Aaron Sharp is a registered psychologist and Clinical Psychology Registrar based in Brisbane. After 25 years within high-control Pentecostal groups, he left religion at 40 and rebuilt his life through education and a new career in psychology. His interests include religious trauma, coercive control, identity reconstruction and recovery after leaving high-control groups. Drawing on both lived experience and clinical training, Aaron is passionate about raising awareness of the psychological impact of these environments and supporting survivors as they rebuild autonomy, meaning and connection.

Alice Cecilia is a registered nurse from Auckland. She became a whistle blower when her sons were sexually abused by a Destiny Church youth leader. She fought to get justice for her family and has since been rebuilding her life and faith in the hope that her story brings hope, understanding and encouragement to others.

Amy Tiemann, PhD, is an internationally respected youth and student safety advocate. She began her career as a Stanford-trained neuroscientist before moving into social science and education, and has trained thousands of young people, parents, teachers and organisational leaders in the Kidpower International personal-safety programme. Her work is gathered in the book Doing Right by Our Kids: Protecting Child Safety at All Levels. Amy recently moved to Wellington after 25 years in North Carolina.

Andrew Jasko is a psychotherapist, comparative-religion scholar and founder of Life After Dogma. A former minister and missionary who survived high-control Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity, he draws on lived experience to help survivors of high-control religious groups through therapy, faith deconstruction and mindfulness. He holds an MPhil in Classical Indian Religion from Oxford, an MDiv from Princeton Seminary and an MA in Counseling Psychology, and works as an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist.

Angèle Tremsal grew up in the Austrian Friedrichshof commune from the ages of seven to 17. It was started on a similar ideology as Centrepoint in New Zealand and was run by radical action artist Otto Mühl from Vienna who was later jailed for child sexual abuse. When it collapsed, Angèle studied graphic design and later became a mother and a musician. Now based in Berlin, she is a saxophonist, composer and music teacher. Her German book about her life in the Mühl cult was published in 2024.

Ashlen Weltz (Hilliard), MSc, is a cult intervention specialist and founder of People Leave Cults. She was the 2025 expert speaker and producer for the Psychology of Cults national tour, and has previously been a case manager for people leaving polygamist communities and Director of Events for ICSA. She holds an MSc in the Psychology of Coercive Control and published the first exploratory study on reproductive coercion in cults. She has featured on HBO, Hulu, NewsNation, HuffPost and BET+, and co-organises Portland’s SAFE Meetups.

Becky Garrison is a religious satirist and author of nine books, including Gaslighting for God: A Satirical Guide to Save Yourself from Spiritual Narcissists and Jesus Died for This? A Satirist’s Search for the Risen Christ. She served as a Senior Contributing Editor for The Wittenburg Door and now sits on its board of directors. Based in the Pacific Northwest, she also covers the region’s craft culture, from cider and spirits to the festival scene.

Beth St Claire is a New Zealand psychotherapist specialising in the effects of cults, fundamentalism and coercive high-demand groups, drawing on her own lived experience. Her Master’s research explored the lives of second-generation cult members as independent adults. Beth sees individual clients, runs online and in-person recovery groups, and gives cult-education talks. She is completing training with Gillie Jenkinson in the Walking Free approach, and brings a special interest in trauma, dissociation and embodiment through EMDR, somatic and expressive therapies.

Brandie Hadfield is a registered psychotherapist (Qualifying) whose work is shaped by lived experience inside a wellness-focused commercial cult. Drawn to new-age spirituality in early adulthood, she later saw how the search for meaning can be manipulated — especially for new parents seeking community. Her research explores how neurodivergent traits such as hyperfocus and justice sensitivity can be exploited in high-control groups, and how they can become strengths in recovery. She now advocates for survivors of cults, narcissistic abuse and coercive workplaces, bringing an anti-oppressive, compassionate and humorous approach to therapy.

