The Founders

The earliest flicker of an idea for a summit on religious trauma was birthed when, in a weekend workshop for mom’s wanting to “find their spark,” Lydia and Kara ended up in a break-out room together. After sharing bits of their journeys and common struggles the mutual desire to create a healing space for people who have been wounded by toxic theology was discovered. After years of dreaming, researching and soul searching Kara and Lydia’s initial vision has grown into the Beyond the Wound virtual healing intensive.


  • Founder and Chief Visionary

    As a former preacher's kid, missionary kid, "perfect" student, daughter, athlete, worship leader, missionary, I've held all the "roles" done all the "right" things, convinced that if I could just “get it right” then I’d finally experience the “abundant life” I’d been seeking. But doing all the things, checking all the boxes, still left me feeling empty, depressed, anxious, fearful, lost and broken, scared that I would never be enough, afraid that if I spoke my doubts, my fears, I would be judged, shamed, cast out.

    An eating disorder landed me in in-patient treatment 22 years ago, and I've been on a journey of healing ever since but almost all of the work that I had done was cognitive, I was still stuck in my head. When I started to learn about how trauma impacts the nervous system, a few years ago, and discovered the term "Religious Trauma Syndrome" a whole body of knowledge served to, in one fell swoop, validate and make sense of my lived experience. Immediately I knew that if I, an educated woman, who has gone through extensive counseling, as well as served as a DBT/CBT counselor and treatment coordinator, all the while being completely ignorant to the existence of religious trauma as a clinically definable experience, then surely there are many who are suffering who, like me, need their experiences validated and deserve to be seen, heard and connected with liberating knowledge, resources and community that empower and heal.

    Welcome to Beyond The Wound. May we journey together from fear to freedom, in every area of our lives!


  • Co-founder

    Lydia was raised in a Fundamentalist Cult. After leaving the church she spent many years privately deconstructing her faith. It wasn’t until she started speaking more openly that she realized there were so many people with shared faith based traumatic experiences. It was meeting Kara that really spurred Lydia’s desire to bring resources to people in all stages of healing.

    Lydia now lives in the PNW with her family.