Meet Sally Phu, Counsellor and Cult Awareness Workshop Facilitator
Each month we spotlight an ACA member in the ACA Monthly Bulletin, our monthly newsletter. The Member Spotlight is designed to showcase the work of our members to you! We hope their stories inspire or spark interest. Let’s share our experiences within our counselling community.
What motivated you to pursue a career in counselling?
To fully answer why I became a counsellor, I must speak about my personal experience. I was coerced into a cult in my twenties – the time when I was questioning life and its meaning.Â
I was introduced to a bible study by a friend in Sydney, which led to meeting a group of fun and like-minded people. These seemingly innocent bible studies were used as an indoctrination tool to carry out the cult agenda, and my involvement with this particular group, consumed 10 years of my life. Â
In the cult I developed a new pseudo identity and eventually felt as though my authentic self was disintegrating – I did not have a firm grip of who I was. This resulted in trauma, PTSD, generalised anxiety, and paranoia over a period of time.Â
When I left the group, I was alone, separated from my old community and trying to reintegrate into what seemed like a scary world. There was no one who I could talk to that could understand my situation. I sought various counsellors, psychologists and pastors but they did not have the knowledge to support me. Rather than receiving therapeutic support, I found that I had to almost teach them what spiritual and cultic abuse was for them to understand the support I was seeking. It was that, and my healing journey, that led me to study counselling.Â
By completing my Bachelor of Counselling, I applied my studies to what had happened to me and figured out the tactics that the cult used to manipulate me. Several years on, after a slow and confusing recovery process, I have been able to support ex-cult members in their journey out of these situations. My aim is to reduce the amount of time it takes for victims to recover from this type of abuse and restore their authentic self.Â
What is your current role?
I recently launched my online counselling website; I’m working as a part-time counsellor and run cult awareness workshops in Perth and offer exit counselling for cult members and their families. Â
What are you working on, and what do you love about it?
Being a Registered Counsellor means I can guide families and individuals to a better way of life. I am on a mission to reach more people; more counsellors, mental health practitioners, pastors, educators, members, ex-members, families of cult members, and people in the community so that they can become aware of the impact of these groups.Â
I am working with Pastors and other therapists so that they can see the traditional counselling and spiritual methodologies used to support cult survivors may not work as this is a very specific field. The education workshops are important to me, because it is about helping people, victims and their families know the signs of a cultic group and empathise with the victims. Families that have reached out to me are distressed, they need answers and often want to rush in to pull a family member out of a group, but this can go wrong if they do not understand the dynamics of mind control and cultic influence, therefore these workshops are critical in changing their approach. Â
Also, I want to teach people at universities and churches to identify these signs, as that is where people are being recruited as members. Curtin University in Perth are supporting me in this endeavour.  Â
If you could give yourself advice, what would it be?
Focus on more self-care and hobbies. My personal experience is that a cult means you don’t feel as though you can have your own opinions, hobbies and focus on your self-care.
Slow down. Don’t take on this as your sole responsibility.
Name a highlight of your ACA membership?
The highlight of my ACA membership is the sharing of information and stories, providing me ideas to enhance my counselling practice. Â
What’s next?
My bigger vision in all this is to create a deradicalisation program for anyone who has been radicalised by an ideology or group.  Â
Supporting People Exit From Cult Experience
Some people estimate there are over 3,000 cults in Australia according to the Cult Information Family Support organisation.
Where you can go to learn more about cultic abuse: www.cifs.org.au/
Who are CIFS?
The Cult Information and Family Support (CIFS) network is Australia’s organisation opposing these groups. They’re formed by the parents and family members of loved ones who have been caught up in abusive groups, the network has grown to include friends, ex-members and other ordinary citizens working together towards a common goal to provide support and develop awareness on behalf of the adults and children harmed by these abusive high-demand groups.
CIFS has grown into a network of concerned people Australia wide. Each one has seen these psychological abuses perpetrated from a personal perspective. In its advocacy role CIFS seeks to have stronger laws enacted against the predations of cults and to strengthen both society and government to resist their negative effects.
