For some of us, leaving a religion or cult (also known as 'apostasy') is the most traumatic experience of their lives. Most of service users at Faith to Faithless find that this experience has a negative impact on their emotional wellbeing.

In this panel event, we'll be hearing from experts with extensive professional and lived experience of the risks that leavers of high control religions and cults. We'll be discussing the emotional struggle that apostates often face as they transition to a secular way of life, and looking at what the journey to recovery looks like and best working practices in therapeutic support.

We'll be hosting therpaist Clare Alison Hams, a former Jehovah's Witness, and advocate and former Hasidic Jew, Izzy Posen. We will examine the psychological damage that leaving a religion or cult can cause based on the both professional and lived experiences of our speakers.  We will learn about how effective specialist counselling and therapy are in combatting the poor mental health of apsotates, and explore and discuss the best therapeutic approaches and working practices to  facilitate recovery.