Religious Trauma Syndrome

For this post, I went to the website of the woman who created the phrase Religious Trauma Syndrome, Marlene Winell PhD. On her website, Dr. Winell describes Religious Trauma Syndrome at:

Religious Trauma Syndrome is the condition experienced by people who are struggling with leaving an authoritarian, dogmatic religion and coping with the damage of indoctrination. They may be going through the shattering of a personally meaningful faith and/or breaking away from a controlling community and lifestyle.  RTS is a function of both the chronic abuses of harmful religion and the impact of severing one’s connection with one’s faith.  It can be compared to a combination of PTSD and Complex PTSD (C-PTSD).

I can explain nor discuss RTS better than she does;
here is the website.

 

But I can tell you a little bit more.
If you are a client looking for deconversion help or for help with what you think might be Religious Trauma Syndrome, make sure to look for a therapist who is a member of The Secular Therapy Project (STP). The STP, among other things, is a collection of therapists in your area who are announcing publicly that we are dedicated to providing a secular approach to all work with our clients.

And if you are a secular, atheist, humanist, agnostic therapist who can offer support to clients without any religiosity or spiritualism of any kind, please sign up with the STP! We're always looking for more allies to this group of people. Therapists are listed by region, city and state, for ease of locating a nearby therapist. I know of some states that have four or fewer secular therapists available! We need you!

One of the most serious problems with treating RTS is that there have been no large clinical studies for treatment efficacy. We are all doing our best, but this population has not had the benefit of the focus of real scientific study yet. We're all sincerely working on it as well and sincerely and as skillfully as we possibly can. But it will take time for the studies to catch up with the work.
Such is the nature of hidden trauma, hidden toxicity, and hidden abuse.

Out country has a particularly heinous habit of hiding behind religious piety, evangelical zeal, and holy secrets. With human beings paying the price of their abuse. 

Hope

But word is growing. Our community is growing. Organization and wisdom are growing. As our knowledge grows, so does our skill in helping hearts and lives who are suffering. I believe we are nearing the time when we can truly know the most effective and useful approach to this specific trauma.

* Also check out the Recovering from Religion Foundation (RfRF) for more information.