Religious Deconstruction and Healing
A safe place to question, grieve, and rebuild
Work with someone who gets it.
Whether you’re healing from religious trauma, deconstructing long-held truths, or exploring your beliefs with a new curiosity, you don’t have to do it alone. We offer a safe place to explore and heal without a hidden agenda to convince you of any truth other than your own.
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Deconstruction is the process of exploring what you’ve always held as truth with new curiosity and openness. Contrary to popular belief, this does not always mean you are leaving your beliefs or community behind altogether. For some, this is the outcome, and for others, deconstruction leads to a healthier, more authentic alignment with their faith.
The process of examining the beliefs you were raised with can be scary, exciting, angering and freeing. It can also feel isolating and disorienting, especially if it costs you community or identity. Therapy can help you discover your individual values, sit in the uncertainty, and rediscover your purpose.
The goal is for you to feel safe enough to uncover your own truth, not to convince you to join or leave any one system. All values and beliefs are welcome here.
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Religious trauma is a unique kind of harm that’s often met with misunderstanding or handled with improper care. It can leave you feeling confused, ashamed, isolated, and disconnected from yourself and your beliefs.
Therapy helps you untangle the fear, guilt, and control shaped by trauma so you can rebuild your own sense of safety, worth, and belief. You deserve to recover in a place that’s big enough to hold all the anger, grief, and shame.
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Untangling sexual shame after growing up in purity culture is no easy task. The messaging that your body is inherently sinful and is not yours alone lives both in the mind and the nervous system.
Not believing these things anymore doesn’t mean your body has unlearned them yet. By having a safe space to heal both the body and the mind, you can find relief from the toxic shame, fear, and physical trauma symptoms of this abuse.
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High-control religious groups often hide in plain sight. They rarely look like the cults we see on tv and the coercion can be very subtle at first. The dark truth is that the control tactics and patterns of abuse are the same anytime spirituality is used for harm.
If you’re recovering from a community that used fear, shame, and power in the name of wanting what’s best for you, peeling back the layers of control can feel endless. You aren’t alone and you deserve to work with someone who specializes in healing from this unique kind of coercion.
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For most of us, understanding our trauma and mentally unlearning coercive programming seems like it should be the end of healing. I know it wasn’t my fault and I don’t believe those things anymore, but I still feel unsafe.
This is because religious trauma doesn't just live in your thoughts, it lives in your body. In fact, it’s often an intentional control tactic to flood your Nervous System with fear and confusion, conditioning your body for compliance.
Somatic therapy helps you gently release the tension, hypervigilance, and protective patterns that keep you feeling unsafe.
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Some people have very clear memories of specific traumatic events in church. If you can’t point to one moment or experience that is causing your pain, you aren’t alone and you can still find healing. For many, the entire experience in an abusive system creates a cloud of trauma that feels much harder to define.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) doesn’t just target specific memories, it targets the lies trauma makes us believe about ourselves. We start by identifying the core beliefs that are affecting your everyday life (It’s not safe to say no, I can’t trust myself, my body is sinful, etc.). We then use EMDR to weaken those thought patterns and replace them with supportive ones.
We'll move at your pace, with no pressure and no judgment, honoring both your story and your autonomy. EMDR isn't about forgetting what happened to you. It's about having the freedom to choose how it will and won’t show up in your daily life moving forward.
Meet our Spiritual Deconstruction & Healing Specialist
Nicole Nelson, LPC-MHSP, is a licensed therapist for people navigating crises of faith, religious deconstruction, and healing from spiritual trauma. Her sessions often include a blend of somatic therapy, EMDR, IFS (parts work), real talk, and dark humor. She works with clients in person in Nashville and on Telehealth across Tennessee.
The Process
Contact
Fill out our brief contact form or use our online scheduler to book your first meeting. You can start with a free phone consultation or dive in with a full session.
Consultation Call
This free 15-minute consult call is completely optional. If you hate talking on the phone and want to skip this step, you can! For those who would like to chat first, Nicole will ask for a brief overview (to your comfort level) of what you’re looking to work on and answer any questions you may have.
