Laura E Anderson

This book is absolutely incredible. Anderson does a great job of sharing her own life story and making it accessible and understandable but not overwhelming. In addition, she writes in a way that offers compassionate understanding and steps for how to discuss this with a trained professional.

In addition, I was glad to see she references others' work and provides resources for readers. She has truly done her research.

This book is a tough one to get through because of the topic, but well worth the read. Be prepared for introspection.… (més)

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Original review can be found here.

I finished reading a library copy of When Religion Hurts You by Dr. Laura Anderson on a Sunday morning and by Sunday afternoon, I had already picked up a physical copy from a local bookstore for my personal library. It is one of the best books I have read this year. I highly recommend it for anyone who has spent time in a high control or spiritually abusive religious environment.

This book was so validating and encouraging. I could relate to a lot of what the author described when she was discussing her own experiences and those of her clients, and I have already talked to my therapist about some of the things I want to explore more as a result of this book. As I read it, I would often turn to my husband and read portions to him, amazed at how some of the things she presented were written word-for-word the way I have described my own experiences in recent months and years.

Dr. Laura presents an abundance of helpful information throughout the book, as well as strategies the reader can implement to aid their own healing process and find safety within their own body again. Some of the things she covers in the book include:

- what spiritual abuse and religious trauma can look like,

- how they can manifest in the body and impact people long after they have left the harmful environment,

- how the nervous system works,

- how purity culture and hierarchical systems play into abusive environments,

- how patriarchy is so frequently “the foundation of oppression,” and

- rebuilding identity after leaving such environments and / or deconstructing.

She also made some really interesting connections between nervous system dysregulation and fundamentalism, which I found both fascinating and enlightening.

Overall, I found it to be a very healing read and have already recommended it to several people. You can read a story about an interesting experience I navigated whilst purchasing this book here if you are so inclined.… (més)

This really wasn't for me. I had the idea that this would be a general discussion of religious trauma and how it impacts people and communities. I did not expect the majority of the book to focus on promoting one therapeutic modality. A more accurate title would have been "how the author used somatic therapy to heal from religious trauma, and how the reader can also use the same methods to cure their trauma." While the book warns those who have left fundamentalism to avoid other forms of extremism, it seems to present somatic therapy as a religion that can't be questioned. In my opinion, some of the assumptions of this brand of therapy, such as seeing happiness and peace as a reward for thinking the right thoughts, even if it means ignoring reality, resemble those of fundamentalism. In such a setting, "compassion" and "insight" can actually be veiled contempt and invalidation.

For those who have experienced moral injury due to the real world consequences of fundamentalism, this book may be unhelpful in that it minimizes anything other than individual feelings and sensations. Real world dangers and risks are dismissed due to the assumption that listening to your body will always keep you safe, and that people and the world are inherently trustworthy as long as the individual approaches them with the correct beliefs and values. Having said that, many people seem to be finding this book helpful, so maybe I'm just not the intended audience.… (més)