I've been lurking on this board for a couple of months now, taking it all in. I've really appreciated and enjoyed reading your postings and it's all been very helpful. I have now a question I'd like to ask. I was a JW for several years but have been out for twenty years now. However, my wife stayed in and I decided to support her in raising our children as Witnesses in the interests of family harmony. As it turns out, that was a huge mistake but also another topic.
What I'm interested in knowing now is if anyone has any first-hand or even second-hand experience with "exit counseling". The reason I ask is that two of my children -- both in their early twenties -- have without any encouragement from me decided that they no longer wish to be JWs and are not attending meetings. A third child -- who is sixteen -- has on her own decided that JWs are probably a cult and is only continuing to attend meetings so that she is not cut off from her friends.
The reason I'm asking about exit counseling is that I've come to appreciate that although my children may intellectually recognize that JW-dom is a false religion, they are still going to be burdened with a lot of "baggage" acquired from their lifelong conditioning: fear of dying at Armageddon, guilt, difficulties with normal social interactions with non-JWs, distrust of "the world", feeling lost and without purpose or direction, etc.
Could some sort of exit counseling be helpful to them? I've gathered that Randall Watters of freeminds.org has had some involvement with this sort of thing and I've thought of contacting him. If anyone has any thoughts or experiences to share about this, I'd greatly appreciate it.