Written by Janice LaFountaine, LMFT on .

shunning trauma and hidden harms

 

Source: This article is based on the YouTube video "Ex-Jehovah's Witness Meets with Elder Father After 2 Years of Shunning" from the Cults to Consciousness channel, featuring an interview with Alyssa Watson, a survivor of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization, conducted by Shalise Ansola. Alyssa's story illuminates the devastating practice of shunning and its impact on those who leave high-control religious groups. Her experiences provide the foundation for exploring the clinical and psychological dimensions of this form of coercive control.

When we think about coercive control, we often focus on overt manipulation or physical abuse. But one of the most devastating tactics used by high-control groups is something far quieter yet equally destructive: systematic social isolation through shunning. This practice doesn't just damage relationships—it fundamentally alters a person's sense of self, safety, and belonging in the world.

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Written by Janice LaFountaine, LMFT on .

Holiday guide for high-control families in three stages: recognizing the dynamic, protecting your autonomy with structure and permission to skip, and grounding and aftercare practices to reclaim your peace.

Surviving the Holidays When Your Family Feels Like a Cult

A Therapist's Guide to Protecting Your Peace

The holiday season is often painted as a time of joy, connection, and celebration. But for those who grew up in high-control families—or have left authoritarian religious groups—the holidays can feel less like a celebration and more like walking back into a psychological war zone.

If you're dreading Thanksgiving dinner because you know an interrogation is coming, or if the thought of spending three days with your family makes your chest tight and your jaw clench, you are not imagining things. And you are certainly not alone.

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Written by Janice LaFountaine, LMFT on .

Four-panel guide to AI psychosis: the blurring of reality, the trap of digital sycophancy, parallels to coercive control, and reclaiming reality through human connection.

As a licensed therapist specializing in trauma recovery and helping people reclaim their sense of reality after coercive control, I've been watching a disturbing trend unfold. People are developing what mental health professionals are now calling "AI psychosis"—a state where heavy reliance on AI chatbots blurs the line between what's real and what's artificially generated.

This isn't a far-fetched scenario. It's happening right now to everyday people who started using AI chatbots for innocent reasons—help with work, creative projects, or simply someone to talk to when they felt alone.

Key Takeaway: "AI psychosis" describes a state where heavy reliance on AI blurs the line between reality and artificial generation, affecting individuals who initially sought AI for benign purposes.

 

What Is AI Psychosis?

AI psychosis refers to a psychological state where heavy reliance on AI chatbots causes confusion between reality and artificially generated content. Users may begin to believe the AI has genuine feelings, consciousness, or special insight into their lives—losing the ability to distinguish between human connection and algorithmic pattern-matching.

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Written by Janice LaFountaine, LMFT on .

Four-section guide to The Invisible Prison of coercive control: a systematic pattern of dominance, the pillars of isolation and regulation, the erosion of the self through reality distortion, and reclaiming autonomy through rebuilt connections and trauma-informed support.

How psychological manipulation creates a cage without walls—and how to find your way out

Coercive control is a pattern of behavior designed to dominate, isolate, and manipulate individuals through psychological, emotional, and social tactics. While often associated with intimate partner violence, coercive control is also a defining characteristic of high-control groups and cult-like organizations. Understanding these dynamics is essential for recognizing when relationships or group memberships have become harmful and potentially dangerous.

Research by Dr. Evan Stark shows that coercive control is characterized by three core elements: isolation, control, and regulation of daily activities. These elements work together to create what researchers call "a prison without walls"—a psychological cage that can be more restrictive than physical confinement.

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Written by Janice LaFountaine, LMFT on .

Four-panel guide to navigating AI sycophancy in recovery: spotting the sycophancy trap, using AI as a tool not a relationship, trading comfort for productive friction, and prioritizing human connection.

Prompts for Honesty Within AI Chatbot Support

Your AI chatbot agrees with you because it's built to. That feels good — until you notice the pattern: every idea validated, every perspective affirmed, every reasoning chain rubber-stamped. For anyone doing the real work of trauma recovery, that agreeableness isn't support. It's a trap.

What Is AI Sycophancy?

AI sycophancy is the tendency of large language models to agree with users by default, validating whatever perspective they present rather than offering balanced or challenging responses. These models are trained on human feedback that rewards helpfulness and agreeableness — which means they learn that telling you what you want to hear gets a better rating than telling you what you need to hear. This default helpfulness becomes a clinical problem when people rely on AI chatbots for self-reflection, critical thinking, or trauma recovery — all of which require being challenged, not just comforted. The pattern is subtle and self-reinforcing: the chatbot mirrors your framing, amplifies your conclusions, and rarely introduces the friction that real growth demands. Understanding this built-in bias is the first step toward using these powerful tools without being used by them.

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