[Self-Study] Cult Recovery, Complex Trauma, and Art Therapy: A Comprehensive Approach (N/NY-MS47)

Natalee Bigger Stockdale completed her master's degree from Adler Graduate School in 2020. She is a Board-Certified Art Therapist, a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in the state of Minnesota, and a Nationally Certified Counselor. She currently works in private practice and specializes in working with clients who have experienced complex trauma. She understands the complex nature of exiting a high-demand/cultic group and the labor that recovery entails. She works to bring attuning sensitivity, along with evidence-based multimodal therapeutic models, to her clients with gentleness. Natalee is passionate about sharing her knowledge and skills with other survivors and the professionals working with them. Natalee aims to promote awareness of the unique struggles in recovery from complex trauma, coercive control, and self-alienation through ways art therapy can foster healing.

Ashlen Hilliard is a Cult Intervention Specialist and the founder of People Leave Cults. Most days, you'll find her helping families with loved ones in cultic or high-control groups or relationships. She also offers psychoeducation services for survivors of coercion and recently started support groups for cult survivors. She holds an MSc in the Psychology of Coercive Control and conducted the first exploratory quantitative research on the relationship between reproductive coercion, psychologically abusive environments, and the extent of group identity in a sample of those who have left cultic groups.

Ashlen's experience in the cult recovery field started on the front lines - helping individuals leave various polygamist communities in the Western US. From there, she went on to be the Director of Events for the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA), where she organized workshops, webinars, and conferences for a diverse range of people involved in the cult phenomenon. Currently, in addition to offerings through People Leave Cults, she volunteers as a co-organizer of the Spiritual Abuse Forum for Education (SAFE) Meetup in Portland, Oregon. In May of 2024, she just completed organizing her second conference for survivors and helping professionals in the PNW, bringing people together from all across the country. She hopes to grow her network and create opportunities for up-and-coming cult specialists. As a member of the queer community, Ashlen is thrilled to be part of the new wave of helping professionals in the cult recovery field.

Dr. Erin Falconer provides psychotherapy and consultation for individuals and their families who are dealing with the effects of coercive control, cultic abuse, and complex trauma. Dr. Falconer completed her MSW at Columbia University in New York, and her PhD in Psychology, which focused on the neuroscience of trauma, at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. She also completed post-graduate study in the psychology of coercive control at the University of Salford (UK). She also has advanced training in trauma-focused therapies at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy in New York. She provides psychotherapy as a part of Refuge Psychotherapy, LCSW, PLLC.