Hi there! I’m Megan…
psychotherapist, recovering perfectionist & “exvangelical.”
For years my perfectionism, over-functioning and emotional caretaking ran the show.
I felt like I needed to take care of everyone and everything. And I actually did it!
{With remarkable efficiency, I might add}.
However, I found myself becoming more and more exhausted, burned out and resentful.
I was busy achieving, achieving, achieving (in all areas of my life!), but… I lost myself along the way.
Eventually, I had to face the reality that I wasn’t happy, despite achieving major career milestones like becoming a psychotherapist, licensed in multiple states with my own private practice.
My marriage was hanging on by a thread (a thread I was holding on to super-tightly, btw). My friendships were out of balance. And my family didn’t know me, the REAL me.
I felt completely alone.
How it started…
I was born and raised in a tiny town in Central PA, homeschooled K-12, and systematically indoctrinated with fundamentalist evangelical christian “values.”
This isolation and early indoctrination set me on a path of disregarding myself throughout my adolescence, 20’s and into the beginning of my 30’s as I adopted patterns of codependency, perfectionism and people-pleasing.
After leaving home and deconstructing my religious beliefs, I realized I was totally out of alignment with my core values and my authentic self.
Purity Culture Problems
While still deeply indoctrinated, I had married a guy with a similar background and values. And, as you can probably guess, when those values were no longer aligned for me, neither were many aspects of our relationship.
Additionally, we had both been deeply harmed by purity culture.
As a result, we were unable to develop a healthy sexual relationship during the 6 years we were married, despite our best efforts.
Because of this, I learned first hand how critical it is for each person to have the opportunity to explore their sexuality before walking down the aisle.
When we realized that we had an issue that couldn’t be “fixed,” we chose to go our separate ways.
Finding Freedom
Thankfully, I got help.
Formal help (psychotherapy) and informal help (books, lots and lots of books).
I realized that my need to control everything and everyone and my lack of boundaries were all rooted in codependency.
And I was able to own the fact that many of the “values” I was indoctrinated with early on were based on harmful patriarchal norms, which inherently oppressive to women and marginalized communities.
Eventually I came to realize that rather than disregarding myself by prioritizing service to others, self-love and self-compassion MUST be at the core of everything.
I was able to move from a place of chronic self-abandonment to a place of inner alignment and self-reclamation.
How it’s going now.
After leaving the marriage, balancing out my friendships, and being much more transparent with my family, life settled into a sort of “ease-fulness.”
The one part that still felt challenging, though, were ongoing limitations around the way I could show up for my clients {especially those seeking help for religious trauma}.
Here’s the frustrating thing — the field of psychotherapy limits me to one on one sessions with clients who reside only in states where I’m licensed.
But not everyone who needs or wants to work with me lives in the two states where I’m currently licensed…
This is why I decided to transition away from the traditional approach to psychotherapy to serve a much broader audience through coaching.
{If you’re wondering how coaching differs from psychotherapy, find out more HERE}.
Pivoting to a coaching model has been great because it has given me much more time and creative capacity to develop content that can be consumed and implemented outside of 1:1 client sessions.
If you’d like more info about my one on one work with clients, this link will get you there: Work With Me
Before You Go…
Consider joining my private facebook group specifically for people who are recovering from religious harm:
And also consider signing up for my weekly email using the form below.