IN-PERSON IN NASHVILLE & ONLINE ACROSS TENNESSEE

Religious Trauma Therapy in Nashville

Has your experience with spirituality left you struggling with:

Guilt and Shame that you can’t shake even when you haven’t done anything wrong

Fear and Anxiety about making the wrong decisions, disappointing God, or letting people down

Physical Symptoms like tension in your body, shortness of breath, or feeling completely disconnected from your body

Has your faith shift or deconstruction left you feeling:

Loss of Identity and wondering who you are apart from what you used to believe

Isolated and alienated from the people and community that were a source of connection, belonging and support

Disillusioned by the ways that authenticity and vulnerability were punished and used against you

I’ve been there and I get it.

Faith and spirituality can serve as an anchoring presence that provides us with a sense of direction, meaning, and purpose. It’s not just a set of ideas that we hold, it’s an inner compass and a way of seeing the world, that provides us with comfort, meaning, and connection. When that connection is damaged, we can feel adrift, untethered, and aimless.

Religious Trauma Disconnects us.

It disconnects us from others and from ourselves. The impact is felt in our families, communities, friendships, and it affects our relationship with our bodies, our emotions, our sense of purpose and meaning. The relationships where we experienced a sense of belonging become places where we can no longer be ourselves and we feel the most hurt. Sometimes there’s something concrete that we can point to… a manipulative leader, abuse, shaming, being ostracized. Other times the source is less tangible… It isn’t just about the hurtful experiences, manipulative leaders, or overt abuse. It’s also present in the ways that faith traditions can suppress autonomy, disconnect us from our bodies and emotions, or squash our questions and curiosity.

And just when we need it most, the people who were our closest friends, trusted mentors, or even family, are unable to be supportive and may even turn against us.

Things we can work on in Religious Trauma Therapy

  • Learning how trauma affects the mind, body, and soul

  • Developing a supportive compassionate relationship with yourself

  • Connecting with your core values and fostering a life of meaning, and purpose

  • Fostering a healthy sex life beyond the shaming messages of purity culture

  • Discovering your own voice and learning how to listen to yourself

  • Relationship with your own body

If you’re ready to…

01

Connect with your authentic self

02

Break free from shame

03

Treat yourself more compassionately

04

Create a life of meaning and purpose

Your pain deserves to be heard, held, and healed.

I’m here to provide a compassionate space where you can explore and make sense of your experiences, reclaim your autonomy, and rebuild a sense of self that is grounded in authenticity and freedom.

Questions? I’ve got answers.

Frequently asked questions —

  • Religious trauma includes the physical, emotional, or psychological impacts of religious beliefs, practices, or structures. It’s less about what happened and how an individual’s physical, mental, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being continue to be affected by past experiences.

    Spiritual abuse refers to the ways that power is used in spiritual or religious settings to influence, control and manipulate another’s body, thoughts, emotions, actions, or capacity for choice, freedom, or autonomy within a spiritual of religious context.

    Examples include: forced accountability, public shaming, isolating, control around decision making. It might also be structural or systemic factors that include, homophobia, devaluation of women, or an environment based on fear and shame.

  • I was born into conservative evangelical culture and did all the “good Christian” things. Church at least 3 times a week, youth group, worship teams, working at a Christian bookstore, working with a missions organization, leading small groups, assisting with church plants, and serving on church boards. I am as fluent in churchspeak as I am in English.

    When I realized I was gay, the experience was incredibly isolating. I had questions without easy answers, and I was handed answers that felt lazy, invalidating, and deeply wounding. I also knew that this pain was taboo to speak about or name. And while I know my experience isn’t unique, it can be difficult to find therapists who understand all of the moving parts and how they interact—spirituality, family, community, beliefs, practices, existential fears.

    I understand the complexities of church culture, I also understand how trauma works. I know that it’s not always tied to specific events, but that sometimes the hurt is a product of how the environment functions.

    I didn’t need someone who was mostly interested in defending ideas or institutions. I didn’t need someone who was going to convince me that my pain wasn’t valid. I didn’t need someone to tell me that “they meant well.” I didn't need to try yet another church.

    I needed to hear:

    “I believe you”

    “You don’t need to convince me”

    “You make sense"

  • Not at all. I’m not here to undermine or change your belief system or your relationship with spirituality. I’m not here to make judgements or determinations about the role of faith or religion in your life. If you’ve read this far, you’ve probably already experienced more than your fair share of these kinds of boundary violations. This isn’t that place for that. I’m more than happy to have the conversations about faith and spirituality that are important to you (if that’s important to you). But I’m not going to make any determinations about the role of spirituality in your life.

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