This page is concerned with support for victims/survivors and supporters (people who support survivors in the many ways one does from therapy to friendship). It first describes the types of face to face support for victims/survivors whether it be one to one counselling and/or support groups. Secondly, it gives the names, telephone numbers and Internet addresses of counsellors, counselling agencies and support groups known to be helpful with ritual abuse in Australia. It then provides the titles of recommended books and webpages concerned with ritual abuse for reading. Also it includes supportive information for specific aspects of ritual abuse such as rape. It also addresses the necessary aspect of being safe and how to obtain safety from perpetrators.
One to One Counselling
One to one counselling is talking to a single person as different to a group. The word counsellor is the main term to describe a psychologist, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, doctor, therapist, social worker, etc. Counselling is talking to someone about the abuse. Counsellors are very important. First of all a counsellor is someone whom you can trust. S/he likes you and you like him/her. They are someone to tell your story to. They are someone who knows what you’re talking about or who will read up on the abuse to be informed. S/he is someone who will listen and validate. S/he is also someone who can act on your behalf with police, social security, etc, and someone who will talk to family and friends about the abuse and your concerns. For ritual abuse survivors and supporters, the issue is not generally talked about and accepted, and so we especially need someone to assist us by validating the abuse. S/he needs to have some basic understanding of ritual abuse and believes it exists, is willing to educate him/herself about the abuse, and has an awareness of Dissociative Identity Disorder and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Counselling is either by those who are specifically trained and/or experienced in ritual abuse counselling, or are general counsellors with no training and experience but are willing to learn. A specific counsellor has attended workshops dealing with ritual abuse and/or has many ritual abuse clients. S/he is very knowledgeable. A general counsellor is open to accepting it, is willing to be educated and uses their general knowledge of abuse and recovery. Both types of counsellor, both specific and general, can help the survivor. What is important is that they believe that ritual abuse exists and will educate themselves about it.
Many counsellors have said that they believe ritual abuse exists in order to please the survivor, but in reality do not believe. They think the survivor is “delusional” and “goes along” with the supposed “delusion” in order to “help them”. One soon finds out that the counsellor is not really believing and it is a horrible shock for the survivor. The cults lie about “not being believed” has therefore happened and the survivor has to deal with this. Be sure you are talking with someone who really believes you.
By talking to a counsellor you are not putting anybody else at risk. A counsellor is someone where the information you tell him/her will stay only with that person. You do not need to worry that it will go to the police or another professional if you don’t want it to.
Specific Ritual Abuse Counsellors
Specific Ritual Abuse counsellors are mainly found within sexual assault agencies, religion based counselling agencies, and counselling for Dissociative Identity Disorder. They can be found anywhere though as they maybe in private practice and have an interest in helping a ritual abuse survivor.
Sexual assault agencies are either within government health departments or are community based eg a rape and incest crisis centre. Sexual assault counsellors can sometimes be the first that ritual abuse survivors call upon as the first memories are usually sexual. Religion based counsellors eg Centacare, Careforce, etc are concerned about ritual abuse as it is so destructive to positive religions such as Christianity. (You also do not need to be religious to go to a religion based counselling service.) DID counselling agencies are also concerned about trauma and dissociation. The survivor/supporter therefore rings the counselling agency and asks if they have a counsellor who works with ritual abuse. Some agencies may not have a specific counsellor, but will refer to another that does.
There are also many individual counsellors who are specifically concerned about the issue, and who work in a wide range of agencies and institutions outside of sexual assault, religion based etc. They may work at a university as a counsellor or as a religious support worker, etc. When looking for a counsellor, you will find a supportive information network that will recommend someone who is experienced. For example, you may ring a sexual assault agency and they may say "No we don’t have a person here who is experienced in ritual abuse, but we know that this person at this place does and we recommend her/him". Specific counsellors may also work in private practice, by themselves, and have a concern with the issue. They are referred by an agency or long term survivor.
