Childhood Trauma

• Has having children been triggering sad/hurtful/difficult memories of your own childhood? 

• Does your negative self-talk sound a lot like important caregivers you had as a child? 

• Are people around you telling you that you need to "talk to a therapist about that"? 

• Are you finding it difficult to have the type of relationship with your parent(s) that you would like?

If you answered  "yes" to these questions, you likely have some childhood trauma that is currently negatively impacting your present functioning. By examining familial expectations and processing these traumatic memories, you will find freedom from the impact of these experiences. 

Religious Trauma

• Did a religious leader molest or sexually assault you and that changed your perception of religion? 

• Maybe the actions of the people in your religious group didn't match the God you were being taught about, which has you questioning if you want to be associated with that religion.

• Was religion used more like a weapon than a way of instructing or guiding?

• Maybe shame or guilt was used to control behavior as a child and you struggle with shame as an adult. (This is going to sound like a lot of "should" statements, i.e.  "I should help them."  "I should be productive." "I shouldn't feel this.")

Unfortunately, religious trauma is fairly common.  Childhood religious trauma can have long-lasting impact. Often, the family is unaware of the hurt experienced within a religious community. Since it is hard to make wise choices from a place of hurt, processing and healing from these experiences will allow you to better assess the role you want religion to play in your life today.