I'm curious to know if any of you ever spoke with a therapist about your crisis of faith? Was it helpful? If so, how? If not, why?

Have any of you found a good, post-Mormon therapist (besides John Dehlin) who can truly understand what it means to have a Mormon crisis of faith? Is so, please share contact info.

My wife and I went to a tscc counsellor awhile ago shortly after I "fell away". I thought he might at least understand my faith crisis a little more than a normal shrink but all he said was "truth is truth". I don't think he would have been much help.

Thanks for response - yeah, it seems like it would be very difficult for a therapist to understand, and thus be truly helpful, unless he/she had been through a post-Mormon crisis of faith him/herself.

for a long while. He definitely looked mormon, but he never expressed his beliefs. I had been inactive because of my life situation for a few years when I first started going to him. Some 5 or 6 years in, I asked him about his beliefs and little by little he told me. I knew he didn't want to influence me by what he said--so he let me feel my way through it before he told me he had been an ex-mormon for about 20 years at that time.

He is in Cache Valley--I say that because you mentioned John Dehlin. He does know John Dehlin, but my therapist is very much OUT of the LDS church. He did a presentation when John Dehlin had a group go to the broadway show of The Book of Mormon. His name is Dave Christian. You can find him on mydocdave.com

I can't say enough good about him. He pretty much saved my life.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/19/2012 02:44AM by cl2.

THANK YOU for contact info. I'm actually graduating in MFT (Marriage and Family Therapy) from ASU this Dec. Planning to practice in Gilbert, AZ in the Spring 2013. Among other things, I hope to help individuals, couples and families navigate the difficult terrain a Mormon faith transition presents through providing therapy and workshops. I see HUGE need for this.

As a therapist who has experienced a Mormon faith transition (evolution) herself, and who harbors no ill-will or negativity toward the church, I will be uniquely positioned to be both empathetic and neural (non-jugemental) to all those I work with going through this journey (believing and non-beliving alike).

Personally, I transitioned from TBM to "The church of loving my husband and kids".

I know this forum was from 6 years ago lol but I'm looking for a therapist to help guide my post-mo life. Do you do skype therapy sessions?

I am in therapy now for a few years and it has been very helpful, regardless of the skills of my many different therapists. It has been useful to "shop around" for a therapist who's listening skills and questions/comments are most appropriate for me, but in the end, it is the compassion he/she offers that matter the most, along with my desire to talk about and "stay with" the difficult emotions that I am experiencing as I am unraveling my abusive childhood and learning to accept who I am now as OK.

I see a private therapist once a week. I participate in a men's group once a week. I practice meditation/yoga and study zen Buddhism. It seems like a lot of time, work, and effort, but at least I don't feel crazy all the time. Just some of the time now. For many people, including my brothers, their exit from Mormonism and faith has not been the struggle that it has been for me.

Each person has their own path. The idea of a straight and narrow path is a fallacy and a misrepresentation of the journey of life.

Truth isn't truth. The important question is: what is YOUR truth?

Amen brother! Thanks for sharing Shamansurf.

I have spoken with two counselors about my faith crises. Both were TBMs. Both encouraged me to find my core values and go from there. Neither judged me, and both acknowledged, they too, shared similar concerns.

Our therapist knew of the constant tithing, temple, and toilet cleaning to get to heaven.

He said, "Remember, you are a human BEING, not a human DOING."

I didn't have a "crisis of faith."

I had an orgasm of knowledge. Which showed that the "faith" I'd been taught to rely on, and count as knowledge, was neither reliable nor knowledge. It was blind belief in bullshit.

So, personally, no -- I didn't do any therapy.
I immersed myself in education and learning. Using facts and knowledge to over-ride my childhood indoctrination of "just have faith." It was both very useful, very therapeutic, and very satisfying.

Your mileage may vary, of course :)

I didn't really have a crisis of faith either. I had "if I don't get out of this operation and get real help I am a dead man."

"I didn't have a crisis of faith. I had an orgasm of knowledge"

OMG!!! I am stealing this!!!

Funny, that's actually how I came to be here! Late one night, as I was trying to go to sleep a stray thought came to my mind: wait a minute, until 1978 blacks weren't allowed to have the Melchizedek priesthood. That's fsking racist! At the time I was seeing a therapist for family issues due to depression. She chuckled when I told her and told me that her husband was an ex-Mormon, told me about exmormon.org and some other websites and suggested I do some research.