Dr Caroline Ansley is a Christchurch-based general practitioner working in family medicine, sexual assault care and forensic psychiatry. As a child she lived in the Centrepoint cult, and she is the founder of the Centrepoint Restoration Project. An internationally recognised speaker and educator, Caroline hosts the award-winning Cult Chat podcast and has written clinical guidance — now used by doctors across the country — to help health workers support people affected by cults. She co-leads the Cult-Informed Professional Network, a collaboration of more than 50 New Zealand professionals working with cult survivors.

Catherine Cameron is the mother of coercive-control survivor Liz Cameron (author of “Cult Bride”) and helped her daughter leave the group.

A counsellor by trade, Charlotte Cummings has spent recent years working as a licensed private investigator responding to abuse and harm in faith-based settings across New Zealand. She has worked on a range of high-profile cases and is known for her integrity under pressure and for holding the needs of people above institutions. Charlotte is also undertaking a sociology PhD on the gendered nature of leaving high-demand religion, focusing on multi-generational women leaving Gloriavale. She is passionate about caring well for ourselves while seeking justice for those made vulnerable.

Dr Christine Marie is an American author, survivor advocate, public speaker and founder of Voices for Dignity. She holds a PhD in psychology and draws on academic expertise, lived experience and a public platform to educate audiences about cults, coercion, trauma, public shaming, media and the healing power of kindness. Featured in the Netflix docuseries Trust Me: The False Prophet, she is known for her empathy, courage and commitment to helping survivors turn trauma into triumph.

Dr Christopher Longhurst KSO is a New Zealand lay theologian, educator, writer, survivor and advocate, and National Coordinator of SNAP Aotearoa New Zealand (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). His work brings together theology, safeguarding, survivor advocacy and institutional accountability. He has contributed to public and academic discussion of the Catholic Church’s response to abuse in Aotearoa New Zealand, including questions of redress, accountability, transparency and the protection of survivors.

Dassi Erlich is an author, survivor advocate and campaigner for institutional accountability. Raised in Melbourne’s ultra-Orthodox Adass community, she has spent years speaking out about abuse and the systems that shield perpetrators, and led the 15-year campaign to return her former school principal to Australia to face justice. Her memoir, In Bad Faith, tells the story of the abuse, what it took to speak out, and how she rebuilt her life. Dassi also appears in the documentary Surviving Malka Leifer and continues to advocate for lasting systemic change.

Debbs Murray draws on lived experience of family and sexual violence, alongside deep practice knowledge, to advocate for the criminalisation of coercive control in Aotearoa New Zealand. With more than 25 years in the family violence sector – including NGO leadership, specialist roles with New Zealand Police, and work on family violence death reviews – she is committed to creating accountability for the patterns of domination, isolation and surveillance seen in both family violence and cult settings. Debbs was recently appointed Chair of the Family and Sexual Violence Ministerial Advisory Group and holds qualifications in psychology.

Don Johnson is an author, leadership consultant and podcast host who has spent more than 30 years helping leaders navigate change and self-awareness. Earlier in life he was a close follower of Prem Rawat and, in the 1980s, president of the organisation supporting Rawat’s activities in the United States. He later became an outspoken whistleblower, drawing on firsthand experience to expose the realities behind the movement. His perspective brings together decades of leadership work with a deeply personal understanding of influence, authority and recovery.

Hon Dr Duncan Webb is a New Zealand Member of Parliament, lawyer and former university lecturer whose work centres on human rights, legal ethics and democratic governance. With more than twenty years in legal practice and education, he has a particular interest in how power is exercised, abused and challenged within institutions and communities. A long-standing champion of access to justice and the protection of vulnerable people, Duncan brings to the conversation on cults and coercive groups a perspective grounded in law, human rights and personal autonomy.

Eyal Shaham is a programmer, certified yoga teacher, whistleblower and activist. In recent years he has focused on raising awareness of the International School of Temple Arts (ISTA), an organisation critics describe as a harmful cult. His work includes speaking with journalists and authorities and helping survivors seek recognition and support, and he created the website istaAwareness.life as part of his advocacy. ISTA has recently filed a $1 million lawsuit against him in Israel.

