When Religion Hurts: Healing from Religious Trauma with Compassion and Support
When Religion Hurts: Healing from Religious Trauma with Compassion and Support
For many people, religion is meant to be a source of comfort, belonging, and meaning. But for others, faith communities and religious teachings have been places of deep pain, shame, and harm. When religion wounds instead of nurtures, the impact can linger long after someone has stepped away.
This experience is often referred to as religious trauma, and it is far more common than many realize.
At Authentic Beyond the Couch (ABC), we believe healing is possible, even when faith has been the source of hurt.
What Is Religious Trauma?
Religious trauma occurs when spiritual beliefs, practices, or authority figures cause emotional, psychological, or relational harm. This trauma is not about “losing faith” or being weak, it’s about what happens when power, fear, control, or shame are embedded into religious experiences.
Religious trauma can come from:
Fear-based teachings (hell, punishment, damnation)
Shame around sexuality, identity, or questions
Spiritual abuse by leaders or institutions
Being silenced, dismissed, or ostracized for doubt
Rigid belief systems that leave no room for humanity
For many, the harm isn’t just spiritual, it affects the body, nervous system, relationships, and sense of self.
How Religious Trauma Shows Up in the Body and Mind
Religious trauma often mirrors other forms of trauma. People may experience:
Chronic guilt or shame
Anxiety or panic when thinking about faith or spirituality
Difficulty trusting authority figures
Fear of making “wrong” choices
Disconnection from intuition or inner voice
Confusion about identity and worth
Even after leaving a harmful religious environment, the body may remain on high alert—holding onto fear long after the threat is gone.
This is not a failure of faith. It is the nervous system doing its best to protect.
The Grief No One Talks About
One of the most overlooked parts of religious trauma is grief.
Grief for:
The community you lost
The version of God you were taught to fear or obey
The certainty you once had
The years spent silencing yourself
This grief can feel isolating, especially when others don’t understand why “just leaving” wasn’t enough. Healing requires space to name both the harm and the loss.
Healing Is Not About Rejecting Faith, It’s About Choice
Healing from religious trauma does not require abandoning spirituality altogether. For some, healing includes redefining faith. For others, it means stepping away completely. Both paths are valid.
What matters is this:
You get to choose
Your questions are allowed
Your body’s responses make sense
Your healing does not need permission
At ABC, we focus on helping individuals reconnect with safety, autonomy, and self-trust, without pressure to believe, perform, or conform.
A Support Group for Those Hurt by Religion
Authentic Beyond the Couch will be offering a support group for individuals navigating religious trauma and spiritual hurt.
This space is designed to be:
Trauma-informed
Judgment-free
Grounded in emotional and nervous system safety
Respectful of diverse beliefs and experiences
You do not need to have answers.
You do not need to reconcile your faith.
You only need to show up as you are.
Healing happens in safe connection, and you don’t have to do this alone.
You Are Not Broken
If religion or religious leaders have hurt you, it does not mean you failed. It means something sacred was mishandled. Your body remembers what your mind may have tried to minimize.
Your pain deserves care, not correction. Your healing deserves time, not pressure.
Over our time together, we will move slowly, intentionally, and safely.
Each week blends trauma-informed education, guided group processing, and experiential practices to help your nervous system find steadiness while your story finds language.
EMDR-informed practices will be used to help participants notice and release how religious trauma lives in the body, such as fear responses, shame loops, or emotional shutdown, without requiring anyone to relive or retell painful events in detail. This is about resourcing, grounding, and restoring internal safety.
Supportive group work creates space to witness and be witnessed. Many people discover that the most painful part of religious harm is the isolation it creates. Here, you’ll be reminded you are not alone, broken, or “too much” for asking hard questions.
Imago-informed dialogue will help participants explore how early relational patterns, often reinforced in religious settings, show up in their relationship with God, authority, self, and others. These structured conversations support curiosity over judgment and connection over defensiveness.
Across the six weeks, the goal is not to “fix” your beliefs, but to rebuild trust with your own inner voice, regulate your nervous system, and make room for meaning that no longer requires fear, silence, or self-abandonment.
You are welcome exactly as you are, faith-filled, faith-questioning, faith-tired, or somewhere in between.
✨ Interested in the Religious Trauma Support Group?
Join the waitlist to receive updates and early access when registration opens.
