This is a request from Barb Orlowski who is doing research on those who have experienced spiritual abuse. As many of you know, I’ve written about this here. And Barb chatted about her book, Spiritual Abuse Recovery here.

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Greetings!

You are invited to participate in a New Survey regarding those who have experienced spiritual abuse in your home church or parachurch organization and how you recovered from it.

My initial doctoral research was to confirm how people recovered from the devastating effects of spiritual abuse. This new survey will seek to verify the numbers of people directly involved in harmful treatment of congregants by the behaviors of church leaders, as well as how those wounded have recovered.

Please consider being a part of this new study. Your responses will be kept in my file for my personal use. If needed, some pertinent comments may be selected to quote. But anonymity is assured and your name will not be linked with information you share about your experiences. Your input will be valued and added to the data regarding this topic. This information will help to better understand the issues.

Please check out my website: www.ChurchExiters.com and read the articles entitled: FAQ and What Spiritual Abuse Is and Is Not. With this description in mind, you can consider if you have had the life experience that this research is seeking to track.

As with the original study, ‘criteria for participants’ is important. This is to ensure that those who participate in this study are reasonably healed and will not be further harmed by doing this survey.

On the lower right side of my website you will find the ‘Take The Survey’ page. The CRITERIA FOR THIS STUDY will be on that page. If this fits you, then scroll down a bit further and you will find the link in blue for this survey: PLEASE CLICK HERE.

I was recently asked by a researcher in Australia if I could point them to statistics regarding how widespread spiritual abuse was. At this time, there does not appear to be very many studies that I can point people to, apart from my own. This is a motivator to request that people–who were not involved in the original study–take the time and be a part of this new research project.

This is my personal study. This time it will not be connected with a seminary or be for a degree program. This information will be added to my ongoing research in this area. You can be a part of it. Statistics and data assessed may eventually be available to bloggers who are keen on this topic.

I believe that we can all benefit from this intentional effort. Let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions.

Please let me know which blogsite/s informed you about this new study.

You can contact me through my website email: info@ChurchExiters.com

Thanks for your support and feedback in this venture.

Barb Orlowski, D.Min.