Supporters are very important for victims/survivors and our recovery. They validate, sometimes in a very alienating world, and provide emotional, spiritual, financial, physical (in times of sickness or need of housing), informational, educational, legal, etc support. Supporters can be co-survivors or fellow ritual abuse survivors, abuse eg sexual assault survivors, counsellors, friends, non offending family, workers such as within the media or police, etc.

      The important consideration for supporters and victim/survivors is that both people are striving for an independent and a self empowered life. Think of ways that provide support and not dependence.

Counsellors There are many books on ritual abuse that are written for the counsellor. Survivors can also use them. Two well used ones are:

Satanic Ritual Abuse: A Therapist's Handbook by Dee Brown. This is a warm, encouraging introduction to the treatment of adult survivors written for therapists beginning work in this area.

Ritual Child Abuse Discovery, Diagnosis and Treatment by Pamela Hudson.This is a survey of symptoms of child survivors of extra-familial ritual abuse and a discussion of therapy with both agitated and 'frozen' children. Kind, respectful, and well written.

Both of these books can be ordered through Amazon books.

Ritual Abuse Awareness and Education groups such as RASS, and government/church counselling agencies sometimes hold workshops that are either specifically for counsellors or are open to everyone. Please see the Support for Victims/Survivors Page.

The Ritual Abuse, Ritual Crime and Healing Page has telephone training guidelines to assist counsellors talking to survivors.

Professionals and Concerned People Generally There is a wide selection of books and resources that are written for the non survivor both directly and are considerate within survivor directed literature. Resources for counsellors such as Satanic Ritual Abuse: A Therapist's Handbook by Dee Brown have a non survivor perspective in mind. Breaking the Circle of Ritual Abuse by Daniel Ryder gives a survivors perspective and has many non survivor concerned perspectives including the media, counselling, community workers, etc. They can be ordered at Amazon books where there is also a wide selection of books. Webpages such as The Ritual Abuse, Ritual Crime and Healing Page has information for the non survivor. There are many journal and magazine articles on the net which can be accessed by looking up appropriate search engines such as yahoo. Some survivors are very willing to talk to professionals such as the media and police. It is understandably an individual thing. The best way is to contact either RASS groups themselves or talk to national bodies such as ASCA who would know of survivors who like to talk publically about the issue. Please see Support for Victims/Survivors Page.

Friends and family. All the literature is helpful for loved ones. You need simply to understand what is going on for a survivor, and incorporate this within the general ways someone supports someone else. Allies in Healing: When the Person You Love Was Sexually Abused as a Child by Laura Davis is very good. Laura's book can be obtained at any good bookstore or through ordering at Amazon books.

Counsellors will also talk with friends and non offending family of survivors. These can be the counsellor of the survivor you are supporting or another. You need to get the approval of the survivor and ring the counsellor or agency. Ritual Abuse Awareness and Education groups such as RASS, and government/church counselling agencies sometimes hold workshops that are either specifically for friends and family or are open to everyone. Please see the Support for Victims/Survivors Page.

The major times survivors need support is during crisis periods. This is when they are becoming a survivor and remembering and disclosing the abuse, escaping, call back periods, anything else that triggers in a major way eg having to have to contact cult or innocent family, experiencing trauma that is not directly cult related eg a miscarriage but will also set off cult triggers, etc. Please see Crisis Periods.

What is important is a genuine willingness to assist the survivor for a period of time. The survivor will generally know how long that period will be for. Some survivors only need a couple of hours, some days, etc, etc. The supporter needs to know their abilities and limitations and be clear with this. It is really detrimental to have shaky support as it will only restimulate cult lies that "friends/counsellors/partners/family are not supportive". Survivors are also having a rough enough time that they cannot look after supporters' inconsistency.

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