Counseling With Dr. Marlene Winell For Religious Trauma Syndrome

[Brother Jeff]

My inner spook is so rapturously excited right now I almost accidentally bumped Kryasst's glorious Sky Head on the solid dome firmament in which the stars are fixed! Glory!

 

I started counseling this morning over Skype with Dr. Marlene Winell for Religious Trauma Syndrome (RTS). I'll be participating on her Journey Free forums, doing some one and one sessions over Skype, and helping out however I can with her site. I know I can offer some help in return for her services since I know WordPress pretty well and have some experience with Photoshop.

 

If you're not familiar with Religious Trauma Syndrome, check out Dr. Winell's articles on the main blog:

 

http://new.exchristian.net/2011/06/religious-trauma-syndrome-its-time-to.html

 

http://new.exchristian.net/2011/07/understanding-religious-trauma-syndrome.html

 

http://new.exchristian.net/2011/11/trauma-from-leaving-religion.html

 

And why it's hard to get help for RTS:

 

http://new.exchristian.net/2011/07/its-hard-to-get-help.html

 

I walked away from the fundamentalist Christian cult almost 12 years ago and it was an incredibly painful experience. Most of us here know all about that pain. I have never been able to move on from the damage done to me through the brainwashing, indoctrination, and emotional manipulation and abuse. Now I'm finally beginning to understand why! And I have a lot of hope that Dr. Winell and the members of her Journey Free group can help me finally move on and rebuild my life.

 

It's very interesting to me that the symptoms of RTS and bipolar disorder happen to have a lot of overlap. I'm wondering now how many of my mental health issues stem from RTS and what is coming from the bipolar disorder. I'm really looking forward to exploring that more.

 

Anyway, I can't wait to see how this all will work out!

 

Glory!

[joyless]

Good for you! I had a huge sense of relief when I found her on youtube last month. I emailede her and she got right back to me. I contemplated doing the skype group but can't really invest in the monthly cost of the group at this time of my life. In the past I would have prayed for the money, lol! Keep us posted about your experience with her group. Good luck!

[Guest Babylonian Dream]

It's been many years now, and I'm still recovering. While no longer having nightmares about how I'm going to hell, nor of people burning and me joining them, I still feel the loss. The so-called "god shaped hole" that is losing a loved one. You're taught to love god more than anyone or anything else, when you actually achieve this, then deconvert, the only thing you can compare it to is grieving over the loss of a loved one.

 

Sick thing is, you can never convince anyone that this is abuse. When clearly, it is.

[florduh]

Dr. Winell has a good rep. My Spook supports your Spook in this glorious effort!

[BrotherJosh]

Good luck, BrotherJeff! Glory! My inner spook rests easy knowing that your inner spook can finally seek solace!

[openpalm45]

I'm really excited for you! Please keep us updated!

[Noumena]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing this!

 

 

"First of all, society is resentful of the ways in which victims of trauma shatter our illusions of safety and often engages in victim blaming in order to maintain basic assumptions"~~~This really struck a chord with me. I felt my jaw clench and temple veins bulge as I read this.

 

 

"As an example of ‘loss of the assumptive world’, losing one’s religion is a special and potentially extreme case. A shattered belief system can be devastating and cause cognitive and affective problems, including an acute sense of betrayal. Many ex-believers have anger about the abuse of growing up in a world of lies. They feel robbed of a normal childhood, honest information, and opportunity to develop and thrive. They have bitterness for being taught they were worthless and in need of salvation, yet never able to be sure they were good enough to make it. They have anger about terrors of hell, the ‘rapture’, demons, apostasy, unforgivable sins, and the evil world. They resent not being able to ever feel good or safe. Many are angry that the same teachings are inflicted on more children continuously. They have rage because they dedicated their lives and gave up everything to serve God. They are angry about losing their families and their friends. They feel enormously betrayed."~~~~~Yep Yep Yep!

[Margee]

I am going to get in touch with her today and check this out. I think I need a little 'councelling' to finish once and for all with this fucking issue of christianity and how it has drastically hurt my life.

[Margee]

I am going to get in touch with her today and check this out. I think I need a little 'councelling' to finish once and for all with this fucking issue of christianity and how it has drastically hurt my life.

P.S. I just wrote her and I am excited. I need to get this 'monkey' off my back once and for all!

[lilcoppertop]

It's been many years now, and I'm still recovering. While no longer having nightmares about how I'm going to hell, nor of people burning and me joining them, I still feel the loss. The so-called "god shaped hole" that is losing a loved one. You're taught to love god more than anyone or anything else, when you actually achieve this, then deconvert, the only thing you can compare it to is grieving over the loss of a loved one.

 

I have to completely agree. For me it's only been in the last year that I left, but I've felt that grief. I loved him and tried to make my life revolve around him and his will for me. And now he's gone. I think I've gotten over that grief, but it was kinda hard for a while. Now I'm left trying to figure out how to fill that hole or work around it...and how to straighten the parts of me that were re-moulded to fit around that "god-shaped hole".

[Brother Jeff]

I offer my sincere apologies in the Spook of Kryasst for not replying sooner. I'm on vacation for a month in Texas and was busy getting ready for the trip, among other things.

