the blogArticles & Reflections
The Sexual Grooming Model: How Manipulation Unfolds, and How Understanding it can Help you Heal
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: Understanding, Recovering, and escaping the invisible cage
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.
From Defensiveness to Dialogue: Tools for Healthier Interactions
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.
Breaking the Scrupulosity Cycle: What Drives Religious OCD
Scrupulosity is religious OCD, where faith and fear collide. Learn how a faith-sensitive psychologist helps break the cycle of intrusive thoughts, compulsions, and guilt using evidence-based, compassionate therapy.
You Can Have Faith and Still See a Psychologist
Feeling anxious, low, or overwhelmed doesn’t mean you’ve lost faith. Discover how therapy and Christian belief can work together to support mental health, strengthen resilience, and help you reconnect with peace through faith-sensitive care.
Faith, Trust, and Control: Making Sense of Spiritual Abuse
Spiritual abuse occurs when faith or religious authority is misused to control, shame, or silence. Learn how a psychologist explains its signs, impact, and recovery pathways. If you’re in distress, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Spiritual Abuse Counselling: What Helps and What Doesn’t
Spiritual abuse counselling provides a safe space to heal from the misuse of faith, authority, and control. Learn how therapy can help survivors of spiritual abuse rebuild trust, process grief, and reclaim their voice—while avoiding common pitfalls that may repeat harmful dynamics.
Understanding Control in Relationships: Insights from Our Latest Research
Why do some people use control in relationships? Research led by psychologist Kylie Walls (2024) links controlling behaviours to insecure attachment, emotion dysregulation, and shame. This article explores how anxious and avoidant attachment styles contribute to unhealthy dynamics and how therapies like EFT, DBT, and shame resilience work can foster emotional safety, healthier communication, and healing in couples. Includes Christian psychology support.