Welcome to
Online Faith-sensitive Psychologist Supporting Mental Health, Trauma Recovery, and Emotional Wellbeing
Faith can be a source of deep comfort, identity, and hope.
For many, church and ministry communities offer belonging, purpose, and support. Yet we also know that life within faith communities, families, and relationships can sometimes feel complicated, overwhelming, or painful.
As a registered psychologist, I offer respectful, trauma-informed, and ethical support for those who hold faith as an important part of life — including individuals, ministry leaders, and those navigating changes, questions, or challenges connected to faith, relationships, or wellbeing.
How I work:
This is not a space that dismisses your faith, nor one that assumes or imposes a particular belief.
Instead, it is a place where your values, experiences, doubts, and hopes can be explored with care and thoughtful attention.
My approach is:
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Evidence-based
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Compassionate
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Trauma-informed
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Respectful of your beliefs, unique situation, questions, and story
Support Areas:
I work with adults experiencing:
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Stress, anxiety, and depression
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Burnout, including ministry, work, or caregiving fatigue
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Relationship and communication difficulties (including couples therapy)
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Domestic and family violence
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Complex emotional experiences linked to faith, identity, or belonging
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Distress associated with rigid or fear-based religious beliefs (including scrupulosity / Religious OCD)
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Confusing, painful, or harmful experiences in faith or ministry settings, including experiences of spiritual abuse, religious harm and clergy sexual abuse.
You do not need to have a defined “problem,” and you do not need to know how to explain your experience before you come.
You are welcome to begin from wherever you are.
A Space to Be Heard and Supported
Whether your experiences are connected to relationships, community, family, work, identity, or faith, therapy offers a place to gently explore what has felt heavy, confusing, or painful.
Here, there is space for all of that.
This is a space where:
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You don’t need to explain or justify your experiences
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Your story is met with respect, openness, and curiosity
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Your values and beliefs can be part of the conversation — if and when it feels right for you
Over time, I’ve seen how mental health challenges, faith-related stress or harm, ministry pressures, and complex or painful relationships can deeply impact a person’s sense of self, connection, and hope. These experiences are often tender and deeply personal. I approach each story with respect, thoughtfulness, and care—honouring your beliefs, experiences, and values—while providing ethical, trauma-informed, and evidence-based support.
Kylie Walls, Psychologist - Refuge Psychology
About Me
Hi, I’m Kylie Walls, a registered psychologist and the founder of Refuge Psychology.
My practice is shaped by professional experience, research, and a long-standing commitment to supporting people navigating complex emotional, relational, and faith-related experiences. I have worked with individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and faith traditions, and I have also held volunteer and professional roles within church and ministry contexts. These experiences have deepened my understanding of the unique dynamics that can arise when wellbeing, identity, and faith intersect — and the importance of care that is both sensitive and clinically grounded.
I have published research on control, attachment, and emotional regulation, and have previously worked as a Domestic and Family Violence Advisor within a faith-based organisation. I began my career as a teacher and later spent time working in photography, but my ongoing interest in people — their stories, relationships, and inner worlds — led me into psychological practice. I bring both professional and lived experience to my work in a way that is clinically grounded, respectful, and client-led.
Areas of Special Interest
I offer support to adults who may be:
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Managing general mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, stress, grief, or life transitions — whether or not these are connected to faith or ministry.
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Navigating confusing, painful, or high-pressure experiences in church or ministry environments, including those recovering from spiritual abuse, coercion, or high-control faith settings, including cults.
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Pastors, ministry leaders, and caregivers experiencing stress, burnout, role strain, or relational challenges within ministry or leadership roles.
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Experiencing domestic and family violence, coercive control, or destructive relationship patterns — whether in intimate partnerships, family, community, or faith-based contexts.
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Experiencing scrupulosity / Religious OCD or distress related to rigid or fear-based beliefs.
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Facing workplace challenges, including bullying, power imbalances, role strain, or organisational conflict, and the emotional toll these experiences can create.
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Couples seeking support around communication, connection, conflict patterns, recovery after relational harm, infidelity, or navigating values and expectations within relationships.
Inclusive and Client-Led Care
While I have a particular interest in supporting people from faith backgrounds, I welcome clients from all backgrounds. My focus is on providing compassionate, trauma-informed, and ethical psychological care that honours each person’s values, experiences, and goals for wellbeing.
This is a collaborative space, shaped by your needs and values.
Support for Relationship Challenges, Domestic and Family Violence, and Recovery from Harm
Psychological support for those navigating complex or painful relationship dynamics, including conflict, emotional harm, coercive control, or domestic and family violence. Support is also available for those seeking to understand and change patterns that have contributed to relational harm, rebuild trust, and foster growth. Therapy helps you rebuild safety, trust, and connection.
Support for Spiritual Abuse and Religious Trauma
Psychological support is available for those recovering from spiritual abuse, religious trauma, or harmful faith experiences. Leaving an environment where belief and belonging were tied to control, fear, or shame can feel confusing and isolating. Therapy offers a space to process, understand patterns of spiritual coercion, rebuild a sense of safety and trust, and reconnect with your own values, faith, and identity.
Wellbeing Support for Ministry Leaders Experiencing Burnout, Stress, or Compassion Fatigue
Psychological support is available for pastors, priests, chaplains, and ministry leaders navigating exhaustion, compassion fatigue, mental health challenges, or the emotional toll of leadership. The goal of support is to help you process the weight of your role, strengthen healthy boundaries, reconnect with purpose, and restore emotional and spiritual wellbeing in a confidential and supportive space.
