Episode 319: When the Healer Harms: Speaking out Against Lundy Bancroft

The Divorce Survival Guide Podcast

Kate Anthony

Relationships, Education, Self-improvement, Society & Culture

4.4 • 573 Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

April Worthington is a teacher, mother of five, minister, and author of The Debriefing Workbook: Hope and Healing after Spiritual Abuse. In this conversation, April shares her experience involving a retreat led by Lundy Bancroft, author of Why Does He Do That?, a book many of us have clung to in our darkest moments. April's story isn't just one of personal harm, it's a call to action.

As a survivor of both spiritual abuse and high-conflict divorce, April recounts how her initial fan-girl admiration of Bancroft shifted into something far more troubling after an encounter that left her reeling. She shares what unfolded during and after that retreat, the red flags she noticed, and the courage it took to speak out despite the risks.

I'm holding space for April as she brings forward not only her own experience, but those of others who have come to her with eerily similar stories. Her insight challenges us to re-examine what it means to trust "experts," and the danger in handing over our vulnerability to uncredentialed individuals cloaked in guru status.

Here's what else we get into, in this episode:

The red flags that emerged during and after the retreat (6:03)
The emotional fallout of being targeted by someone seen as a "healing" authority (26:24)
How April is building a support network for other survivors (28:35)
Why separating the author from their work is no longer an option (36:22)

Learn more about April Worthington: April Worthington is a teacher, mother of five, minister, and author of The Debriefing Workbook: Hope and Healing after Spiritual Abuse.

Resources & Links:

Thank you to today's podcast sponsor: Wild Pastures
Unbreakable – the Divorce Recovery Retreat, Sedona, AZ in April 2025
Submit your questions here for possible inclusion in future Q&A podcast episodes
Focused Strategy Sessions with Kate
Phoenix Rising: A Divorce Empowerment Collective
April on Facebook
April's YouTube video: A Warning to Women- RUN GIRL! Lundy Bancroft is not your friend!
A Cry for Justice: Lundy Bancroft is a Predator

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DISCLAIMER: THE COMMENTARY AND OPINIONS AVAILABLE ON THIS PODCAST ARE FOR INFORMATIONAL AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY AND NOT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING LEGAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL ADVICE. YOU SHOULD CONTACT AN ATTORNEY, COACH, OR THERAPIST IN YOUR STATE TO OBTAIN ADVICE WITH RESPECT TO ANY PARTICULAR ISSUE OR PROBLEM.

Episode link:
https://kateanthony.com/podcast/episode-319-when-the-healer-harms-speaking-out-against-lundy-bancroft/

Transcript

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0:00.0	I don't want to hurt him. I want to protect you. Like, I don't want to hurt the man, Lundy. I'd love for him just to stop. Go take a sabbatical, find yourself, you know, deal with your stuff. I'm not trying to hurt him. My goal is to help protect. And women who have been abused by him, who've been isolated, had no one to talk to. You can know that you're not alone.
0:21.3	You're not the only one. It was not your fault. It's not your fault. You know, we can also double
0:27.3	check and verify and vet celebrities. People that seem too good to be true, we're allowed to do that.
0:33.4	It's okay.
0:38.1	Welcome to the Divorce Survival Guide podcast, where we have open and honest conversations about
0:44.7	co-parenting, separation, divorce, and the hardest question of all, should you stay or
0:50.7	should you go?
0:52.0	I'm Kate Anthony, your divorce survival guide, and I'm here to help you
0:56.8	navigate some of the roughest waters you've ever swum in and answer some of your toughest questions.
1:02.9	I've been to hell and back, and now it's my mission in life to help you get to the other side
1:08.7	of this process with your sanity and your heart intact.
1:18.0	Hey everyone, welcome back.
1:21.4	So today's episode is a tough one.
1:24.0	It took me a long time, a lot of sort of thought and deliberation and research,
1:31.7	frankly, before I decided to do this episode. And I'm doing it because it's really important.
1:40.7	And I'm doing it because I've done enough research about this to be able to stand by
1:48.1	this conversation and the breaking down of the harms that have been done, unfortunately, by
1:56.9	somebody whose work I have deeply respected, referred, and that I think has helped a lot of you.
2:04.1	And unfortunately, that's Lundy Bancroft.
2:07.0	This conversation is with a woman named April Worthington.
2:11.6	She's a teacher.
2:12.6	She's a mother of five.
	...

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