Consultation · Sydney & online
Stay connected without taking over.
When you are worried about someone, it can be hard to know how to respond. Consultation focuses on your understanding, communication, boundaries and practical support — not taking control of their decisions.
The aim is to help you respond thoughtfully, not to make someone else leave.
Family consultation
Consultation for relatives and friends concerned about a cult or high-control group. Focus on your communication, boundaries and realistic ways to offer support.
Your concern matters. So does the other person’s room to choose.
Family consultation
Consultation for families concerned about radicalisation, conspiracy communities or online influence. Look at what you have noticed, how you communicate, your boundaries and possible support.
Changed beliefs alone do not establish illness, coercion or a risk of violence.
Family consultation
Consultation for relatives and friends concerned about coercive control or a controlling relationship. Consider safe communication, your boundaries and specialist support.
Your support should not depend on someone making the decision you prefer.
Family consultation
Consultation for families concerned about religious or spiritual control. Consider communication, belief differences, practical support and what you can and cannot do in your role.
Disagreement about faith is not, by itself, evidence of harm.
You may be worried about a relationship, group, teacher or online environment. You may feel shut out, frightened or unsure whether raising a concern will make contact harder.
We begin with what you have noticed and what you need help responding to. Concern matters, but it does not give us access to the other person’s inner experience or establish a diagnosis, group-wide finding or risk assessment.
Separate what you have seen, what others have told you and what you are assuming. Consider other explanations and what remains unknown.
Explore ways to keep a relationship workable where possible, without making agreement the condition for care. Your own limits and wellbeing matter.
Consider what you can actually offer and where another professional or service is needed. We do not promise to make someone leave or change their beliefs.
This is consultation with you, not assessment or treatment of the person you are concerned about. It is not family therapy, couples mediation, forced exit, an investigation or a service for influencing someone covertly.
We do not advertise a specialist child or adolescent service. Concerns involving a young person may require youth, safeguarding or other specialist support. Any direct work with another person requires separate suitability and consent arrangements.
Tell us the broad concern and the kind of help you are looking for. Please do not send someone else’s messages, records or identifying details through the public form.
Where danger is immediate, use emergency services rather than waiting for an appointment. For domestic or family violence or concerns about violent extremism, the relevant specialist service may be needed before or alongside consultation.
No. We support your understanding and response, not an outcome that overrides another person’s consent.
No. A conversation with you is not an assessment of the absent person. We can consider the information you have and appropriate sources of support.
That may be more suitable, or you may need it separately. We agree what the work is for rather than switching between consultation and therapy without discussing it.
Information about high-control-group experiences and support. It does not establish the facts of a particular case.
Information and specialist domestic, family and sexual violence support.
A specialist starting point for concerns about involvement in violent extremism; not an emergency service.
Service information from The Exit Clinic. These pages are not an assessment of you, another person or a group. External resources offer other perspectives; they do not establish the facts of your situation.
The Exit Clinic
Founded by JT Kua, Counsellor, and Isabel Pham, Social Worker.
