“I feel like a lot of the people there, whether conscious or subconsciously,” the Dexter actress recalled, “knew that just their presence and being an encouragement and letting me know that they still love and cared about me in spite of the fact that I was a little weird. That made a big difference.” She added, “It made me feel like there was a safety. When it came time for me to leave that group, I did still feel like there were many open arms and that felt really, really good and it was very helpful.” And Bethany wants those who may have experienced similar circumstances to know that they’re not alone. “There is life after trauma,” she noted. “It was 10 years of pretty intense mental, spiritual, financial abuse. I’m back at square one, and there’s so much shame attached to that, and then so many people that don’t understand. They hear the word, cult, or they think spiritual abuse, and that sounds real hippy dippy, but it is very real and people experience it, not just on a group level, but one-on-one relationships with a partner, or sometimes with family members.”
