Kathy, You might want to read up on some of the tricks typically used during mind control in abusive religious contexts. Your client's experiences and subsequent concerns are quite normal for those kinds of groups. Typically information is collected by someone in the community and then shared among and with the leaders. The leaders will then use it indiscriminately to punish and / or control the member. Often the format during which information is used is very painful. It can be humiliating group sessions, continual verbal attacks, calls for more "confession". Forced co-erced confessions that might not be true and other similar stuff. There might also be weighty threats to go with all the attacks. Its a "normal" mind control technique. I have no idea of course how much of this your client went through, but I bet it would be good to explore. In that light it is not strange that your client is afraid of information floating around. I would treat it as a very strong trauma based reaction. Personally, as an ex-cult-member, nothing less of complete openness from the person trying to help me, in relation to my concerns would work. In this case how extensive are your notes? Where do you keep your notes? Who do you talk to about cases that concern you? etc etc. I am active in the communities that deal with strong spiritual abuse, and I know a lot of other ex-members with the same issues and needs. Not one of them would accept a secretive approach from a therapist. We are all aware that we were manipulated, and we have all been hurt too deeply by it. A secretive therapistwould never have a chance at winning our trust. I wonder how far your client can compromise, knowing you have to protect yourself, and how far you can compromise knowing you have to respect your clients experiences and needs. As far as your clients needs for closeness, I wonder what exactly this means to her. How will your client know that you do in fact care about her? What is she looking for to tell her you care? How far can you stretch to show her you are a caring human? Where does your and her joint boundaries go with this therapy? What is her needs / your needs? What is the worst that can happen? One good book to read about mind control is Steven Hassan's Combatting Cult Mind Control. Its available on Amazon. Its a good book, I wish all clinicians had some basic awareness of mind control issues. Ohh, and the usual disclaimer, I am a psych student, not currently a practicing clinician. Da Friendly Puter TEch
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