Elise Heerde is a mental health practitioner and certified coach based in Australia, specialising in recovery from religious trauma, cults and high-control systems. She combines lived experience with professional training to create safe, judgement-free spaces where people can explore their stories and recover from coercive systems. Elise is co-director of Religious Trauma & Cults and the author of Holy Hell: Saved So Hard I Needed Therapy and After the Exit: The Long Tail of Coercive Control.

Ganesh Cherian is a former Wellington bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). He now consults on Mormon history and culture, and speaks to the nuances of high-demand religion, deconstruction and reclaiming personal autonomy. Ganesh performed his stand-up in the Doomsday Comedy tour in Aotearoa.

Jaya Mangalam Gibson is the founder of Uncult Ōtautahi, a peer-led support initiative in Christchurch for survivors of cults and high-control groups. A former practitioner of Falun Gong, he spent years navigating the process of leaving a high-control system and deconstructing its influence. Today he draws on that lived experience to facilitate safe, trauma-informed spaces, produce the Unspun podcast, and build resources that reduce isolation, foster critical thinking and help survivors reclaim their autonomy.

Julian Noel (Ngāpuhi) is a New Zealand writer, actor, entrepreneur, facilitator and storyteller in Tāhuna (Queenstown) whose work explores who we think we are. For more than three decades, he has worked with individuals, leaders and organisations around creativity and personal agency. His own life has taken him through theatre, business, spiritual practice and learning around the world. Julian is also the writer and performer of BONES, a one-person theatre play based on his youth and childhood in foster homes. It explores family violence, sexual abuse, identity, colonisation and intergenerational inheritance. BONES was nominated for 10 awards at the 2026 Nelson and Dunedin Fringe Festivals.

Kyle Eggleton is an Associate Professor in the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care and Associate Dean of Rural Health at the University of Auckland, and a rural GP at Waipū Medical Centre in Northland. His research interests include power and control, equity, and rural and primary health-care systems. Kyle has lived experience as an ex-member of the 2x2s, chairs a rural family violence support trust, and presents regularly on the health impacts of power and control. At Decult, Kyle will talk about the hidden death toll of cults.

Lindy Jacomb is an advocate for former members of high-control and high-demand religious groups, drawing on her own lived experience to support others navigating life after religious coercion. She founded the Olive Leaf Network, a charity providing practical aid and advocacy to former members while raising awareness of their experiences, and is one of three hosts of the Cult Chat podcast. A former member of the Exclusive Brethren and former Baptist Union pastor, Lindy combines lived experience with a deep interest in the psycho-social role spirituality plays in New Zealanders’ lives.

Liz Cameron grew up in fundamentalist Christianity and was drawn into JMS (Jesus Morning Star), also known as Providence or the Christian Gospel Mission, at 18 in 2011, leaving in 2013. Now based in Canberra, she balances full-time work with cult awareness and advocacy while studying psychology. After travelling to South Korea to film the documentary The Cult Next Door for Channel 7’s Spotlight, Liz’s profile grew as she spoke honestly on social media about the insidious nature of cults. Her memoir, Cult Bride, was published in 2025.

Liz Gregory is manager of the Gloriavale Leavers’ Support Trust, which she founded in 2019 to provide practical, long-term support for people leaving New Zealand’s best-known high-control religious communitie. She has walked alongside hundreds of former members through housing, education, employment, healthcare, identity, family separation and recovery from coercive control, and works closely with government agencies, researchers and clinicians to improve understanding of their needs. Liz co-hosts the award-winning Cult Chat podcast and brings a practical, compassionate, frontline perspective.

Liz Sallows is a registered psychotherapist in private practice in Ontario, Canada, specialising in grief and trauma with both professional and personal experience of loss. The twenty years she spent as a member of a fundamentalist Christian cult give her a particular understanding of the grief and trauma that surface when a survivor chooses to leave. In her work with other survivors, Liz has been honoured to be part of recovery and healing for many.

Mark Darbyshire is an analyst, actor and Justice of the Peace, and a self-confessed governance junkie who sits on the boards of community organisations including Decult, Christchurch Pride and Little Andromeda. Ten years ago he left the high-control Revival church he was born into. He produced the New Zealand tour of Doomsday Comedy in early 2026 and works towards a world of kindness, sustainability and understanding.

