When psychologist Hillary McBride encountered clients from religious backgrounds who had been hurt by their churches, she found their challenges didn’t fit into standard psychological categories—they weren’t only dealing with anxiety or depression, but also with fear of God’s anger and judgment.
They were experiencing spiritual trauma, which McBride defines as hurt caused by abuse in a religious setting, including the hurt that results from doctrines that emphasize a harsh and punitive God and the worthlessness and wickedness of individual believers.
Those experiences prompted her to write Holy Hurt: Understanding Spiritual Trauma and the Process of Healing (Brazos Press).
McBride’s goals with
the book is to help those experiencing spiritual trauma know they aren’t
alone and that there is a path for recovery. She also wants to help faith
leaders understand that spiritual trauma is real and that they have a role in
preventing it—and to bridge the worlds of psychology and religion that are
often kept far apart.
Read my interview with McBride about spiritual trauma in the Free Press.
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