 

BUT... so far I have not had a counseling session with Dr. Winell. I have been helping her with site maintenance issues though and I have participated in one conference call over Skype. The call over Skype didn't go well because of technical difficulties, so I went looking for something better and the Lard magically caused me to find Big Marker. Dr. Winell likes it and I'm hoping it will work out well for us.

 

I'm hoping to start counseling sessions after I get back to Alaska in mid-January. She charges way more than I can afford for one-on-one counseling, but she is willing to trade her time for my web skills to some extent, which I am very appreciative of. Makes my inner spook jump for joy! Glory!

 

Glory!

[Brother Jeff]

I am going to get in touch with her today and check this out. I think I need a little 'councelling' to finish once and for all with this fucking issue of christianity and how it has drastically hurt my life.

 

Bless the LARD, Sister Margee! I am beseeching the Magic Sky Man in your behalf, asking that He would magically cause your glorious contact with Dr. Winell to go well and be a blessed experience!

 

Have you heard back from her yet?

 

Glory!

[Brother Jeff]

I've been in contact with Marlene and hopefully we will discuss the issue of the major existential crisis after I get back to Alaska in January. A lot of things bother me, but that's one of the Big Ones. Granted, there were times when the Talking Snake had me doubting that the Lard really had slaved my inner spook, but that aside I will probably never enjoy the certainty about my beliefs that I did back in my fundie days. I still struggle with black and white "thinking" and a strong need to be RIGHT. And most of that anyway comes from years of religious fundamentalism.

 

I don't really know what I believe. I have spiritual interests and really like and agree with a lot of Eastern religious thought, but I'm not ready to embrace another "ism". I'm pretty sure there is something -- some reality beyond the physical world. I base that primarily on the many experiences that me and members of my family have had that are not easily explained away as having natural causes. But I think the reality is that nobody KNOWS the answer to the Big Question of whether there is some sort of existence after death, or reincarnation, or anything else. There is no certainty and that is hard for me to live with.

[Birdwatcher]

I'm pretty sure there is something -- some reality beyond the physical world. I base that primarily on the many experiences that me and members of my family have had that are not easily explained away as having natural causes. But I think the reality is that nobody KNOWS the answer to the Big Question of whether there is some sort of existence after death, or reincarnation, or anything else. There is no certainty and that is hard for me to live with.

 

Brother Jeff, if it's not too personal to you, could you describe the experiences you and members of your family have had that aren't explainable as having natural causes?

 

P.S. Your profile picture shouting GLORY always cracks me up.

[ConureDelSol]

Does she have a support group on Skype? I don't know why, but I find that sharing my experiences with multiple people works better than being one on one. I know I probably can't afford it right now, but it would be nice to know.

 

Edit: Oops, found my answer on the website. Now I feel a little stupid. IGNORE ME!!

[dichotomy]

great stuff, really hope it work out for you!

[Brother Jeff]

I'm pretty sure there is something -- some reality beyond the physical world. I base that primarily on the many experiences that me and members of my family have had that are not easily explained away as having natural causes. But I think the reality is that nobody KNOWS the answer to the Big Question of whether there is some sort of existence after death, or reincarnation, or anything else. There is no certainty and that is hard for me to live with.

 

Brother Jeff, if it's not too personal to you, could you describe the experiences you and members of your family have had that aren't explainable as having natural causes?

 

P.S. Your profile picture shouting GLORY always cracks me up.

 

Yeah, sure. I'm happy to share them. Here are two experiences I can think of right now:

 

It wasn't terribly long ago that my uncle, who is a farmer, received a call on his non-working cell phone (which he had sitting in his truck) informing him that the hay he had fed his horses was bad and that he needed to go take care of that immediately. As soon as the message was delivered, the phone ceased functioning again. My uncle checked the hay and verified that it was bad. The identity of the caller was and still is unknown. My uncle and I were close when I was a kid and he told me back then about a dream he had that something was going wrong with his irrigation equipment in the middle of the night. In his dream he saw the problem and when he woke up he felt compelled to go check things out. Sure enough the equipment was malfunctioning just as he had seen in his dream and he was able to fix the problem then instead of getting an unpleasant surprise the next morning.

 

Years ago my mother received a phone call from a high school friend not realizing at the time that he had recently died. The timing of the phone call places it after his death.

 

From my own experiences, I can tell you that the office building my mother owned when we were younger (childhood and teenage years) was haunted. Something just wasn't "right" with that building. My sister and I both hated working there at night because weird shit went on. I personally remember working back in my office and hearing conversations and papers shuffling in the big front office of my mother's travel agency. But, when I went to investigate, nobody was there. There was more than one time that the phones would start ringing and wouldn't stop until I answered the line, but nobody was there. That may not sound spooky, but it's one of those "you had to be there" situations. Believe me when I tell you, it was weird!

 

That really just scratches the surface of things and none of our experiences may be convincing to others, especially not to dogmatic fundamentalist atheists, but to us they are pretty damned convincing evidence that this existence and the physical universe isn't "all there is."

 

I hope that answers your question. It would bless my inner spook in Kryasst to have the opportunity to share more later!

 

Glory!