Resources

If you're still inside, or you just got out

Leaving a high-control religious group can bring up crisis-level distress, especially around shunning, housing, or family estrangement. These resources are a starting point, not a complete list. Please double check contact details before this site goes live, since organizations do change numbers and programs over time.

If you're in crisis right now

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US)

Call or text 988 anytime, for any kind of crisis, not only suicidal crisis. Free, confidential, 24/7.

988lifeline.org

Support for leaving religion

Recovering From Religion Foundation

A nonprofit helpline and peer support network specifically for people questioning or leaving their faith. Offers a phone/chat helpline, local and virtual support groups, and the Secular Therapy Project, which matches people with vetted, non-religious therapists.

Helpline: (844) 368-2848 · recoveringfromreligion.org · secular­therapy.org

IFB-specific accounts and context

Recovering Fundamentalist (podcast)

A podcast built around first-person stories of people who left IFB churches.

recoveringfundamentalist.org

"I Fired God" by Jocelyn Zichterman

A memoir by a former IFB member documenting life inside the movement and her departure from it. One of the more widely cited firsthand accounts.

"Let Us Prey: A Ministry of Scandals" (documentary)

A docuseries built on firsthand accounts from IFB survivors, covering patterns of abuse and institutional cover-up across multiple churches.

Finding a therapist

Look for a therapist who explicitly mentions experience with religious trauma, spiritual abuse, or high-control groups/cults, since general therapy training doesn't always cover these dynamics. The Secular Therapy Project (above) is one place to start; some general directories also let you filter by "religious trauma" as a specialty.

Before publishing: confirm each phone number, URL, and organization is still active, and add any local or church-specific resources you know are trustworthy.