This has been a huge year for the world and for many of us personally. As life on our planet becomes increasingly complex, I’m more convinced than ever that our most important skills are self-soothing and grounding. There is a lot of distress and limited capacity to ease it. I’ve continued
Perhaps it’s the oxytocin making me gushy after so many hours Havening with clients recently, but I balled like a baby at the Wicked movie this week! Have you been? It was so lovely to see it with my daughter, we had the theatre to ourselves as we gasped and sobbed. This
It’s funny isn’t it that when we start to think about, or focus on a particular thing, it seems to pop up everywhere. There’s science to this phenomenon that I’ll leave for another day, but it’s happened to me this last few weeks. I’ve been spending a of time on Substack recently.
Many of you know I work with a lot of people recovering from harm done in religious spaces. From high control groups to cults and rebuilding identity, it’s a big topic. I’ve spoken in many places about my own story too. I’m not anti-God, anti-church or anti-religion however these are
I was reminded recently of a beautiful piece of writing by one of my favourite poets, Padraig O’Tuama. The lovely, soft Irishman whose voice could bring calm into any breathless situation. You can listen to him here. The piece is from his book, Finding a Home in the World.Read these gorgeous words in the light of
If you subscribe to my Freedom from Religious Trauma email, it’s now on Substack! If you’re on that list it will just appear in your inbox monthy-ish as usual – but if you’d like to subscribe, you can do that here. With every subscription there’s a code to download my eBook, The Sentimental Non-Believer, for
We so often believe and are taught that anger is unhealthy and needs to be managed and suppressed. But anger is human and is good information. If we’re not used to feeling it, we can mistake it for rage and think we’re going too far when really we’re testing out what it could feel like to express what we need and speak up when we’ve been hurt.
I’ve become a beauty chaser since leaving organised religion.
I’ve realised it’s where I feel God/god/the ground of all being/the energy of every living thing.
It makes me feel held.
Part of something bigger than me.
A sunset can hold my gratitude and joy, the ocean the waves of my pain, the grass beneath my feet makes me feel grounded.
Beautiful music, gorgeous fresh produce, flowers and colour all make feel centred, rested, peaceful.
They make me smile.
Like all trauma, religious trauma lives in our bodies. And like all trauma, we need bodily ways to process it. When you graze your knee, your body knows how to heal. When you’ve experienced trauma, your body knows how to heal. But for anyone who has spent time in spaces
© Jane Kennedy Counselling 2025