Janice SelbieIn my private practice, I work with clients recovering from #ReligiousTrauma and #ReligiousTraumaSyndrome. Regardless of flavor ( #exchristian, #exmuslim, #exjew, #exhindu, #exmormon ), the big recovery issues focus on #grief & #loss of identity, community, & worldview. Additionally, there are often significant gaps in knowledge & experience with sex, science, & secular/pop culture. It takes tremendous courage to examine foundational beliefs. If you're making the journey: WAY TO GROW!
Squinn@JaniceSelbie I facilitated a religious trauma support group for about 5 years. The #1 thing almost everyone struggled with was the loss of community. Do you have any ideas about how to handle that?
@squinn Yes, but many find it unpalatable when compared with the “one stop shop“ that was their religious experience. The only way to grow our communities is to actually reach out & participate. Our life now is more akin to a patchwork quilt, where we develop multiple communities rather than one central community. For example, I now have an atheist community; a birdwatching community; a writing community; etc. It takes time & effort, and care is required to avoid fundamentalist thinking.
@JaniceSelbie I like the quilt metaphor! I tend to think of my "home" as a spider web... just a lot of connections between people/communities, who may or may not be connected directly to each other.
ice.cream.assassin@squinn @JaniceSelbie Yeah I think a lot of people get it in their head that "community" means "some cohesive group I have joined", which causes people to think that they can't construct their own community.
I think some groups do that intentionally in order to assure an insular mindset among themselves, and that includes some religious groups. Hardcore evangelical Christians come to mind.