Coming Home to Yourself

A women’s process group for healing from religious trauma and patriarchal conditioning
Format: 8 weekly sessions
Schedule: Tuesdays, 9:00–10:30am
Location: Virtual, Colorado-only

Group Purpose

This trauma-informed process group supports women healing from religious trauma, coercive systems, and patriarchal conditioning. The focus is on reconnecting with the body, rebuilding self-trust, grieving harm, practicing boundaries, and developing a more grounded relationship with values, choice, and inner authority.

Session Structure

Each session includes: - Grounding or body-based check-in - Psychoeducation and reflection prompt - Facilitated process and discussion - Integration practice and closing

8-Week Curriculum

Session 1: Orientation, Safety, and Group Agreements

·      Welcome, intentions, and group overview

·      Confidentiality, limits, and expectations

·      Naming religious trauma and patriarchal conditioning

·      Establishing safety, pacing, and consent in group participation

·      Closing reflection: what helped you survive, and what no longer fits

Session 2: Reconnecting to the Body

·      Understanding disconnection, numbness, and hypervigilance

·      Exploring body cues, activation, and shutdown

·      Gentle interoception and grounding practices

·      Beginning to notice the difference between fear, intuition, and conditioning

·      Integration: body-based check-in practice for the week

Session 3: Shame, Fear, and Compliance

·      How coercive systems use shame and fear to shape identity

·      Survival strategies: perfectionism, people-pleasing, self-silencing, over-functioning

·      Identifying internalized rules and inherited beliefs

·      Group reflection on the cost of compliance

·      Integration: noticing one shame script in real time

Session 4: Boundaries, Consent, and Choice

·      Rebuilding a sense of permission and agency

·      Understanding boundaries after control, enmeshment, or spiritual bypassing

·      Exploring consent in relationships, community, and self-talk

·      Practicing language for limits, preferences, and no

·      Integration: one small boundary experiment for the week

Session 5: Anger, Grief, and Betrayal

·      Making space for anger without self-abandonment

·      Naming grief related to lost belonging, lost certainty, and lost time

·      Exploring betrayal by family, faith communities, or systems of authority

·      Supporting emotional expression without overwhelm

·      Integration: grief and anger reflection practice

Session 6: Identity, Values, and Meaning-Making

·      Who am I outside of fear, duty, and performance?

·      Clarifying values without outsourcing authority

·      Exploring meaning after disillusionment or deconstruction

·      Separating authentic belief from imposed identity

·      Integration: values inventory or journaling prompt

Session 7: Self-Trust and Relational Repair

·      Rebuilding trust in inner knowing, discernment, and decision-making

·      Noticing trauma echoes in relationships, community, and leadership

·      Exploring what safe connection can look like now

·      Identifying supports that do not replicate coercion or hierarchy

·      Integration: self-trust practice in one current decision

Session 8: Integration, Closure, and Next Steps

·      Reflecting on growth, grief, and what remains tender

·      Naming shifts in body awareness, boundaries, values, and self-trust

·      Creating a personal maintenance plan

·      Identifying ongoing supports, practices, and community needs

·      Group closing ritual and transition

Clinical Notes

·      This group is process-oriented and trauma-informed.

·      It is not spiritual direction and is not affiliated with any religion.

·      It is not appropriate for crisis support or participants needing a higher level of care.

·      Screening should assess readiness for group process, current stability, and fit.