What happens when the messages you learned about sex, gender, and relationships long before adulthood still shape the way you connect today?
In this episode of Real Life with RDU Therapy, I sit down with Jeremiah Gibson and Julia Postema of Let’s Heal Together to talk about purity culture, high control religious environments, attachment, communication, intimacy, grief, and healing in relationships. Jeremiah and Julia are licensed relationship therapists and certified sex therapists, and they specialize in helping individuals and couples rebuild healthier patterns around connection, sexuality, and emotional safety. Let’s Heal Together offers relationship and sex therapy, including co therapy, and also supports people navigating deconstruction and recovery from purity culture.
We talk about how early messages around gender, sexuality, and “being good” can show up years later in adult partnerships, why couples often get stuck in criticism, repetition, and outdated assumptions, and how healing often happens through kindness, play, pleasure, pacing, and honest communication. Jeremiah and Julia also explain why sex therapy so often involves grief, and how relationships can survive major identity shifts when beliefs, faith, or community ties begin to change.
If you grew up with shame based messages about bodies, intimacy, marriage, or gender roles, or if you are trying to build a healthier relationship after purity culture or a high control religious background, this conversation will leave you feeling less alone and more hopeful.
In this episode, we cover:
purity culture and abstinence only messaging
how childhood and religious messages affect adult relationships
attachment, communication, and conflict in couples
grief, intimacy, and sexual healing
deconstruction, faith shifts, and partnership stress
how co therapy can help couples feel supported and understood
Connect with Jeremiah Gibson and Julia Postema
Let’s Heal Together https://www.letshealtogether.org/
Instagram: @sexvangelicals
Podcast: Sexvangelicals
Connect with Dr. Melanie McCabe / RDU Therapy
https://rdutherapy.com/
https://drmelaniemccabe.com/
Instagram: @dr_melanie_mccabe and @rdu.therapy
9/30/25