Currently serving as the Race Relations Commissioner for Te Kāhui Tika Tangata | New Zealand Human Rights Commission, Melissa brings over a decade of experience in human rights advocacy. Her previous role was in the School of Education at the University of Waikato. She has won a Fulbright Graduate award, a Royal Commonwealth award and two awards from the Royal Society of New Zealand. Melissa is committed to ensuring the rights of all groups in New Zealand are upheld, and to promoting harmonious relations through open dialogue, common connections and shared values.

Melody Thomas is the creator and host of The Good Sex Project and the multi-award-winning RNZ series BANG!. In 2020 she co-founded the podcast company Popsock Media, and has since produced series including The Lake, an investigation into the historic abuse of children at Lake Alice Psychiatric Facility, which won gold at the New York Festival Radio Awards and two Voyager Media Awards. Melody also writes for Capital and SUNDAY magazines and is working on her first book.

Michelle Tonkin (Damchö) is an artist-researcher based in Naarm/Melbourne and a PhD candidate at Sydney College of the Arts. Michelle spent two decades in Buddhist practice, including ten years as an ordained Vajrayana nun (2001-2011). In 2017 she was one of eight signatories to an open letter exposing decades of abuse within Rigpa – a moment that catalysed a global reckoning across Tibetan Buddhist communities. Her art and research, ‘Unexpecting Enlightenment’, has since become central for processing that rupture and restoring the relationship between body and voice, matter and meaning.

Micki McAllen is a former Jehovah’s Witness who speaks online as “Apostate Barbie” about her experiences in the high-control religion to raise awareness of cults and their repressive tactics. Born and raised in Auckland, she now lives a free and full life as a queer activist following her dreams in London.

Mirijam Wiedemann is an author and researcher specialising in religious and ideological movements, radicalisation, and the intersections of religion, education and digital culture. For eight years she headed the office responsible for monitoring and assessing potentially harmful religious and ideological groups at the Ministry of Education of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Her research focuses on emerging movements, digital radicalisation and online communities, and their broader implications for education, politics and democratic societies. She has published several books and academic articles in the field.

Dr Natalie Fabert is a teaching professor at Arizona State University, a licensed psychologist, and a board member of the Lalich Center on Cults and Coercion. In private practice she specialises in complex trauma, recovery from cultic abuse, and religious and spiritual trauma, and she teaches social psychology, psychopathology and cult psychology at ASU. She also directs the Lalich Center’s continuing-education programme, training the next generation of mental health providers to offer care to cult survivors.

Neil Denney is Chief Executive of Friendship House He Whare Tangata, a South Auckland organisation providing family violence, counselling, social work and whānau support services. With more than 40 years across the government and NGO sectors, he has worked in mental health, disability, welfare, youth and community development, and holds a Master of Social and Community Leadership. At Decult, Neil explores the complex relationship between religion and family violence, and the risks and opportunities faith communities present in prevention and response.

Nic Low (Ngāi Tahu) is a writer and arts leader. His books include the best-selling Uprising, a Ngāi Tahu history of the Southern Alps, and Little Doomsdays, on how past civilisations tried to preserve what they love in the face of existential threat. Former director of the WORD Christchurch festival, he has chaired conversations at more than 30 festivals worldwide and is at work on his fourth book.

For ten years Nicola Ranson was a disciple of the Indian guru Rajneesh (Osho), and lived at the US headquarters when the commune collapsed amid revelations of serious criminal activity. She became a psychotherapist specialising in trauma and works with survivors from multiple cults. Nicola taught Counseling Psychology at National University for seventeen years and has presented on cult recovery at two ICSA conferences. Born in the UK and raised in Canada, she now lives in California. Her memoir, A Slice of Orange, is out in December 2026.

Nikki G is a trauma-care practitioner, educator, speaker and founder of the Black Religious Trauma Recovery Network in the US. She specialises in religious trauma, spiritual abuse, coercive control and cult recovery, with particular expertise in the experiences of Black survivors. Drawing on both professional training and lived experience as a survivor of multiple cults, she supports survivors, helping professionals and communities through education, advocacy and culturally informed healing. Her work also explores the impact of Christian nationalism and other coercive religious systems.

