Are you, or is someone you know, in crisis? Please call or text 1737 for 24/7, free and confidential support from a trained counsellor (New Zealand only).

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Regain and Restore 2025

Regain and Restore is a positive, empowering and healing weekend for former members and survivors of high-demand religious groups.

Register Today:   14th - 16th November 2025

EVENT DETAILS:

We invite you to a weekend away to reflect, regain and restore your sense of freedom! This weekend workshop is based on similar workshops that have been successfully run for many years by Cult Information and Family Support in Australia. It will be facilitated by experienced educators, familiar both personally and professionally with the unique challenges of being a former member of a high-demand or cult-like group. If you have left a group like this, then this weekend is for you!

Places are limited, with numbers kept low to enable personal interaction and group safety. The content is non-religious and accepting of all belief systems.

See our flyer here or read on for more information –

TOPICS COVERED

  • Psychoeducation on group-based coercion and abuse
  • Thought reform tactics & how to resist
  • Critical thinking and decision-making
  • Relationships and healthy boundary-setting
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder and the brain
  • Re‐establishing trust in yourself and others
  • The grieving process and managing loss
  • Reintegration and identity issues
  • Somatic and art therapies as tools for healing

LOCATION

  • Our workshop venue will be at a privately owned spacious home in Kariotahi Beach, Auckland (within an hour of Auckland Airport and near Waiku). See photos below of this stunning beach front property.
Regain & Restore Venue, Kariotahi Beach, view from veranda
Regain & Restore Venue, Kariotahi Beach
Regain & Restore Venue, Kariotahi Beach Sunset

SCHEDULE

  • Friday evening: We will have an optional informal meet ‘n’ greet (location TBC) over dinner and drinks, for those who would like the chance to meet each other before we get stuck into the weekend.
  • Saturday: The workshops will run 9:00am to 4:00pm, beginning with a mihi whakatau (welcome) and outline of the weekend. A catered lunch, and morning and afternoon tea, will be provided. The workshops sessions will be primarily psycho-educational and based on topics relevant to the cult recovery journey, with plenty of opportunity for discussion, questions and interpersonal input.
  • The evening will be free time and we encourage you to relax, eat well, move your body, and rest to process the day’s discussions and input, and to prepare yourself for the second day.
  • Sunday: The workshops will follow a similar format to Saturday, but with a 3.00pm finish to allow plenty of time for participants to travel home before a new week begins. Morning and afternoon tea will be provided, with lunch options available to purchase nearby. The Sunday afternoon sessions will include time for reflection, grounding yourself and conclude with a poroporoaki (farewell/closure).

ACCOMODATION

  • You are responsible for booking your own accommodation, and organising travel to/from the workshop venue. If you would like to carpool or ride share, or want support to find accommodation, contact us and we can help.  We encourage you to book near to the venue and to bear Auckland’s traffic congestion in mind when considering travel times!

PAYMENT

We would appreciate full payment of $120.00 being made to the following bank account before the 2nd November, 2025.  Payment information will be sent upon registration.  Please contact us if payment is a challenge for you.

OUR FACILITATORS:

Tore Klevjer is the President of Cult Information and Family Support Australia, and a counsellor specialising in cult recovery. As a former member of the Children of God, he brings hard-won lived experience to the workshops he runs, and after running many of these recovery weekends in Australia over many years, we are so pleased to have him deliver one in New Zealand for the first time.

Poia Alpha will be the counsellor present for the weekend, available for gentle and safe therapeutic conversations with participants. A former recruit and member of the Branch Davidians, of Waco Texas infamy, Poia brings deep understanding of the trauma, moral injury, spiritual disorientation, family harm, and unique grief of joining and leaving a high-demand religious group.

Lindy Jacomb, founder of the Olive Leaf Network, Cult Chat co-host and former member of the Exclusive Brethren, will also be involved with facilitating this weekend. With her own lived experience as well as deep insights gained from her Olive Leaf Network role supporting former members of high-control groups from all around New Zealand, from Shincheonjii to Destiny Church, Lindy will also be a valued participant on this weekend.

Please register below or contact us at support@nz.oliveleaf.network with any further questions – we look forward to having you join us!

Please download and share our flyer here with anyone who may benefit from this weekend, or share our social media posts about it – we’d love your help to spread the word!

Get In Touch

We’re here to help! Please send us a message using this form, or go to our contact page for more ways to get in touch.

Please be reassured that all communication with the Olive Leaf Network will be held in strict confidence. Your personal information will only be shared with others beyond our network with your permission, unless you or others are in danger, in which case we will inform relevant authorities.