"When the phone rings at Patrick Ryan and Joseph Kelly's home in Philadelphia, chances are the caller is desperate. One couple rang because their son was about to abandon his medical practice to follow a new-age guru in Spain. Another call came from a husband whose wife was emptying their life savings for a self-proclaimed prophet in Australia. Yet another family phoned about their niece, who was in a relationship with a man stealing from her, maybe drugging her, probably sexually assaulting her."
"These families had tried everything else. When nothing worked, they heard there were two men in Philadelphia who might still be able to bring their loved one home. What Ryan and Kelly do is unusual: they help people leave cults. Over the past 40 years, they have handled hundreds of cases some simple and local, others stretching across borders and decades."
Patrick Ryan and Joseph Kelly help people leave cults by embedding themselves in families’ lives and manipulating family dynamics to create conditions for exit. They receive desperate calls about loved ones abandoning careers, emptying savings for self-proclaimed prophets, or entering abusive, possibly drugging and sexually assaulting relationships. Over forty years they have handled hundreds of cases ranging from local to transnational and have been hired by families of varying means and reportedly by government agencies. They conduct assessments costing $2,500 and then charge $250 per hour, interviewing families until a strategy forms and then working months or years to disentangle vulnerabilities.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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