In this episode, Sam sits down with someone very close to home; her wife, Chrissy for an honest and personal conversation about Chrissy's journey through organised religion, from a confusing early experience of Catholicism to the demands and contradictions of Pentecostalism, and everything that unravelled along the way. Chrissy speaks candidly about navigating purity culture, the alienation that came with not fitting the mould, and the moment she was outed within her church community, an event that cost her a whole network of relationships she had relied on. It's a conversation about the very real personal toll of religious exclusion, and what therapy and self-exploration have looked like on the other side of it.

Connect

• You can find out more about Sam on her website - www.anchoredcounsellingservices.com.au
• To connect with Sam on Instagram - @anchoredcounsellingservices
• Want to contact with Sam about the podcast or therapy? Use this contact form.
• Also check out The Religious Trauma Collective

Brandan joins Sam to talk about what it was like to find belonging in a fundamentalist Baptist community at twelve years old and to be a closeted gay kid inside it at the same time. He speaks honestly about the cognitive dissonance of feeling genuinely loved by a community whose theology told him who he was amounted to sin, and the anxiety and fear that slowly built underneath that. The conversation moves through his experience of conversion therapy, the point at which he realised he couldn't keep forcing the two things to fit, and what it looked like to eventually find a spirituality built on something other than fear. It's a compelling, open conversation about identity, survival, and what it actually takes to rebuild your sense of self and faith on your own terms.

Who Is Brandan?

Rev. Brandan Robertson is an author, activist, and public theologian working at the intersection of spirituality, sexuality, and social renewal. He serves as Pastor of Sunnyside Reformed Church in NYC and is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Known as the "TikTok Pastor," his digital ministry reaches nearly 400,000 followers worldwide.

Robertson has authored or contributed to more than twenty books on faith and justice, including True Inclusion, an INDIES Book of the Year Award finalist. His work has been featured by TIME Magazine, NBC, CNN, and The Washington Post, and he has spoken at the White House, Oxford University, and the Parliament of the World's Religions.

A passionate LGBTQ+ advocate, he was named to Rolling Stone's "Hot List" and Out Magazine's 2025 OUT100. He lives in New York City and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies at Drew University.

Connect

• Brandons Website - https://www.brandanrobertson.com
• Find Brandan on social media - Facebook | Instagram | Youtube

• You can find out more about Sam on her website - www.anchoredcounsellingservices.com.au
• To connect with Sam on Instagram - @anchoredcounsellingservices
• Want to contact with Sam about the podcast or therapy? Use this contact form.
• Also check out The Religious Trauma Collective

In this solo episode, Sam sits with something that doesn't get talked about enough during Pride Month - grief. For queer people who've come out of religious environments, the celebrations of June can sit alongside a very specific kind of loss, and Sam reflects honestly on that tension: the way communal joy can sometimes make private sorrow louder, and why those two things don't cancel each other out. It's a gentle but unflinching episode that makes space for the complexity of being somewhere in between; mourning what was taken from you while also finding your way toward who you actually are.

Connect

• You can find out more about Sam on her website - www.anchoredcounsellingservices.com.au
• To connect with Sam on Instagram - @anchoredcounsellingservices
• Want to contact with Sam about the podcast or therapy? Use this contact form.
• Also check out The Religious Trauma Collective

Jay (they/them) joins Sam to talk about growing up as a pastor's kid, navigating queerness and gender identity within a family deeply embedded in faith, and what it meant to wrestle with all of that while also surviving childhood leukemia. Jay is honest about the toll of living between personal truth and family expectation, and the work it takes to find your own voice when the people closest to you can't meet you there. It's a raw, grounded conversation about identity, religious trauma, and what it actually looks like to start living on your own terms.

Connect with Us

• Connect with Jay over on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/jay.pesas

• You can find out more about Sam on her website - www.anchoredcounsellingservices.com.au
• To connect with Sam on Instagram - @anchoredcounsellingservices
• Want to contact with Sam about the podcast or therapy? Use this contact form.
• Also check out The Religious Trauma Collective

In this solo episode, Sam examines the deeply uncomfortable overlap between domestic violence and high-control religious environments. Specifically, how the same systems that teach women what love looks like also teach them not to recognise abuse when it's happening to them. From submission doctrine to male headship theology, Sam unpacks how religious frameworks don't just fail to protect women from coercive control, they actively provide the language that legitimises it. It's a sharp, necessary episode that pushes back on the tendency to treat domestic violence and religious trauma as separate issues, and reinforces why survivors navigating both deserve support that understands the full picture of what they've been through.

