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Blog

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.

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Image of course cover.

New Look eCourse!

This introductory course is designed to broaden your understanding of religious trauma, spiritual abuse and painful experiences in high-demand church or faith settings.

What I Wish my Therapist knew about Religious Trauma includes downloadable resources, eBook “The Sentimental Non-Believer. On Loving & Leaving God” as well as the stories of others with lived experience.

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On Magical Thinking

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

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Therapy is Woefully Inadequate P2

In Part 1, on my last blog, I said, because we are collectivist people living in individualist societies, therapy is woefully inadequate and, it’s what we have right now. Another way in which therapy is woefully inadequate, is in the rigid way we tend to ‘do’ therapy. I’ve been following the work

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Therapy is Woefully Inadequate.

I’m still thinking through what it means for me having lost so much through leaving church, and I find the concept of domains helpful. We have the domains of family, work, contribution and service, our inner worlds and then belonging to groups like faith communities, sports clubs and other interests, like hobbies.

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Spiritual Bypassing

I remember as a teenager hearing a church youth leader say ‘no actually I don’t have a cold’ (snot congesting her nose and looking awful), I’m not accepting it in Jesus name.’ While this is tame in comparison to friends who were told to go back to abusive husbands and

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Religious Trauma Survey Image

Religious Trauma Survey

This is the survey I use with many of my new clients to help us both find language for their experience of religious trauma, or adverse religious experiences. You can download it here to see if it’s helpful for you. Reach out if you need to. Jane