DEFINITION

Defining Spiritual Abuse and Religious Trauma

"Coercion and control of one individual by another in a spiritual context...This abuse may include - manipulation and exploitation, enforced accountability, censorship of decision making, requirements for secrecy and silence, pressure to conform, misuse of scripture or using the pulpit to control behaviour, requirement of obedience to the abuser, the suggestion that the abuser has a "divine" position, isolation from others, especially those external to the abusive context."

(Oakley 2013 in Oakley and Kinmond, 2013 p21)

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