Dr. Laura Anderson

MY OWN HEALING STORY

About Laura

As an Evangelical camp kid (including living there year round!) turned youth director, I have the inside track on experiencing, participating in, and promoting the lifestyle and teaching of high demand/high control religion.

It also means I understand the various ways people are impacted by such systems and as a trauma therapist of over 10-years, I understand how these impacts can effect every area of life–even if you’ve left or cognitively deconstructed from religion.

In my early 20’s, while working at a church with a spiritually and psychologically abusive pastor/boss, I recognized that something was wrong, but it wasn’t until my late 20’s, after moving across the country that I was able to begin recognizing the harm and adverse religious experiences I endured. 

My process of faith deconstruction began in my early 20’s after resigning my position at a church I worked for after significant spiritual and psychological abuse (though I didn’t know at the time this was what I was experiencing).

I am a curious person by nature and though I had many questions about spirituality, God, and religion, I knew exploring this would lead not lead to answers, rather disconnection, doubt from others about my salvation, and ultimately being seen as a potential danger or threat for not being able to accept the answers I was given.

After moving to Nashville, TN I joined a church that was every bit as fundamentalist as what I had grown up in but boasted an openness to asking questions. This was the stepping stone I needed that allowed the questions I had been keeping beneath the surface to come up and out and when they did, I could not unsee the harm I experienced, caused, and promoted, all under the name of God.

Leaving formal religion provided near-instant relief from the constant anxiety and terror I lived with on a daily basis. Though I was able to begin developing self-compassion and kindness, I began experiencing physiological and psychological symptoms that grew worse each month.

While I know now that this is common in individuals with PTSD or CPTSD (as well as many other mental and physical  health diagnoses),I did not connect my symptoms with my experiences and instead embraced a new fundamentalism: self-improvement.

My days were filled with self-help books, cleanses and detoxes, the latest fad diets and exercise programs, hours of meditation every day, manifestation, alternative medicine practice and mounting shame that no matter how hard I worked, the symptoms I was experiencing were only becoming worse. 

After countless appointments and sessions with doctors, healers, therapists, and alternative medicine practitioners provided no answers or clarity on my rapidly diminishing mental and physical health, I took my healing journey into my own hands.

Though the book had been sitting on my shelf, unread, for years, on a whim one day I grabbed my copy of “In an Unspoken Voice” by Peter Levine. With my mouth agape, I could not deny that what he was describing was exactly what I had been experiencing–and he had a name for it: trauma.

Over the course of the next 30 days I read SEVENTEEN trauma books; I was insatiable. Finally being able to put language and understanding about what was happening inside me felt like a dark cloud that had previously enveloped me, disappeared. I learned about trauma, the nervous system, physiology, embodiment and how long-term, chronic overwhelm–such as that experienced in high demand/high control religion–often resulted in a more complex form of trauma called Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD).

Not shockingly, however, the mere cognitive understanding of trauma, while helpful (and fascinating!) did not reduce the symptoms I was having (in fact, some of them got worse!) At a low point I reached out to a colleague of mine who used Somatic Experiencing–a trauma resolution modality created by Peter Levine–and asked if she was taking clients.

Though I do not discount the work I had done prior to beginning working with this therapist, it was the introduction to my body and nervous system, finding safety within myself, and integrating that safety into my day-to-day so I could deal with the stuff of life, that things began to change.

I am still a work in progress.

I believe healing is a lifelong process rather than a destination we eventually arrive at. There is no point where we get to declare ourselves fully healed and exempt from the challenges of being human. Instead, healing has taught me how to relate to myself differently, navigate life’s inevitable difficulties with greater capacity, and return to myself when I lose my way.

Who I am today is quite different than who I was when I first began this journey. I am profoundly grateful for what I have learned through healing my nervous system, resolving trauma, recovering from high demand and high control religion, and learning to trust myself again.

For many years, I believed that once I understood trauma and learned how to work with my nervous system, the hardest part was behind me.

Then midlife arrived.

What began as unexplained, significant weight gain gradually became a collection of symptoms that felt both familiar and confusing: fatigue, brain fog, chronic pain, anxiety, changes in mood, shifts in identity, changing relationships, and a growing sense that I no longer recognized myself. Despite years of education, professional training, and personal healing work, I found myself asking many of the same questions I had asked years earlier: What is happening to me? Why does my body feel different? Why does nothing seem to be working the way it used to?

Like many women, I initially assumed I needed to try harder. Better routines. Better supplements. Better sleep habits. Better stress management. Yet the more I learned, the more I realized that what many women experience during midlife cannot be understood through a single lens.

Midlife is not simply a hormonal transition. It is often a profound biopsychosocial transition that impacts the body, brain, nervous system, relationships, identity, sexuality, health, purpose, and sense of self. For women with histories of trauma, chronic stress, adverse religious experiences, or difficult relationships, this season can also uncover wounds that previously remained hidden beneath the demands of daily life.

As I began studying the intersection of trauma, nervous system functioning, women’s health, hormones, chronic illness, inflammation, sleep, identity development, and aging, I saw the same patterns emerging not only in my own life but in the lives of countless women around me. Brilliant, capable women were questioning themselves. Women who had spent decades caring for everyone else were suddenly realizing they no longer knew how to care for themselves. Women were being told that their symptoms were simply stress, aging, anxiety, or something they needed to accept, while simultaneously feeling disconnected from their bodies and uncertain about who they were becoming.

The more I learned, the more I recognized that my work had always been about helping people reconnect with themselves.

Whether I am working with someone recovering from religious trauma, navigating the aftermath of abuse, healing complex trauma, rebuilding trust in their body, or finding their footing in midlife, the goal remains the same: helping people understand their experiences, develop self-trust, create safety within themselves, and build lives that feel more authentic, connected, and sustainable.

My professional work and personal journey continue to evolve together. Both have taught me that healing is rarely about becoming someone new. More often, it is about uncovering who we have always been beneath the fear, conditioning, expectations, and survival strategies that once helped us get through.

And that is work I remain deeply passionate about today.