Sarah and Nippy are former NXIVM members who now help others make sense of cults. Elise and I joined them to talk about growing up in high-control faith, how belonging and certainty can turn into obedience, hell trauma, and slowly learning to trust yourself again.

Elise and I went back for a second conversation. This time we talked about how recovery from high-control religion shows up in your body, including dissociation and functional freeze, and how RTC has grown into a network across Australia and NZ.

Sarah’s podcast digs into cults and high-control groups. In “Coercive Control in Charismatic Evangelical Churches”, Elise and I talked about how control works in churches that look ordinary from the outside, evangelical politics, and whether Australia has its own push towards theocracy.

Aaron and Ben are former evangelical church leaders exploring faith, gender and sexuality. Elise and I talked about recovering from high-control religion, why “be better, not bitter” is terrible advice, why your nervous system keeps reacting long after you leave, and RTC’s new name.

I went on Queerfully Made to share my personal story of leaving high-control religion. We talked about coming out, being disowned by my faith community, and how those experiences shaped the therapeutic work I do now with queer people recovering from religion.

Jaime’s podcast gives survivors, allies and professionals space to talk honestly about abuse by people in power, including in churches. I shared my experience of faith, belonging and identity, and we talked about conditional acceptance and the impossible choices queer people are often pushed into.

Get A Life shares the stories of people who have left high-control groups. I joined Cheryl, Richard and other guests to talk about spiritual abuse, how cult dynamics work, and what spirituality can look like after you leave a rigid system, if you want any at all.

Maggie’s podcast is a home for people deconstructing their faith post-evangelicalism. I told my story of leaving high-control religion, what I lost along the way, and the slow work of rebuilding afterwards, including the practices that have helped me work out who I am now.

Spiritual Misfits makes room for people on the edges of Christian faith and all their questions and doubts. Will and I talked about RTC, religious trauma in Australia and New Zealand, deconstruction, therapy, and how to tell a healthy faith community from a harmful one.

Erica’s podcast is about self-care and compassion for highly sensitive people. As a fellow HSP, I shared my story of religious trauma and long-term recovery, including questioning what I’d been taught, rebuilding my identity, and learning to trust myself again.

Stephen’s podcast explores creativity, authenticity and spirituality. We talked about being queer and spiritual, what it costs to spend years hiding parts of yourself to fit in, and how self-compassion, boundaries and telling the truth about my story helped me move forward.

Bron hosts this Australian podcast about the realities of working in mental health, mostly for psychologists. We talked about religious trauma work, how clients’ beliefs and harm show up in therapy, supporting LGBTQIA+ clients, and the biases therapists can bring to this area.