The Particulars of Spiritual Abuse: Dissociation and Healing

This week, we’re re-sharing the second half of a series Rachael
Clinton Chen and Dr. Dan Allender recorded last year on
the particulars of spiritual abuse. Throughout their
conversation, you’ll hear them discuss the effects that spiritual
abuse has on our bodies, including dissociation and shame.
Because spiritually abusive leaders rarely stop with mind
control, they work to create a system in which they can control
every aspect—including the bodies—of the people under their
authority. Rachael and Dan also explore the long, slow movement
of healing in the wake of abuse and the work of tending to small
areas of growth, trusting that God is contending for us in the
big areas.


No matter how long it takes, how can we begin reclaiming our
minds and moving back into our bodies? What are the small steps
we can take on the long road to healing? As we attune to that
which is beautiful and true, and to that which honors the dignity
in who we were created to be, we may begin living into the hope
that trauma, death, and spiritual abuse do not have to have the
last word.
Resources

Read an article “Enigmas, Myths, and the Shame of the
Strong Silent Type” by Beau Denton

Read “Leading out of Healing” by Wendell Moss

Read “When Shame is Deeper than Salvation” by Andrew Bauman