We start to have doubts and questions but want to stay and try and change it as an insider. We feel broken when we realise this isn’t possible. So many of us limp away devastated and feeling very alone, shamed and told we’re the problem. With the right support we recover and rebuild.Â
I’m so grateful to have had that support in the end after many years of trying to figure it out by myself. Reach out if you need that support. It’s not an easy journey.
We cycle through phases of grief and healing when we’ve experienced religious and spiritual trauma.Easter brings us face-to-face with where we are in that cycle and if we’re paying attention, our bodies will tell us what we need next
You are good on this Friday.
You are not broken.
Your heart is good, your body is good. You are loveable.
I joked last week on my Instagram stories that I’ve long had a therapist crush* on Canadian Psychologist, Dr Hillary McBride, whose new book, Holy Hurt is coming out soon. Hillary was my inspiration for becoming a therapist. Back in the days when she co-hosted The Liturgist’s Podcast, I was working in
Reconnecting with and rebuilding our identity helps us move through regret.
It’s a corrective experience to become who we needed then, and settle into ourselves more fully.
And, reconditioning our thinking around identity is a huge part of recovery from religious trauma.
I love working with people in counselling as they unearth and rebuild.
Once upon a time in a warehouse-turned-church-auditorium not that far away, I was a teenage girl who believed in magic. The magic of a God who loved me, who was always there to give me victory over emotions or head colds and reveal his perfect will for my life. The
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.
Website designed by Kayla Robertson
© Jane Kennedy Counselling 2025
If you’re a therapist who wants to know where to start with Religious Trauma, my Intro Course will help.