This week Jeremy welcomes back Emily Vander Velden to discuss social media and its impact on mental health. They explore the pros and cons of social media, noting how it can provide community support, especially for marginalized groups, but also amplify harmful content like body dysmorphia or misinformation. Both Jeremy and Emily reflect on the bal…

Betsy Nuismer - Relationships DIVORCED: Christian fundamentalism BETSY NUISMER - MA, LPC, Certified EFT Therapist, attained her Masters degree in 2014 and became a marriage therapy specialist. She and her husband, Scott, own a private practice called Hope Heals Counseling. They also run a nonprofit called West Michigan Marriage Center. Together, th…

This week Jeremy is joined by Bria Servoss of Archipelago Counseling. Bria shares her winding journey into the mental health field, which began with aspirations in music and hairdressing before transitioning into therapy. She discusses the intimate, therapeutic nature of hairdressing and her eventual decision to pursue social work during the pandem…

Lia Dugal - Calvary Chapel Survivor Divorced: Fundamentalist Christianity CW: Suicidality, abuse. My guest today is actress and entrepreneur Lia Dugal. Lia’s experiences with religious trauma occurred while she attended Calvary Chapel in the USA. In her continued efforts to help unwind the effects of trauma, she has created a short film called “I A…

The wonderfully authentic Emily Aleksy from ERA Wellness is back on the podcast for another episode. This go around, we talk about burnout. And it’s a great, meaningful topic that maybe doesn’t get talked about with the depth it requires, so we dive in. But, it’s an ADHD deep dive, so we also talk about placentas, the NFL, late stage capitalism, an…

Mick Larson - WWJD on Election Day Divorced: Christianity CW: Politics, reproductive rights Mick Larson is a documentary film producer and director. His work is focused on social justice, politics, religion & evolutionary psychology. Today we discuss three of Mick’s documentaries: What Would Jesus Do On Election Day?" The series is currently availa…

This week Jeremy is joined by Jeremy Zuleger from Radio Milwaukee. The Jeremys give you a sneak peek at the upcoming Music, Art & Mental Health event that is coming up on September 26th, and talk about the true collaboration that took place behind the scenes to make this event a reality. Zuleger shares some of his personal experiences with his own …

Andreya Jones, Ph.D., LCSW, CST - From MK to Sex Therapist Divorced: Fundamentalist Christianity CW: CSA, sexuality, and Purity Culture Andreya grew up in a conservative, evangelical community and was an MK in Papua New Guinea and Senegal, West Africa. Andreya has a doctorate in clinical sexology, is a licensed clinical social worker, and is an AAS…

This week Jeremy is joined by the owner of Empowerment Within, Patrice Flanagan-Morris. Patrice shares her journey into the mental health field, driven by her personal struggles with anxiety and depression. We discuss brain-spotting and the importance of meeting clients where they are in their healing process, especially when working with trauma. A…

Amie Myrick - Media & Self-care Divorced: Organized religion TW: References to sexual abuse by religious and institutional authorities Amie Myrick is a Maryland licensed clinical professional counselor. She graduated with her master’s degree in counseling from Johns Hopkins University. She is the owner of New Phase Counseling and Consulting, LLC, a…

Trisha Wilkerson - Religion & Diet Culture DIVORCED: Mars Hill Evangelicalism As a certified Health and Nutrition Coach and published author, Trisha is dedicated to assisting individuals in improving their connections with food, their bodies, and themselves. By fostering compassionate curiosity and advocating an anti-diet philosophy, she creates a …

Teddy Hose - Gun Worship in the Unification Church DIVORCED: Unification Church (the Moonies) Teddy Hose is an artist, writer, and public figure on the topic of cults, after growing up in the Unification Church, or “Moonies,” of the late Sun Myung Moon. He has appeared on Netflix’s Explained: Cults episode and How to Become a Cult Leader, as well a…

Jeremy is joined this week by Casey White from the Mom’s Mental Health Initiative (MMHI). MMHI is an organization dedicated to helping birthing persons navigate the many aspects of perinatal health and wellness. Jeremy and Casey discuss the challenges of perinatal mental health, emphasizing the lack of societal support and resources for new mothers…

