond
1 WhatIsSpiritualAbuse? 7
LisaOakley
2 WhatDoesSpiritualAbuseLookLike? 23
LisaOakley
3 SpiritualAbuseIsAbuse 56
LisaOakley
4 TheProcessofSpiritualAbuse 83
LisaOakley
5 WorkingWithIndividualsWhoHaveBeenSpiritually
Abused 89
KathrynKinmond
6 WorkingWithSpiritualAbuse:ProfessionalandPersonal
Issues 107
KathrynKinmond
7 LookingForward 120
LisaOakley&KathrynKinmond
References 125
Index 136
vii
Tables and Figures
Tables
2.1 Analphabeticalsummaryofthesub-themesidentified
asdimensionsofthethemeofpower 25
3.1 Analphabeticalsummaryofthesub-themesidentified
asdimensionsofthetheme‘spiritualabuseisabuse’ 57
3.2 Asummaryofpersonalemotionsidentifiedasaspects
ofspiritualabusewhichhaveparallelsinotherforms
ofabuse 57
Figures
2.1 Aschematicrepresentationofthemesidentified 24
4.1 Processmapofspiritualabuse 85
viii
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the following people who have helped to
make this project a reality: the people who have shared their sto-
ries with us, Bev and Margaret for their technical and proof-reading
patience and our families, particularly Tim and Robert, for always
beingthere.
ix
Introduction
Lisa Oakley & Kathryn Kinmond
Whythisbookandwhynow?
Atthestartofthistextitisusefultounderstandwherethisbookhas
come from and why it is being written now. To a large extent it has
come out of our personal experiences, both of spiritual abuse (SA)
and of counselling individuals who have experienced this. SA was a
term that we had never encountered until February 2001 when Lisa
firstexperiencedit.Atnopointhadthenotionofthisformofabuse
enteredourconsciousness,despitegoingtochurchfromchildhood.
It was never spoken about and we were unaware of its existence.
This lack of awareness placed me (Lisa) in a very difficult position
whenIpersonallyexperiencedSAandme(Kathy)inaverydifficult
positionwhencounsellingpeoplewhohadexperiencedSA.
Following my (Lisa’s) abusive experience I left the abusive church
contextandbegantosearchforanunderstandingofwhathadhap-
penedtome.Asanacademicmyfirstresponsewastoseekanswersin
published work. I located a number of books which described expe-
riences like mine, involving manipulation and control, and realised
that the authors were labelling this experience as ‘Spiritual Abuse’
(Johnson&VanVonderen,1991;Blue,1993;Enroth,1994).
The literature in this area was almost exclusively in book for-
mat, published in America and written by ministers or those in
positions of power (Parish-West, 2009). As initial sources of infor-
mation and understanding these books proved useful, because they
provided a label for my experience. However, it became clear that
theywereessentiallydescriptivebooksandhadnobasisinacademic
1
Description:Providing a balance of empirical research and practical concerns, this book explores the definitions and historical context of spiritual abuse, outlines a process model for the different stages of spiritual abuse and includes strategies for therapists working with survivors of spiritual abuse.