Resources

Australia:

• 1800RESPECT - National domestic, family and sexual violence counselling, information and support. 24/7. Call 1800 737 732 or visit 1800respect.org.au
• 13YARN - Confidential crisis support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. A safe place to yarn, no shame, no judgement. 24/7. Call 13 92 76
• Rainbow Sexual, Domestic and Family Violence Helpline - National telephone support for LGBTQ+ people who have experienced sexual, domestic or family violence. Call 1800 497 212

New Zealand:

• New Zealand Shine - free 24/7 helpline and live webchat: 0508 744 633 / 2shine.org.nz
• Are You OK - free 24/7 family violence information and support: areyouok.org.nz
• Shakti - free 24/7 multilingual crisis line specifically for migrant and refugee women at 0800 742 584

US / Canada:

• United States The National Domestic Violence Hotline - 24/7, free and confidential. Call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), text START to 88788, or live chat at thehotline.org
• Canada ShelterSafe - sheltersafe.ca — national directory with an interactive map to find the nearest shelter or crisis service by location.
• Hope for Wellness Helpline - free 24/7 for Indigenous Peoples across Canada, call 1-855-242-3310 or connect online.

Connect

• You can find out more about Sam on her website - www.anchoredcounsellingservices.com.au
• To connect with Sam on Instagram - @anchoredcounsellingservices
• Want to contact with Sam about the podcast or therapy? Use this contact form.
• Also check out The Religious Trauma Collective

Elise Heerde joins Sam for a conversation that is equal parts exciting and meaningful; a behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of their organisation and a heartfelt invitation into what promises to be a landmark community event for survivors of religious trauma and high-control systems. They discuss the growth of the RTC, its deepening commitment to inclusivity and to holding space for people from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, and what makes this upcoming event different — including an expanded international speaker lineup and a dedicated space for attendees to connect and stay connected long after the event wraps. There's also a candid conversation about what it means to grow an organisation in a way that truly reflects the breadth of the community it serves, and the courage it takes to evolve publicly - including announcing an exciting update.

Connect With Us

• Find details about the event here - https://www.thereligioustraumacollective.com/annual-event

• Connect with Elise via her website or over on IG

• You can find out more about Sam on her website - www.anchoredcounsellingservices.com.au
• To connect with Sam on Instagram - @anchoredcounsellingservices
• Want to contact with Sam about the podcast or therapy? Use this contact form.
• Also check out The Religious Trauma Collective

Psychologist Joh Knyn joins Sam for a thoughtful and nuanced conversation about dissociative identity disorder. A topic that is so often misunderstood, sensationalised, or flattened into something it isn't. Together they explore the intersection of DID and high-control environments, unpacking how trauma shapes plural identity and what genuine, affirming support actually looks like in a therapeutic context. Joh brings both clinical expertise and a deep commitment to meeting people where they are, and the conversation makes a compelling case for why the mental health field needs to rethink how it approaches and affirms plural identities rather than pathologising them. For listeners who live with DID, love someone who does, or work in a helping profession, this episode offers something rare; a conversation that takes plural experience seriously and holds it with the care it deserves.

Who Is Joh?

Johanna Knyn is a psychologist based in Australia who works mostly with complex trauma and dissociative identities. Her work focuses on helping both clients and clinicians make sense of experiences that are often misunderstood — including dissociation, plurality, and the impact of high-control or religious environments.

She is the author of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy for DID: The Workbook, one of the first published workbooks to adapt DBT specifically for people with DID. She spends much of her time providing supervision, training, and education for other practitioners. Johanna is particularly passionate about system-affirming, trauma-informed care that meets people where they are.

