Tag: religious trauma

  • You Were Not Lucky. You Were Lost.

    Before I ever walked into a church, I was already carrying something. A loss that happened before language. Before memory. Before I had a single word for any of it. This is the story of what that loss made me believe — and what I am finally learning to let go.

  • What Is Real Safety — And How Do You Find It?

    Safety isn’t the absence of danger. It’s the presence of something. Learn how to recognize real safety in your body, test for it in relationships, and begin rebuilding trust with yourself — one small step at a time.

  • The Manufactured Desert

    I had a dream last night that I woke up screaming from. There was a shadow, a child’s room, a dark hallway. What I discovered sitting with it the next morning surprised me — I wasn’t wandering. I was remembering. This is what I finally understand about the desert.

  • The House Is Haunted. You’re Not Crazy

    Religious trauma lives in the body long after you’ve left the building. Here’s what actually helps — and why peer support works when other approaches make it worse.

  • Already Home

    What if home isn’t somewhere you finally arrive at? What if it’s a moment you notice — and then another, and then another? A post for anyone exhausted from trying to heal their way home.

  • Are We Human or Are We Dancer?

    Are we living from something true and rooted in us, or are we moving to someone else’s rhythm without even knowing it? I spent years dancing to a beat that wasn’t mine — convinced it was leading me home. This is what I learned about systems that use our deepest needs to keep us in…

  • The People Who Stay: Why Friendship Is the Love Story We Keep Missing

    **Slug:** the-people-who-stay-friendship-love-story — **Excerpt:** We were taught that romantic love is the answer — the thing that will complete us, save us, prove our worth. But what if the most nourishing love story of your life has been unfolding quietly beside you all along, in the people who simply stayed? This is a post about…

  • What If I’d Driven Away? Learning Self-Compassion When You Can’t Forgive Your Own Choices

    What if one different choice could have changed everything? Through the lens of a moment sitting outside a church in a minivan, this post explores what it really means to stop punishing yourself, listen to the parts of you that are exhausted, and discover that self-compassion — not self-criticism — is the only way forward.…

  • The Robin on the Fence

    What if nothing is missing at all? What if everything we’re searching for is already here, and we simply can’t see it because we keep looking somewhere else? Inspired by Francis Weller’s In the Absence of the Ordinary, this post is an invitation to slow down, notice what’s right in front of you, and consider…

  • Part 2: How Environment Shapes Us—From Worm Theology to Finding Ourselves

    How can I know what parts of me are shaped by my environment? And what parts of me are who I really am? As an adopted child who later joined an evangelical church, I’ve learned that worm theology doesn’t just teach you about God—it teaches you who you’re supposed to be. And unlearning that is…