Spiritual abuse is a form of emotional and psychological abuse characterized by patterns of coercion and control within a religious or spiritual context, or carried out using religious or spiritual beliefs as justification. It can include manipulation, enforced obedience or accountability, misuse of sacred texts or teachings, pressure to conform, restrictions on decision-making, demands for secrecy, isolation, and the misuse of spiritual authority. (source: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/104990919801500409?_gl=1*1vzri4t*_up*MQ..*_ga*MzA4NDU0Mzg5LjE3ODcxNTYyMTE.*_ga_60R758KFDG*czE3ODcxNTYyMTEkbzEkZzEkdDE3ODcxNTYyMjAkajUxJGwxJGg4OTY3ODU0OTY.)

Coercive control is an ongoing pattern of behavior used to dominate another person by restricting their autonomy, choices, relationships, or access to information and resources. It can include intimidation, isolation, monitoring, manipulation, threats, humiliation, punishment, or the use of rules and expectations to create dependency and enforce compliance. Within religious settings, coercive control may involve the misuse of spiritual authority, doctrine, community relationships, or fear of spiritual consequences to pressure individuals into obedience or discourage questioning, disagreement, or leaving. (source: https://www.thehotline.org/identify-abuse/power-and-control/)

Trauma can result from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that a person experiences as physically or emotionally harmful or life-threatening and that has lasting effects on their well-being or ability to function. Those effects may be emotional, psychological, physical, social, or spiritual. (source: https://www.samhsa.gov/mental-health/trauma-violence)

Institutional betrayal occurs when an institution that a person trusts or depends upon causes harm or fails to protect or respond appropriately when harm occurs. It may include covering up wrongdoing, failing to take reports seriously, protecting those responsible for harm, retaliating against those who speak up, or failing to provide reasonable protection or support. Jennifer Freyd's research describes institutional betrayal as including both wrongdoing by an institution and failures to prevent or respond supportively to wrongdoing within it. (source: https://www.institutionalcourage.org/knowledge-base-and-research-priorities#institutional-betrayal)

Grooming is a deliberate process through which a person builds trust, access, and influence with someone in order to create conditions that make exploitation or abuse easier to perpetrate or conceal. Grooming may develop gradually through attention, kindness, mentorship, special treatment, boundary testing, secrecy, isolation, manipulation, or the exploitation of a power imbalance. Note: RAINN's formal definition here concerns sexual grooming, particularly involving children, teens, and at-risk adults. RAINN describes grooming as a process rather than a single event and notes that perpetrators may also groom families and communities to gain trust and avoid detection. (source: https://rainn.org/get-the-facts-about-sexual-violence/get-the-facts-about-grooming/)

Moral injury refers to the lasting psychological, emotional, social, behavioral, and spiritual distress that can follow experiences that violate a person's deeply held moral beliefs or values. It may result from something a person did, witnessed, was unable to prevent, or from experiencing a profound betrayal by someone in a position of authority or trust. Feelings of guilt, shame, anger, betrayal, loss of trust, and spiritual conflict can accompany moral injury. Importantly, moral injury is not itself a psychiatric diagnosis and is not the same thing as PTSD, although the two can occur together. (source: https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/cooccurring/moral_injury.asp)

DARVO stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender. It describes a response in which a person confronted about harmful behavior denies or minimizes what occurred, attacks the credibility or character of the person raising the concern, and then reverses the roles so that the accused person presents themselves as the victim and the person who raised the concern becomes the alleged offender. (source: https://www.jjfreyd.com/darvo)

Gaslighting is a form of manipulation intended to cause another person to doubt their own perceptions, experiences, memories, or understanding of events. Over time, repeated gaslighting can make it increasingly difficult for someone to trust their own judgment or interpretation of what they have experienced. The American Psychological Association notes that the word is now used more broadly than its original meaning. The defining feature is manipulation aimed at undermining someone's confidence in their perception or understanding of reality. (source: https://dictionary.apa.org/gaslight)