Many people have positive and supportive experiences with religion or religious community, and for others, experiences of spiritual abuse or adverse religious messaging may have lead to significant self-hatred, anxiety, perfectionism, shame, depression, and feelings of worthlessness. Some signs you may have experienced religious trauma or adverse religious messaging are:

• You grew up with alter calls, mandated confession, fear of hell and eternal conscious torment, or constant emphasis on sin/messaging that you are evil or bad

• You’re a member of the LBGTQIA+ community and you were told that your sexuality is sinful and needs repentance/ you were encouraged to hide your queerness

• Religious elders discouraged questions around faith and encouraged a culture of patriarchy, oppression, and corporal punishment

• You grew up in purity, virginity, and abstinence culture, or you grew up in a religion that questions the equity and value of women

• Thoughts of leaving your faith or faith community are leaving you full of fear and doubt or questioning your identity and sense of self

• You feel exhausted living in a highly religious and conservative context, and constantly seeing religious symbols or hearing religious talk reminds you of painful loss

I have a graduate background in theological studies and am an affirming member of the queer community. I believe that religious trauma is trauma. Request an appointment today to get support on your spiritual journey.

*Some religious trauma requires multifaceted modalities of care. Upon assessment of religious trauma, plans of care may be found to require more than one avenue of healing modality and therefore need additional support from a referral to higher-level practitioners. 3 referral resources are always provided at minimum to clients when needed.