Religious Trauma & Spiritual Harm
Therapy for adults healing from religious trauma, spiritual harm, or the long aftermath of a faith that didn't make room for them. Sessions are online across Idaho, with in-person sessions in Boise by request.
Most of my clients with religious trauma don't show up calling it that. They show up with anxiety they can't trace, depression that has no obvious cause, or a sense of being fundamentally bad that no amount of evidence to the contrary seems to touch. Somewhere along the way, it becomes clear that the foundation underneath was shaped by a system that taught them their instincts couldn't be trusted, certain parts of them were dangerous, or that they were a problem to solve rather than a person to know.
That's where we start.
This is clinical work, not religious work. I'm a licensed counselor, not a pastor or a faith leader, and our sessions aren't shaped by any particular doctrine. If you've ever sat across from someone trying to counsel you out of a Bible, you already know the difference matters.
What Brings People In
Religious trauma rarely shows up alone. It usually compounds with everything else, and the entry point is most often a symptom rather than a story:
Depression or numbness that came back after you thought you'd left it behind
Chronic shame, especially about your body, your sexuality, or your desires
The sense that your own thoughts, doubts, or questions were dangerous or sinful
A sense that something is wrong with you at the core
Anxiety that feels disproportionate to your actual life
Difficulty trusting your own judgment after years of being told to defer to authority
Estrangement, real or anticipated, from family who can't accept who you are now
Grief and loneliness after leaving a community that was your whole social world
Loss of the certainty, ritual, or relationship with the divine you used to have
Conflict between who you are and what you were taught you were supposed to be
Clients come in from a lot of different traditions: ex-Mormon, ex-evangelical, ex-Catholic, ex-Baptist, ex-fundamentalist, and many who don't fit any of those categories but recognize the dynamic when they hear it described. The common thread is high-control religion, where questioning was discouraged, leaving carried real costs, and there wasn't much room for the parts of you that didn't fit.
How We'll Work
I work with clients who are leaving religion, clients who are staying, clients who've landed somewhere spiritual but not religious, and clients who don't know yet. I'm not here to argue you out of faith, pull you back into it, or steer you toward any particular landing place. The work is helping you separate what's actually yours from what was given to you under conditions where you didn't have a choice, and then deciding what you want to do with each piece. The choice is yours.
Together, we'll look at where the harm landed: in your relationship with your body, your sexuality, your sense of being inherently good or bad, your ability to trust your own perceptions, your relationships with the people you grew up alongside. We'll trace the patterns back to where they started so you can choose something different now.
I bring my own lived experience to the work. I grew up in a small Texas town in a religious family, in a culture that didn't have language for who I was. I'm not religious now, but I haven't lost the part of me that values connection, meaning, and something larger than myself. The path through wasn't fast and it wasn't tidy, and I won't pretend I have a formula that bypasses the hard parts. What I can offer is a room where you don't have to perform being okay, defend where you've landed, or worry that I'll be quietly hoping you go a particular direction.
Getting Started
Sessions are 50 minutes, conducted via secure telehealth across Idaho, with in-person sessions in Boise available by request. I'm in-network with several Idaho insurance plans, and other payment options are available on request.
If any of this resonates, reach out for a free 15-minute consultation. We'll talk through what's going on, what you're looking for, and whether I'm the right fit.
