Ron Burks holds an MDiv and an MA in counseling from Asbury Theological Seminary and a PhD in counselor education from Ohio University. He worked for many years at Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center in Albany, Ohio and is a former president of the Wellspring Retreat Board of Directors. He and his wife Vicki wrote Damaged Disciples: Casualties of Authoritarian Churches and the Shepherding Movement, published by Zondervan. His other publications include a chapter on a connection between cults and addiction in the medical reference Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook, published by Williams and Wilkins. He contributed to ICSA’s Cult Recovery: A Clinician’s Guide to Working With Former Members and Families. He and Vicki now live near Tallahassee, Florida, where both are licensed mental health counselors. They are retired from Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, where they operated an intensive outpatient substance ab