First Session
Whether you choose to meet in person or virtually, your first session often includes sharing more about where you are and what you’d like to work on. This is a time for both the client and therapist to feel out whether they’re a good match. You can also choose to prioritize getting support for a current or pressing issue during this session.
Healing
Together, you’ll explore which approaches work best for you and follow your unique plan for healing and change. Research shows the therapeutic relationship is the most important factor for growth, so discussions about what feels most supportive will continue throughout the entire process.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Healing House is not anti-religion, we are anti-harm. We don’t condemn any one belief system. We understand that just like religion can be used for abuse, it can also be a strong support for those who choose it autonomously.
Our goal is never to get you to leave or convert to a certain belief system, but instead to find your own authentic and aligned truth, whatever that looks like.
Our clients range from agnostic to deeply religious, and all are welcome.
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No. Healing House is a secular practice and we do not practice Christian Therapy. We welcome all (from agnostic to religious), and we’re here to help you engage with your spirituality in a healthy and authentic way.
Whether Christian or otherwise, it is unethical for any therapist to encroach their own spirituality on clients. We are passionate about providing a safe place for you to build a life around your own truth. There is never an agenda to convert you to any specific way of thinking.
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Exploring spiritual deconstruction or healing from religious trauma does not mean you’re required to leave your beliefs or community behind. For some, this feels like the only authentic way forward, but for many, the choice to remain in their faith community feels best. Many clients work on engaging in a more authentic and aligned way, not leaving altogether.
Naming harm or wanting to explore your beliefs does not mean you’ll be expected to cut people off or leave behind important parts of your identity. The goal of our work is for you to explore more deeply inward, not to force you toward an external ultimatum.
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Yes, we welcome all religions, beliefs, and spiritualities at Healing House. Whether you consider yourself religious, spiritual, agnostic, atheist, anti-organized religion, open, unknown, or any other identity, we consider this an important part of what makes you you.
There is never a hidden agenda to convince you of one specific belief or convert you to a certain religion. The goal is to help heal anything keeping you from freely engaging in your life with curiosity, self-trust, and authenticity, however that translates to your spirituality.
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Then you’re in the right place. There’s no need to have all the answers. Whether you’re just exploring for the first time, rebuilding after deconstruction, or wondering if what happened was abuse, we’ll meet you there.
We’ll never try to convince you or convert you to a specific religion. We’re here to support you in finding your own inner truth and healing any barriers to embodying it fully.
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Absolutely. Many LGBTQIA+ clients have experienced hate, judgment, and abandonment in the name of religion. It is an honor to create a safe space for you to heal from abuse, connect more deeply with your truth, and (if desired) learn how your spirituality can truly support your identity and sexuality.
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Nicole, our deconstruction and religious trauma specialist, charges $195 per 50-minute session. If cost is a barrier to getting support, you aren’t alone. Here are a few ways to mitigate the financial impact of healing:
1. Although we do not take insurance, many policies offer reimbursement up to 80% for out-of-network sessions. You can check your benefits and see your cost per session here: https://eligibility.thrizer.com/healing-house-nashville
2. Rates vary by clinician, so there's flexibility depending on your budget. If Nicole's rate isn't the right fit, our other therapists offer lower pricing. Everyone on our team has experience working with religious trauma, even if it’s not their main specialty.
Click to view rates in our therapist profiles.
3. Our therapists offer sliding scale sessions as they are able. We cannot guarantee this option will be available and it must be discussed before scheduling an appointment. Please mention this in our contact form if needed.
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We are centrally located in Nashville near the airport at 402 BNA Dr. Nashville, TN 37217.
You can choose to meet in person or online, as long as you live in the state of Tennessee.
You don’t have to wait until the pain is unbearable and you don’t have to know exactly what you need. Finding the right therapist is not an easy process, but if we don’t have what you’re looking for, we’ll help connect you with another practice that does. Use our easy online scheduling tool or contact us to book your free 15-minute phone consultation or your first full session.
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