Paul Valor grew up in Gloriavale and left at 28 with his then-wife and their children. With family still both inside and outside the community, he has taken part in several documentaries about the cult — as a member and after leaving. Drawing on his own recovery, including struggles he feels are rarely talked about, Paul speaks to help both survivors and the professionals who support them understand the long road out of a high-control community.

Phil Vine has been telling longform stories for longer than he cares to mention — a journalist across television, print and radio, with stints at TVNZ (Fair Go, Sunday), TV3 (Sixty Minutes, 20/20, Third Degree), the Listener and The Guardian, and reporting for ITV, the BBC World Service and the CBC. He has made documentaries for Greenpeace and worked for the International Red Cross. These days he reviews books and makes narrative podcasts for RNZ. In 2025 he hosted and produced The Lodge, a 20-year investigation into a wellness cult. His next podcast, Cult Proof, made with survivors and high-control experts, is in production. Phil lives in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Rachel Bernstein, LMFT, MSEd, is an American educator and licensed marriage and family therapist who has spent more than 35 years helping people understand and recover from cults, coercive control and manipulative relationships. She works with survivors and families, leads support groups, and trains clinicians and organisations. Rachel hosts the IndoctriNation podcast, where survivors and experts share their experiences, and her work focuses on helping people reconnect with themselves, their relationships and life beyond coercive environments.

Rachael Reign is an award-winning specialist in spiritual and cultic abuse, a survivor advocate and founder and CEO of Surviving Universal UK — the UK’s only Black-led specialist organisation supporting victims and survivors of spiritual and cultic abuse. Drawing on lived experience alongside a background in law and safeguarding, she works across survivor support, professional training, policy and public advocacy, and has advised government, Parliament, statutory agencies and frontline organisations. Her work centres culturally competent safeguarding, coercive control and survivor-led systemic change.

Renée Spencer is a PACFA-registered counsellor and art therapist in Australia, specialising in recovery from coercive control and high-control groups. She is President of Cult Information & Family Support (CIFS) and co-founder of Survivors of Coercive Cults and High-Control Groups (SOCCHG), and she co-authored the ‘Beyond Belief’ submission to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into high-control groups. Renée runs an online private practice supporting survivors, and with a background in secondary school teaching she is passionate about raising awareness through education.

After leaving the Geelong Revival Centre in Australia, Ryan Carey and his wife Catherine became leading whistleblowers for the investigative Pray Harder podcast series to drive change. Founding Stop Religious Coercion Australia, they used the podcast’s profile to lobby their local MP, whose support led to a meeting with the Victorian Attorney-General and, ultimately, the parliamentary inquiry into cults and fringe groups – whose report recommends legislating against group-based coercion. Ryan now assists survivors, current members and government agencies.

Born in apartheid-era South Africa, Sam Featherstone came of age under two totalist systems: a Christian-nationalist state and a small fundamentalist Christadelphian group awaiting Armageddon. In response to the global rise of religious nationalism, she is writing a coming-of-age memoir about extricating herself from the Christadelphians. Sam is now based in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Sam Sellers is a registered therapist and founder of Anchored Counselling Services in Australia, specialising in religious and cultic trauma, high-control group recovery, and recovery from conversion practices. Working with individuals and couples, she supports clients through the psychological, relational and identity impacts of leaving high-control environments. Sam co-founded RTC (Religious Trauma and Cults) and formerly hosted the podcast Beyond the Surface.

Sarah Edmondson is a Canadian actress and voice-over artist who has starred in multiple TV series and more than a dozen films. Her whistleblower story, following her departure from the personal development company NXIVM, is told in her memoir Scarred and the HBO documentary series The Vow. Now based in Atlanta, Sarah and her co-host and husband Anthony “Nippy” Ames continue the conversation through their podcast A Little Bit Culty — and now a book of the same name.

