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Digital Seminar

Escaping Exploitative Control: Must-Have Tools to Help Clients Disengage from Online Conspiracies, Radical Political Organizations, Cults & More


Speaker:
Steven Hassan, PhD
Duration:
Approx 6 hrs
Copyright:
Mar 11, 2025
Product Code:
POS150140
Media Type:
Digital Seminar - Also available: Live Webinar

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Description

You may not think your clients experience brainwashing, but regular people can experience radical personality change when online algorithms steer them to extremist content.

And it’s shocking how easily – given the right set of circumstances – individuals can find themselves being turned against their own family, friends, and beliefs.

Many clients don’t realize they’re being manipulated, and neither do their therapists.

Even when exploitative control is recognized, it’s hard to know where to begin to help, since your client’s inner voice and authentic identity has been usurped by a pseudo-cult identity, creating symptoms including identity disruption, reality confusion, sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, dissociation, anger, guilt, shame, and more.

Now you can help your clients reexamine their belief systems and put an end to exploitative control. In this essential training, Dr. Steven Hassan, an internationally recognized expert on cults and undue influence, will empower you to help your clients regain their autonomy and their lives. In this transformative course, you’ll learn:

  • Comprehensive assessment techniques to recognize exploitative control that you can start using right away in your practice
  • Cutting-edge approaches for dealing with clients’ unwanted triggers and implanted irrational fears
  • Psychoeducational interventions to boost clients’ critical thinking skills to decrease their vulnerability to exploitation and protect them from manipulation
  • And much more!

PURCHASE TODAY! Gain the vital skills you need to help your clients recognize and break free from exploitative control before it’s too late.

 

 

 

 

 

Credit


* Credit Note - Self-Study CE Information Coming Soon

Continuing education credit information is coming soon for this non-interactive self-study package.

CEs may be available for select professions, as listed in the target audience. Hours will be dependent on the actual recording time. Please check with your state licensing board or organization for specific requirements. 

There may be an additional fee for CE certificates. Please contact our Customer Service at 1-800-844-8260 for more details. 

**Materials that are included in this course may include interventions and modalities that are beyond the authorized practice of your profession. As a licensed professional, you are responsible for reviewing the scope of practice, including activities that are defined in law as beyond the boundaries of practice in accordance with and in compliance with your professions standards.



Speaker

Steven Hassan, PhD's Profile

Steven Hassan, PhD Related seminars and products


Steven Hassan, PhD, MA, MEd, LMHC, NCC, is a mental health professional, forensics expert, and Fielding Fellow who has been helping people leave destructive cults since 1976 when his family deprogrammed him from the Moon cult. He founded and directs the Freedom of Mind Resource Center, Inc., a consulting and media production company based in Massachusetts. He is the author of Combating Cult Mind Control, Freedom of Mind, and The Cult of Trump.


Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Steven Hassan maintains a private practice and is the Founding Director of the Freedom of Mind Resource and Freedom of Undue Influence. He receives royalties as a published author. Dr. Hassan receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Steven Hassen is a member of the American Counseling Association, the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, and the International Society of Hypnosis.

 


Additional Info

Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)

Access never expires for this product.


Questions?

Visit our FAQ page at www.pesi.com/faq or contact us at www.pesi.com/info


Objectives

  1. Distinguish between constructive and destructive influence.
  2. Identify symptoms related to exploitative control.
  3. Utilize Motivational Interviewing techniques to assist clients experiencing undue influence with exploring their motivation for change.
  4. Choose CBT strategies to challenge unhelpful beliefs that developed due to manipulation.
  5. Develop a safety plan to increase safety related to leaving a situation of exploitative control.
  6. Determine skills to increase reality testing, critical thinking, and media literacy.

Outline

The Influence Continuum
From Ethical, Constructive Influence to Authoritarian Mind Control
  • Personality and situational vulnerabilities to undue influence
  • The impact of 21st century and digital technology
  • Constructive versus destructive influence
  • Dynamics of brainwashing – the BITE Model of Authoritarian control™
  • Radicalization – susceptibility and identity disruption
  • Impact of attachment style and codependency
  • Trauma bonding in abusive relationships
  • Context matters – the fundamental attribution error
Assessment: Signs, Symptoms, and Diagnostic Considerations
Uncover What Influences Your Client
  • Individualized recovery approach
  • Common indicators of mind control
  • Tools to foster client sharing about experiences of exploitation
  • Anxiety and depression
  • Trauma-related symptoms after abuse
  • Addictions issues
  • Unspecified dissociative disorder
  • Trust issues, guilt, and other non-diagnostic clinical problems
  • Risk assessment
  • Strategies for decreasing shame during assessment
Exploitative Control Treatment Guide
Tools to Help Clients End Exploitative Control
  • Cults – empower vs deprogram
  • Motivational Interviewing strategies
  • Strategic Interactive Approach (SIA)
  • Tools to decrease self-blame
  • Legitimate versus implanted fears
  • Systematic desensitization for phobias
  • Positive visualization, self-talk, deep breathing to help clients calm
  • Cult deconditioning hypnosis and scripts
  • Post-cult spirituality, meaning, and purpose
  • Involvement of family and other supporters
  • Expressive therapy techniques to release trauma bonds
  • CBT to reshape inaccurate thinking
  • Techniques to foster self-as-context
  • Mindfulness tools to support healthy thought patterns
  • Techniques to rediscover the lost self
  • Safety plans: pre-exit, exit, and post-exit
  • Validate and support client grieving
  • Dr. Steven Hassan’s lived experience of cult involvement and deprogramming
  • Case studies
Clinical and Ethical Considerations
Therapeutic Stance, Adjunctive Care, Prevention & More
  • How to listen without disbelief or judgment
  • Caution around validating what might be false memories
  • How to avoid being an authority in therapy
  • Cultural humility and healing practices
  • Prevention: inoculation strategies
  • How to support reality testing, critical thinking, and media literacy
  • Help clients find suitable, safe support networks
  • Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT)
  • Caveats and contraindications of group therapy
  • Legal system involvement
  • Ethical considerations
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Nurses
  • Psychiatrists
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

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