Religion can significantly influence a person's life. Some individuals find fulfillment, support, and healing through their religious beliefs and community. For others, (nearly 1-in-3 Americans) religion involves harmful experiences that lead to trauma.

When this happens, it can deeply affect your sense of self and mental and physical health, leaving you feeling lost and disconnected. Healing often involves gaining a better understanding of spiritual trauma and its impact. It also includes finding support to help you process your experiences, reclaim your identity, and explore the spiritual beliefs you want to keep.

While it can impact many areas of your life and relationships, healing from religious trauma and finding meaning again is possible.

What is Religious Trauma?

Religious trauma refers to the psychological and emotional distress that arises from negative religious experiences. This often leads to long-term effects such as anxiety, depression, and identity crises. It encompasses the emotional fallout from harmful religious environments, teachings, or practices. This may involve feelings of shame, guilt, and worthlessness as well as struggles with personal beliefs and spirituality. It can occur in connection with any religion (e.g., Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.), new age movement, or cult.

Examples of Religious Trauma

• Feeling intense guilt and fear from teachings about eternal punishment.
• Experiencing anxiety and depression after leaving a high-control religious group.
• Struggling with self-worth due to messages about sin, unworthiness, or gender inequality.

What is Religious Abuse?

Religious trauma and abuse are sometimes used interchangeably, but these are two distinct terms. Religious abuse refers to specific actions or behaviors within a religious setting or context that harm, control, or manipulate individuals. It involves the misuse of authority or power to control, coerce, or exploit others. This can include emotional and psychological manipulation, physical and sexual abuse, and financial exploitation.

Types of Religious Abuse

• Control: Using religious teachings or authority to dictate or manipulate an individual's behaviors.
• Emotional and Psychological Manipulation: Instilling fear, guilt, or shame to enforce compliance.
• Spiritual Exploitation: Using spiritual beliefs for personal gain or to take advantage of others.
• Physical and Sexual Abuse: Physical or sexual harm or exploitation by a religious leader or by an individual using religious beliefs to justify their actions.
• Financial Exploitation: Coercing individuals into giving money or resources.

Signs of Religious Trauma 

Understanding the signs of religious trauma can help you identify harm, know when to get help, and validate your experiences.

Emotional Distress

• Persistent feelings of guilt or shame related to religious teachings or experiences
• Fear triggered by religious themes, symbols, or discussions

Identity and Self-Worth Issues

• Struggling with self-esteem and self-worth due to messages of sinfulness or unworthiness
• Experiencing confusion or crisis regarding personal beliefs and identity

Mental Health Concerns

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as flashbacks, nightmares, or hypervigilance

Spiritual Distress

• Difficulty in trusting or connecting with spirituality or religious beliefs
• Feeling spiritually lost, abandoned, or disconnected
• Internal conflict when trying to reconcile personal values with religious doctrines

Social and Relational Issues

• Isolation from friends, family, or community due to religious differences or leaving a religious group
• Strained or broken relationships because of religious conflicts

Behavioral Changes

• Avoidance of certain settings, discussions, or anything associated with previous religious experiences
• Using substances or self-harm to cope with past experiences or current discomfort

Physical Symptoms

• Headaches, stomach aches, or chronic pain with no physical explanation
• Fatigue or sleep disturbances

Loss of Purpose and Meaning

• Struggling to find meaning or purpose in life after leaving a religious community or belief system
• Feeling hopeless or empty
• A belief that “none of this matters”

Intrusive Thoughts and Doubts

• Persistent, unwanted thoughts related to religious teachings or fears of divine punishment
• Constant questioning of previously held beliefs and their validity

Causes of Religious Trauma

Since trauma involves an individual’s response to negative experiences, there can be many situations that lead to religious trauma. Below you'll find common causes, but this is not meant to be an exhaustive list.

Authoritarian and High-Control Religious Environments

Religious environments that expect obedience to rigid teachings can cause significant trauma. These settings often exert control over many aspects of members' lives, including their personal decisions, financial matters, and relationships. They discourage members from questioning authority.

