Healing Religious Harm
Introducing a practice of support, care, and integration
Hello, beloveds. Thank you for being here and for engaging the work that is happening on healing, learning, and growing together.
Over the last year, I expanded my work on religious harm by stepping into a practitioner role as a trauma recovery coach, working specifically with people healing from religious and spiritual harm. I am excited to share with this community that I recently started my own practice, called Idlewild Wellness. This is work that is close to my heart as someone who has both experienced harm within the context of religion and spent years researching, writing, and processing this work within a range of communities.
Religious and spiritual harm is what happens when beliefs (and belief systems) are used as a way to manipulate, control, or otherwise hurt people. This can look like being taught to distrust your body, silence your questions, or stay in unsafe and harmful relationships. Sometimes this harm is intentionally committed by people in power. Sometimes it happens as a result of beliefs that are inherently harmful. In many cases, this harm compounds over time because the environment is unsafe for victims and survivors to disclose their experiences.
We know that the effects are far reaching. We know that religious and spiritual harm impacts our relationships, our sense of self, our ability to establish and maintain healthy boundaries, and our ability to feel present in our bodies and at home within ourselves.
What do we do with this knowledge? Where do we go from here? How do we heal?
Starting this Substack was one of the first steps I took to respond to these questions, and I am so grateful I did. Since launching the newsletter, I have received countless messages from readers about their own experiences with religious harm. I am so grateful for the brave, kind stories that everyone has shared with me. This has also affirmed for me that there is a need for this kind of healing work.
And from here, trauma recovery coaching became another response to these questions because it offers individual support, structure for making sense of harmful experiences, and practical tools for healing. When I first started to dream about and move toward working as a practitioner, it felt like I was stepping into work I was always meant to be doing. I began to realize that while writing and research can name harm, healing often happens in relationship, practice, and sustained support.
More about trauma recovery coaching
When I started asking myself what it would look like to build a space for working with people who carry pain from religious and spiritual harm, I knew it meant stepping outside my comfort zone in academic writing and research. I talked with friends and colleagues who work in the field of religious trauma, and every response I had encouraged me to keep pursuing the practice as a trauma recovery coach.
What exactly is trauma recovery coaching? Unlike therapy, trauma recovery coaching is not focused on diagnosing or revisiting the past in detail. Instead, we work gently and intentionally in the present to help clients rebuild self-trust, establish boundaries, and develop tools that support their healing.
My practice focuses on topics such as identity, boundaries, embodiment, relationships, self-trust, and recovery after religious harm. Ultimately, trauma recovery coaching is a supportive, forward-oriented process that helps people build self-trust, boundaries, and practical tools for healing and integration. I have set up my practice to work with clients in an initial six-session container where I help facilitate healing from deep harm and building a foundation for embodying the life they envision on the other side. These sessions offer space to name harm, explore patterns, and develop new ways of relating with some clear pacing and boundaries around the work you’ll do.
More about my coaching practice
When I started breathing life into this dream, the first thing I did was sign up for a certification program that would help me take my research on religious trauma into the realm of a practitioner. Over the last year, I’ve worked with many people who have helped me bring this vision to life, and I am so grateful for the supportive community I’ve had along the way. I have watched my work on healing religious harm grow into something bigger and more beautiful than I could have imagined even one year ago.
As I continue to step into this new practice, I am excited to see where it goes next and how it will expand into other spaces. I believe in this work because I have lived it myself. I know how pervasive harmful experiences can be for our bodies, our relationships, and our mental and emotional well-being. Healing our inner world is some of the most challenging and worthwhile work we can do for ourselves.
My hope is that in building and sharing this space I can offer a container for people seeking this kind of support as they step into their own healing journey. If you’ve ever felt disoriented, disconnected from yourself, or unsure how to rebuild trust after religious or spiritual harm, this work is for you. If you’re curious or simply wondering about what else this kind of work includes, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Consultation: 20 minute (free) consult call
Website: Idlewild Wellness
Email: victoria@idlewildwellness.com
Inquiries: Contact Page