Even after deconstructing harmful theology, many survivors still feel inherently “bad.” This post explores how the doctrine of original sin wires in shame—and how to begin healing from it.

High control religion often teaches that suffering is either your fault—or somehow makes you more holy. In this post, I share how those beliefs shaped my own story and how they show up in therapy with religious trauma survivors. If pain has ever felt like something you deserved, you're not alone—and you're not beyond healing.

For years, I was conditioned to believe that a man and a woman being alone together—regardless of the context—was inappropriate or dangerous. Even after leaving that world behind, I was surprised by how quickly that old conditioning crept in during a simple lunch with a colleague.

Sounds like the start of a joke, right? That’s what I thought when I wrote the title for this week’s blog post (i.e. “A priest, a rabbi, and a minister walk into a bar…”). For those of you that follow me on Instagram, you know that I recently was on vacation…