Spiritual Abuse by Religious Leaders

Trauma can result when religious leaders manipulate, exploit, or coerce their followers. Religious abuse can take many forms, including physical, emotional, or sexual harm. It’s often disguised as religious discipline or spiritual guidance, leaving victims feeling betrayed and violated. This can look like a pastor sexually abusing a member, or the leaders of the church not informing authorities when they discover child abuse within the congregation. It might involve a parent using religious texts to justify verbally or physically abusing their child. It can also look like a leader suggesting that when something bad happens, such as one or multiple people being harmed, it’s a result of an individual’s or group’s sin.

Fear-Based Teachings

Religious teachings that focus heavily on hell, damnation, and divine punishment use fear to control behavior and enforce compliance. Such teachings often employ fear and guilt to suppress dissent and ensure obedience, creating a pervasive atmosphere of anxiety and fear.

Shame and Guilt

Constant messaging that emphasizes human sinfulness and unworthiness can lead to deep-seated feelings of shame and guilt. Individuals are often shamed for natural human behaviors, thoughts, or feelings, which can severely impact their self-esteem and mental health. Disgust, one of the seven universal human emotions, is the feeling that something is offensive, poisonous, or contaminating—this emotion can be weaponized to teach the avoidance of certain groups of people and can be a driving force in dehumanizing and degrading others.

Exclusion and Ostracism

Individuals who question, fail to comply with, or leave their faith may face threats or actual exclusion or banishment from their religious community. This can lead to isolation and the loss of support networks, making it difficult to rebuild a sense of community and belonging.

Conditional Love and Acceptance

In some religious communities, love and acceptance are conditional upon adherence to religious rules and beliefs. When individuals don't follow these norms, they may experience withdrawal of support and affection, leading to feelings of rejection and abandonment. This phenomenon can become manifest in the context of religious charity and mission work, in which vulnerable people adopt certain religious beliefs and behaviors in order to receive aid.

Exposure to Violent or Disturbing Imagery

Graphic depictions of hell, punishment, brutal suffering, or apocalyptic events can be used to instill fear and enforce compliance. These images, combined with religious rituals or practices, can have a lasting negative impact on individuals' mental health.

Pressure to Conform

Religious environments that push members to follow norms can suppress individuality and personal expression. This pressure can include forced participation in religious activities, monitoring how members are dressed, or dictating relationships between genders.

Negative Experiences with Religious Teachings on Sexuality

Teachings that stigmatize or condemn natural sexual feelings, orientations, or gender identities can cause significant trauma. This often results in shame and guilt associated with sexual behavior, even within marriage or consensual relationships, leading to sexual repression and dysfunction.

Religious Indoctrination from a Young Age

Instilling children with fear-based or authoritarian teachings can have long-term negative effects. Such environments often lack exposure to diverse perspectives and critical thinking, leaving individuals unprepared to navigate the complexities of the world outside their religious upbringing and possibly fearing others from different religious and cultural backgrounds.

Inconsistency and Hypocrisy within the Religious Community

Witnessing or experiencing hypocrisy, corruption, or abuse within a religious institution can be profoundly disillusioning. When there is a discrepancy between professed beliefs and the actual behavior of religious leaders or members, individuals may feel betrayed or let down.

Family Pressure and Dysfunction

Familial pressure to adhere to religious beliefs and practices can create conflict and emotional distress. Dysfunctional family dynamics are often exacerbated by rigid religious doctrines or expectations. For example, parents may use religious beliefs or texts to justify the mistreatment of their children, causing deep emotional harm.

6 Tips for Healing From Religious Trauma

1. Acknowledge the Trauma

Explore and identify the aspects of your religious upbringing or experiences that harmed you and allow yourself space to feel the emotions that come up. Many people struggle with admitting the extent of their trauma due to lingering guilt, confusion, or fear of judgment, but this acknowledgment is crucial for healing. Some religious doctrines over-emphasize self-sacrifice, sinfulness, and the need for constant repentance, which can undermine your self-esteem and lead to a fragmented sense of identity. Examine how these experiences have impacted your perspective on yourself, others, and the world.