Sarah Schricker grew up in the fundamentalist KSB (KwaSizabantu) and is the Lived Experience Engagement Advisor to the Office of the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner in Australia. She has served on the Survivor Advisory Council to the Australian Federal Government on human trafficking and modern slavery, and contributed to the international Survivor Alliance’s advocacy working groups. Sarah is Executive Director of Survivor Connections, providing peer support for survivors of modern slavery in Australia. Her advocacy focuses on forced marriage, human trafficking and sexual servitude, and their intersections with adverse childhood experiences, religious high-control groups and family and gender-based violence.

Sarah Steel is the Australian creator of Let’s Talk About Sects, a podcast examining cults and coercion. For the show and her book Do As I Say (Pan Macmillan, 2022), she has spoken with dozens of cult survivors and helped them share their stories. The podcast has won an Australian Podcast Award and an Ethical Media Award and was a Webby Award honouree. Sarah has produced for ABC Radio National and convened sold-out panels for Vivid Sydney and Woodford Folk Festival.

Sonja Juillet is a content and event creative producer and long-time cult awareness advocate who uses her voice and personal experience to shed light on coercive control and psychological abuse. Her focus is the struggles faced by the loved ones and family members of cult victims — those often left behind, burdened by shame and isolation while grieving someone who is still alive. She is writing a memoir exploring ‘grey grief’, or ambiguous loss, and collaborates with nonprofits to raise awareness, organise events and support others navigating this often misunderstood form of loss.

The Right Reverend Pihopa Susan Wallace (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Whātua, Te Roroa, Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Rārua, Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe, Kai Tahu) is Bishop of Te Waipounamu and the first woman elected to lead Te Hui Amorangi o Te Waipounamu, the Anglican Māori Diocese of the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. A respected Māori leader with more than 30 years of experience across the Anglican Church, iwi governance, education, public service, health,and community development, Susan has led organisational transformation, cultural revitalisation and governance initiatives at local, national and international levels. She is passionate about nurturing emerging leaders, strengthening communities, and advancing Te Oranga Ake (flourishing life for all) with a deep commitment to justice, service and wellbeing.

Theo Pratt was born into Gloriavale and cast out at 18 — dropped at a bus stop with no knowledge of the outside world — and has since rebuilt her life as a qualified occupational therapist and homeowner in Auckland. Her book Unveiled tells the story of surviving Gloriavale, written to help others who grew up in controlled environments feel seen. Theo speaks to unveil the community’s secrets and to empower other survivors to break free from the cycle of abuse.

Trina Elkington-Ball (Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Koata and Pākehā) grew up in Kirikiriroa and has lived in Tāmaki Makaurau, London and Geneva. She has been a primary school teacher, bookseller and autism coach – but mostly a tradwife. A six-generation family legacy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints kept her faithful to Mormonism until she left at forty-two. In 2025 she completed her MA in Creative Writing at the IIML, Te Herenga Waka. She is studying te reo Māori at Te Wānanga o Raukawa and lives in Whanganui-a-Tara with her three children.

Valiant Overcomer (Kāti Waewae) was born and raised in Haupiri — the original name for the West Coast valley now known as Gloriavale. A descendant of Kāti Waewae, he now farms and lives in Mawheraiti with his whānau. He brings the perspective of someone with deep ancestral roots in the land Gloriavale occupies, and of life beyond one of New Zealand’s best-known high-control communities.

Wayne Turipa (Tūhoe) is a community leader and chairperson for local initiatives in Gore, Southland. He started Tū Tane, a men’s support group, at Te Whanau o Hokonui Marae in 2023. Wayne spent 27 years in Rotorua where was one of the founding members of ManUp, the controversial men’s program run by New Zealand’s Destiny Church. He bravely helped to expose ManUp in John Campbell’s 2025 investigative documentary series Under His Command (TVNZ).

Dr Windy Grendele is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Roehampton, where she co-leads the Mandated Shunning Research Project investigating coercive control in high-control religious communities. Her work centres on the psychological and social consequences of shunning, beginning with the lived experiences of people shunned by the Jehovah’s Witness community. Her research seeks to build a theoretical framework for understanding mandated shunning, quantify its impact, and advocate for its recognition as a human-rights violation.