Therapy for Religious and Complex Trauma, & Cult Leavers

Sam Sellers - A woman with red hair, glasses, and a nose ring smiling outdoors. She is wearing a colorful, patterned shirt with buttons and surrounded by blurred trees and nature.

Welcome

⦁

Welcome

Welcome ⦁ Welcome

I’m Sam, a Queer Registered Therapist and Clinical Supervisor living and working on unceded Gundungurra Land in Goulburn, NSW.

You can see me in person here in Goulburn, or online from anywhere in Australia and New Zealand.

If you’ve ended up on this page, religion has probably had a big impact on your life. Maybe you’ve walked away. Maybe you’re still in and the doubts are getting louder. Or maybe you’ve only just started asking the questions you were taught not to ask.

Wherever you’re at, you’re welcome here.

Questions welcome here (finally)

I offer trauma-focused therapy for people dealing with:

religious trauma
leaving a cult or high-control community
spiritual abuse
conversion practices
faith deconstruction

I’m wary of anyone who claims to have all the answers, and I suspect you are too by now. What I can offer is someone who understands this stuff, takes it seriously, and will back you while you work things out.

Together we’ll make sense of what happened to you and figure out what you actually think and want, after years of being told. Then we’ll build a life that suits who you are. We’ll go at a pace that feels manageable, and you get to set the direction.

Close-up of brown dried hydrangea flowers with burning candle in the background.

Ways we can work together

Therapy for anyone recovering from religion, cults, high-control groups or conversion practices.
Together we’ll work out who you are now and what you want your life to look like.
- Religious trauma therapy and spiritual abuse counselling
- Cult and high-control group recovery
- Recovery from conversion practices
- Purity culture recovery, including reconnecting with your body, sexuality and pleasure
- Faith deconstruction support and identity exploration
- Grief, guilt and shame after leaving faith
- Nervous system support for anxiety, overwhelm and always feeling on edge
More Information
Relationship counselling for couples, polycules, families and chosen family. I work with all kinds of relationships, and I especially love working with queer and poly folks.
You won’t have to spend the first three sessions explaining how your relationship works. That includes relationships affected by religious trauma, or by one person leaving faith.
- Couples and polycule counselling, including queer, poly and open relationships
- Mixed-faith relationships, where one of you has left religion and the other hasn’t
- Exploring non-monogamy after a purity culture upbringing
- Family relationships after leaving faith or coming out
- Communication, conflict and boundaries
- Rebuilding trust after religious or spiritual harm
More Information
Trauma-focused clinical supervision for counsellors and therapists working with religious trauma, spiritual abuse, cults and conversion practices.
This work gets complicated fast, and most training barely touches it. Supervision gives you a place to bring the tricky cases, the ethical grey areas and the sessions you’re still thinking about at 10pm.
- One-on-one supervision, in person or online across Australia and New Zealand
- Religious trauma, spiritual abuse, and cult and high-control group recovery
- Conversion practices and purity culture
- Queer and poly-inclusive practice
- Ethics, professional boundaries and vicarious trauma
- Complex cases and countertransference
- Working with this client group when you have your own religious history
More Information
I speak about religious trauma and cult dynamics as a therapist who works with it every day and as someone with my own lived experience.
I’m comfortable on podcasts, in workshops and training rooms, and at conferences, and I tailor every talk to the people in the room.
Topics I speak on:
- Religious trauma, spiritual abuse and cult recovery
- Faith deconstruction and working out who you are after leaving a high-control group
- Conversion practices and purity culture
- Queer and poly-inclusive approaches to trauma and recovery
- The nervous system and trauma-informed care
Formats: podcasts, workshops and training, conferences and custom events.
More Information
Years after leaving a church, cult or high-control group, the effects can still show up in your body. Guilt, shame, fear or panic can arrive without warning and make old memories feel like they’re happening now.
When trauma hasn’t been resolved, your nervous system can stay in fight, flight, freeze or fawn, and you stay on high alert long after the danger has passed.
Brainspotting is based on the idea that where you look affects how you feel. In a session, we find an eye position linked to a memory or feeling, and you stay with it while noticing what happens in your body.
You don’t need to talk through every detail of what happened, which is a relief for a lot of people.
The memories don’t disappear. Many people find they lose their intensity, so you can think about the past without it taking over your day.
Brainspotting can help with:
- Memories that still feel intense, even years later
- Panic, anxiety and feeling constantly on alert
- Guilt and shame that stick around even when you know better
- Fear of hell, punishment or getting things wrong
Available for Individual Therapy & Cult Recovery

The Post Church Files is my Substack, and it’s the most personal writing I do. Some weeks I’m pulling apart the worship songs we sang on repeat. Other weeks it’s purity culture, the church words I still catch myself using, or what it’s like to go back once and remember exactly why you left. I write as a therapist and as someone who has been there, so you get the research and the lived experience together.

If you were ever told you were too much, led astray or backsliding, you’ll fit right in. It’s for people who have just started questioning, people who left years ago and still notice church showing up in their lives, and everyone in between. Queer folks, former submissive wives and recovering prophets are especially welcome.

Expect warmth, sarcasm, the odd rant and some swearing. I skip the silver linings and spiritual bypassing, and I don’t pretend recovery runs to a timeline. I write for the moments when you read something and think, “Oh, that’s why I do that,” or “Thank god, it’s not just me.”

New posts go out fortnightly, depending on life and energy.