Story Archives - Jane Kennedy Counselling

The State of Your Heart

This line, attributed to Persian Sufi poetry, gave me pause. How would you answer it? I love the impermanence of it, in this breath. It’s mindful and present. It suggests we don’t have to know the whole answer, just the thought for this moment.There is so much noise in the world right now. So much urgency and fear. The state of our heart seems like a trite or indulgent thing to attend to when there are “real” problems to be anxious about. For those who have been shaped by faith spaces that centred end times, Armageddon, or apocalyptic pressure, and I see so many in the counselling room, this can feel especially overwhelming.

26 June 2025

Dont F*ck The Flock!

I’ve been on a few podcasts over the past few years talking about the impact of religious trauma in the therapy room. The most recent conversation I had with Jaime Simpson was personal. It was about her story but also my experience of her story. The new podcast is called

9 June 2025

Easter & a New Spirituality

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

20 April 2025

Triggered.

Not a word I use lightly, triggered, is a state we’d rather not have to experience quite so regularly. Like landmines in a field we’re trying to cross to get to work or get through the day, triggers are sneaky. Despite being the smallest part of an explosive device, when

20 March 2025

Come With Me

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

4 December 2024

Healing for Complex Trauma

Complicated, complex or, like the pages of a book that stick together after being dropped in the bath, repeated exposure to anything too fast, too much or too soon, can result in trauma. And trauma, in essence, is finding it unbearable to be with our big emotions, our bodies don’t

6 November 2024

Trauma Healing for Religious Trauma

What even is Religious Trauma? ▫️Is it different to other trauma?▫️Why do you talk about it so much?▫️Can I heal from this type of trauma?▫️Do I have religious trauma? These are good questions I get regularly. Religious trauma, spiritual trauma, religious abuse, spiritual rupture are all terms that people may

6 November 2024

I’m on Substack!

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

14 August 2024

Religious Trauma & Perimenopause

Religious Trauma and Perimenopause are probably not terms you thought you’d see in the same sentence. For me, they happened at the same time. Fair to say there were days I was not fun to be around. I was overwhelmed, bone tired and highly reactive. I was gaslighting myself, trying to think my

29 July 2024

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