Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Religious Trauma: Could It Help You?
Religious trauma can be difficult to recognize and process. For those emerging from strict or high-control religious backgrounds, experiences of guilt, shame, and confusion often linger, affecting mental health and self-perception. Religious trauma may be impacting you in more ways than you realize.
As the understanding of religious trauma and religious trauma therapy grows, therapeutic approaches like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) are being explored for their effectiveness in helping individuals heal and rebuild their lives.
What We Know About Religious Trauma
Research on religious trauma and effective treatments is still limited, but there is a growing focus within academia. For example, graduate-level research has highlighted the effects of purity culture—often characterized by restrictive beliefs about sexuality and morality—on mental health.
In her 2022 thesis, I Kissed Shaming Goodbye: Mental Health Implications of Christian Purity Culture, Stillman discusses the unique needs of individuals recovering from this culture. Participants in her research emphasized that they look for therapists who have a baseline understanding of religious trauma and are patient with the often lengthy process of deconstruction. They also expressed the importance of having a therapist who could support them in rebuilding their identity and help them identify and clarify their personal values.
Crayne’s 2024 thesis, Purity Culture and Traumatic Stress in Catholic Women, looks at the impact of purity culture on Catholic women and emphasizes the importance of therapists who can help clients trust their emotions and recognize their own needs.
These studies highlight the increasing recognition of religious trauma as a unique area in need of specialized therapeutic approaches and informed support.
How Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Can Help
ACT provides a unique approach to religious trauma therapy by focusing on acceptance, values, and mindful awareness. This approach helps individuals acknowledge their experiences and emotions without letting them define their entire identity.
For example, a person recovering from religious trauma might struggle with overwhelming guilt or fear tied to past beliefs. ACT encourages them to observe these emotions, accept them as part of their history, and understand that they do not have to control their present choices.
A key aspect of ACT is clarifying personal values. Often, religious trauma leaves people questioning their identity and beliefs. ACT helps clients identify what actually matters to them now, helping them shape their goals and decisions around their authentic values rather than those imposed by past systems. This reorientation can be incredibly freeing, providing a foundation for building a new identity based on personal choice.
The Path to Healing
Recovering from religious trauma is not a linear journey; it takes time and patience. ACT’s mindfulness techniques help individuals stay grounded, recognize old patterns of thought without judgment, and reconnect with their present lives. By addressing religious trauma through this compassionate lens, individuals can find stability, clarity, and a path forward.
If you’re dealing with religious trauma, I want to help. I am a therapist familiar with ACT and I have experience with the unique challenges of religious deconstruction. Connecting with me could be a powerful step toward healing and reclaiming your sense of self.
You can contact me for a one-time 90-minute consultation to help determine if my experience can help. Book a call today! I provide religious trauma therapy for individuals in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Virginia. Visit my page to learn more.
