Symposium | Gerette Buglion

Reclaiming Autonomy through the Written Word

— A Writing Symposium for survivors of spiritual, religious, and cultic abuse

Free your voice and claim your spot at the table. You deserve to be here.

DISCOVER

the therapeutic power of writing your authentic narrative after cultic manipulation.

UNLOCK

the shame that hinders personal growth by freeing your voice.

ACCESS
tools & techniques supporting the writing journey, for personal healing or your publishing goals.

RECEIVE
inspiration and practical guidance from respected authors in the cult recovery space.

OPEN

to greater self-knowledge through the written word.

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This Writing Symposium – the first of its kind – brings together leading voices, all advocating for survivors of cultic abuse to advance their healing process through the written word.

In this half-day forum, you will learn that writing may not be an easy path - but for survivors - it’s perhaps the single most accessible and effective tool for integration and healing.

Meet the Speakers

CARRIE BUDDINGTON
Licensed Independent Social Worker, Author, and

Resilient Survivor

It's Never Too Late to Build a

New Life

What happens when you finally begin to understand what happened to you—and then realize you still have a life to build?

For Carrie Buddington, writing became an essential companion in that process. Writing papers while returning to school in her late 60s, and writing her memoir, Exquisite Torture: Life in a Christian Cult, helped her make sense of experiences and move from raw emotion toward understanding, integration, and healing.

Today, after four decades inside a Christian cult, Carrie’s writing has become more observational—a way of continuing to process the lingering culture shock of life outside the group. Living independently as a single woman, she describes writing as a constant companion: a significant other in the best sense possible.

In this intimate conversation, Carrie invites us to consider two essential questions: What kind of life do you want? And how might writing help you discover it?

ROBIN BOYLE-LAISURE
Legal Scholar, Award-Winning Author, and

Survivor Advocate

From Catharsis to Clear Thinking:

How Writing Supports Resilience After Coercive Control

Robin Boyle-Laisure brings a rare dual perspective to the survivor community. As a Professor of Legal Writing at St. John's School of Law, she has spent decades studying and teaching how cults and traffickers use language and legal structures to control their victims — a focus that is both professional and deeply personal for her. Drawing on her M.F.A. in writing across genres, Robin explores writing as a healing, integrative practice that supports the neuroplasticity underlying our resilience after trauma. Catharsis, she shows, doesn't require reliving the worst of what happened. — Writing that approaches it indirectly, through metaphor, fiction, or other’s stories, can heal just as effectively.

Robin will also address audience questions on the legal realities memoirists face when writing about real people and real harm, offering grounded guidance for survivors ready to put their story on the page.

HOYT RICHARDS
Screenwriter, Storyteller, Speaker: Inspiring Positive Change

Beyond the Facade – Crafting Stories That Access Survivor Wisdom

Every writer working with true stories of coercion and recovery faces the same structural problem: how do you write a protagonist the reader can neither pity nor condemn? Collapse toward victimhood and the story goes inert. Lean toward complicity and you lose the reader's sympathy—and the truth.Hoyt Richards spent two decades inside a high-control group while building an international modeling career, a double life chronicled in HBO's documentary series Bring Me the Beauties. A Princeton scholar-athlete turned screenwriter and producer, he brings a working writer's toolkit to a challenge many survivors face.Drawing on research from Milgram, Cialdini, and Joseph Campbell, Hoyt offers practical techniques for writing coercion from the inside — moving beyond what happened to reveal what it felt like, so the survivor's story comes vividly to life.

Explore Previous Speakers below.

To rent or purchase recordings, see links below

Since the spring of 2020, Gerette has supported survivors to engage in their recovery journey through Writing to ReckonTM programs. She created the Reclaiming Autonomy symposium - bringing respected leaders offering their best advice - out of her passion for freeing voices that were silenced by cultic manipulation.

Through Writing to ReckonTM programs, Gerette has witnessed the discovery of honest narrative allowing an inner sense of freedom to emerge. The goal of this symposium is to encourage as many survivors as possible to engage with this simple and life-enhancing practice. Writing is a powerful tool for unburdening the self.

Writing walks us through past trauma in such a way that we get to see the past more clearly and “own” our actions. When we write for our well being, we get to face our experiences head on, bringing honesty to the page. This opens up a sense of inner freedom that can be a core part of our recovery process.

GET TICKET

Meet the Past Speakers:

You can purchase or rent recordings from previous symposiums by visiting Living Cult Free, the nonprofit. All proceeds directly support their advocacy and educational work.

Spring 2026