This week's guest, Zoe Scurletis is a young professional who is currently based out of Austin, Texas. For most of her adult life, Zoe battled anxiety and depression, and in 2017 she lost a close friend to suicide. She longed to do something to bring awareness to the mental health community, so in October of 2019, she launched a mental health podcast called Solace and the City™. Through authentic conversations about sensitive subjects, she works to open up the conversation around emotional wellness. Her goal of the podcast is to reduce the stigma surrounding depression, anxiety, loneliness, and suicide by sharing these powerful stories.

In her conversation with Rachel, Zoe talks about her passion for destigmatizing mental health issues as well as her own struggles with Tourette syndrome. Zoe walks us through the circumstances that led to her experiences with Mark Elliot, an author and public speaker who was a member of NXIVM and claimed his Tourette's was cured by the cult's leader Keith Raniere. Zoe shares how she narrowly averted recruitment into NXIVM by Mark, while Rachel points out some of the red flags to watch out for when being persuaded to join a group.

Before You Go: Rachel explains why a promise can hold such tremendous weight on a person's psychology and the depth to which it can establish or destroy trust in a relationship. She explains the responsibility and emotional maturity needed when making promises to people.

Listen to Zoe's podcast Solace and The City, including more conversation with Rachel here:

https://solaceandthecity.com/32-rachel-bernstein-that-one-time-i-was-recruited-into-a-sex-cult/

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