Religious Trauma & Spiritual
Abuse Therapy in Michigan

Religious trauma happens when faith, spirituality, or religious communities become sources of fear, shame, pressure, or emotional harm. These experiences often leave deep wounds that impact identity, self-worth, relationships, and your ability to trust yourself. I provide trauma-informed therapy for teens and adults across Michigan who are healing from harmful religious experiences, high-control spiritual environments, purity culture, or family systems rooted in fear, guilt, or rigid beliefs. Your story deserves care, respect, and understanding — without judgment or pressure.

What Religious Trauma Really Is

Religious trauma is not about having beliefs or not having them. It’s about the impact of a system, community, or person who used religion in a way that created fear, shame, confusion, or emotional harm. Religious trauma can come from:

  • High-control or authoritarian religious groups

  • Fear-based teachings

  • Feeling judged, shamed, or unworthy

  • Rigid purity culture messages

  • Threats of punishment, sin, or damnation

  • Being taught to distrust your own thoughts or feelings

  • Loss of community or identity after leaving

  • Pressure to conform, obey, or suppress emotions

  • Family dynamics shaped by strict religious expectations

  • Exclusion, rejection, or “othering”

  • Internalized shame around identity, sexuality, or doubt

Your experience is valid — even if others don’t understand or minimize it.

Common Signs of Religious Trauma

Religious trauma often shows up in ways that feel confusing or unrelated at first, including:

  • Deep shame or guilt, especially around needs or boundaries

  • Fear of disappointing others

  • Difficulty trusting yourself

  • Anxiety, hypervigilance, or fear of making “wrong” decisions

  • Feeling disconnected from your identity

  • Emotional numbness or overwhelm

  • Difficulty with intimacy or relationships

  • Fear-based thoughts or intrusive worries

  • Struggles with sexuality or self-expression

  • Leaving a community and feeling lost or alone

  • Difficulty exploring faith or spirituality on your own terms

Healing Religious Trauma

Therapy can help you understand your experiences, rebuild self-trust, and create a relationship with spirituality, identity, and values that feels empowering — whether you keep your faith, change it, or walk away from it entirely. In therapy, we work on:

  • Rebuilding internal safety

    • Understanding and calming fear-based responses rooted in early teachings

  • Healing shame and guilt

    • Letting go of messages that made you feel “wrong,” “broken,” or unworthy

  • Strengthening identity

    • Exploring who you are beyond expectations, doctrine, or pressure

  • Learning to trust your emotions and intuition

    • You get to have your own voice — not the one you were taught to have

  • Understanding trauma patterns

    • Exploring how fear, control, or shame affected your nervous system

  • Reclaiming autonomy

    • Learning that you can make choices based on your values — not fear

  • Processing grief or loss

    • Leaving a religious system often means losing a community, identity, or structure

Therapy gives you a safe place to explore these layers gently and at your own pace.

My Approach to Religious Trauma Therapy

My approach is compassionate, affirming, and trauma-informed. I support clients from all belief backgrounds, including those who:

  • Stay within their faith

  • Modify or redefine their beliefs

  • Leave religion entirely

  • Are unsure or deconstructing

  • Are reconnecting with spirituality in new ways

You can expect:

  • Respect for your beliefs (past or present)

    • No assumptions, no pressure to abandon or adopt any belief system

  • A gentle, paced approach

    • You only share what feels safe and meaningful

  • Understanding of high-control religious systems

    • I recognize how emotional, psychological, and relational dynamics play a role

  • Validation of your lived experience

    • Your story is real, meaningful, and important

  • Space for grief, anger, confusion, and hope

    • All emotions are welcome.

You deserve space to heal in a way that feels authentic to you.