Undoing Spiritual Trauma
Where to begin with a subject so vast, so ancient, so painful, and so present? Well first, simply with an acknowledgment that it exists, unhealed, in so many people and their communitites. If you’re one of those people, I am so sorry you were hurt and you didn’t deserve it.
I’ve also been amazed at how much folks are talking about their experiences of religious and spiritual trauma. Or leaving their church. Or being kicked out of their community for being gay. Or being shamed for their sexuality in general. Or leaving an abusive marriage that their pastor told them to stay in. Or excaping their new age cult that had great social media but devastating boundaries.
You can find these stories in podcasts, magazines, books and even just casual conversation. And of course, quite a few of these folks find me.
When I’m working with someone who’s healing from religious or spiritual trauma I always start by taking a deep spiritual bow. Trauma in general is devastating. Religious and spiritual trauma gets lodged at the core in a way that’s unique and changes everything in someone’s life.
If I had to diagnose religious trauma I would say that it robs someone of their knowingness as Spirit. It usually happens when a spiritual leader or community of religious authority tells someone they’re less spiritual because of who they are, how they feel, or what they know to be true.
Religious trauma also includes what’s known as moral injury which is “an injury to an individual's moral conscience and values resulting from an act of perceived moral transgression on the part of themselves or others. It produces profound feelings of guilt or shame, moral disorientation, and societal alienation.”
Religious trauma usually also robs someone of their choices. So the first thing I do when working with someone is validate each and every choice they made up to the point to working with me. Then I give them choices for how they’d like to use our session time. There isn’t any right or wrong choice, just the act of making choice around spiritual work itself is the point.
Choice itself is a profoundly spiritual act - often violated or denied in places where spiritual harm happens - and it’s a big step in restoring spiritual health. Making clean choices can actually take care of quite a lot of religious trauma, when done well. When we are in choice, we are in touch with our knowingness of what’s right for us, what we truly need, who we truly are, and how to make choices to honor all of that. Plus, the simple act of choosing is empowering as hell.
Another thing we work on is to look at any place in someone’s life where they were told they were less spiritual than their community. The truth is, there’s no such thing as more or less spiritual. It’s all Spirit, we’re totally made of Spirit in every way, we’re embedded within Spirit, we exist only as Spirit and there is literally nothing any of us can do about it.
So much of my work is validating the supreme spirituality of every part of someone’s life, especially those parts they were told aren’t spiritual. You know the list; sexual orientation, marital ‘disobedience’, doubt and questioning in general, and the internal sense of right and wrong so often steamrolled over in spiritual trauma situations.
These two things alone go a long way towards repairing spiritual trauma. Sometimes, if I’m really lucky though, I get to see a miracle that has nothing to do with me or my work. You see, the truth is that most folks who’ve survived this kind of trauma are (obviously!) still deeply spiritual people.
They long for God. They know who God is and how Spirit works. They remember the intimacy they once had with God. They wouldn’t have been so deeply hurt if they hadn’t loved Spirit so profoundly, and felt God’s love in return.
The mircale I get to see, then, is when people discover that they are still loved by God, WAAAAAYYYYYY above and beyond what any spiritual abuse could ever touch. I’ve seen people discover how big God is, how vast the mind of Spirit, how little it matters what some pastor says is or isn’t allowed.
The most powerful of all is watching that sense of belonging restored; the realization that there is nothing anyone could ever do to them to put them outside the circle of God.
It’s a little hard to put into words but it’s a spiritual transformation so profound that the few times I’ve seen it have changed me too. It’s liberation beyond what can be described and I hold it as the supreme possibility for anyone I work with.
May you know God as pure freedom to be exactly who you are, free from any and all spiritual trauma, empowered to choose your path to God, and irrevocably full of Spirit in every way.
CLAIRVOYANT COUNSELING
There are many kinds of spiritual and religious trauma. Unfortunately, it’s kind of a human thing we do to each other, some more subtly than others. But that doesn’t mean you have to keep living with it. Much of the counseling I do is about restoring those places in your Spirit where the fabric has been torn and needs mending. This can include:
Damaged relationships with people in spiritual authority (ministers, teachers, parents)
Grief and loss, including anger and dissillusionment with God
Spiritual trauma around sexuality inlcuding being sexually taken advantage of, challenges for LGBTQ* folks in religious community, and being shamed for sexuality
Broken family relationships due to religious beliefs
You deserve to be free from the wounds of the past, whether by working with me, or another skilled practitioner. Know that I hold you in my prayers always and keep open the field of miracles and all possibilities for your great freedom and healing.
15-minute Complimentary Call to discover if my services will fit your needs
60-minute sessions are for working with multiple issues or an in-depth reading and healing on an issue that you’ve been working on already and need external support for.
30-minute sessions are best for one to two issues that need immediate support.
Four-Session Coaching Package includes four Clairvoyant Coaching Package to be used over 8 weeks from time of purchase.
Additional Support Package includes four Clairvoyant Coaching sessions, three 15-minute calls to be used at your discretion, and unlimited texting during working-hours over the course of 8 weeks from time of purchase.
Looking forward to working with you!
Want to know more about the art? All images are hyperlinked to the artists’ websites, or as close as I could find. Top image is “In the Heart of the Earth” by Julia Stankova. Bottom image is “The Truest Song” by Jesse Balmer.
