Healing from spiritual abuse and religious trauma is not a simple, linear journey. In this week’s episode of the Allender Center Podcast, Rachael Clinton Chen sits down with Dr. Hillary McBride—psychologist, researcher, and author of “Holy Hurt: Understanding Spiritual Trauma and the Process of Healing”—to explore the invisible wounds that trauma leaves on our minds, bodies, and spirits.

They talk about:

• How trauma can be reinforced by the very systems meant to guide and protect us.

• The profound importance of witnessing, connection, and radical welcoming in your recovery journey.

• Recovering parts of ourselves that were buried under burdens we were never meant to carry.

• What it means to grieve, to repair, and to show up for ourselves and our communities.

This conversation is an invitation to sit tenderly with your own story, to bear witness to your pain, and to glimpse the possibility of love, mercy, and goodness in the midst of it.

You can order your copy of “Holy Hurt” by Hillary L. McBride, PhD, here: https://hillarylmcbride.com/holy-hurt-book/