Trigger warning. This podcast contains descriptions of various abusive situations. Listener discretion is advised.

You are listening to the Preacher Boys podcast, a podcast shedding light on decades of mental, physical, and sexual abuse within the independent fundamental Baptist movement.

The testimony shared on this podcast are told from the personal experience and perspective of the survivors.

Not all legal outcomes are known or final.

Any suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty in the court of law.

Now, here's your host, Eric Squarsinski.

Hey, everybody, today on the Preacher Boys podcast, I am joined by Dr. Laura Anderson.

She's a psychotherapist, an author, a religious trauma consultant, and she has written

the incredible book When Religion Harts You, which I have a link to in the show notes of this

episode. In today's conversation,

we're going to be talking about what she calls in her book, Adverse Religious Experiences.

In the beginning of the conversation, she identifies what trauma actually is, giving a working

definition for you to apply in your own conversations. And she also lists some adverse religious

experiences that she's noticed has

effect some of the clients that she's dealt with who have experienced religious trauma.

It's a really helpful conversation and I hope you'll really appreciate it. Here's my conversation

with Dr. Laura Anderson. Laura, thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited for this conversation. Yeah. You've been on my

radar for a minute now and I'm glad we're finally connecting it in an official way. Yes.

Not too long ago. But yeah, I wanted to bring you on to talk about a few topics. But the one I

wanted to talk to you about today was all of your research on adverse religious experiences. And I think for a lot of people

who've done a little bit of research on trauma, they probably are familiar with ACE, which is

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