CultNEWS101 Articles: 3/24/2026
Patrick Ryan
Ashley Allen 3/24/1986 - 11/26/2025 --tribute by Dana Wehle
It is my honor to share this tribute to Ashley Allen with those in the field of cultic studies, with all who knew and love her, and especially with those who share both loving bonds and horrific memories of childhood abuse in their cult. I am inspired by what I know about the intimacy, love and brother/sisterhood among the survivors of her cult and within which Ashley offered ongoing support. Her profound professional accomplishments and positive impact on others defies comprehension of her mercilessly short life of 39 years.
After visits to top doctors and facilities in the medical field, the consensus about her diagnosis was that her degenerative illness was due to “failure to thrive as a child due to malnutrition and abuse in her cult”. This outrages me. It outrages all of us who are committed to make cult education available to prevent others from being harmed, to provide mental health and support services to survivors, and to expose abusive cults in the courts. To say all this outraged Ashley Allen is an understatement, and yet remembering her fighting spirit and activism exists alongside the twinkle in her eye, her sweet yet knowing sense of humor, and her powerful striving for joy and love in her relationships.
Ashley’s passionate career as a licensed clinical social worker focused not only on work with those in recovery of cult-related trauma but research, presentations and publications about abuse of children in cults as a violation of human rights. The impressive pace at which she became professionally sought after (including being solicited to write a book by international organizers within Radicalization Awareness Network - RAN) began in a way that those of you who knew her won’t be surprised.
Beginning in 2009, Ashley traveled weekly by bus three hours each way from New Jersey (bordering on Pennsylvania) to volunteer at the Cult Clinic of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services (founded by Arnold Markowitz) in Manhattan. I had the honor of knowing her in many roles: being her supervisor at the clinic; over the following years being her outside clinical supervisor when she worked at various mental health clinics; her mentor (as she would endearingly call me) centered around the themes of creativity and psychodynamics in relation to all clinical work; and as collaborator whereby she invited me to be keynote speaker on creativity and cults as part of the impressive honor she was given by Monmouth College School of Social Work to organize a school-wide conference upon graduation with her Masters. I most cherish having been her very close friend who shared her journey as loving mother to her most beloved daughter, and as part of her journey around creativity.
For a 2012 publication (Group, Vol. 40, No. 3 (Fall 2016), pp. 197-221), I obtained Ashley’s permission to include her thoughts about the impact on her creativity of being raised in a cult. It is my hope that her cogent words that follow will be referenced as part of her legacy. She stated, “I think for me, creativity is something that I thought about. It wasn’t allowed in our group, but after we left, I remember creativity just flooding out of me. I just couldn’t even contain it. I was just writing all these stories but I didn’t really know what it meant.
I think I still struggle with anxiety around creativity because, if we go back to the harsh conscience, creativity is absolute freedom. Absolute freedom and that’s terrifying for me. Right? Because I need things to be right, and there’s this fear that if I don’t know what’s right and I can’t be perfect and I can’t do that the right way, then something terrible is going to happen to me
And creativity is like the antithesis of that. And so there is still something that is quite terrifying about it for me. And so, yeah, I think for me it . . . I look at it as freedom. That is what creativity means to me, and that’s something that is a part of probably a lifelong process of being OK with freedom and whatever that means as a person.”
Perhaps five months before Ashley passed, with limited energy yet full of excitement, Ashley told me that she had started painting, and wanted to show me.
I stare at one of these gems every day, and smile with joyful tears that Ashley Allen embraced creative freedom within her lifetime. Ashley is something else. May her memory be a blessing.
Tribute to Ashley by Sara DeGraff
Ashley wasn’t supposed to leave this early.
Not like this. Not this soon.
I met her when she was little more than a baby—just the sweetest smile.
Life happened, and the instability of a childhood shaped by cult displaced by life that pulled us apart for nearly 20 years.
And I won’t lie… I thought that connection was gone for good.
But somehow, we found our way back to each other.
And I got to see her again—not as that little girl, but as the woman she became.
And she flourished.
In her life. In her career. In who she was becoming.
Ashley had this way of showing up for people—especially when they were lost, when they couldn’t make sense of themselves. She helped people find clarity in the middle of their own chaos. She gave pieces of herself, even when she didn’t have much left.
That kind of impact doesn’t disappear.
There’s a space now that doesn’t make sense.
But what she left behind? It’s still here. In all of us.
Ashley, you were deeply loved.
You still are.
And I will carry you forward.
"Psychologically abusive groups are characterized by systematic influence, relational control, and leadership structures that foster dependency; however, empirical data on how mental health professionals conceptualize these phenomena remain limited. The present study investigated Italian psychologists’ knowledge, representations, and professional experiences regarding psychologically abusive groups. An online survey was administered to 232 psychologists across Italy between November 2024 and April 2025. The questionnaire explored self-assessed knowledge, information sources, representations of groups, members, and leaders, perceived abusive strategies, clinical experiences, diagnostic formulations, and training needs. Results indicated limited formal preparation, with many participants relying primarily on non-academic sources despite rating scientific materials as more reliable. Abusive groups were predominantly described in terms of manipulation, isolation, and psychological control, while leaders were characterized by charisma, narcissistic grandiosity, and exploitative tendencies. In contrast, members were mainly portrayed as psychologically vulnerable, suggestible, and in need of belonging. Nearly half of respondents reported direct clinical contact with individuals involved in such groups. Reported clinical profiles were heterogeneous, with recurrent internalizing symptoms, trauma-related presentations, and dependency-related features. Overall, findings reveal a partial alignment with contemporary systemic models of group psychological abuse, alongside a persistent tendency to frame involvement in individual vulnerability terms. The study underscores the need for clearer conceptual frameworks, evidence-informed terminology, validatedassessment tools, and structured professional training to support clinical and forensic practice in this area."
News, Education, Intervention, Recovery
Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.
CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.
CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources about: cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations, and related topics.
The selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not imply that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly endorse the content. We provide information from multiple perspectives to foster dialogue.
Please forward articles that you think we should add to cultinte...@gmail.com.
Thanks,
Ashlen Hilliard (ashlen.hilli...@gmail.com)
Joe Kelly (joeke...@gmail.com)
Patrick Ryan (pryan...@gmail.com)
If you do not wish to be subscribed to this list, or you think you are being maliciously subscribed to the list, or have any other questions, send them to: pryan...@gmail.com or send an email to: cultnews101...@googlegroups.com.