Transition Support for those leaving or recovering from High-Control Religious Envionments and Cults
Psychological support is available for those leaving a high-control religious environment, cult, or spiritually abusive group can be disorienting and distressing. The goal of support is to make sense of your experience, set healthy boundaries, regain autonomy, and recover your voice and values in a supportive and respectful therapeutic space.
Psychological Support for Scrupulosity (Religious OCD)
Scrupulosity—sometimes called Religious OCD—involves obsessive fears about sin, morality, or disappointing God, and may include intrusive thoughts, compulsive religious behaviours, or constant confession-seeking. This service offers evidence-based psychological support for managing scrupulosity. This approach honours the role of faith while helping to ease fear-driven patterns, so that your spiritual life can feel more connected, meaningful, and free.
Support for Trauma Recovery and Healing After Abuse or Harm
This service offers compassionate, confidential psychological support for those recovering from trauma — whether related to childhood experiences, interpersonal violence, or harmful dynamics within families, relationships, workplaces, or faith settings. Support is available whether you are just beginning to process what happened or are further along in your healing journey, with a focus on safety and reclaiming your sense of self.
General Mental Health Support
People from all walks of life can experience periods of emotional strain, stress, or mental health challenges. This service offers confidential, professional psychological support for anyone navigating difficulties such as anxiety, depression, OCD, stress, panic, grief, or major life transitions. Support may also address relationship difficulties, role-related stress, or experiences of trauma.
Rebuilding Connection and Trust in Marriage and Relationships
Couples therapy offers a supportive space to address conflict, emotional distance, or betrayal and to strengthen understanding and connection. Whether you’re navigating long-standing tension or the aftermath of hurt, therapy can help foster new ways of relating. Relationships counselling may also explore how faith, values, or spiritual beliefs have shaped your relationship, and works towards repair, empathy, and lasting change.
With All Due Respect:
The Controlling Church
Published Research on Control in Relationships
In this episode, psychologist Kylie Walls joins Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen for a conversation about coercive control, faith, and the misuse of power in Christian communities.
Drawing from her clinical work, Kylie explores how spiritual language and leadership structures can sometimes be used to jusitfy or conceal patterns or control.
Co-authored by psychologist Kylie Walls and colleagues, this peer-reviewed study examines how insecure attachment, emotion dysregulation, and shame contribute to controlling behaviours in intimate partnerships.
This is a helpful resource for researchers, clinicians, and those working to understand relational coercion.
Welcome to the blog for Refuge Psychology—a space for thoughtful reflection, education, and support around spiritual trauma, religious abuse, and the complexities of faith and mental health. Here you'll find insights from psychology, clinical experience, and research to help make sense of what happens when spiritual spaces become unsafe—and how healing is possible.
"You can be devoted and still wounded. Healing doesn’t make you less faithful"
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"You don’t have to choose between your mental health and your faith. There’s room for both."
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"Faith and pain can coexist. So can questioning and courage."
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"You are not too sensitive, difficult or critical. You were shaped to notice what others learned to ignore."
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About Kylie Walls
Qualifications
Registered Psychologist - Psychology Board of Australia
Registered Teacher (Qld)
Education
Master of Psychological Practice, CSU.
Master of Guidance & Counselling, QUT.
Bachelor of Psychology, UNE
Bachelor of Ed/Bachelor of Music, UQ
Associations:
Australian Association of Psychologists (AAPi)
International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST)
Christian Counsellors Association of Australia (CCAA)
Additional Training
Individual Schema Therapy
Couples Schema Therapy
Gottman Couples Therapy
EMDR - Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy
Emotionally Focused Therapy
CBT, DBT & ERP
Published Research
Investigated coercive control, attachment styles, emotion regulation, and shame in intimate relationships.
Journal of Family Violence
Focus Areas / Special Interests
mental health challenges · Faith-based harm · Ministry Support · Domestic & family violence · Relationship therapy · Scrupulosity (Religious OCD) · Workplace stress & Burnout · Recovery from toxic relationships and systems
Fees, Rebates & Referral Information
Consultation Fees
Individual Consultation - $220/session
Concession/student Rates - $190/session
Couples Therapy - $250/session
A $30 surcharge applies to out-of-hours appointments (after 5:00 weekdays, and all weekend appointments)
With a Mental Health Treatment Plan, a rebate of $98.95 is available for up to 10 appointments per calendar year for individual appointments. This cannot be used for couples therapy appointments.
Private Health Fund rebates may be available at the discretion of your fund.
Referrals & Rebates
No, a referral is not required. You are able to book appointments without a GP referral. However, you will not be available for Medicare rebates unless you have a GP Referral with a Mental Health Treatment Plan.
Rebates for private health funds are available without a referral. Seek advice from your individual health fund before booking to confirm this.
Medicare Rebates: $98.95 with a Mental Health Treatment Plan.
Cancellation Policy
If you cancel your appointment after 8:00 AM the day before you appointment, or no-show, the following cancellation policy applies:
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Grace pass: As I understand life happens, each client receives one late-cancellation waiver per calendar year, regardless of whether the slot is re-filled.
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Any no-shows or late cancellations beyond the grace pass will incure a cancellation fee of $80.
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Medicare, private health funds, and most third-party payers do not rebate cancellation fees.
Book a session through the online portal today, or phone on:
1300 618 377
Take the next step toward healing and hope. Book your confidential online session with psychologist Kylie Walls and access compassionate, trauma-informed support wherever you are in Australia.
Our online booking portal allows you to book, review and cancel appointments from the comfort of your lounge chair.
Rebates are available with a Mental Health Treatment Plan