What Is Spiritual Abuse?
What do I mean by Spiritual Abuse?
Johnson & VanVonderen, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse (1991) define spiritual abuse as:
"..the mistreatment of a person who is in need of help, support or greater spiritual empowerment, with the result of weakening, undermining or decreasing that person's spiritual empowerment." (p.20)
Lisa Oakley and Kathryn Kinmond in their helpful and fascinating article entitled: "Spiritual Abuse: Raising awareness of a little-understood form of abuse", suggest spiritual abuse is unlike any other form of abuse, that it affects many in the UK, that it is present in mainstream religion and that it is hard for those are spiritually abused to face the abuse, leading them to doubt the validity of their experiences and even to doubt themselves.
They note that spiritual abuse has the characteristics of other forms of abuse, in that it is concerned with the misuse of power, but that there are differences in that it is perpetrated by those who are supposed to be caring, within the context of the church which is supposed to be safe and secure. They note that faith will have been a fundamental part of the individual's sense of self and identity which will have been deeply affected.
(Taken from: Thresholds - Summer 2007, quarterly journal for members of Association of Pastoral and Spiritual Care and Counselling - ASPCC)
Gillie uses the term spiritual abuse more broadly and has worked with individuals who have said that they had been spiritually abused in a similar way in other faith/belief systems. She believes spiritual abuse occurs in cults, as defined above.
Spiritual abuse has also been likened, by clients, to spiritual rape. Also stated in Captive Hearts, Captive Minds (Lalich & Tobias, 1993).
If you are interested in exploring Christianity in a non-church setting have a look at the Workshop website and decide if you are interested. Please note Hope Valley Counselling does not gain from suggesting Workshop. Gillie does a small amount of training for Advanced Workshop. See disclaimer.
