Why We Created The Religious Trauma Collective (RTC)
Co-founding the Religious Trauma Collective with Jane Kennedy & Elise Heerde was never just a “business idea”. It was born from lived experience. I know firsthand how isolating it can feel to leave a faith system or high-control religious group and realise that the world outside doesn’t always understand what you’ve been through.
When I was navigating my own journey out of a high-demand faith space, I wanted two things more than anything: to feel understood and to find support from people who got it. Not just theoretically, but from those who’d lived through the disorientation, the grief, the identity crisis, and sometimes the complete dismantling of family, community, and belonging.
I kept seeing how hard it was, especially here in Australia and New Zealand to find practitioners who understood religious trauma in a way that went beyond a textbook definition. So, along with Jane & Elise, we created RTC as a place to make that search easier and to build a community where connection and understanding could thrive.
What The Religious Trauma Collective Is
RTC is a dedicated space for people in Australia and New Zealand who’ve experienced the impacts of religious harm, faith deconstruction, spiritual abuse, cult involvement, or the loss of a once tightly-held worldview.
At its heart, the RTC is:
A practitioner directory: therapists, psychologists, social workers, coaches, and other helping professionals with both personal and professional experience in religious trauma.
A community hub: offering online and in-person events for connection, learning, and storytelling.
A resource library: with information, articles, books, and links that speak to the unique recovery journey of religious trauma.
A training space: for practitioners wanting to better support clients with lived experience of religious trauma. (Coming Soon)
It’s a place to find understanding, tools, and belonging, whether you’re in the middle of leaving, years into your recovery, or a practitioner learning how to walk alongside someone on this path.
Learn More & Get Involved
If you want to explore the Collective – whether to find a practitioner or register to be on our practitioner registry, join an event, find a resource, or connect with others who get it, you can head to the RTC website.
Visit The Religious Trauma Collective
We created RTC so that nobody has to navigate this journey alone. There’s a place for you here.