Religious Trauma and Its Destructive Path
At Aloft Healing Studios, we don’t get too many clients seeking therapy specifically for their religious and spiritual history. The road towards seeking therapy for most people is complicated, but mostly, people find themselves stuck and confused and want some clarity and help to feel better and move forward with their lives.
After a session or two, we start to peel back the layers and get curious about where beliefs about ourselves and the world came from. And for a lot of us, our early experiences in religious institutions and the religious affiliations of our primary caregivers deeply shape us. Religious trauma is trauma stemming from participating in an authoritarian or controlling belief system. Two negative beliefs tend to emerge from this experience: I am bad, and I am not safe. Then, when we try to shed these beliefs and move forward with our lives, we might be ostracized and isolated from our communities and our caregivers, experience shame, and separation from our own sense of identity.
When our early experiences of morality and the world are shaped by lessons that we are inherently bad and need to seek outside help for absolution and forgiveness, it can easily lead to feeling powerless and ashamed. To deepen the effects of the morality lesson, our belief system is hard to challenge because our beliefs are stored within brain substructures associated with emotions, our sense of self, and our default mode. So, when we experience other forms of childhood trauma and abuse, an authoritarian religious background compounds and strengthens beliefs like “I’m a bad person,” “I’m weak,” and “the world is full of bad people.”
Challenging our beliefs is hard work, but it’s possible. When we use our own brains’ adaptability and changeability to our advantage, we can begin to restore our sense of self and begin to reclaim our own right to a personal relationship with the divine/universe/God. To get started, start with a simple “I am” statement you would rather believe about yourself or the world and put it on repeat. Journal and create alternative symbols and images of the belief system you would like to hold. Give yourself permission to be uncomfortable, ask hard questions, and read about other belief systems outside of your experience.
EMDR therapy is also helpful in beginning to heal religious trauma through our model of care to strengthen and deepen new adaptive and helpful beliefs. Aloft Healing Studios also has a new group dedicated to exploring this topic in depth and we would love to welcome you.
I hope you remember today that you are loved and worthy of belonging.
Peace to you on your journey,
Cassie