Caution: It is important that the agency or a long term survivor recommends a private practice counsellor as this situation is open to cult abuse. A cult member maybe posing as a counsellor in order to continue or reactivate the programming and continue the abuse. There has also been a tendency for some counsellors to be very fixated on issues surrounding ritual abuse. For example some see being gay as being the “bad result of ritual abuse”. Be wary of any counsellor who has fixed thoughts related to ritual abuse. Another concern, especially with counsellors who work with the medical model/cognitive behaviour therapy, is “accepting that ritual abuse” occurs only to befriend the victim/survivor. They think the victim/survivor is delusional and will only say they believe it exists so that the victim/survivors feels like “s/he is believed” when in reality s/he isn’t. The counsellor may have good intentions because the counsellor genuinely wants to help the victim/survivor, but in effect is detrimental because its not really supportive. Sooner or later the truth about what the counsellor really believes ie that ritual abuse doesn’t exist, will come out and it can be devastating for the victim/survivor. One needs to talk with the counsellor from the beginning to see if s/he is genuine, and/or get a referral from a survivor or a counselling agency who know that the counsellor is genuine.
General Counsellors
General counsellors, or those that are not knowledgeable and experienced, can be found almost anywhere. The counsellor needs to be open minded and can see that ritual abuse could exist as with any criminal organization. Most importantly, s/he does actually believe that it exists. S/he will educate her/himself about the issue by reading books and the Internet, and if possible talk with counsellors who are experienced with the issue. If the counsellor is outside a counselling agency, a survivor or supporter definitely needs a recommendation from another survivor or legitimate counselling agency as this situation is again open to cult abuse.
A Good Counsellor
Finding the right counsellor is important. The major considerations are: do you get on with this person and like them, how much do they cost, will they be stable eg not move, have lots of children, not go on holidays a lot, etc. Will they fulfill most of what is expected: validate, act on your behalf, find information, etc. Some counsellors may bring in their wrong beliefs and are pushy. This may include "saving the survivor and supporter from the devil", seeing "men or women as the enemy", etc. Travel is also a major consideration. In metropolitan areas, survivors and supporters have many counsellors available. In rural areas, there is a shortage of counsellors and so the survivor generally needs to find someone they can relate to locally or travel. Gender is also another consideration. Most community based services such as rape and incest survivor agencies are for women and children only. Men may need to talk to a government or religious counselling agency.
Cost From my latest information, these are the costs in counselling. They are general estimations. They may differ because of individual services and with rising costs. You/the survivor needs to check with the service. Counselling with a government sexual assault centre is free. Community based sexual assault services are also generally free. Counselling at a government mental health service is usually free also. Religious based counselling ask for a small percentage of the income which is sometimes not insisted upon. Some sexual assault community based agencies may ask for a low cost fee (and give concessions) as they are not fully covered by government funding. Doctors and psychiatrists in private practice can either bulk bill (cost nothing) or ask for the 15% Medicare levy. They can sometimes assist by bulk billing if you/the survivor are on benefits, allowances, pension or a low wage. Private psychologists cost and are the most expensive. Most do a sliding scale depending upon if you are on benefits, allowances, pension or low wage. Some health insurance companies cover counselling as similar to natural therapies and dental work, but they may have provisions stopping this eg. that you have suffered from depression before and therefore cannot claim it as a new illness. However, health insurance companies are now becoming more flexible, but there is still a need to check with the health insurance company first. You/the survivor can see the cost as a consideration and not the total one. The most important consideration is liking and trusting the counsellor.
A Recovery Bill of Rights for Trauma Survivors If you are unsure of your rights as a person getting counselling here is a Bill of Rights of what should happen in counselling. If these do not occur you can point out to the counsellor what should be happening, or find a counsellor who can fulfill these rights. http://ra-info.org/resources/billrights.shtml
Finding a Counsellor This is an excellent webpage about finding a counsellor. It is geared for an American reader and concerned with counselling for sexual abuse, but there is much that is relevant.
Talking to Someone About Being a Ritual Abuse Survivor
It seems hard at first to talk to someone about ritual abuse. The survivor has lots of threats and violence supposedly against them. It also seems as if the survivor is the only person who knows about it. It is really important therefore to really trust someone. From my and other survivors experience, counsellors and people who have heard about ritual abuse will believe the survivor and will really support them. They will not call you a liar or betray your trust. This only happens with cult members or innocent family who are themselves lied to. I have always been treated with respect and acceptance by counsellors and concerned people and this helped me to talk about it. The cult also lies that “the counsellor will be killed or hurt if they help the survivor”. I have not heard of a counsellor being killed or hurt by counselling a ritual abuse victim/survivor in nearly nineteen years I have been a victim/survivor.
