Spiritual abuse in high-control religious environments often draws people in through love-bombing, trauma patterns, or authority dynamics. This article explores why people join, stay, or become complicit in spiritually abusive churches, using insights from psychology, coercive control, and betrayal trauma. Learn how power, obedience, and gaslighting keep people trapped—and how Christian psychology support can help survivors find healing, autonomy, and freedom.

A exploration of family estrangement, faith, trauma, religious trauma and boundaries — examining when distance becomes necessary and how healing can occur with compassion and discernment.

Scrupulosity, or religious OCD, traps Christians in cycles of intrusive thoughts, guilt, and compulsive rituals around faith. This article explains the signs of scrupulosity, its impact on prayer, worship, and spiritual life, and how treatments like CBT and ERP bring healing. With compassionate Christian psychology support, individuals can separate faith from fear, break the cycle of religious OCD, and rediscover peace, freedom, and authentic connection with God.

Religious trauma can develop within family systems shaped by control, silence, and spiritual authority. This article explores lived experiences of those who have experienced spiritual abuse, coercive control and domestic violence in religious families.

Creating emotionally safe faith communities begins with compassionate language and honest support. When churches listen, validate emotional pain, and walk alongside those who suffer, they reflect the heart of grace, mercy, and belonging.

Scrupulosity—religious OCD—can make faith feel like constant fear of disappointing God. Psychologist Kylie Walls explains that these struggles often stem from deeper attachment patterns shaped in childhood and reinforced by harmful spiritual environments. When leaders are controlling or shaming, the nervous system may learn to view God the same way. Healing is possible with supportive, evidence-based therapy.

Unresolved trauma is like cracks in the foundation—hidden but damaging over time. This article explores how past experiences, family dynamics, and institutional harm (including spiritual abuse and religious trauma) shape mental health today. Learn why therapy often revisits the past to repair these foundations and build resilience. Refuge Psychology, with Christian psychologist Kylie Walls, offers compassionate support for healing from abuse, trauma, and faith-related challenges.

Understand how grooming operates in adult, faith, and professional settings. A faith-sensitive psychologist explains the psychology of grooming across contexts, manipulation, power imbalance, and recovery after spiritual or relational betrayal.

Understanding adult clergy sexual exploitation requires insight into spiritual abuse and the psychological dynamics that make victims more vulnerable. This article explores how cognitive dissonance, schema chemistry, and reverence for spiritual leaders can cloud victims' perceptions, making abuse harder to recognize. Highlighting the importance of appropriate vulnerability in relationships and the misuse of pastoral authority, it addresses the spiritual harm victims experience.

Many pastors and ministry leaders quietly experience burnout. This article explores why clergy face unique pressures, how faith and exhaustion intertwine, and how psychological support can help restore balance, purpose, and spiritual wellbeing.

Adult clergy sexual exploitation is not an ‘affair’ but a betrayal of trust, power, and spiritual authority. This article explains the stages of grooming in clergy sexual abuse, highlighting patterns of coercive control, manipulation, and boundary violations. Learn how grooming erodes autonomy, the profound psychological and spiritual impact on survivors, and why survivor-centred, trauma-informed responses are essential for healing, justice, and safer faith communities.

Coercion can appear in relationships, workplaces, churches, and faith communities through emotional pressure, manipulation, withholding, and spiritual abuse. This article explains the meaning of coercion, coercive control, and subtle threats, showing how they erode autonomy, trust, and wellbeing. Learn how coercion impacts intimacy, family, leadership, and religious settings, and discover strategies to recognise coercive behaviour, break unhealthy patterns, and seek safe, trauma-informed support

A psychologist explores how power and coercion distort “consent” in clergy sexual abuse—and how faith-sensitive, trauma-informed therapy supports healing.

Explore how spiritual bypassing develops and how it affects emotional and relational wellbeing. A trauma-informed psychologist offers guidance on healing, integrating faith and feelings, and building emotionally healthy Christian and religious communities.

Adult clergy sexual abuse is not an affair—it is exploitation rooted in power imbalance, grooming, and spiritual abuse. In Emily’s story, we see how manipulation, secrecy, and distorted theology erode trust and cause lasting trauma. This article explains the signs of clergy abuse, the psychology of grooming, and pathways to healing. Christian psychology support is available through Refuge Psychology with registered psychologist Kylie Walls.

Many pastors and chaplains quietly carry emotional exhaustion and spiritual distress. A psychologist who understands ministry can help faith leaders process burnout, compassion fatigue, and trauma, and rediscover meaning and wellbeing in their calling.

Scapegoating occurs when blame or shame is unfairly placed on one person or group, often silencing those who raise concerns. In churches and faith communities, scapegoating can appear through shunning, silence, or distorted narratives. Psychological theories such as displacement, social identity, cognitive dissonance, and obedience to authority help explain why communities avoid confronting systemic issues. This article explores the impact of scapegoating in spiritual contexts.

Psychologist explains the five stages of sexual grooming and how manipulation unfolds in spiritual or authority contexts. Learn how understanding these patterns helps survivors rebuild trust, recognise coercive control, and begin healing from abuse.

Spiritual abuse and coercive control can leave deep psychological, emotional, and spiritual scars. This article explains how manipulation, misuse of scripture, and clergy exploitation erode autonomy and faith. Learn how spiritual abuse impacts identity, mental health, and relationships—and why independent, trauma-informed care and Christian psychology support are essential for recovery, resilience, and healing in faith contexts.

Defensiveness is a common response to criticism, but it can harm relationships, families, workplaces, and faith communities. This article explores types of defensiveness, psychoanalytic roots, and impacts on communication. Drawing on John Gottman’s research and Schema Therapy, it provides practical tools to move from defensiveness to dialogue, strengthen emotional safety, and build healthier connections at home, work, and in spiritual settings.