Religious Trauma + Faith Deconstruction
I grew up in an extremely religious community here in the Bible Belt and have navigated my own faith deconstruction over the last 10 years. My lived experience gives me a depth and breadth of knowledge of the impact that religion can have on us- societally, culturally, relationally, and personally. I understand the complex and painful process of questioning your worldview, and how it can change your relationships and your community.
Some people have supportive experiences with faith and religion, and I do not discount this. However, I’ve also seen the oppression and trauma that people have experienced from religion and church relationships, particularly LGBTQIA+ people. I am passionate about helping people heal from religious trauma and believe you can reclaim a sense of grounded and authentic connection and joy, no matter where you land in your journey!
When I support you through a faith deconstruction, I never to push a decision to leave religion or stay with religion. Instead, I empower you to decide what is meaningful to you with regards to your spirituality and faith. I am here to help you explore your belief system, navigate the challenges of asking those tough questions, and integrate your growth and knowing into your worldview in a way that reflects your values and boundaries.
Some focus areas in our work together might include:
Exploring the impact of purity culture on sexuality and healing from sexual shame
Building a sense of self-trust and identity outside of religion
Releasing guilt/shame cycles that stem from religion
Challenging non-supportive core beliefs about self, relationships, and higher power
Boundary setting and navigating the cultural aspects of leaving religion
Attunement to your body and your feelings
Creating authentic community
Recovering from Religious Trauma as a Creative with Rose Crouch
On this episode of the Dangerous Creatives podcast, Kristin Sweeting sits down with therapist Rose Crouch to discuss recovering from religious trauma as a creative, and why it's an important conversation. Religious experiences affect all of the different parts of our lives, including creativity, and they share a bit of their own experiences of growing up in a religious community and their process of deconstructing those ingrained beliefs. In this interview, Rose shares a bit about the benefit of addressing some of these ingrained beliefs and beginning to build an internal relationship and develop increased self trust along the way.
“A gift that can come from a faith deconstruction and/or healing from religious trauma: we stop worrying quite so much about who we're "supposed" to be, and we become more connected to and sure of who we actually are.
And when we’re more sure of who we are, we can more freely put it out there to the world. We can share ourselves more fully and truthfully with our people. We can find more ways to share our gifts and talents and resources to help our communities. We can honor our core values and our boundaries more intentionally.
What a courageous, vulnerable, beautiful thing:
to allow ourselves to be seen for who we truly are.”
-Rose Crouch, LPC-MHSP, NCC