Counselling Agencies
Publically and Community Funded Counselling Agencies
Below is a list of publically and community funded and run counselling agencies that have talked to Beyond Survival magazine (a well respected survivor magazine during the nineties), have been recommended by survivors or I have had counselling with. They accept it exists and have an awareness of ritual abuse. They also have crisis numbers. There are also many others that are community based, government or religious that for reasons of time and energy have not advertised their services with the magazine and are still able to offer an appropriate service. Ring your local sexual assault centre and ask to talk to someone who knows about ritual abuse. The centres usually are aware that it exists and will help you directly, or refer you to someone they know can help a ritual abuse victim/survivor.
If known, they are categorised in terms of gender they see (men, women, both) and availability. If you could not talk to the agencies or support group, it is best to ring your local sexual assault centre who generally are familiar with ritual abuse and who can then refer. The services are ongoing. This can be on a weekly, fortnightly, etc basis. Some agencies can only see people for a short period eg. only six to eight weeks, and then one needs to find another counsellor. Some services cost and some are free. It is best to check with the counselling agency at the beginning what the costs are.
Western Australia
Perth Sexual Assault Referral Centre (both genders) 93401820, 93401899 24hrs; Six to eight sessions only.
Incest Survivors Association (both genders) 08 9227 8745 (9-4) (Small cost, concession price) Webpage http://www.isa.asn.au/
There is an Incest and Ritual Abuse Library at 114 South St, Freemantle, Western Australia. It is open only on Fridays, 1-4pm. Telephone: 9335 8214
WA country Sexual Assault Referral Centre (both genders) 1800 199 888 (local call) 24hrs
South Australia Adelaide Womens Statewide Health Services (women) 08 8267 5366 (9-5, Mo-Fr)
Victoria
Melbourne CASA House (both genders) 03 9635 3610 (9-5);
Vic country Telephone Service Against Sexual Assault (both genders) 1800 806 292 (local call) 24hrs
Western Victoria Stawell Community Health Centre 03 5358 3700 (9-5, both genders)
New South Wales
Sydney
Sydney Rape Crisis Centre (Women) 1800 424 017 (24hrs and local call for NSW country) Online counselling, please go to http://www.nswrapecrisis.com.au
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital’s Sexual Assault Service (Men and Women) (02) 9515 3680 Business hours, (02) 9515 6111 After Hours and also 24 hours.
Wollongong
Sexual Assault Centre (both genders) (02) 4222 5408 9-5, (02) 4222 5000 (24 hrs)
Anglicare (both genders) 4229 7911 (9-5)
Australian Capital Territory
Canberra Rape Crisis Centre (women) (02) 6247 2525 (24hr) email crcc@rapecrisis.org.au
Sexual Assault Crisis Line (both), 02 6247 2525, (twenty four hours) 02 6247 1657 TTY (9-5) leave message;
Service Assisting Men Survivors of Sexual Assault- SAMSSA (men) 02 6262 7377, 0411 847 108, 02 6267 7388, email samssa@samssa.org.au
Tasmania
Hobart
Sexual Assault Services (women, men) (03) 6231 1817; referral,( 24hrs)
Sexual Health (both) (03) 6233 3557 (9-5) or 1800 675 859 (toll free)
Launceston
Laurel House (both) 03 6334 2740 (9-5), 0409 800 394 after hours crisis calls, 016 181450 after hours paging service, Email: counsellors@laurelhouse.org.au
Queensland
Gold Coast
Sexual Assault Service 07 5591 1164 (women, 9-5, weekdays);
Men Affected by Rape and Sexual Assault (MARS) Franc Hayes 0412 600 022
Sexual Health Clinic (both, 9-5 weekdays, except Wednesday 9-12) 07 5576 9033, Email: sexualhealthgc@health.qld.gov.au
Cairns 07 4031 3590 (women, 24hrs)
Sunshine Coast Crisis Centre 07 5443 4334 (women, men referral, 9-5 weekdays);
Qld Country Crisis Centre 1800 012 023 (women, men referral, 24hrs);
Brisbane
Rape Crisis Centre (Women) 3844 4008 (24hrs);
Gladstone Rd Medical Centre. Men Affected by Rape and Sexual Assault (MARS) Dr Wendell Rosevear (07) 3857 1222 (9-5, Mon-Fri)
Northern Territory
Alice Springs Sexual Assault Referral Centre (9-5) (08) 8951 5880
Katherine - Family Link (9-5) (08) 8971 0777
Tennant Creek: (9-5) (08) 8962 4364
Darwin Ruby Gaea Centre against Rape (Women) (9-5) (08) 8945 0155
Darwin Sexual Assault Referral Centre (both, 9-5) (08) 8922 7156 Crisis Line (both) (24hr) Free call 1800 019 116
Private Practice and Reductions In Payments
