Leaving a high-control religious group can be one of the most challenging and painful experiences anyone can face. For those brave enough to question beliefs ingrained for years, the journey to freedom is often fraught with loneliness, fear, and, in some cases, danger.
Our Faith to Faithless team provide practical support, emotional care, and a sense of community for people who find themselves isolated and vulnerable. From peer support groups and social events, to apostate awareness training for frontline services, Faith to Faithless is transforming lives every day.
Our groundbreaking helpline, open three days a week, offers confidential emotional support for those leaving, or who have left, a high control religious group. Our beautiful animation brings these deeply personal stories to life. Faith to Faithless turns ten-years-old in 2025.
Faith to Faithless is Humanists UK’s support programme for people who have left high-control religious groups. These people are often called ‘apostates’.
The service is led by apostates themselves, who have knowledge and experiences of apostate communities facing serious and systemic issues. These issues range from emotional and physical abuse from family members, friends, and peers in their community through to homelessness, shunning, ‘honour-based’ abuse and killings, and systemic failures by statutory organisations to support apostates.
Beyond the helpline and its year-round provision of peer support from trained volunteers, the service offers awareness training to public services, including NHS divisions and police forces.
Learn more by visiting the Faith to Faithless website
Read more about the Faith to Faithless helpline
Read the interviews with the Faith to Faithless ‘Helpline Heroes’ Lya and Iacopo