Michelle Fischler, a trailblazer in the realm of sex therapy, is renowned for her innovative approach to fostering sexual wellness and education. As a Registered Social Worker/Psychotherapist and ASTO Certified Sex Therapist, she seamlessly blends her expertise with her role as a dynamic therapist, interviewer, and speaker. A highlight of her work …

Jeremy is joined this week by sex therapist Kendra Hamilton. Kendra shares her journey from working in a sex shop to becoming a certified sex therapist, building a practice and the pros and cons of social media for building a business. Kendra and Jeremy talk about the importance of self-pleasure practices and connecting with one's body to enhance s…

Korrenne Jensen - Intersection of ADHD and Religious Trauma Korrenne (Kory) Jensen is a Registered Psychotherapist in Ontario. Areas that she works in include religious trauma, ADHD, and grief. She also works with populations that include front of line healthcare workers, first responders, and indigenous individuals. Kory is the clinical director o…

Jeremy is joined this week by the delightfully authentic Tayler Clark. Tayler and Jeremy talk about how personal and professional boundaries help to show up genuinely for clients, how lived experiences as both neurodivergent and queer allows for more inclusive space in practice, and how helpful it is for clients to talk to someone who gets it. We a…

Tia Levings - A Well-Trained Wife Divorced: Christian fundamentalism CW: Brief reference to CSA My guest today is author Tia Levings, who describes herself as “an author exploring anti-fundamentalism after church-sanctioned domestic abuse in high-control religion.” Tia appeared in Shiny Happy People on Amazon Prime, and her memoir, A Well-Trained W…

Jeremy is joined this week by fellow Family Therapy Training Institute alum Katie O’Connor. Katie is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist. Registered Art Therapist, and Certified Perinatal Mental Health Clinician. We talk about her journey into those specialty areas and the importance of finding the right therapeutic approach for each individual.…

Britt Hartley - No Nonsense Spirituality Divorced: Mormonism My guest today is author, nihilism survivor, and atheist spiritual advisor Britt Hartley. Britt has over 287,000 followers on TikTok, and I think after our chat today that you will want to follow her, too! Britt is a former Mormon, current atheist, whose journey away from religion took he…

Throw up the horns as Jeremy interviews standup comedian Luke Severeid this week. Luke has been on the road with “Stand Up that’s Metal AF” cracking jokes about metalheads, the perils of being a bald white guy, and his ADHD diagnosis. Jeremy and Luke talk about neurodivergence, the mental health benefits of metal music, and the importance of findin…

Anke Richter - DECULT TW: References to CSA, sex trafficking, suicide My guest today is international journalist and author Anke Richter, who is based in Christchurch, New Zealand. In 2022, Harper-Collins published Anke’s important and bestselling book called CULT TRIP: Inside the World of Coercion and Control. According to Anke’s website: She spen…

Jeremy is joined this week by the incredibly insightful Dani Falesnik. Jeremy and Dani discuss the importance of understanding neurodivergence in educational and therapeutic settings, emphasizing that traditional systems often fail to accommodate these differences. They highlight the need for more individualized approaches that consider each person…

Wilbur Turner - Two-by-Two Survivor Today’s guest is Wilbur Turner (he/him), visionary founder and president of Advocacy Canada. He is located on the unceded ancestral lands of the Syilx people in Kelowna, BC, Canada. A well-regarded speaker and workshop facilitator, Wilbur utilizes personal stories and humour to engage, educate, and uplift audienc…

First nuclear engineer we’ve had on as a guest! This week Jeremy is joined by the incisive Cynane Shay! Cynane discusses her journey through a rigid, evangelical upbringing and how it shaped her worldview, and how QAnon led to a deconstruction of her beliefs. She explores the influence of Christian nationalism and the prevalence of conspiracy theor…

