You grew up thinking church was a good place. Maybe you even have fond memories of going on retreats, meeting new friends, or vacation bible school over the summer. As you got older, you started to feel like maybe you didn’t agree with everything the church taught.

Maybe at some point church became unsafe for you. You were told you had done nothing to deserve all the blessings in your life, and all the bad things in your life were all your fault. You were taught “unconditional” love by memorizing its many conditions. Maybe you suffered from a power structure that had no accountability, or were taken advantage of because you were vulnerable. 

Now the group that once felt close doesn’t feel so welcoming. Maybe you’re dealing with more than doubt, maybe you’re dealing with fear of abandonment by friends or family. Maybe you’re dealing with the fear that the way you were taught to look at the world doesn’t seem accurate at all anymore, and now you aren’t sure how to make sense of your life. 

This process can be scary, but you don’t need to do it alone. Finding a safe space to ask questions, to deconstruct old ill-fitting beliefs, and to rebuild healthier, more congruent beliefs is what I offer in therapy.

I don’t claim to have all the answers, but going through the deconversion process myself, I know what it can feel like. I know the fear of being cast out, being judged, and losing friends and family. But like many of my clients, I also know about the joy of having a belief system that wasn’t just handed down to you, but that you cultivated and nurtured to fit who you really are. 

If you are having doubts about the faith you were raised with, or if those doubts have led to turning away from your church, I can help. I work with people who are actively deconstructing their old, harmful, dogmatic belief systems, and help those who are recovering from religious abuse and other adverse religious experiences.