What happens when the systems that raised you also silenced you?
In this episode, memoirist and survivor advocate Kate Johnson joins Leslie to talk about religious trauma, purity culture, and the long road of finding your voice after a lifetime of being told to stay quiet.
Kate grew up a pastor's daughter inside the PCA evangelical church, where Calvinist teachings around "total depravity" merged with authoritarian parenting to create a childhood organized around shame, obedience, and performance. When her family was placed on the sex offender registry, she learned a second, deeper lesson: her safety lay in her silence. This conversation traces what it took to undo that — through writing, embodiment, estrangement, anger, and the slow reclaiming of identity.
Whether you're deconstructing your faith, healing from purity culture, navigating estrangement, or just trying to reconnect with your own voice after years of self-silencing — this one is for you.
─── WORK WITH LESLIE ───
THROUGH — 8-week divorce recovery program: https://theloomlife.com/throughdivorceprogram
1:1 Coaching & Therapy: https://theloomlife.com
Book a discovery call: https://theloomlife.com
─── CONNECT WITH KATE ───
Substack (Quips & Confessionals): https://katejohnsonwrites.substack.com
Instagram: @katejohnsonwrites
TikTok: @katejohnsonwrites
Threads: @katejohnsonwrites
Bluesky: @katejohnsonwrites
─── CHAPTERS ───
00:00 Welcome & introducing Kate
02:30 Trapeze as healing & reclaiming the inner child
06:30 Growing up a pastor's daughter (PCA & Calvinism)
11:00 "You are bad" — how religious shame forms core beliefs
13:30 Parenting across generations: authoritarian to conscious
18:30 Why kids in divorce need their own therapist
23:30 Voice as savior: from buried to spoken
25:30 The sex offender registry: when silence becomes safety
30:00 What most people don't understand about the registry
35:30 Why women stay: shame, survival & "Conjuring the Hurricane"
42:00 Family courts, custody & protecting children
46:30 Purity culture, bisexuality & leaving evangelicalism
51:30 Estrangement, boundaries & what repentance really means
55:30 Embodiment, grounding & coming home to the body
59:30 Reiki, The Artist's Way & reconnecting to creativity
1:03:00 Anger as a signal & reclaiming identity
1:08:00 Quips & Confessionals: humor as reclamation
1:12:00 Final message: trust your body, use your voice
─── FOLLOW THE LOOM LIFE ───
Website: https://theloomlife.com
Therapy: https://loomlifetherapy.com
Leslie's site: https://leslieellenmathews.com
Instagram: @the.loom.life
TikTok: @leslieellenmathews
─── DISCLAIMER ───
This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for therapy, medical care, or professional mental health treatment. If you are in crisis, please contact a licensed provider or call/text 988 in the U.S.
Keywords: religious trauma podcast, purity culture recovery, evangelical deconstruction, healing religious trauma, pastor's daughter, finding your voice, embodiment after trauma, complex PTSD, mental health podcast for women, trauma healing stories podcast
#ReligiousTrauma #HealingAfterTrauma #IdentityWork #SelfTrust #PullingThreads
