Religious Trauma and LGBTQ+ Healing: Finding Spiritual Freedom

I’ve been on a journey since I was 16 to find a way to bridge the gap between religion and queerness. It’s been full of twists and turns — walking away and coming back, searching, praying, pleading, crying, and feeling angry. There have also been moments of acceptance and forgiveness. I’m not sure if it will ever feel fully “complete,” but I have found so much healing along the way.

For a long time, I didn’t know how to be spiritual at all. Once I began realizing I was gay in high school, I couldn’t reconcile the teachings of the Catholic Church with who I was. It was confusing and painful. I tried for years to make sense of it, but eventually I had to walk away — the dissonance and hurt were simply too heavy to hold. Being caught between who you are and what you were taught can feel impossible at times.

After that, I spent years not knowing what to believe. I felt untethered, lost, and cynical, like I had cut myself off from something meaningful without knowing what would come next. Then I met my wife, and slowly, almost without noticing, I allowed her and her mother’s spiritual beliefs and practices to soften the walls I’d built. Sometimes healing arrives so quietly and gradually that you don’t notice it at first, until one day you can feel the shift inside yourself.

Then 2022 hit, and everything cracked open. After losing someone close to me, I went through a spiritual crisis. I needed to understand why life unfolds as it does, why suffering exists, and why some painful things feel impossible to understand. Most of all, I needed reassurance that we continue on after we die. When we experience loss, it’s natural to find ourselves searching for meaning.

I began reading, listening, and watching everything I could about what happens after death — documentaries, books, and podcasts. I was searching for something steady to hold onto when everything felt uncertain. Eventually, I found myself at a wellness fair, drawn to someone offering Akashic Record readings. Fear got the best of me that day, but later I reached out and took the leap. That leap changed everything.

I went on to pursue a certification in Akashic Record readings and Angel healing. What began as something for my own healing slowly revealed itself as a soul calling — something I was meant to weave into my professional work. I could never have imagined that path for myself just a few years earlier.

As my spirituality deepened, I felt ready to look my religious trauma directly in the eye. I joined a support group for therapists working through their own religious wounds and finally put words to things I’d carried for years without language. Naming those experiences and sharing my story aloud felt like reclaiming pieces of myself that had been silent for far too long.

From there, I wanted to understand the religion and teachings I grew up with more deeply. That search led me to the documentary 1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted a Culture. For the first time, I learned how the word homosexual was inserted into the Bible during a specific round of translations. It was a single change that would go on to shape generations of belief, shame, and exclusion. Watching this helped me to release even more of the shame I have been carrying. So many of us carry weight that was never ours to begin with.

Even now, my inner child sometimes struggles with old narratives. But seeing how religion and politics merged to harm the LGBTQ+ community helped me hand back the shame that was never mine. It was liberating and deeply emotional, a reminder that healing can take many forms, and sometimes it moves through us in tears.

So what’s next? I’ll continue untangling this web that was woven long before I had a voice, feeling freer and clearer as I go. I remain deeply passionate about supporting others who have been hurt by religion or pressured to be someone they’re not, whether they’re LGBTQ+ or not. Society, culture, and even our closest relationships can carry loud expectations about who we should be.

I recently heard that authenticity is the highest frequency, even higher than love. Perhaps it's because it brings us home to ourselves. When we fully embrace who we are, self-love grows naturally, and we are no longer threatened by others’ authenticity. We can meet it with compassion, curiosity, and respect. What I hope for all of us is the courage to meet our truest selves, and the freedom to love all of who we are — without shrinking, without apology, and without shame.

If this resonates with you, know you don’t have to navigate it alone. I support people in reclaiming their authentic selves, releasing what no longer serves them, and stepping into greater healing and self-love. If you’re ready, reach out. I’d be honored to guide you.