Steven Hassan

Steven Hassan, PhD, MA, MEd, LMHC, NCC has helped thousands of individuals and families recover from undue influence (mind control). With over 45 years of experience, he is sought after as one of the foremost authorities on undue influence and controlling groups and individuals. Steve understands the subject from a unique perspective as both a former cult member and as a clinical professional.

Steven is the Founding Director of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center, a coaching, consulting, and training organization dedicated to supporting individuals to have the freedom to think clearly and to freely consider how they want to live their lives.  Steven pioneered a breakthrough method called the Strategic Interactive Approach (SIA), an effective and legal alternative for families to help cult members.  The SIA teaches family and friends how to strategically influence the individual involved in the cult.

Contact Freedom of Mind to schedule a consultation or to learn about offered services.

Learn about how the Strategic Interactive Approach can help rescue your friend or loved one out from under predatory influence.

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Dominionism, Evangelicalism and Government: A Discussion With Dr. Warren Throckmorton

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This week, I have the pleasure of sharing an interview with Dr. Warren Throckmorton. He currently is Professor of Psychology at Grove City College. Dr. Throckmorton has his B.A. in psychology from Cedarville University, an M.A. in clinical psychology from Central Michigan University, and a Ph.D. from Ohio University in community counseling/counselor education. He is a professor, author and a Christian evangelical.

In 2012, he and GCC colleague Michael Coulter published Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims about Our Third President which fact-checks common claims made by Christian Nationalists about Thomas Jefferson.

Dominionism, Evangelicalism and Government: A Discussion With Dr. Warren Throckmorton Read More

New Zealand Mosque Shootings: White Extremist Terrorism and the Internet

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On Friday, March 15, 2019, 50 people were left dead in a mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. These terrorist attacks should be a wake-up call for every person on the planet. White supremacy hate groups are recruiting online and the danger is international. It is not a phenomenon limited to one city, state or country. Extremists are being manufactured online every day. Former members of these groups are willing to help with preventive education, as well as, intervention work, but they need to be organized, trained and funded.

New Zealand Mosque Shootings: White Extremist Terrorism and the Internet Read More

Christian Nationalism, Dominionism, the New Apostolic Reformation; A Discussion with Dr. André Gagné

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This week, I have the pleasure of sharing an interview with Dr. André Gagné. We discuss his journey as a former evangelical pastor, his academic journey becoming a tenured professor and his work involving the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). 

André Gagné, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He works on the Christian Right, fundamentalism, religious violence and the interpretation and reception of the Bible. In his public scholarship, Dr. Gagné seeks to explain how sacred texts and traditions are used by fundamentalist groups and individuals to cultivate violent ideas and/or incite politico-religious violence. He also has a marked interest in studying the beliefs, practices and political inclinations of dominionist movements such as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and Christian Reconstructionism. He is also a Digital Fellow of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) as well as a research associate with the Centre d’expertise de formation sur les intégrismes religieux et la radicalisation (CEFIR).

Christian Nationalism, Dominionism, the New Apostolic Reformation; A Discussion with Dr. André Gagné Read More

Leaving A White Nationalist Cult of Hate: Helping and Serving Others with Love

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This is the blog I did a while back about my friend Arno Michaelis. This new video interview at the bottom of this blog with Arno Michaelis is eye-opening, to say the least. It is certainly very educational. Learn about this courageous person. I believe it will inspire you and give you hope. People can and do leave hate groups, neo-Nazism, and White supremacy groups and go on to become wonderful citizens. He describes what it was like to be so full of hate:

Leaving A White Nationalist Cult of Hate: Helping and Serving Others with Love Read More

Human Trafficking: Learn to Recognize the Signs and Help Save a Life

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Meet Emergency Room nurse, Danielle Jordan Bastein. Kudos to her! Danielle has pioneered the development of a new protocol to more systematically identify warning factors for the ER that a patient might be a trafficking victim. Trafficking victims almost always suffer a myriad of health problems and it is in the ER, that an important opportunity to offer them help exists.  This crucial screening protocol would train nurses and other health care workers to ask the right questions and do the right assessment to flag a potential victim. I strongly suggest watching the video in the link above to understand more about this new system, which I believe should be used in every Emergency Room in the world.

Human Trafficking: Learn to Recognize the Signs and Help Save a Life Read More

Exvangelicals Find a Voice and Speak Out Against Authoritarianism

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A few weeks before the 2016 Presidential election, Stanford Russian history Ph.D. Dr. Chrissy Stroop wrote an article, “After the Trump Tapes: Evangelical Authoritarianism Revisited.” In it, she shared her concerns about what she saw was a powerful group of people publicly defined as white evangelical Christians who were supporting Trump and who exhibited the characteristics of an authoritarian movement. While many might not identify with the term Dominionism directly–the belief that Christians should take over America and the world and make it Christian in a very narrow way–they were Christian nationalists pursuing a de facto, and sometimes explicit, Dominionist political agenda. The majority of white evangelicals appear to wish to create a theocracy and abolish the separation of Church and State, something the founders of our country explicitly wish to make sure did not happen.

Exvangelicals Find a Voice and Speak Out Against Authoritarianism Read More

Ending the Game: Explaining Coercion to Help People Heal

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Human Trafficking is a form of undue influence and a serious global issue affecting an estimated 21 – 27 million worldwide. According to the Defense Department, “Human trafficking is a crime in which force, fraud or coercion is used to compel a person to perform labor, services or commercial sex. It affects all populations: adults, children, men, women, foreign nationals and U.S. citizens, and all economic classes.”

Ending the Game: Explaining Coercion to Help People Heal Read More