In person in Wichita & online across Kansas
Therapy for Spiritual Harm
EMDR, Somatic & CBT Treatment
When things go wrong in your spiritual life, it can feel like the rug was just pulled out from under you. The places that felt like home, connection and belonging instead become places of confusion, anger and grief. You may be grieving the upheaval of community and struggling to figure out how God fits into this mess.
Whether this experience feels more like religious trauma, church hurt, spiritual abuse, deconstruction, or something else - it can be disorienting and painful. But you don’t have to experience it alone.
How Do You Know If You Have Experienced Spiritual Harm?
Perhaps you have experience with situations like:
watching a cover up or experiencing abuse in a faith community
controlling organizations and communities that left you floundering and angry
being in ministry but also hurting and having taboo struggles with mental health
looking like a good Christian family in public while there was abuse at home
And some of these phrases have been used as weapons:
“Just have faith”
“God hates divorce”
“Love keeps no record of wrong”
“The heart is deceitful”
“Touch not God's anointed”
And now you’re experiencing things like:
Fear, anxiety, or anger
Feeling trapped by failure and shame
Being torn between faith and identity
Grieving the loss of community and belonging
Adrift and unsure how to heal
Finding a Therapist for Religious Trauma
Spirituality can feel like a delicate topic to bring into the therapy room, whether you’re looking for someone who can bring Jesus into therapy in a healing way, or whether you’re not sure if/how you’re going to hold onto faith after everything that happened. Choosing the therapist who will feel right for the work you want to do, can feel challenging!
If you’re looking specifically to bring faith into the therapy room, that is something I love doing with clients who request it! And, if you’ve left faith entirely or are uncertain where it’s all going to end up for you, but you’re looking for a therapist who is familiar with church and the way harm can show up there, I have loved working with clients in that space too! I am a person of deep personal faith but I also know how to hold space for where you're at, no matter where that is. Your preference dictates what we do.
If you’re interested in feeling out whether we’re a good fit, I offer free consultations to all new clients - I believe you deserve to enter therapy comfortable with the situation and confident you’re going to be able to do the work you want to do. You can read more about me or reach out to schedule your free consultation!
Therapy for Spiritual Abuse in Wichita, KS
You’re probably looking for a therapist who understands the dynamics of religious trauma, betrayal, shame, control, financial quandaries, deconstruction or the multitude of other ways that spirituality can become entangled with mental health struggles - and who is familiar with the process of bringing healing to those wounds. But talking about spiritual experiences without also mending the experience of your whole self can lead to ongoing, unresolved distress - and that’s where therapy comes in! So we’ll bring healing to your whole self as we treat spiritual hurts. Some of the tools I use to help clients heal spiritual trauma include:
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Somatic therapy holds space for the body’s experience. We won’t just talk about what happened; I’ll also ask what you’re noticing inside right now. We’ll listen to the cues held in emotions and sensations, then help that experience to move through your body. This isn’t a body treatment that involves touch (like a massage), but it does pay attention to how experiences have landed in your body and bring gentle healing there.
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EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) processes trauma while also keeping your brain busy with the body-based tasks like eye movements or hand-held pulsators. Splitting your attention this way helps the sensations, emotions and beliefs that got stuck during that trauma, release, settle down and come to rest.
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CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) explores the beliefs, guilt and shame that occupy your brain and dictate your behaviors, allowing you to restore a sense of agency and self, based on the values you hold.
There’s space here for you to sort out how spirituality, brain, and body were all impacted by your experiences, and space to bring them all into healing together. My goal for your therapy is simply that you find healing.
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