Want to share your story of leaving high-control religion? Here’s how you can.
The Vashti Initiative is one of the first non-profits of its kind, spreading awareness,
giving support, and offering resources to those who have experienced religious abuse.
One way for others to help support victims of Adverse Religious Environments (AREs)
is by sharing their story on Vashti’s blog.
By doing this, those searching for resources can also find support directly from those who have also survived religious trauma. It lets them know that they’re not alone, healing is possible, and there is hope for recovering from religious abuse.
Other content shared on the blog may include informative pieces on religious abuse,
timely content related to topics such as isolated religious groups, controversial spiritual
leaders, and more. This content should be accompanied by sources that are credible,
cited and/or with the links used for research.
If you’re interested in sharing your story or appearing as a guest author on the Vashti blog, here are a few things to keep in mind while drafting your submission:
- Trigger Warnings should be included for any references to spiritual, sexual, physical, or emotional/verbal abuse.
- You are welcome to use your name, but please keep in mind that this means your name is visible to the past group you left, family and friends, and may be found online by a simple web search – if you’re uncomfortable with this, but would still like to share your story, you can choose to remain anonymous.
- Your story/post may be edited by volunteer staff members of the Vashti Initiative for grammatical errors, length, and clarity, but no major changes will be made.
- Although we hope to share your story, please remember that Vashti staff have the right to reject your submission if we feel it is not a fit for our blog. However, we anticipate not having to do this.
- Please keep in mind that victims of religious abuse are seeking stories that will be helpful, encouraging and let them know they are not alone — while we do not want to censor any survivor’s story, please remember that truly graphic details may just be too much for victims who do not yet have the tools to read triggering content.
- Using original photos with your post is allowed, but with a few stipulations: Images cannot be graphic, show abuse or nudity, and any image that is not of the guest blogger/poster must be blurred if permission has not been granted by that individual to use their image.
We look forward to hearing from you and reviewing your submission! We will be in touch to let you know if your piece will be published.
If you would like to volunteer for The Vashti Initiative in another capacity, please fill out a volunteer application.
Thank you again for supporting victims of religious abuse!
The Vashti Initiative 