Building Language

intentional terms to reflect experience and healing

  • Religious trauma is the physical, emotional, or psychological response to religious beliefs, practices, or structures that overwhelm an individual’s ability to cope and return to a sense of safety.

  • An ARE is any experience of a religious belief, practice, or structure that undermines an individual’s sense of safety or autonomy and/or negatively impacts their physical, social, emotional, relational, or psychological well-being.

  • Spiritual Abuse is the conscious or unconscious use of power to direct, control, or manipulate another person. This power dynamic is informed by a spiritual or religious role within the shared community or a belief identifying who has authority within the relationship.

  • Deconversion is the process of releasing and no longer claiming one's previously held religious beliefs or identities.

  • Deconstruction is the process of evaluating and altering one’s previously held beliefs, lifestyle, relationship, or worldview.

  • Reclamation is the process of claiming or reasserting a right to the personal expression of one’s humanity.