My Story
Your story and the pain you carry will be met with empathy and understanding. Having healed from my own childhood and religious trauma, I offer a space where you can be heard without judgment and supported at your own pace. As a Level 2 Internal Family Systems (IFS) practitioner and Soul Care (narrative-based) practitioner, I’ve spent the past 15 years helping people find relief from anxiety, depression, and trauma-related patterns.
If you’re wondering what this work feels like, you can listen to a real session at the link below the page.
Looking back, I can now see this clearly: the churches I grew up in were filled with genuinely loving people, and at the same time they existed within a system shaped by fear, control, and power. I was raised in fundamentalist Christianity, and much of what I experienced there felt real and meaningful. I belonged. I was cared for. At times I truly sensed the presence and love of something greater than myself. Those experiences mattered and were not imagined.
Yet woven quietly into that warmth was a powerful structure that regulated behavior through fear. Love and belonging were offered, but they were conditional. The message that “Jesus loves you” often came alongside warnings of hell, punishment, and separation. Questioning was framed as rebellion and doubt as danger, and over time I learned that safety came not from authenticity but from obedience. Devotion and fear lived side by side.
I now understand how these contradictions formed what clinicians call trauma bonding — a dynamic where care and threat coexist, binding a person to the very system that harms them. The warmth felt like love, while shame, anxiety, and hypervigilance quietly accumulated in my body and eventually emerged as panic attacks. Fundamentalism, as I experienced it, functioned to protect the institution more than the individual: authority was elevated above vulnerability, hierarchy replaced humanity, and personal struggle remained hidden.
Trauma bonding also occurred in my family system. My family, like many others, carried unspoken generational pain. We were encouraged to keep that pain private in order to preserve the image of being a “good Christian family.” Appearance mattered more than healing. Childhood trauma went unnamed, while righteousness was performed.
The fundamental religious system was effective because it used my kindness and desire to serve. I gave my youth to missionary work, shaping my inner world around what I was told was God’s truth, until I realized the system’s deepest loyalty was to its own survival—not love or healing.
Eventually, I faced a choice: stay and disappear, or leave and rebuild.
Leaving burned everything down. Certainty collapsed. Relationships changed. And in the ashes, I found space to breathe and rediscover myself.
After years of healing from religious, emotional, and physical abuse, I now serve as a Level 2 Internal Family Systems (IFS) Practitioner, helping others heal trauma, reconnect with their inner wisdom, and reclaim the parts of themselves that were once silenced.
I am no longer am trapped in an oppressive religious and family system. I am free!
And I believe healing begins when systems of control are named—without hatred, but with truth.
Hear What an IFS 55 min Session Sounds Like
Curious what this work actually feels like?
You’re invited to listen to a sample Internal Family Systems session featuring Nathan Cooley, Director of Deep Water Emotional Health, as a guest on the popular podcast Holistic Health with Melissa Armstrong. This episode offers a real-life glimpse into how IFS gently helps people connect with and heal emotional pain.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-46-why-trauma-lives-in-the-body-ifs-somatic/id1778991009?i=1000748373617
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2O3Yx0gHxF7bzlj2Dtnq5U?si=LgOONmJ-SdaA0GIlz3ba6Q