Tia Levings is the New York Times bestselling author of A Well-Trained Wife and her newest book, I Belong to Me. She survived a Christian patriarchy cult, escaped a near murder-suicide, was excommunicated for telling her own story, and spent 15 years in intensive trauma therapy doing the work to put herself back together. Now she's handing you the map to healing from religious trauma.

In this episode, Tia and I dig into the real mechanics of religious trauma recovery: why your body refuses to believe you're safe even when your brain knows it, what "aftermath" actually means (it's an agricultural word, and it will change how you see your own devastation), why grief work is not optional, and what agency has to do with the entire trajectory of your healing.

Key Takeaways:

What does it actually mean to "belong to yourself" after religious trauma has dismantled your sense of identity from the inside out?
Why trauma survivors often write, speak, and even think about themselves in the passive voice, and what that reveals about the agency that was quietly stolen from them
What the agricultural origin of the word "aftermath" tells us about why the most painful, raw season of your healing is also the most generative
Why anger and bitterness after religious trauma aren't signs that something is wrong with you, and what they're actually trying to show you
How complex PTSD can keep a survivor locked in survival mode for years, making life-altering decisions in a state of ongoing shock without ever realizing it

Get Tia’s books:

A Well Trained Wife

I Belong to Me

Follow Tia everywhere on social media! Her handle is @tialevingswriter

Get Today’s Free Resource:

📒 Take a free Emotional Abuse Assessment by going to emotionalabusequiz.com

I will also send you my weekly Hope Letters for Christian women in emotionally and spiritually abusive marriages.