For many people, religion and spirituality are sources of support, guidance, and community, providing a sense of belonging in the world. But sometimes, spiritual beliefs can be used as weapons of power and control that can cause significant trauma. This is religious trauma; the experience of coping with the damage of indoctrination. This might look like contemplating an engraved belief system or lifestyle, breaking away from a controlling community, chronic abuse, or dealing with the impact of ending one’s connection to a church or religion.

While some people experience direct, or shock trauma; something specific that happened that resulted in trauma, other people experience complex trauma; this means that over time, things have happened where one’s nervous system has consistently and constantly perceived threat, (purity culture messaging, messages about hell, what it means to be a woman, etc.) When put simply, religious trauma is trauma, and no two people experience trauma in the exact same way.