Some counsellors who are familiar with ritual abuse, and can counsel on it, are in private practice. Just like a doctor they have their own private counselling agency. They have to charge as they do not receive any public and/or community funding. If they are covered by the GP Mental Health Scheme you can have up to eighteen sessions per year with them. Their counselling availability is in terms of six sessions per allotment ie you can get three allotments of six sessions per calendar year ie the eighteen sessions can only fall within say 2010. One needs to talk with the counsellor and see if s/he is covered by the GP Mental Health Scheme and then talk to your GP (doctor). Your GP then draws up a plan of counselling with the counsellor. It is financially covered by Medicare and therefore the cost is dependant upon what status you hold with Medicare rebates, and also how the counselling agencies charge. Some agencies bulk bill directly (ie no charge) if you are on a pension or health care card as similar to bulk billing at the doctors; others will charge fully upfront and you get a rebate from Medicare, while others charge a small amount and you get a rebate from Medicare. It is best to check with the counselling agency what their payment methods are and how much you will receive from Medicare. Always tell the counselling agency if you are on a pension (disability or aged), have a health care card or is a student.
You can also take out an insurance plan that covers counselling and you can receive approximately fifty per cent back. You pay a certain amount each week. This is usually about five dollars depending on the company and the plan. There is a limit to how much the insurance company will refund you. Also some insurance companies wont refund if you have already have “shown” that you have a mental health issue. Be upfront with them as they will investigate whether you have had “treatment” before eg with a counsellor, been at a psychiatric hospital, etc. You will be paying money which you will not get back.
Community Groups Aware of Ritual Abuse
These are community groups that are concerned about issues that ritual abuse survivors suffer from eg dissociation and sexual assault, and are concerned about ritual abuse. They offer counselling, referrals and/or information. They can also be called upon in times of a crisis.
The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation has a list of counsellors at Australia. Many if not most counsellors who work with trauma survivors are aware of ritual abuse and possibly have clients. They can be found at http://www.isst-d.org/directory/memberlocator.asp and put Australia in the country youre looking for. These are private therapists and so will charge. They maybe obtained freely by use of a GP Mental Health Scheme as outlined above. It’s best to ring them and see if they see ritual abuse survivors as clients, and if they are covered by the GP Mental Health Scheme or what their costs are. They may do a sliding scale depending on income.
Living Well is a resource for men who have experienced sexual assault when as a child, an adult or both. It has a list of sexual assault services for men nationwide and you can ring/email the service to see if they can help with ritual abuse or know of a nearby service that does. http://www.livingwell.org.au/Counsellingandsupport/Australiawidesexualassaultservices.aspx
The Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault has a Crisis information page at http://www.aifs.gov.au/acssa/crisis.html This lists crisis services for people affected by sexual assault in every state and territory regardless of gender. There is no need to mention that you are a ritual abuse survivor unless you wish to. The important issue for the counsellor and yourself is that you are in crisis and need help. Most sexual assault counsellors know about ritual abuse but may not be very familiar with it, so its best to work on the crisis.
Bravehearts is a national support organisation who are concerned about sexual assault, especially of children. They are mostly aware of ritual abuse. http://www.bravehearts.org.au/
Crisis Times
(From Beyond Survival magazine) Sometimes survivors get very stressed. These are mainly when remembering the abuse, telling others, when being told to return to cult activities, etc (eg Halloween for satanic survivors).There are many things you can do to take the edge off the pain.
Breathe. Breathe deeply and wriggle your toes. Rub your arms and legs. Blink hard. Keep eye contact with something such as your pet.
Make a list of your reasons NOT to kill yourself. Read it. Give a copy to your friends to read out to you when needed.
Be safe and warm. Put a blanket around you and cuddle a teddy bear. Hold onto your pet.
Make a list of things you can do to make you feel better: go out for dinner, have a bath, read a book, suck on a dummy, go for a walk. Whatever works or feels right for you.
Write in a journal.
Ring a friend.
Tell yourself that you are worth being loved. You are good.
