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 | If you’ve ever heard someone insist they’re “spiritual, not religious” while living inside a rigid belief system, this Digest is for you. I’m looking at how high-control groups rework language, why that matters, and how different types of religious spaces influence our spirituality and connection to others.
The Religious Harm Recovery Digest | In this issue, you’ll get a clearer picture of what emotionally immature religious parents can look like, including six common “types” and the nuances between them. I also walk through how these dynamics may have impacted you as a child, and the ways they can keep showing up in your relationship with your parent now that you’re an adult.
The Religious Harm Recovery Digest | This newsletter explores how the concept of “spiritual warfare” can actually serve as a form of psychological abuse, reinterpreting everyday emotions and experiences as spiritual threats. It also looks at how this type of manipulation impacts your sense of reality, your emotional world, and your personal agency.
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.
The Religious Harm Recovery Digest | High-control religions often go beyond controlling your behavior to actually severing your connection to your own Self. Without that inner reference point, reclaiming personal agency won’t really be accessible. In this Digest, I walk through how this disconnect happens, why it looks different depending on your body or cultural context, and what it takes to start sensing your wants and needs again.
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.