Dr. Grisel Lopez-Escobar, PhD, LMHC, NCC
Licensed Mental Health Counselor Providing Virtual Therapy to Adult Clients
in the States of AK, CA, CO, FL, ID, IN, LA, MA, ME, OR, SC, TX, UT, VT & WI, USA
Specializing in Supporting Clients who are Newly Secular / Deconstructing / Have Experienced Religious Trauma or Shunning / Wish to Heal from Purity Culture
Welcome!
I specialize in supporting clients who have decided to leave high demand / high control religions, groups and cults. Some of my clients were born-in, and others join or convert as adults. Some just started deconstruction, some of them are right smack in the middle of the process, and yet others left years ago and now wish to process the ways in which these experiences continue to impact them.
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People leave these groups and organizations for many reasons. Some do so after experiencing a single faith crisis, others do so after years of doubt and cognitive dissonance. Some leave of their own accord, and yet others leave against their will after being punished for perceived infractions and as a result experience shunning, ostracism, disfellowshipping or excommunication. Regardless of your path, having a safe place to process it all, without judgement, can be of great help.
Private
Psychotherapy Practice
Specializing in
Supporting
Clients
Who Are
Being newly secular means that you might need support with:​
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discerning how your former high control group might have affected you, as seen through Dr. Steven Hassan’s BITE (Behavior, Information, Thought and Emotion) Model of Authoritarian Control
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navigating deconstruction, regardless of whether you are PIMO ('physically in, mentally out'), 'out' but not yet 'officially out' as per the former group or... fully 'out'
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overcoming religious trauma and Adverse Religious Experiences (AREs)
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healing from purity culture / shame about your body or about sex
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dealing with the aftereffects or threats of being shunned, excommunicated, or disfellowshipped
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learning how to trust yourself and make your own decisions, perhaps for the very first time
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creating a new sense of self​​
Each client comes in with a different set of goals. My role is to create a place where you can parse through old messages and analyze which ones you currently find beneficial and which ones you do not. It can be a liberating experience for you to better understand the link between what you were first taught as a small child and your current thoughts, behaviors and fear patterns.​​
Some of these early messages might surround issues on:
• your inherent worth as a human
• power, body autonomy, safety, setting and keeping boundaries
• whether or not you have the right to your feelings, thoughts, opinions and wants
• purity culture, surveillance culture, shame, fear, power, gender, gender roles and sexuality
• your right (or lack of right) to question the teachings or leaders of your group.
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Thanks to my life experiences I come to the therapeutic relationship from a variety of cultures. Think of me as an American / Latin-American / European hybrid. I know what it's like to adapt to new circumstances, and to learn how to summon the inner strength required to survive and thrive. English is the language I speak the best, and I also provide therapy in French and Spanish.
Reach out if you have any questions! We can have a 20-min. chat (well, more like a minimum of 20-min. chat) before you decide if you would like to work with me. Remember, if you do decide to move forward and choose me as your therapist and then change your mind, no worries— what matters is that you find the right therapist for you!
Life is precious and we’re only here for pretty much the blink of an eye. My goal is to help my fellow humans make the very best of their time on Earth, or on what scientist and astronomer Carl Sagan dubbed… the ‘Pale Blue Dot.’ I look forward to hearing from you! In the meantime I invite you to visit my page dedicated to TED talks on the subject of religious deconstruction.