Be proud of having survived. The fact that you are still alive after all the torture shows what an amazingly strong person you are.
Ring a crisis number from those listed above, the national crisis counselling services of Life Line 13 11 14 (local call) and Kids Helpline Freecall 1800 551800, and talk to them. In case you/the survivor is concerned about being accepted as a ritual abuse survivor by Lifeline or Kids Helpline or anyone other counselling service, you do not need to explain that you are a survivor. What the listener/counsellor is concerned about during a crisis is your safety and that you do NOT harm yourself.
Flashbacks
Flashbacks happen when the survivor/victim feels like she is back when the abuse occurred. S/he is not in the present and reacts as if the past trauma and programming are happening now. They need to be understood and worked on so that the survivor/victim isn’t acting out of past stuff. A good webpage on this is http://www.traumahealed.com/articles/flashbacks-experiencing-distress-in-safety.html
Safety
Being safe physically and psychologically is extremely important as the perpetrators do want the survivor back. The cults/organisations put a lot of oney into the programming, they are sadistic and want people harmed and they don’t want the survivor to be telling authorities the name of the perpetrators.
This is a good webpage that includes many, if not all the safety tips needed for being safe. It also includes more tips from other webpages. http://endritualabuse.org/activism/safety-tips-for-ritual-abuse-survivors/
Media
The different forms of media (not television or radio channels, etc, but ways of providing information) are now responding well to revealing ritual abuse and helping victims/survivors. Survivors and our supporters are writing books, setting up webpages, producing magazines and videos, etc. The Internet, with its "do it yourself" publishing capabilities has been particularly helpful.
Literature
There are now a large number of books on ritual abuse which help survivors. These are some very popular ones.
Books written by survivors
Breaking the Circle of Ritual Satanic Abuse: Recognizing and Recovering from the Hidden Trauma by Daniel Ryder. This outlines ritual abuse, gives a good understanding, has case studies and validation by counsellors.
Ritual Abuse: What it Is, Why it Happens, How to Help by Margaret Smith. This also outlines, gives a good understanding, has a survivor's perspective and explains escaping if you are currently being abused.
Safe Passage to Healing; A Guide for Survivors of Ritual Abuse by Chrystine Oksana is excellent.
Biographies:
Breaking Ritual Silence An Anthology of Ritual Abuse Survivors Stories Editors: Jeanne Marie Lorena and Paula Levy Over fifty male and female survivors all over the world share their experiences of abuse and healing.
Michelle Remembers by Michelle Smith and Larry Pazder One of the first books written by a survivor (1980). Still powerful.
Articles:
This a list of articles about ritual abuse and programming: http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Satanic_Ritual_Abuse_Evidence_and_Journal_Articles
This article which is from a radio journalist concerned about the issue is also good. It especially explains well the mind control groups’ obsession with death http://web.archive.org/web/20080219182108/http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/6583/project121.html
Books written by supporters eg counsellors
Satanic Ritual Abuse: A Therapist's Handbook by Dee Brown A warm, encouraging introduction to the treatment of adult survivors written for therapists beginning work in this area.
Ritual Child Abuse: Discovery, Diagnosis and Treatment by Pamela Hudson A survey of symptoms of child survivors of extra-familial ritual abuse and a discussion of therapy with both agitated and 'frozen' children. Kind, respectful, and well written.
Books on related topics There are also books on related issues such as sexual assault, mind control, cults, multiple personality, satanism, etc. These are the major ones and sometimes refer to ritual abuse:
Sexual assault
The Courage to Heal Book by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis for women survivors.
Victims No Longer by Mike Lew for men survivors
The Courage to Heal Workbook by Laura Davis for male and female survivors.
Mind Control- Government Development
Virtual Government : CIA Mind Control Operations in America by Alex Constantine Gives an understanding of how secret service agencies develop and abuse mind control.
The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control by John Marks. A classic book that uncovers the US government's (and western countries) development and abuse.
Freedom from Mind Control- Therapy
Combatting Cult Mind Control by Steven Hassan
.
Buying books, magazines, cassettes, etc
Feminist, Christian and quality bookshops are the main places to order and buy books. Each capital city has Feminist and Christian bookshops some with toll free numbers.
Quality national bookstores such as Angus and Robertson and Dymocks, and individual stores such as Gleebooks in Sydney etc may either have the book or can order it.
