You're listening to the Allender Center podcast with Dr. Dan Allender. This week, Dan and I, Rachel Clinton, conclude our conversation about spiritual abuse by talking about the long, painful journey toward healing. After being controlled and harmed by others in such profound ways, what does it look like to name our experience,

to allow ourselves to be cared for, and to rediscover the goodness of God in our relationships?

Well, we've come to a point, Rachel and I, dealing with spiritual abuse, that we do want to make a bit of a shift, but again, want to say, as we address what's called for us to engage in order for there to be growing freedom, we do not want anyone to hear.

This is a matter of a few steps.

Doing a few things in a short period of time will create all the goodness that you want.

There's a sense in which this harm is so deep.

It lingers and will have to be addressed again and again and again.

It's kind of like having, I don't really know the deep data about this,

but somehow like the germs within us, we always have a cold,

but somehow when something happens, we begin to feel the symptoms.

Spiritual abuse is going to linger for a long, long season, but when certain

triggers seem to happen, when there are words or persons or events that begin to occur,

this is trauma.

And like any trauma, it's going to have to be addressed progressively in the body, in the midst

of your story, but with a larger perspective of eternity.

But with all that said, where would you begin as to what needs to be addressed in order

for change to occur.

I'm just thinking in some ways, like, I just, this is a realm where I have to believe in the providence of God to provide windows and doors and cracks and fractures and things into these systems, whether it's a system

that's covering individuals or a relationship and a bondage to an individual who's perpetrating

spiritual abuse. But it's like that disruption that starts to let you know, I'm not crazy maybe I'm actually in an

insane world and because the reality is if it's possible I think like one of the first

steps has to be a movement out.

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