An educational publication on specific topics related to religious harm recovery such as purity culture, religious trauma, and coercive control.
The Religious Harm Recovery Digest | Have you ever felt pressured to meet your partner’s needs at the expense of your own desires? If so, it’s worth pausing and asking where that pressure came from. This post unpacks the “never say no” script from purity culture, how it distorts consent and connection, and what it can look like to rebuild a sexual ethic rooted in choice instead of obligation.
The Religious Harm Recovery Digest | Many of us grew up in churches that functioned like a cult, even though the pastors didn’t fit the stereotypical “cult leader” mold. In this newsletter, I explore what happens when the cult leader role gets projected onto god, and how an internalized “voice of god” can keep people compliant long after they leave.
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The Religious Harm Recovery Digest | While Biblical discipline is often framed as loving correction, many adults are still living with its negative effects decades later. This RHR Digest explores how physical punishment, conditional connection, and religious teachings about obedience impacted the nervous system, attachment patterns, and sense of worth for children raised in high-control religions.
The Religious Harm Recovery Digest | Many people leave religion but continue living with fear, shame, or self-doubt. This RHR Digest explores how teachings about inherent badness create a wide spectrum of harm, from negative self-beliefs to fears of demons and hell, and why the nervous system remains impacted even after separating from those teachings.
The Religious Harm Recovery Digest | This RHR Digest explores how purity culture’s focus on modesty, bodies, and gender roles can mirror grooming dynamics. When children are taught that their bodies are dangerous or responsible for others’ behavior, it can disrupt consent, autonomy, and safety in ways that linger well into adulthood.
The Religious Harm Recovery Digest | After leaving a religious cult, you may start to realize the religious group was only part of the problem. Deeper harm likely existed inside the family system itself. This Digest looks at how religious cults recreate themselves inside the home, why those dynamics are so hard to identify, and how recognizing family cult patterns are a critical part of the recovery process.
Self-compassion often feels out of reach after high-control religion. This Digest explores how self-loathing becomes a nervous-system default, why kindness toward yourself can feel unsafe, and how recovery begins by reducing internal threat rather than forcing gentleness.
The Religious Harm Recovery Digest | If you were raised in a high-control religion, you may be carrying the moral injury of childhood indoctrination. This type of harm often includes lingering guilt and shame tied to what you were taught to believe, enforce, or participate in just to stay safe. This edition of The RHR Digest offers clarity around this wound and what supports healing.
The Religious Harm Recovery Digest | Inside religious cult, coercive tactics are often framed as love, protection, or spiritual guidance. This edition of The RHR Digest identifies 11 of the most common forms of manipulation so you can better understand your experience and take steps toward recovery.