I think it is fair to say that Steven Hassan, whose new book, Freedom of Mind, outlines a new approach to cult liberation through intervention, was one of the greatest exit counselors.  So if he says that he has evolved a new, more positive approach, I take it quite seriously.

            In my last discussion, I mentioned how deprogramming was the first major effort of intervention in the anti-cult movement. Despite its limitations, I can still see how this initial effort, with all its dangers of post traumatic ailments following its use, at least involved a serious effort on the part of concerned people to rescue a cult member from his psychological imprisonment. Nonetheless, in many cases, according to Hassan, it traded one kind of trauma for another.

            Exit counseling is a softer, gentler kind of planned psychological release from cult identification. For one thing, it is voluntary. The exit psychologist is often more like a consultant, often with direct previous experience of cult activity, who tries to awaken the cult member to the psychological causes of their cult affiliation. One factor that assists in cult recruiting are psychological vulnerability when recruited. This could be the result of loss of self-esteem because of failure to perform academically. It could be the use of hypnotic or mind control techniques in the early stages of making contact with the recruit.  These techniques involve activities, which can create extreme fatigue in various early meetings. It could involve so-called healing methodologies involving extreme relaxation or hyperventilation to induce heightened suggestibility. Isolation and confinement to primary association with cult members and the discouragement of other liaisons, including those with family- can be built into the recruiting process. Furthermore, there can be the utilization of rituals, chanting and meditation to produce various hypnotic levels, including possibly hallucinogenic phenomena.
             I have covered many of these techniques, as practiced by AMORC, in my books, The Prisoner of San Jose and AMORC Unmasked.  The problem with exit counseling, according to Hassan, is that it does not provide the proper environment to really uproot the cult identity completely as his new Strategic Interactive Approach, the cornerstone of the methodology discussed in Freedom of Mind. . It can, according to Hassan, lead to a temporary suppression of the cult identity with its awakening later on in full force

            Exit psychology, like deprogramming, involves the use of an authority figure, the exit counselor- and is a rather monolithic technique, often involving individual counseling. According to Hassan, it does not effectively deal with the problems that may have preceded the membership in the cult and that dealing with family, friends and other influences- and making changes in that milieu- may help that process more than just individual counseling. Moreover, even if it works, there can be severe scars and difficulties with after care following successful cult liberation. 

The Strategic Interactive Approach, which we will explore in my next discussion, utilizes this milieu in a much more intensive, strategic way but involves a voluntary interaction of many more people with more serious, long-lasting effects.