In this episode of Bewitched: Breaking the Spell When Spiritual Mentoring Goes Wrong, Dr. Robyn McKay and Alyse Bacine sit down with Jia, a sharp, intuitive leader who found herself caught up in the world of high-level spiritual mentorship—until things took a turn.

Jia was with Robyn and Alyse in Santa Fe for what was supposed to be a transformational business and personal development retreat.

Later, she traveled to Croatia with the same mentor, “Betty,” and got a front-row seat to the dark side of mentorship gone wrong.

From sleep deprivation to gaslighting, from over-the-top paranoia to questioning every major life decision—this episode is a real talk on what happens when spiritual leadership gets messy.

If you’ve ever looked up to a mentor, only to realize they weren’t who you thought they were, this conversation is for you.

Jia shares her experience with refreshing honesty (and a little humor), reminding us all how easy it is to get caught up in someone else’s version of the truth—and how powerful it is to reclaim your own.

• How Jia got pulled into this mentorship—and the early red flags she missed
• The Santa Fe retreat experience: belonging, excitement, and the start of subtle influence
• How sleep deprivation, social dynamics, and paranoia set the stage for deeper manipulation
• What went down in Croatia (spoiler: it wasn’t just a relaxing getaway)
• The wake-up moment: when Jia realized she needed to get out
• The process of untangling from a mentor’s influence and finding her own truth again
• Lessons in discernment: how to spot the difference between true guidance and control

• Even smart, intuitive people can get caught up in unhealthy mentorship dynamics.
• If a mentor is making big statements about your life that you didn’t ask for, it’s okay to step back and question it.
• Just because someone has a strong presence doesn’t mean they have all the answers.
• Trusting your intuition is always more important than following someone else’s vision for you.
• Real mentorship is about guidance, not control—and the best leaders help you trust yourself more, not less.

If this episode hit home, we’d love to hear from you.

💬 Join us for the Bewitched Debrief every Monday at 3 PM Eastern on Instagram Live, where Alyse and Robyn reflect on the episode, answer questions, and dive deeper into these topics.

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