Wise Jezebel: Dr. Laura Anderson On When Religion Hurts

A Little Bit Culty

Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames

True Crime, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2024

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode is sponsored by Better Help.

Today we welcome Wise Jezebel and former fundie Dr. Laura Anderson to the ALBC huddle. She’s a psychotherapist, podcaster, and smarty-pants content creator specializing in helping people come back from the sneaky scars of high control religion. She’s also the author of the next book you need to read. Seriously. We cannot recommend it enough and it’s called: When Religion Hurts You: Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High Control Religion. Dr. Anderson is here with us to talk about her story, the ways and means of culty church trauma, and the non-linearity of the healing process. In case you need another reminder that toxic churches, some mainstream American religious communities, and even your culty as fuck personal development organization can be traumatizing: This episode is for you. Let the unpacking commence.

NOTES:
Dr. Laura Anderson, PhD, LMFT is a therapist and trauma resolution and recovery coach in private practice specializing in complex and developmental trauma and the dynamics of power and control of culty religions. She’s a writer and educator who specializes in religious trauma. She’s founder and director of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery, an online coaching service for folks recovering from adverse religious experiences and cults. And she co-founded the Religious Trauma Institute, a training institute focused on helping the helpers in their trauma-informed healing work. You can listen to her on her own podcasts The Wise Jezebels and Sunday School Dropouts. She lives with her dog, Phoebe, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Find her online

on her own website,
on her own podcasts The Wise Jezebels and Sunday School Dropouts,
on and social media:

@drlauraeanderson: Instagram (also TikTok & FB),

@traumaresolutionandrecovery (IG & Facebook)

@religioustraumainstitute (IG & Facebook)

@wisejezebelspod (IG)

@sundayschooldropoutspod (IG)

Hashtags: #religioustrauma #whenreligionhurtsyou

Though our pod spans the culty religious fallout gamut, this one pairs well with the June two-parter Shiny Happy Wife: Tia Levings on Christian Fundamentalism (Tia Levings is co-host of The Wise Jezebels) and Leaving the Fold: Dr. Marlene Winell on Religious Trauma Syndrome. See also: Our episode about Attachment Theory with the deep and amazing Alexandra Stein.

Also…Let it be known far and wide, loud and clear that…

The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical, or mental health advice. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast and are not intended to malign any religion group club organization business
0:13.8	individual anyone or anything. I'm Sarah Edmondson and I'm Anthony air quotes nippy aims and this is a little bit
0:30.9	guilty a podcast about what happens when things that seem like a great thing at first go bad.
0:36.0	Every week we chat with survivors, experts, and whistleblowers for real cult stories told directly by the people who live through them.
0:43.0	Because we want you to learn a few things we've had to learn the hard way.
0:46.0	Like if you think you're too smart to get sucked into something culty,
0:50.0	you're already prime recruitment material. You might even already be in a cold.
0:54.0	Oops, you better keep listening to find out.
0:57.0	Welcome to season six of a little bit colty.
1:00.0	Seeking down to the depths of the ocean
1:05.0	hanging on to win my love.
1:09.0	I'm going to go with my love. I'll let go of it all that could leave but I don't know. Hello everybody and welcome back to this week's episode of a little bit culty.
1:21.1	What up, peeps?
1:22.1	Today we welcome former religious fundamentalist turned brilliant Jezebel, Dr. Laura Anderson.
1:28.3	She's a psychotherapist specializing in the sneaky many-headed hydra of high-control religion and wrote a book that came out
1:34.6	recently that we cannot recommend more loudly and heartily.
1:39.2	That book is called When Religion Hurts You, Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High Control Religion. when religion
1:44.8	It's a powerful read about the reality that culti church shit or even secular culti
1:49.5	shit that is churchi or dogmatic in its own way can injure people in multiple ways and
1:54.2	dimensions and it doesn't always need to rise to the level of what you would
1:57.4	traditionally be considered abuse to be an adverse experience that can really
2:00.4	mess with you. Dr. Anderson also writes about the simple but profound truth that healing isn't linear
	...

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