Religious Trauma Therapy
Dr. Christine Henry is a licensed psychologist with over 20 years of clinical experience. She provides online religious trauma therapy for women who grew up in or became involved with conservative or high-control religious environments and are still dealing with the effects on their relationships, self-worth, and sense of identity. Her work focuses on religious trauma, controlling relationships, people-pleasing, and complicated family dynamics.
Available throughout Texas and PSYPACT states.
Why Religious Trauma Can Affect You Years After Your Beliefs Have Changed
You may have spent years questioning the religious beliefs you grew up with and figuring out what you believe now. But even when those beliefs no longer fit, the messages you learned about yourself and relationships can be harder to shake.
Maybe you were taught to be quiet, obedient, and put everyone else's needs first. Questioning religious teachings meant questioning God. You may have grown up fearing hell, being told to forgive people who hurt you, or worrying that speaking up could cost you relationships. You learned to keep the peace, avoid disappointing people, and put your own needs aside.
Those patterns can follow you into relationships and family dynamics. And even if your beliefs have changed, your family's may not have. You might still struggle with guilt, setting boundaries, or figuring out how to maintain relationships with people who don't accept your choices.
There's grief in this process, too. You might miss the community, traditions, or certainty you once had. You can recognize how much something hurt you and still miss parts of it.
Therapy can help you make sense of these experiences, trust yourself, work through what you've lost, and figure out what you want your life and relationships to look like now.
You may not be able to change what you were taught or how your family sees you, but you can change how much those expectations influence your life today.
Therapy can help you trust yourself, recognize your own needs, and build relationships where you don't have to keep putting yourself last.
Schedule a free 20-minute video consultation with me to see how I can help. Fill out a contact form, and I'll email you to set it up. (no phone call required)
How Religious Trauma May Still Be Showing Up in Your Life
Putting everyone else's needs before your own. You're used to reading the room, keeping everyone happy, and taking care of others. Figuring out what you actually want or need can be difficult.
Struggling with boundaries and trusting yourself. Saying no or disappointing someone can bring up guilt. After years of being told what was right or wrong, you may still second-guess your own decisions.
Working through emotional or sexual abuse in past relationships. You may have experienced controlling behavior, verbal abuse, or sexual pressure because you were taught that submitting to your partner was your responsibility.
Feeling shame around sex, your body, or your identity. Religious messages about purity, gender roles, or sexuality may still affect how you see yourself.
Navigating complicated family relationships. You may no longer share your family's religious or political beliefs. Maybe your family judges you for not marrying, having children, or being LGBTQ+. You still love them, but you're figuring out what kind of relationship feels right for you.
Grieving what you've lost. You might miss your religious community, family traditions, or relationships with people who no longer accept you. Sometimes you're grieving people who are still very much alive.
Feeling like you're too much or not good enough. Maybe you were criticized for being emotional, questioning authority, or having needs. For women discovering they're ADHD or autistic later in life, those experiences can take on a whole new meaning. Maybe your family pet was one of the few who accepted you as you were, offering comfort, stability, and a kind of unconditional love you didn't always feel from the people around you.
What Does Religious Trauma Therapy Look Like?
My approach is conversational, collaborative, and focused on helping you make sense of your experiences. I'm not here to tell you what to believe, whether to forgive someone, or what kind of relationship you should have with your family. You've probably had enough people telling you what you should do.
In therapy, we can work together to:
Understand the impact of religious teachings. Explore how messages about obedience, submission, punishment, and gender roles shaped how you see yourself and relate to others.
Process relationship trauma and abuse. Work through experiences of emotional abuse, sexual coercion, or controlling relationships and how those experiences still affect you.
Build trust in yourself and your boundaries. Understand people-pleasing patterns, become more comfortable making your own decisions, and recognize that having needs doesn't make you selfish.
Navigate family relationships and grief. Figure out what kind of contact feels right for you while processing the loss of relationships, community, traditions, or beliefs that once mattered to you.
Explore the connection with neurodivergence. If you're discovering you're ADHD or autistic later in life, explore how religious expectations and criticism of your natural traits may have affected your confidence and identity.
What is it like to sit with me?
I’m conversational, curious, and pretty straightforward. I’ll ask questions, share what I’m noticing, and help you explore how religious experiences may still be influencing your relationships, choices, and how you see yourself. I won't tell you what to believe or whether you should leave, return to, or reconsider your faith.
We can talk about painful or complicated experiences without every session feeling heavy. If dark humor, sarcasm, or the occasional tangent is part of how you make sense of things, I'm comfortable with that. You don't have to worry about offending me with your questions, anger, or doubts.
