Secular Therapy in Tennessee
I’ve spent a good portion of my life in and around religious spaces. I know how evangelical Christian culture permeates everything around us, especially in the South.
That’s why it’s non-negotiable to me that therapy is free from ideological influence. As your therapist, I have no hidden agenda to convince you to believe a certain way about religion, faith, or theology. In this way, I practice “secular” therapy.
Because I specialize in therapy for religious harm and trauma, I make sure all my clients feel safe to:
explore or question beliefs
acknowledge and heal from harm done by religious individuals or institutions
bemoan, rage about, or laugh at the absurd things we’ve heard and seen in the name of religion.
I also make sure clients feel safe to process parts of their lives where they feel curious or passionate about religion/spirituality.
Spirituality can be a really important part of mental health, as a connection to something greater than ourselves - this might be a religion, but it can also be or a set of spiritual practices, a community someone belongs to, time spent in nature or pursuing creative activities, or a social/political cause.
I’ve loved working with pastors as much as I have with tarot readers and lifelong atheists. My job as your therapist is to make sure that you experience ideological safety in the therapy room so you can recognize what truly feels safe in the outside world.
Learn more about Therapy for Religious Trauma and Therapy for Deconstruction
Frequently Asked Questions about Religion and Spirituality in Therapy
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Receiving secular, nonreligious, or non-faith-based therapy means that your therapist is not integrating beliefs or practices of any religion into session time or techniques used. A secular therapist will use evidence-based techniques and tools in sessions, and will view you and your mental health through a biological-psychological-social lens rather than a theological one.
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Yes! All topics related to faith, religion, and spirituality are on the table for clients to bring up, if they choose, regardless of whether their experiences have been positive negative, or a mix of both.
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Ideological safety is the felt experience of knowing you can express curiosity, concern, or connection to any set of ideological beliefs and that the other person will not reject you or attempt to dissuade you.
It’s related to cognitive liberty, which is the idea that individuals have the right to absolute sovereignty over their own brains and their own cognitive processes.