The Religious Trauma Collective

The team at The Religious Trauma Collective acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we work on, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples whose Elders and forebears have been custodians of lands, waters and seas. We are grateful for their stewardship of culture and country and pay our respects to all Indigenous people who engage with our work across the land now called Australia.

Māori Acknowledgement

We acknowledge Māori as tangata whenua of Aotearoa New Zealand and the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi including the right to tino rangatiratanga (self-determination).

We have heard the stories and name the harm done to Indigenous people in the name of religion through colonisation.

Statement of Inclusion & Diversity

The team at The Religious Trauma Collective is all about embracing diversity!

That means celebrating and affirming every LGBTQIA+ identity and showing love and respect for everyone's abilities, cultures, faiths, and bodies. Everyone's unique journey is valued and welcomed with open arms.

Queer joy is powerful. 🏳️&zwj;🌈🏳️&zwj;⚧️

🧡 It’s not just happiness
🧡 It’s reclamation.
🧡 It’s saying: I exist, I matter, and I get to thrive.

For many of us, joy once felt dangerous, out of reach, or conditional. We were tol

In environments where everything felt heavy, humour was often dismissed as irreverent or dangerous. But for many survivors, laughter has become one of the most healing practices in recovery.

Humour doesn’t erase what happened, it creates space

One of the loveliest parts of leaving high-control religion is giving yourself permission to feel good without guilt, shame, or fear of punishment.

For so many of us, pleasure was framed as dangerous, selfish, or even sinful. We were taught to supp

Music has always been special to me, it feels like the language of my soul and as a former worship leader it was intertwined with my church life. 🎶

One of the hardest things about leaving high-control religion is how music lingers.

It once felt ho

High-control religion often leaves little room for play. Everything is framed as serious, eternal, weighty. Laughter was fine - but only in “appropriate” doses.

Spontaneity? Risky. Goofiness? Immature. Playfulness? Distracting from the

“Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age” by Katherine May

🌟🌟🌟🌟

While not specific to religious trauma, perhaps that’s a good thing. Sometimes when we’ve been caught up in reading everything we can get out hands

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