You don't need to know where to start or have everything figured out. Feel free to fidget, move around, adjust the lighting, or eat during sessions. Pets are welcome, too.
Ready To Get Started?
Schedule a free 20-minute video consultation with me. Fill out a contact form, and I'll email you to set it up. No phone call required.
Get comfortable in a cozy spot, wrap yourself in a warm blanket, cuddle up with a pet if you have one, and let's talk about what you're looking for in therapy and whether we'd be a good fit.
Schedule a Free Consultation
Religious trauma therapy available in Houston, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Texas, Indianapolis, Columbus, Ohio and several other cities, states. See therapy locations.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Yes. Even years after leaving religion, you may still struggle with guilt, people-pleasing, setting boundaries, or trusting your own judgment. Religious trauma therapy can help you understand how those old messages continue to affect your relationships and sense of self.
-
Religious trauma can show up as guilt, shame, anxiety, people-pleasing, difficulty setting boundaries, or struggling to trust your own judgment. You may also experience fear of punishment, complicated family relationships, or grief over losing your religious community or beliefs. These experiences can continue long after your beliefs have changed.
-
Yes. If you grew up being taught to obey authority, put others first, or avoid questioning people, you may have learned that keeping everyone happy was safer than expressing your own needs. Even after your beliefs change, saying no or disappointing someone can still bring up guilt or anxiety.
-
Yes. Religious teachings that emphasize obedience, submission, or a partner's authority can make it harder to recognize controlling or abusive behavior. You may have been taught that saying no was selfish, that sex was your responsibility, or that you needed to forgive someone who hurt you. These messages can make it difficult to recognize your own needs and boundaries, even years later.
-
You can love your family and still disagree with their religious or political beliefs. Sometimes that means setting boundaries around certain conversations, limiting what you share, or deciding how much contact feels right for you. You don't have to convince your family to see things your way, and you don't have to tolerate hurtful behavior just to keep the peace.
-
It can be painful when the people you love reject or judge you because of your sexual orientation or gender identity. You may feel torn between wanting a relationship with your family and wanting to be accepted for who you are. Therapy can help you work through the hurt, grief, and guilt while figuring out what boundaries or distance feel right for you.
-
Yes. When family members continue to criticize your beliefs, identity, or life choices, maintaining those relationships can become painful. Some people choose to limit contact or become estranged to protect their emotional well-being. Therapy can help you work through the guilt, grief, and complicated feelings that often come with these decisions.
-
If you grew up being taught that a woman's role was to become a wife and mother, choosing a different path can bring up guilt, shame, or pressure from your family. You may know you don't want children or marriage but still feel like you're disappointing everyone. Therapy can help you work through those expectations and feel more comfortable making choices that are right for you.
-
I was raised Catholic, but over time those beliefs stopped fitting for me. I now consider myself spiritual and connect with some of the philosophies found in Unitarian Universalism and Buddhism. My own experiences with questioning religion have shaped how I approach this work. I'm not here to encourage you to return to religion, change your beliefs, or forgive people who have hurt you. Whether you're religious, spiritual, agnostic, or atheist, our work will focus on your experiences and what matters to you.
Not Ready to Make An Appointment?
Starting therapy can feel like a big decision, especially if you've had experiences where your trust was broken or your needs weren't respected.
It's okay to take your time. You get to decide when you're ready, who you feel comfortable working with, and whether therapy feels like the right fit for you.
In the meantime, I've put together a collection of articles, podcasts, and online support groups about religious trauma and recovery. Whether you're trying to make sense of past experiences or understand how they're still affecting you today, you may find something helpful. Sometimes just hearing someone else describe an experience similar to yours can be a relief. You're not alone in what you've been through.
When Another Type of Support May Be More Helpful
Crisis intervention or a higher level of care, including significant or ongoing self-harm, frequent suicidal crises, or needing after hours crisis support.
Specialized support for leaving a cult or high-control religious group, particularly if you need safety planning, emergency resources, or assistance leaving a potentially dangerous situation.
Specialized treatment for religious OCD, particularly if you're looking for exposure and response prevention (ERP).
Crisis intervention or a higher level of care, including significant or ongoing self-harm, frequent suicidal crises, or needing after hours crisis support.
Faith-based counseling or spiritual direction focused on religious teachings, theology, or helping you determine what to believe.
Highly structured therapy with worksheets, step by step treatment protocols, or a set number of sessions.
If you're looking for any of these services or need a higher level of care, I encourage you to find a provider who specializes in those areas and can offer the support you're looking for.