Some libraries may also have these books, particularly the related ones eg sexual assault. Libraries also usually have their catalogues online. If a member of a metropolitan library, a borrower can usually order a book from another metropolitan library
Amazon Books is an Internet book ordering service and is excellent on ritual abuse and related topics. They have over one hundred titles on ritual abuse including those mentioned here. It may take six weeks to get it from the U.S.
Video and Audio cassettes have also been produced by ritual abuse survivor services. You can get or order them at many Feminist and Christian bookshops. Each capital city should have Feminist and Christian bookshops and some with toll free numbers.
Internet- Webpages and Email
Webpages
There are many webpages on ritual abuse. They are mostly based in the United States where the recovery movement is larger due to the larger population and a greater emphasis on personal growth. They are not specifically U.S. focused and are for the ritual abuse and mind control survivor internationally. The pages are the result of community groups and individuals (both survivors and supporters) showing their concern and providing support. They are mostly within a broad ritual abuse context, and some also offer support for specific types eg Perverted Masonry
A very good example of a broad webpage is The Ritual Abuse, Ritual Crime and Healing Page or the similarly well written one at Survivorship. These two also list the main webpages, literature and resources for ritual abuse generally.
Ritual abuse survivors were abused by horrific torture in the brainwashing process. Governments, the military/defence forces, espionage and "security" agencies, etc developed and also employed these same methods to experiment with and reproduce programmed civilians and personnel. The mind control developed by these organisations is also the same one abused in ritual abuse cults. The cults either brought it from these organisastions, or the cult and the organization are the same such as the Illuminati. Many ritual abuse survivors were also tortured within these organizations for illegal activities of the governments and military.
These are well written and researched webpages concerned with mind control by ritual abuse cults and other organizations.
On the CIA and the development of mind control, A Nation Betrayed: The Chilling True Story of Secret Cold War Experiments Performed on our Children and Other Innocent People http://my.dmci.net/~casey/
SMART Stopping Mind Control and Ritual Abuse Today http://ritualabuse.us provides information about ritual abuse and mind control.
This is another webpage on mind control that was developed at Canada (Montreal) by the CIA http://www.rense.com/general69/mind.htm
Another well respected webpage on ritual abuse and mind control is http://www.endritualabuse.org/
And another well respected webpage on ritual abuse, government abuse and mind control focused on North America is the North American Freedom Foundation http://naffoundation.org/ It does still have relevant information on ritual abuse, mind control and government generally.
There is also a webpage on recovery for Canadian survivors at http://www.victoriousheartinc.
For a Christian perspective this can be found at http://www.hispresenceonline.org/
I also have a webpage on Australian government mind control at http://agmcsurvivorship.esmartdesign.com/
Search Engines such as yahoo.com and google.com can take you to where there are other webpages. Subject headings include: ritual abuse, satanic ritual abuse, ritual abuse torture, organized sadistic abuse, mind control, government mind control, satanism, organized pedophilia, "snuff movies", etc.
Emailing
Emailing other Survivors Directly Some of the webpages have the opportunity to email the webpage writer who is usually a ritual abuse survivor.
Email and Newsgroup List Support Groups These are support groups where people email. They are different to chat groups where people are talking at the same time. Some are publically advertized while others are private. They usually are very safe as the list facilitators are particularly concerned about safety. A selection of publically advertized email lists for ritual abuse survivors is at http://onelist.com. Just type in ritual abuse in the subject search. An example of a good email list is psl ritual abuse
Caution is needed. Even though list facilitators and contributors generally are very safety minded, emailing other survivors (both facilitators and contributors) can go outside safety measures. There can be very little information with knowing who they are and not having other people for feedback. This could lead to being revictimized. There are actual cases of revictimisation through email and the internet. Most survivors however have got a lot out of this support. I personally have not come across any revictimisation. Use your intuition, and whether you have benefited from the discussions.
Support For Supporters of Victims/Survivors
Supporters are very important for victims/survivors and our recovery. They validate, sometimes in a very alienating world, and provide emotional, spiritual, financial, physical (in times of sickness or need of housing), informational, educational, legal, etc support. Supporters can be co-survivors who are fellow ritual abuse survivors, other abuse survivors eg sexual assault survivors, counsellors, friends, non offending family, workers such as within the media or police, etc.
The important consideration for supporters and victim/survivors is that both people are striving for an independent and a self empowered life. Think of ways that provide support and not dependence.
