Who are we?

Who are we?

Gillie Jenkinson was appointed Coordinator for EnCourage by the Trustees. She brings years of experience working as a counsellor and psychotherapist with ex-cult members.

Gillie also brings her experience of having been in a cult and recovering from this experience to bear on her work for EnCourage. Her bio from the International Cultic Studies website (www.icsahome.org) follows:

Gillie Jenkinson is a Director of Hope Valley Counselling Limited and specialises in offering counselling and psychotherapy to those who have left cults or coercive relationships/groups and those who have been abused. Ms. Jenkinson is a trained Counsellor with an Advanced Diploma in Pastoral Counselling and an MA in Gestalt Psychotherapy. She is accredited and registered with United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and a member of British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP).

In 1999 she did a month long internship at Wellspring, Ohio and returned summer 2008. She has many years experience working with survivors of rape, sexual abuse, and cults, as well as with clients with other issues.

Ms Jenkinson is a trained Supervisor (Diploma in Supervision) and supervises a number of individuals. Ms. Jenkinson runs an ex-member support and education group in London.

She has presented her research, “What helps Ex-cult members recover from an abusive cult experience," at ICSA Conferences in Madrid (2005) and Denver (2006) and a paper on cult pseudo-personality and neuroscience in Brussels (2007) and Philadelphia (2008).  

Ms Jenkinson presented two papers at the ICSA conference in Geneva (2009), one on facilitating an ex-cult member support and education group and one on issues therapists need to know about in order to effectively help ex-cult members. She has had a paper published in Cultic Studies Review, winter 2008, entitled ‘An Investigation into Cult Pseudo-Personality: What Is It and How Does It Form?’ Ms. Jenkinson has co-authored a chapter entitled ‘Pathological Spirituality’ with Dr. Nicola Crowley for a medical text book entitled ‘Spirituality and Psychiatry’ published by Gaskell (Royal College of Psychiatrists publishing house) in UK - 2009. www.hopevalleycounselling.com

Trustees

There are three Trustees who do not want their names to appear on the site but who are registered with the Charity Commission.