Survivors Speak: Leaving, Healing, and Reclaiming Life After Religious Trauma
A conversation with survivor-advocates and authors Melissa Duge Spiers and Katherine Spearing
Event Details:
Date: Tuesday, May 19th
Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm EDT
Location: Live on Zoom
Leaving toxic faith systems, finding healing, and building meaningful lives afterward.
Church trauma often hides behind the language of faith and spiritual authority. In this live online panel, survivor-advocates and authors Melissa Duge Spiers and Katherine Spearing will join Lake Drive Books publisher and host David Morris to share their experiences of leaving harmful religious environments and rebuilding their lives beyond them.
Rather than focusing only on past trauma, the conversation will explore questions many people are asking today: Why does abuse persist in churches? What is it like in the months and years after leaving a toxic faith community? What actually helps survivors begin to heal and move forward?
Panelists will also discuss where people can turn for support today, and what life, meaning, and even joy can look like after surviving religious abuse.
Registration-only audience members may join with video on, but mics muted, and will be encouraged to submit questions through the chat during the event. This event will be recorded, but only the panelists will show.
Melissa Duge Spiers is an award-winning essayist, screenwriter, and advocate for topics of religious abuse and resilience, utilizing her online platforms (TikTok and Instagram, known as “The Glory Whole”) to raise awareness and help others find healing. She is the author of Holy Disobedience: Sex, Sin, and Secrets in the Biggest Church No One Knows. She holds a B.A. in English Literature from Barnard College and is based in California.
Katherine Spearing, MA, CTRC, is the founder of Tears of Eden, a nonprofit supporting survivors of spiritual abuse and is a Certified Trauma Recovery Practitioner with a Master of Arts in Religion and Cultures. Katherine is the author of A Thousand Tiny Paper Cuts: The Subtle, Insidious Nature of Spiritual Abuse and Life on the Other Side. For five seasons, she hosted the groundbreaking podcast Uncertain, pioneering pivotal conversations around abuse in churches. Katherine is based in Missouri.