Announcement! The Shameless Sexuality Conference is back! The Conference centered around life after purity culture will be held in Seattle, WA from May 23 to the 25th, 2025 in Seattle, WA. Don't wait to get your tickets and book your room: https://www.shamelesssexuality.org/ Lyn Smith Gregory - Relative of Joseph Smith LYN SMITH GREGORY grew up in …

This week Jeremy is joined by clinical social worker and co-founder of the Reclamation Collective Kayla Felten. Kayla talks about her journey through deconstruction and starting the Collective, and She emphasizes the importance of non-clinical interventions and community care for individuals dealing with religious trauma and spiritual abuse. The Re…

Karrine Blouin - ExJW Girl In Shambles Divorced: Jehovah’s Witnesses TW: Sexual Abuse I discovered today’s guest, Karinne Blouin, on Instagram, where her handle is “girl_inshambles.” Her insights and personal snippets about her former life as a Jehovah’s Witness gripped me hard enough to invite her to share her story with us today. Karinne was born…

Jeremy is joined this week by journalist Chrissy Stroop to look at the manufactured moral panic targeting trans people. Jeremy and Chrissy discuss her personal experiences with religious trauma, the intertwining of evangelical Christianity with right-wing politics, and the predictable pattern of moral panics. Chrissy highlights the long-term strate…

Meg Applegate - Unsilenced CW: Kidnapping At the age of 15, Meg Applegate was abducted by two strangers in the middle of the night from her California home. Eight hours later she found herself at a lockdown treatment facility for 6 months in Boise, ID. After that, she was placed in an additional behavioral modification program in northern Montana f…

Jeremy is joined this week by therapist and end-of-life doula Kathleen Mack. Kathleen describes her lifelong curiosity about people's minds and experiences, stemming from her own mental health struggles and early fascination with human behavior. Kathleen shares how her father’s death influenced her and led her to pursue training as a death doula, w…

Rebekah Monroe - Religious Trauma Research My guest today is Rebekah J. Monroe, who identifies as a white queer woman with lineage in the Osage and Cherokee Tribes. Rebekah goes by the pronouns are She/Her/They. Currently, Rebekah is a Clinical Psychology doctoral student, co-founder of the non-profit NARC-RT (which stands for North American Resear…

Jeremy is joined this week by fellow licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and Sex Therapist, Caitlin Weber. Caitlin Weber discusses her journey into the mental health field and her path to becoming a systems-oriented therapist with a focus on sex therapy. Jeremy and Caitlin discuss the pervasive influence of religious norms on cultural attitudes to…

Lindsey Doolittle - Recovering from Religion & Suicide Loss TW: Today we will be discussing issues related to suicide Lindsey Doolittle was introduced to me as a documentary film maker who recently focussed her lens on Dr. Darrel Ray’s work at Recovering from Religion (see below for more information on this documentary). In speaking with Lindsey, I…

Jeremy is joined this week by the dynamic duo of Naoko Ellis & Derek Gladwin from the University of British Columbia where they founded the Systems Beings Lab, a collaborative research collective that tackles the complexity of modern issues. In this episode, Derek and Naoko discuss emerging collaborative spaces in academia to address the climate em…

Nikole Mitchell - From Pastor to Only Fans Model Divorced: Evangelical Christianity CW: Frank discussions about sexuality Today’s guest has previously appeared on the Dr. Phil Show, Jimmy Kimmel, ABC, CBS – and today she is a guest on the Divorcing Religion Podcast! I’m talking about Pleasure Coach NIKOLE MITCHELL. Raised in the Evangelical Christi…

Our first prescriber on the show! Jeremy is joined this week by Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Rachel Jones, owner of Cup of Tea Psychiatry. Jeremy and Rachel talk about her winding path through nursing school and into the psychiatric side of the field, how the for-profit medical model creates an unhealthy environment for both patient…

Linda Martin - Religious Exemptions are Killing Kids Divorced: Followers of Christ Cult CW: Child abuse and death due to faith-based exemptions Linda Martin was born into the Idaho Followers of Christ sect, leaving the church at age 16. It is estimated that the child mortality rate for the Followers of Christ between 2002 and 2011 was 10 times that…

