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A Good Friday Confession (I Don't Feel Anything)
I wrote the following reflection for my blog three years ago during Holy Week. It was the second time I had shared on my blog that I am numb on Good Friday - the first time I wrote about it was five years ago (You can read "Numbing Out on Good Friday" here.) Do I still feel numb on Good Friday...
Apr 03, 2026
To My Fellow Complex Trauma Survivors Who Struggle with Holy Week
This post was written two years ago on 27 March 2024 on my personal blog. I'm sharing it again as a newsletter post now together with a more recent podcast episode on navigating Holy Week as a survivor of spiritual trauma. May this bring accompaniment and consolation to those who need it!
My dea...
Mar 29, 2026
"Seeking God" vs "Believing in God"
Last month, Pope Leo XVI responded to someone who thinks of himself an atheist, but who "feels the need to love God". Pope Leo wrote:
"the real problem with faith is not believing or not believing in God, but seeking Him!" “[God] allows himself to be found by the heart that seeks him... and perh...
Mar 01, 2026
Do you need a Trauma-Informed Lent?
Recently a dear friend shared with me how the mere thought of Lent and our traditional Lenten practices made her whole body contract. An interesting discussion about the intersection of trauma, family of origin wounds, religion, church and ascetic practices ensued which later made me recall my ow...
Feb 17, 2026
The Grace that Undid Me
Exactly ten years ago today, I started a seven day silent retreat that (on hindsight) marked my entry into ‘spiritual midlife’ and the painful gradual descent into more intense trauma recovery and deconstruction. Here's an excerpt from my retreat journal I wish to share with you:
The grace I seek...
Feb 11, 2026
Naming the Unnameable
"Thanks, Ann, for articulating the 'inarticulatable'!" - A message from a friend about this week's Becoming Me episode
I never know why some of my podcast episodes / videos do so much better than others. My guess is that some episodes strike a particularly resonant chord with more people and get ...
Feb 01, 2026
'Deconstruction' doesn't have to be a dirty word
"You help me stay Catholic." "Your words make me feel like there's still room in the Catholic Church for me." "You make me feel seen in my struggle with the Church."
Ever since I started my podcast in 2020 and converted my social media account from a personal account to a public one to share abou...
Jan 18, 2026
Exhaling into 2026
"Will I be forgotten?" "Am I becoming irrelevant?" "Am I being lazy?"
It's funny what slowing down in content creation in the last 6 weeks of the year and taking the last week of 2025 off from sharing anything publicly on social media still brings up in my poor exiled internal family parts.
"Oth...
Jan 01, 2026
Seeking Simplicity and Rest at Christmas
Every year when December rolled around I used to feel my body bracing. I hated December, and I hated Christmas for a long time - secretly of course, because I didn't feel it was proper to disclose such a terribly impious sentiment. But as Catholic trauma therapist Brya Hanan recently explained in...
Dec 24, 2025
Has Abuse of Conscience become part of normal Catholic life?
"If you don't help correct him, he will go to hell. Do you want that on your conscience?"
"A good and faithful Catholic will never do X."
"If you do this and you don't go to confession before you receive Communion, you are risking your eternal soul because you are in mortal sin."
"If you don't st...
Oct 12, 2025
What has Spiritual Abuse to do with our Integration Journey?
In this past year I have been wondering how my own journey of healing and integration led me into recognising the impact of spiritual abuse in my life - both as survivor and unwitting perpetrator. And maybe some of you who have been following my content for more than a year have wondered the sam...
Sep 29, 2025
How Culture, Disembodied Faith and Trauma Facilitate Spiritual Abuse
How can trying to grow in holiness be anything other than good?
I grew up reading stories about the saints. When I was older I read the writings of saints. Catholic apologetics, spirituality, theology, philosophy - when I was in my twenties I read as much as I was able and took university level ...
Sep 09, 2025