Therapy for Religious Trauma, Spiritual Abuse & Faith Deconstruction in Phoenix, Arizona
Whether you're in the middle of deconstruction, years out from a church that caused harm, or still trying to name what happened to you — you don't have to make your experience smaller to fit inside a therapy room here.
I work with adults and couples navigating the specific, layered wounds that religious environments can leave. This isn't generic trauma therapy with a faith overlay. It's specialized care built around what actually happens when a community that was supposed to be safe becomes the source of harm.
In-person in Phoenix, AZ · Telehealth across Arizona · Private pay
My Specializations
Religious Trauma & Spiritual Abuse
Religious trauma isn't always dramatic. Sometimes it's the slow accumulation of shame-based teaching, authoritarian leadership, or a community that conflated obedience with spiritual worth. If you've left a church — or are still inside one — and something feels deeply wrong, that's worth exploring. I specialize in helping people identify, name, and begin to heal from the specific harm that religious environments cause
Faith Deconstruction & Transitions
Deconstruction is often described as an intellectual process. In practice, it tends to feel more like grief — or disorientation, or fury, or all three at once. Losing a faith framework means losing a community, an identity, and sometimes a family. I work with people at every stage of that transition, from early questions to rebuilding a life that reflects who you actually are.
Purity Culture Recovery
Purity culture doesn't stay in the past. Its messages about bodies, sexuality, shame, and worth tend to show up in relationships, in how you experience your own body, and in the gap between who you were told to be and who you actually are. This is one of the most undertreated areas of religious harm, and one of the most important.
Other Ways I Can Help
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When worry, fear, or overwhelm begin to shape your days, anxiety can make even ordinary moments feel unsafe. Therapy offers a steady place to understand what your nervous system is holding, restore a sense of grounding, and build tools for feeling more present and secure.
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Depression can feel like emotional heaviness, numbness, or a quiet disconnection from yourself and the world around you. Together, we create space to explore what’s underneath the weight, gently reconnect with your inner life, and move toward relief at a pace that feels supportive.
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Trauma can linger in the body and nervous system long after the event has passed. PTSD and Complex PTSD often show up as hypervigilance, emotional shutdown, or feeling stuck in survival mode. Trauma-informed therapy helps restore safety, process what was overwhelming, and support healing that honors your experiences.
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Abusive or controlling relationships can leave deep emotional wounds, confusion, and self-doubt. Therapy provides a safe, validating space to name what happened, rebuild trust in yourself, and begin reclaiming your sense of agency, boundaries, and worth.
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Experiences of abuse in childhood can echo into adulthood, affecting safety, trust, and emotional regulation. Trauma-informed care honors the impact of these early wounds while supporting healing, resilience, and reconnection to your inner sense of safety and worth.
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Approach mental and emotional distress through a blend of psychology and Christian faith — always based on your comfort level and at your invitation.
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When early or relational wounds impact how you connect with others, relationships may feel unsafe, unstable, or emotionally intense. Attachment-focused therapy helps you understand your patterns, heal relational injuries, and move toward more secure, satisfying connections.
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Major changes — whether expected or unexpected — can unsettle your sense of identity and direction. Therapy offers support during seasons of transition, helping you process loss, uncertainty, and growth while staying connected to yourself through change.
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Chronic self-criticism or shame can shape how you see yourself and relate to others. Therapy creates space to explore where these beliefs began, challenge harmful narratives, and cultivate a more compassionate, grounded relationship with yourself.
How I Work
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
A research-supported trauma therapy that helps the brain process distressing memories so they lose their grip. Particularly effective for the kind of embedded, shame-layered wounds that religious trauma produces.
Somatic Awareness
Trauma lives in the body as much as the mind. I integrate somatic awareness throughout our work — helping you notice and work with what your body is already telling you, not just what you can articulate.
EFT & EFIT (Emotionally Focused Therapy / Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy)
Developed by Dr. Sue Johnson and rooted in decades of attachment research. EFT helps people understand the emotional patterns and relational cycles keeping them stuck — and begin to change them. I use EFIT with individuals and EFT with couples.
Working with Couples
Many couples arrive carrying relationship wounds that are inseparable from their religious history — beliefs about gender roles, sexual shame, diverging deconstruction timelines, or a faith community that shaped how they learned to fight, avoid, or connect.
I work with couples using Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT), which targets the underlying emotional patterns driving conflict and disconnection rather than just surface-level communication skills.
Couples sessions are 90 minutes.
Fees
Service
Rates
Individual therapy (60 min)
$175
Couples therapy (90 min)
$275
I am private pay and do not bill insurance directly. A superbill is available upon request for clients who wish to seek out-of-network reimbursement from their insurance provider.
FAQs
Do you take insurance?I don't bill insurance directly. I'm a private pay practice. If you have out-of-network benefits, I can provide a superbill each month that you can submit to your insurance company for potential reimbursement.
Do I have to identify as religious or Christian to work with you?No. Many of my clients no longer identify with any faith tradition at all. What matters is that the harm you experienced happened in a religious context — not where you stand now.
What if I'm not sure what happened to me counts as trauma?That uncertainty is one of the most common things people bring into a first session. You don't need to arrive with a diagnosis or a clear story. We figure that out together.
Ready to take the first step?
You don't have to have it figured out before you reach out.