Religious Trauma

Transgender Woman Talking

In this episode of the program, Elle talks about some of her understanding of religious trauma or spiritual abuse. As a former pastor and lifetime member of the Seventh-day Adventist Christian denomination, she resonates very strongly with many of the experiences folks identifying as victims of religious trauma describe. In the program, Elle also reflects on some of her understanding of trauma in general from a therapist's perspective, as well as some of the symptoms that people who have been hurt by religion go through.

Some of the resources mentioned on the episode this week include:

• Sacred Wounds religious trauma support group (Elle leads this weekly with one of her colleagues on Wednesday mornings at 10am on Zoom) - email for the link
• Bessel Van der Kolk - "The Body Keeps the Score"
• Gabor Mate - "The Myth of Normal"
• EMDR Trauma Therapy
• Marcos Torres and the Hunger Podcast on religious trauma / take the quiz here

As always, thank you so much for listening to the program, for your constructive feedback, and encouragement. Continue to send it to [email protected]

If you'd like to become one of Elle's clients in therapy, and you are in the state of California, please reach out to her on her website: ⁠⁠⁠www.estherloewen.com⁠⁠⁠ and click on "Therapy".