Religious and spiritual trauma therapy in Atlanta
Taking both the wound and the sacred seriously. You do not have to decide in advance whether you are leaving your faith or keeping it.
Dr. Aaron J. Kimble · PhD · MA · MBA · LPC · NCC · Georgia #LPC014380
In person in Midtown Atlanta, or by secure video in GA, FL, VT, SC and NY.
Eight years in practiceMore than 5,000 direct client hours with individuals, couples and families.
You do not have to know the ending first
People delay this particular work because they think they have to pick a side before they start. Either they are going to therapy to be talked out of their faith, or they are going to a counselor who will hand them back the same framework that hurt them. Neither is appealing, so they wait.
There is no required outcome here. Some clients come through this with their faith intact and considerably clearer. Some leave it. Some spend years somewhere in between and build a decent life there. My job is not to steer that, and I will tell you plainly if I think I am starting to.
What makes this work distinctive is that the harm and the meaning usually live in the same place. The community that taught you to be afraid of your own body was also the community that held your family together and sang at your grandmother's funeral. Approaches that treat religion only as pathology cannot handle that, and neither can approaches that treat any doubt as a spiritual failure. Both halves are real.
I hold both sides of this deliberately. Religious trauma is part of my practice, and so is Christian counseling for clients who want faith engaged directly rather than bracketed. That combination is unusual and it is intentional. It means you can bring the whole thing into the room without first deciding which half to leave outside.
You might be here because
- You were taught your body was dangerous and part of you still believes it.
- Leaving your church meant losing your entire community at the same time.
- You cannot tell whether the guilt you feel is conscience or conditioning.
- Purity teaching is still shaping your marriage years later.
- You are afraid that questioning any of it means losing all of it.
- Your family treats your doubt as a betrayal of them personally.
- Someone in authority used scripture to explain why what happened to you was acceptable.
- You still pray and you no longer know what you believe.
- You want your faith back and cannot find a way in that feels honest.
- You have been told your depression was a spiritual problem.
What we work on together
High-control churches and groups
Environments where questioning carried a social cost. Untangling genuine conviction from what was required of you to stay included.
Purity culture
Teaching about bodies, sex and worth that outlasts the belief system it came from, and frequently shows up years later inside a marriage.
Deconstruction, without a required destination
Examining what you were taught without a predetermined outcome. Some people rebuild, some leave, and both are legitimate places to land.
Spiritual abuse
Where authority, scripture or access to community was used to control, silence or excuse harm. Named accurately rather than softened.
Grief and community loss
Leaving often means losing every friendship at once. That is bereavement, and it deserves to be treated as bereavement.
Faith that survives
For clients who want to keep or rebuild it. I offer Christian counseling as well, so faith can be engaged directly rather than politely set aside.
The place that hurt you and the place that held your family can be the same place. Any approach that cannot hold both of those at once is not going to be much use to you.Dr. Aaron J. Kimble
How it works
A $25 consultation
Fifteen minutes. A reasonable place to ask what my own position is, and you are entitled to a straight answer before you commit.
No required destination
We are not working toward you leaving, and we are not working toward you staying. If I start steering, say so, and I will take it seriously.
In person or by video
The Midtown Atlanta office on Peachtree, or secure video, which some clients prefer for this because of who might see them.
What you can expect from me
- No agenda about your faith. Not toward keeping it, and not toward leaving it.
- Both halves taken seriously. The harm was real and so was the meaning.
- Christian counseling available if you want faith engaged directly, rather than treated as a subject to be managed.
- Plain naming. If what happened to you was abuse, I am going to call it that.
Fees & Insurance
$185 / individual · $220 / couples
Initial consultation $25. In network with Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, CareSource, Cigna, Optum, and UnitedHealthcare. Sliding scale available.