Finding Freedom: Healing from Religious Trauma and Sexual Shame with Natasha Helfer

Well, I think the first thing is finding an appropriate therapist. You know, you don't want to, you don't necessarily want somebody who knows nothing about these topics. You don't necessarily want a religious therapist who's going to make you feel badly about leaving the faith, which I've heard some horror stories on. You don't necessarily want a secular therapist either if they're not going to be, like, taking your dilemma seriously, right? So finding the right therapist is really important. Advocating for yourself in that journey is important because again, if you're coming from a high demand religion, you are used to external authority telling you what to do. You've got a religious leader, you've got God, you've got your parents. You might look to this therapist now to be your new authority, and we're really wanting to stretch that internal authority muscle. So even as a therapist myself, a lot of times I'm like, 'Oh yeah, I just gave that great idea.' And then I'm like, 'Maybe they accepted it too readily.' Wow, that is such a good point. You know, am I becoming the new authority in their lives, which I don't want to be. You know, I want to help them be their own authority.