Resources for supporters are not limited to the ones specifically suggested on this page. Ones recommended for victims/survivors are just as useful. Please see above.
Specific Support
Counsellors
There are many books on ritual abuse that are written for the counsellor. Survivors and supporters can also use them. Two well used ones are:
Satanic Ritual Abuse: A Therapist's Handbook by Dee Brown. This is a warm, encouraging introduction to the treatment of adult survivors written for therapists beginning work in this area.
Ritual Child Abuse Discovery, Diagnosis and Treatment by Pamela Hudson. This is a survey of symptoms of child survivors of extra-familial ritual abuse and a discussion of therapy with both agitated and 'frozen' children. Kind, respectful, and well written.
Both of these books can be ordered through Amazon books at Amazon.com or possibly through a bookshop such as Dymocks nationwide or Glebe Books at Sydney.
The Ritual Abuse, Ritual Crime and Healing Page has telephone training guidelines to assist counsellors talking to survivors. This is at http://ra-info.org/resources/ra_hotl.shtml
Supporters Generally
There is a wide selection of books and resources that are written for the supporter from any background or relationship to the survivor. These include:
Satanic Ritual Abuse: A Therapist's Handbook by Dee Brown
Breaking the Circle of Ritual Abuse by Daniel Ryder.
They can be ordered at Amazon books and from any quality bookshop.
Webpages such as The Ritual Abuse, Ritual Crime and Healing Page has information for the non survivor/supporter.
There are many journal and magazine articles on the net which can be accessed by doing appropriate searches by yahoo.com and google.com.
ASCA http://www.asca.org.au/displaycommon.cfm?an=2 can be emailed concerning finding more information about ritual abuse in Australia.
Innocent Friends and Family. All the literature listed is helpful for friends and innocent family. You need to understand what specifically is going on for a survivor, and incorporate this within the ways someone generally supports someone else. A book that is especially good about helping a survivor of sexual assault is Allies in Healing: When the Person You Love Was Sexually Abused as a Child by Laura Davis. She validates ritual abuse in the book and it is good as a guide for supporters. Laura's book can be obtained at any good bookstore or through ordering at Amazon.com
Counsellors can also talk with friends and non offending family of survivors if there needs to be education or other matters about the abuse. Some government, church and community counselling services sometimes hold workshops that are specifically for supporters.
Assisting During Crisis Periods
The major times survivors need support is during crisis periods. This is when they are becoming a survivor, remembering, disclosing the abuse, escaping, call back periods, anything else that triggers in a large way e.g. having to have to contact cult or innocent family as there is a death in the family, or experiencing trauma that is not directly cult related e.g. a miscarriage but will also set off cult triggers, etc. Please also see Crisis Periods at the Recovery Page for when survivors cope.
What is important is a genuine willingness to assist the survivor for a period of time. The survivor will generally know how long that period will be for. Some survivors only need a couple of days, some more. The supporter needs to know their abilities and limitations and be clear with this. It is really detrimental to have shaky support as it will only restimulate cult lies that "friends/counsellors/partners/family are not supportive". Survivors are also having a rough enough time that they cannot look after a supporters' inconsistency.
Australian Similar Resources
This section has website addresses for similar survivorship in Australia. Ritual abuse survivors sometimes like information about similar concerns and to talk to similar survivors of say sexual assault, etc.
General Survivor Pages
Advocates for Survivors of Child Abuse This survivor initiated community based agency provides support for survivors of all abuse including ritual abuse.
Sexual Assault
A webpage providing many sources of support for sexual violence victims/survivors of both genders with state and territory numbers is at http://www.wwda.org.au/portviol.htm
http://www.aest.org.uk/helplines/australian_new_zealand_support_lines.htm This webpage provides information for women and men survivors of sexual assault.
Self Injury/Crisis Information
Kids Helpline http://www.kidshelp.com.au or telephone the free number 1800 55 1800 This page has email counselling and telephone counselling information for children and young people.
National Child Protection Clearinghouse This Australian government agency is concerned about child neglect and abuse.
Lifeline. http://www.lifeline.org.au. Telephone131114. Twenty four hour help. Many counselors are aware of ritual abuse. Even if they are not they are concerned about your welfare and so there is no need to disclose if you don’t want to. The Lifeline counsellor is more concerned about your safety.
