This week’s show is a Deconversion not so Anonymous episode. My guest this week is Rachael Parsons Svendsen. Rachael is a Licensed Marriage and Family Counselor at RCPS Therapy. Rachael became a Christian at three years old. She went to Biola University and studied philosophy. Later in life, she experienced the effects of Religious Trauma: just setting foot in a Church she would break down in tears. Honesty is an important value for Rachael and part of what led her to deconversion. She talks about the difficulty of relationships with believers in her life while attempting to maintain honesty. Rachael and I investigate the experience of cognitive dissonance and religious trauma. We discuss the importance of the Easter story to Western thought, what is like to parent post-deconversion and the loss of the (false) sense of control after deconversion when difficult life events occur. Rachael points out that she does not have it all together post-deconversion. We agree we are all winging it. Links RCPS Therapy https://rcpstherapy.com/ Small Words Big Stories https://www.instagram.com/smallwords_bigstories/ Interact Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/?gaid=gap67Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/secular-grace/?gaid=gap67Adverse Religious Experiences https://gracefulatheist.com/category/adverse-religious-experiences/?gaid=gap67 Promos Religion Shouldn’t Hurt https://www.instagram.com/religion.shouldnt.hurt/Conference on Religious Trauma https://pheedloop.com/CORT/site/home/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/