You learned to be afraid of getting it wrong
Questions, emotions, your body, or ordinary parts of being human may have been treated as dangerous or morally suspect.
Faith, spirituality & religious trauma
Faith may be part of what holds you together. It may also be where some of the hurt began.
Some people want faith in the room. Some don’t. Some aren’t sure what they believe anymore, or they’re trying to separate their beliefs from what was done to them in the name of those beliefs. We can talk about any of that here.
Why I care about this work
I’m a former minister and a seminary dropout.
Before I became a therapist, I spent years in ministry. This is personal for me, not simply a clinical interest.
I know something about taking apart what you were taught, deciding what still belongs to you, and trying to build something honest afterward. I have also supported clergy and faith leaders who need a place where they can stop being the person with the answers for a while.
I won’t assume that my story is yours. But I won’t be startled by the complexity of it, either.
If faith still matters
If faith matters to you, it doesn’t have to stay outside the therapy room.
If prayer, scripture, spiritual practice, or a faith community helps you make sense of your life, we can talk about it.
I won’t assume what you believe or bring faith into a conversation where it doesn’t belong. I also won’t use it to explain away pain. I work with people whose faith is important to them.
When religion has become part of the pain
Questioning your faith can affect much more than what you believe.
Religious trauma doesn’t always come from one dramatic event. It can build over years of fear, shame, control, rejection, or being taught not to trust your own questions.
Stepping back may mean losing more than a belief system
A faith community can hold family, friendship, identity, routine, and a sense of home. Even a necessary departure can bring real grief.
You’re trying to trust your own voice again
When authority was used to control, silence, or exclude you, it can become difficult to know what you believe, what you want, or whom to trust.
You don’t have to decide what role faith will have in your life yet
I won’t rush you toward returning, leaving, forgiving, or deciding what you believe.
Faith and LGBTQ+ identity
Your identity is not the problem I’m trying to solve.
For some LGBTQ+ people, faith and identity have been made to feel incompatible.
You may be dealing with rejection from family or a faith community, or grieving a spiritual home that no longer feels safe. I won’t treat your sexuality or gender as something to correct. We can talk honestly about what happened and what belonging might look like now.
For clergy and faith leaders
Leadership can leave very few places where you can speak freely.
When you are the person others rely on, it can be hard to find somewhere to talk about burnout, conflict, doubt, loneliness, or the pressure your role puts on your family.
This is therapy, not pastoral counseling or spiritual direction.
I’m not here to decide what you should believe or speak for your tradition. We can pay attention to faith and spiritual practice without turning therapy into a theological argument.
Starting individual therapy
You can bring faith into therapy. You can also tell me you don’t want it involved.
We’ll begin with what is happening in your life now. I’m not coming in with an answer about what you should believe.