Jeremy is joined this week by artist and mental health advocate Jenna Knapp. Jenna is an artist in residence with the labyrinth at the Lynden Sculpture Garden on the north side of Milwaukee. Jeremy and Jenna talk about her mental health journey prior to creating the labyrinth, how and why labyrinths can be so helpful to mental health, and the commu…

Clint Heacock - Is Christianity Killing Democracy? CW: USA politics & religion Subscribe to the audio-only version here: https://www.divorcing-religion.com/religious-trauma-podcast Follow Janice and the Conference on Religious Trauma on Social Media: Mastodon: JaniceSelbie@mas.to Threads: Wisecounsellor@threads.net Twitter: https://twitter.com/divo…

A blast from the past! Jeremy is joined this week by Rachel Beam, owner of Understand You, LLC. Jeremy and Rachel were in the same cohort at Marquette University way back in the day, and Rachel shares her journey in the field up to now opening her own practice. Jeremy and Rachel discuss some of their memories of what grad school did and did not pre…

Jeremy is joined this week by the fabulous Emily Vander Velden for a great chat. Emily talks about specializing in EMDR to work with trauma, how being a parent is a juggling act with being a therapist, and shares about getting her recent ADHD diagnosis. Jeremy and Emily talk about self-care, and how holding space for others is such a powerful exper…

Dr. Danielle Kramer - Taylor Swift and Deep Fake Porn Subscribe to the audio-only version here: https://www.divorcing-religion.com/religious-trauma-podcast Follow Janice and the Conference on Religious Trauma on Social Media: Mastodon: JaniceSelbie@mas.to Threads: Wisecounsellor@threads.net Twitter: https://twitter.com/divorcereligion Twitter: http…

Jeremy is joined this week by Alyssa Zajdel to jump into the world of sports psychology and performance. Jeremy and Alyssa talk about different sports requiring different mindsets, the difference in support that elite athletes can get from club or high school sports, and how it was not fun for student athletes or mental health professionals when CO…

Sandy Bigtree & Philip Arnold - The Religious Origins of White Supremacy Subscribe to the audio-only version here: https://www.divorcing-religion.com/religious-trauma-podcast Follow Janice and the Conference on Religious Trauma on Social Media: Mastodon: JaniceSelbie@mas.to Threads: Wisecounsellor@threads.net Twitter: https://twitter.com/divorcerel…

Jeremy is joined this week by the incredibly insightful Alita Taylor. Jeremy and Alita talk about the shortcomings of the medical model, the secondary trauma of working in a failing system, and Alita shares her expertise about Open Dialogue, a practical and philosophical approach to navigating mental health crises. We also chat about Finnish metal …

Hannah Abbasi - From Christian to Muslim to Secular Humanist, Part 2 Divorced: Islam In our last episode, we were introduced to Hannah Abbasi. Hannah grew up in a Christian home but converted to Islam in her teens due to family influences on her father’s side. In today’s episode, we learn more about what it was like for Hannah to live and study in …

Jeremy is joined this week by author, activist, and poet Mark Green to talk about his new book Round We Dance. Jeremy and Mark talk about the need for a book on how to do rituals, why ritual is so important to the human psyche, and how to approach ritual outside of an organized religious setting. It’s a wide-ranging chat that covers a lot, and the …

Hannah Abbasi - From Christian to Muslim to Secular Humanist, Part 1 Divorced: Christianity PART 1 – FROM CHRISTIAN TO MUSLIM My guest today is Hannah Abbasi, a transplant to New York City from Austin, Texas. As an adult, she has also lived in Qom, Beirut, and Cairo. At the University of Texas at Austin, Hannah studied Religious Studies, Middle Eas…

Jeremy is joined for a fascinating conversation by Kelsey Philippi from ERA Wellness. Kelsey shares her journey of becoming a therapist from a background in biology and research before eventually landing in the mental health field, how couples and families exist as their own ecosystems, and how nature helps us to ground, center, and heal. To learn …