Module 6: Developing Self-Compassion, Self-Trust, and Embodied Boundaries

This module examines how high-control religious systems erode an individual’s internal sense of safety, autonomy, and worth by enforcing an external locus of control. Through chronic messaging that frames bodily instincts, emotions, and intuition as untrustworthy or sinful, survivors are taught to override internal signals in favor of obedience, approval, or spiritual authority. Clinicians will explore how this conditioning compromises trauma recovery by disrupting three core capacities: self-compassion, which is often viewed as selfishness; self-trust, which is systematically dismantled through emotional and spiritual surveillance; and personal boundaries, which are pathologized in favor of submission and self-denial. These patterns foster nervous system dysregulation, learned helplessness, and freeze/fawn states, leaving survivors disconnected from their own agency and internal guidance systems.