After decades of trying to understand my experiences with faith-based coercion—and later, the term spiritual abuse—I found a faith-affirming path to clarity and healing. Art by Sabrina Paredes I write from lived experience, more than twenty years of serving as a church youth leader, and ongoing learning about evidence-based safeguarding that names harm without undermining faith. I know many wrestle with this question: If painful experiences in faith-based relationships are re