Many people leave purity culture believing they've moved past its teachings—only to find that guilt, anxiety, or shame around sexuality still lingers. In this article, I explore why sexual shame often persists long after your beliefs have changed, how purity culture shapes the nervous system (not just your thoughts), and why healing begins with curiosity rather than self-judgment.

For many LGBTQ+ survivors of religious trauma, Pride Month can bring up grief, fear, shame, and complicated emotions alongside celebration. This post explores the lasting impact of high-control religion on identity, visibility, safety, and healing.

Purity culture doesn’t just shape heterosexual relationships—it profoundly impacts LGBTQ+ people in ways that are often confusing, isolating, and deeply internalized. This post explores how queer individuals raised in high-control religious environments experience identity confusion, shame, delayed development, and disconnection from desire and the body.

Many women raised in high-control religion were taught to suppress themselves in the name of “biblical womanhood.” This post explores how purity culture, submission teachings, and spiritualized self-sacrifice disconnect women from themselves — and what embodied healing can look like after religious trauma.

From promise rings to panic on first dates, these 7 signs capture what it can look like to grow up in purity culture.

Many survivors of religious trauma minimize what they went through. Here are three common ways this shows up—and why it makes healing harder.