Can Chris Shelton The Critical Thinker At Large Distinguish Between a ‘Cult Recovery Paradigm’ and Therapy?

I’ve seen a lot of things as a critic of Scientology for the last 20 years, the landscape has changed repeatedly. One of the most gobsmacking things in recent memory is the emergence of Celebrity Anti-Scientology and the presence of Chris Shelton The Critical Thinker At Large who is anything but that.

In a recent video, Chris Shelton accused Alanzo of:

“To assert, as Alanzo has, that people in such a condition don’t need any help or therapy or counseling is not just ignorant that is actually just wholly irrational.

The Problem:

I’ve never asserted any such thing.

I’ve literally written dozens of posts recommending therapy and counseling for Exes who need it.

The following are just some examples:

Recovery From Scientology: What is That, Exactly?

In this article, I talk about what I think are the traits of a person who has “recovered”. I make what, in my opinion, is the crucial distinction between seeing your time in Scientology as a disease of some kind, and what it is, time spent in a minority religion.

You Still Have Control

In this article, I provide a quote from Samantha Geller’s book about recovering from real trauma – child sexual abuse, and what she has learned from her experiences as “The Girl”, Roman Polanski’s 13 year old victim of child rape.

Healing From Scientology Abuse is Not a Social Media Activity

In this article, I talked about the cyberbullying I’ve seen on the post Scientology Internet and how bad that can be for a person who has experienced real abuse and trauma in Scientology. I recommend that healing from that kind of trauma can not be achieved on social media, and can worsen it.

Catastrophizing Scientology

In this article, I go through some of the things I learned through working with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and how helpful to me what I learned there was. I was trying to provide a little of that to Exes.

And in this series of articles:

Cognitive Distortions on Scientology

I try to write about all kinds of things I learned through my work with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, endorse it as something an Ex-Scientologist can use to relieve depression and anxiety after Scientology, and suggest further resources to get help.

And in there are all kinds of other articles I’ve written for Exes for things I believe can help them after Scientology.

But I distinguish ALL these things from a CULT RECOVERY PARADIGM.

In these two articles, I specifically state why I think a cult recovery paradigm is damaging to Exes.

In these articles I make these clear statements:

“If you have trauma from being raped, or harmed in any way, then that very properly, should be treated. And your recovery is important to focus on afterwards.”

Even in my article on Cult Counselor Rachel Bernstein, who Chris pushes on other Exes, and who is presently under investigation from the Attorney General’s Office for alledged breaches to her license, I say:

“I do not want Rachel to stop helping ex-cult members transition into normal life.”

I’m going to suspend that recommendation, for now, until she has been cleared. And until she can do something other than implant a fear of narcissists & sociopaths while instilling the dogma of the anti-cult movement ideology into people as a form of therapy after minority religious involvement.

I could go on about Rachel Bernstein and her style of therapy for Ex-Members, and probably will in future posts.

Apparently, Chris Shelton The Critical Thinker At Large, has a hard time reading and thinking about the stuff in English on my blog. Maybe, as I said before, I just suck as a writer. But I’ve said so much about this over the decades I’ve been writing about being an Ex-Scientologist, I really can’t recommend Chris Shelton as a Critical Thinker at Large, or At Small, to anyone.

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