Religious trauma is something that many people don’t often talk about, but it’s more common than you might think. Whether you grew up in a strict religious environment or experienced a traumatic event within a faith community, the emotional and psychological scars can run deep. To add insult to injury, healing from religious trauma can be a long and complex journey.

The first step in healing from religious trauma is simply acknowledging that it’s real. Whether your trauma stems from manipulation, shame, guilt, or emotional abuse, it’s okay to admit that what you went through has left a mark on you. 

If you’ve been through religious trauma, there’s a chance you may carry a lot of guilt or shame with you. This might be because you’ve been conditioned to feel like you're “wrong” for questioning or leaving the faith, or perhaps you've internalized messages that made you feel unworthy.

The emotional aftermath of religious trauma often comes with confusion, anger, and grief. You might find yourself questioning your beliefs, or you could feel disconnected from your community or even your sense of self. That’s all normal. Your feelings are valid, and it’s important to give yourself permission to feel them.

Body image refers to how we perceive our physical selves and how we think others perceive us. It’s a complex interplay of self-esteem, societal standards, and personal experiences. For many, this perception can be strongly influenced by external forces, such as social media and the larger cultural context, as well as internal insecurities. Beauty standards are often unattainable and unhealthy, which can place us in a double bind of striving for external appearances different than our own, or feeling like we are unattractive or outcasted from others.

Social media, family culture, and our larger cultural contexts play significant roles in shaping our body image. For every gender, racial identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, religion, socioeconomic status, and so on, beauty standards can vary, which can create a very confusing, conflicting, and further unattainable goalpost to reach—one that seems to move with every passing year.  

Complex and challenging relationships with parents are one of the many struggles adults today face and seek guidance and healing around in our therapy offices. These struggles are often born from experiences and dynamics of childhood that continue to influence the parent-child relationship in adulthood. Sometimes, these dynamics are very evident, and other times they may be more subtle and hard to correlate with current experience. Being able to identify and understand how childhood experiences have affected us and our relationships is often crucial to improve maladaptive patterns and cycles we may find ourselves in. Below are a few ways early childhood dynamics can create problems and some tips for navigating them.

Sexual health is a fundamental aspect of overall well-being, yet many individuals struggle with sexual dysfunction, often linked to past trauma. Understanding the relationship between trauma and sexual dysfunction can empower those affected and pave the way for healing, connection, and pleasure. No experience of traumatic events is undeserving of care and attention, especially when it has impacts on different areas of functioning.