Reflective Practices

• Journaling: Writing about your experiences and emotions can help clarify your thoughts and validate your feelings.
• Mindfulness Meditation: Practicing mindfulness can help you stay present in your body and acknowledge your thoughts and feelings without judgment.

2. Seek Professional Support

Working with a therapist who specializes in religious trauma can provide invaluable support. Insight-oriented therapeutic approaches such as psychodynamic psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Somatic Experiencing (SE) can help address the deep-seated issues related to religious trauma.

Finding the Right Therapist

• Look for therapists with experience in religious trauma or spiritual abuse.
• Ensure they respect your boundaries and belief system, whatever it may be now.

3. Reconnect with Your Inner Self

Rebuilding your sense of self involves reconnecting deeply with your own personal values, beliefs, and desires independent of the religious framework that caused the trauma. This process can be both liberating and terrifying as you explore who you are outside of the religious identity you once held. Understand that spiritual maturation is part of healthy human development and that many people go through periods of angst and inner turmoil as one becomes aware of inconsistencies and conflicts in one's belief system—necessitating a struggle to resolve these issues and discover a greater appreciation and openness for the complexities of faith.

Techniques for Self-Exploration

• Values Clarification: Identify what truly matters to you by listing your core values and comparing them to the values imposed by your religious upbringing. You may still identify with certain parts of those beliefs, but not others. There isn't a right or wrong answer when it comes to identifying what's important to you.
• Creative Expression: Engage in activities like art, music, or writing to express yourself and your emotions.
• Exposure to Other Religious, Spiritual, and Philosophical Ideas: Open yourself up to reading about, learning, and directly experiencing various perspectives outside of your own upbringing. Most religions have millions (or hundreds of millions) of followers, which means that there are vastly different perspectives and beliefs even within the same religion—it is not uncommon that two people with the same label can be much more different than two people with different labels. Being exposed to new beliefs and ideas may help as you seek to discover your own spiritual and/or philosophical worldview.

4. Establish Boundaries

Setting and maintaining healthy boundaries with religious institutions, family members, or communities that contributed to your trauma is essential. Boundaries help protect your mental health and allow you to establish a safe space for healing and self-discovery.

Practical Tips for Setting Boundaries

• Communicate your needs clearly and assertively.
• Limit or avoid contact with individuals or groups that trigger negative emotions and do not honor your boundaries.
• Prioritize caring for your health and activities that reinforce your sense of self.

5. Build a Supportive Community

Isolation can worsen feelings of loneliness and disconnection. Seek out people who respect and validate your experiences. This might include support groups for religious trauma survivors, friends, relatives, or religious/spiritual/secular groups that align with your current values and beliefs. The word “religion” comes from Latin religare, meaning “to bind together.” All humans need connection and support in some form or another.

6. Develop New Practices

For many, reclaiming identity involves redefining their beliefs. This might mean exploring aspects of your religion that you still identify with or different traditions and worldviews. The goal is to find a belief system that promotes your flourishing, validating and supporting you rather than destroying you.

If you’re dealing with the effects of spiritual trauma, know that you're not alone. People from all walks of life with different beliefs have endured religious trauma. Healing is possible and there is support available to help you on that journey.

Ready to Start Healing From Religious Trauma? 

Meet Dr. David Zacharias, a religious trauma therapist based in the greater Seattle area. With over 20 years of experience in healthcare and a lifelong spiritual seeker, Dr. Zacharias brings robust expertise and compassion to his work with survivors. If you’re seeking holistic treatment to begin healing from religious trauma, please reach out for a free consultation.

Written by Existential Psychiatry Staff

Sources

• Slade, Darren M., et al. "Percentage of U.S. Adults Suffering From Religious Trauma: A Sociological Study." Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry 5, 2023. Accessed July 29, 2024.