Connect With Us

• Find out more about Joh here - https://www.johannaknyn.com.au/
• Connect with Joh via IG - https://www.instagram.com/psychologist_joh/
• If you're a clinician connect into this Facebook group

• You can find out more about Sam on her website - www.anchoredcounsellingservices.com.au
• To connect with Sam on Instagram - @anchoredcounsellingservices
• Want to contact with Sam about the podcast or therapy? Use this contact form.
• Also check out The Religious Trauma Collective

Liz Cameron, author of Cult Bride, joins Sam for a conversation that is as grounding as it is eye-opening, bringing her own story and hard-won insight to bear on the realities of life inside a high-control religious group and the long, non-linear road of recovery that follows. Together they dig into the way fundamentalist belief systems shape identity from the inside out, leaving traces that don't simply vanish when you walk away and why that complexity deserves to be named honestly rather than rushed through. Liz speaks with both vulnerability and clarity about abuse, cult dynamics, and the ongoing work of rebuilding a sense of self after years of exposure to oppressive systems, and the conversation carries a warmth that will feel like company to anyone who has ever felt alone in that process. If you're somewhere in the aftermath of leaving a high-control group, this one is for you.

Who Is Liz?

Liz Cameron grew up in fundamentalist Christianity and was brainwashed into the JMS cult at age 18 in 2011. Since escaping in 2013, she’s worked on slowly rebuilding her life while also helping to raise awareness of cults and assisting other cult victims. She now resides in Canberra and balances full-time professional work with cult awareness and advocacy, while also studying a psychology degree. In 2023, after flying to South Korea to film the documentary The Cult Next Door for Channel 7’s Spotlight program, Liz’s public profile grew as she began talking honestly on social media about the insidious nature of cults. In 2025 her memoir, Cult Bride, was published.

Connect

• Connect with Liz via Instagram
• Be sure to grab a copy (or listen) to Cult Bride

• You can find out more about Sam on her website - www.anchoredcounsellingservices.com.au
• To connect with Sam on Instagram - @anchoredcounsellingservices
• Want to contact with Sam about the podcast or therapy? Use this contact form.
• Also check out The Religious Trauma Collective

In this solo episode, Sam turns her attention to something that might be uncomfortable to sit with and that's the way progressive, supposedly safe communities can replicate the very dynamics of control and harm that so many of us fled organised religion to escape. Drawing on her own experiences, Sam examines how the instincts shaped by high-control environments don't just disappear when we land somewhere that looks different on the surface, and how even well-meaning communities can prioritise group harmony and reputation over genuine accountability to the people they've hurt. It's a sharp, honest look at the ways dissent gets managed rather than engaged, and an invitation to listeners to get curious about their own reflexes because the work of not repeating harmful patterns isn't a destination, it's a practice, and it starts with being willing to look at ourselves honestly.

Connect

• You can find out more about Sam on her website - www.anchoredcounsellingservices.com.au
• To connect with Sam on Instagram - @anchoredcounsellingservices
• Want to contact with Sam about the podcast or therapy? Use this contact form.
• Also check out The Religious Trauma Collective

Alicia joins Sam to offer a candid look inside The Truth also known as the 2x2's - a high-control religious system that receives far less public attention than it deserves. Drawing on her own lived experience, Alicia traces the gradual process of waking up to the inconsistencies within her faith community, the anxiety that accompanied that awakening, and the profound identity questions that surface when the world you were raised in begins to unravel. Together, Sam and Alicia explore the layered grief of leaving; not just a belief system, but a community, a family framework, and a sense of self that was built entirely within it. It's a conversation full of honesty and quiet resilience, and a powerful reminder that finding your way out is only the beginning of finding your way home to yourself.

Who Is Alicia?

Alicia is a mum and former member of the 2x2s, also known as The Truth or The Way, a secretive, international Christian sect with no formal name, no buildings, and a culture of silence that runs deep. Based in British Columbia, Canada, she's done with staying small and is now in the thick of rebuilding a life on her own terms. She's the host of We Are Unsaved, a podcast getting real about life after high-control religion.

Connect

• You can connect with Alicia over on IG - https://www.instagram.com/aliciaross.creative/
• Listen to We Are Unsaved

• You can find out more about Sam on her website - www.anchoredcounsellingservices.com.au
• To connect with Sam on Instagram - @anchoredcounsellingservices
• Want to contact with Sam about the podcast or therapy? Use this contact form.
• Also check out The Religious Trauma Collective