Gentle Souls: Esther Friedman on School
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This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/culty and get on your way to being your best self.
If you\\u2019re not already familiar with the culty cluster known as \\u2018School\\u2019,\\xa0 it was an ultra-secret Manhattan organization run by late actress and forever eccentric Sharon Gans. The shadowy group did its dark magic in the form of secret study groups, arranged marriages, and some pretty gnarly narcissistic abuse. In this episode, former School enrollee Esther Friedman discusses the five years she spent as a student after her study group love bombed her right into its clutches. We also cover how she got out, and how she\\u2019s healing now by helping other gentle souls navigate a culty, culty world. Empaths, this one\\u2019s for you. And if you\\u2019ve got Big Valedictorian Energy and are crazy about that extra credit, please note that we\\u2019ve taken our listeners to School before in our episode with the groovy Spencer Schneider who wrote a page-turning memoir about his experience titled Manhattan Cult Story: My Unbelievable True Story of Sex, Crimes, Chaos, and Survival.
NOTES
Esther Friedman is a licensed mental health counselor, expressive art therapist, songwriter, and author. To process and heal, she presents her misadventures as an \\u201cedu-tainment campaign.\\u201d Her memoir The Gentle Souls Revolution is a PSA/recovery guide/template for anyone who\\u2019s navigated exploitative relationships. She\\u2019s also a board member of the newly formed nonprofit \\u201cLiving Cult Free\\u201d and is joined in that endeavor by some cult recovery heavyweights. You can learn more about their work at livingcultfree.com
You can find Esther at www.gentlesoulsrevolution.com, Facebook, and Instagram.\\xa0
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Let it be known far and wide, loud and clear that\\u2026
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The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business individual, anyone or anything. Nobody\\u2019s mad at you, just don\\u2019t be a culty fuckwad.
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CREDITS:\\xa0
Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames
Production Partner: Citizens of Sound
Producer: Will Retherford
Co-Creator: Jess Tardy
Writer: Holly Zadra
Theme Song: \\u201cCultivated\\u201d by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin
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