Your Friend, The Therapist

Guest Bio

Michelle F. Moseley is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in North Carolina. She believes ALL people deserve respect, compassion, and access to mental and physical healthcare. Michelle specializes in working with survivors of religious trauma and spiritual abuse, and those who are exiting a high-control religion. She also works with folks around body image concerns, anxiety, grief, and life transitions. In addition to her clinical work, Michelle provides education about mental health for faith leaders and enjoys exploring all that North Carolina has to offer in her free time.

You can find Michelle on her website https://michellefmoseley.com/ and on Instagram @therapy_with_michelle.

Summary

Michelle F. Moseley, a licensed mental health counselor, discusses her personal experience with high control religion and how it led her to specialize in working with survivors of religious trauma and spiritual abuse. She also addresses the intersection of diet culture and purity culture, highlighting the judgmental hierarchy, disconnection from the body, and moral-based language that both cultures perpetuate. Michelle emphasizes the need for understanding and support for those navigating the complexities of leaving high control religion and finding community outside of it. In this conversation, Michelle Moseley discusses the relationship between high control religion and body image. She explains how individuals in high control religions receive messages about body image from both their religious teachings and the broader culture. These conflicting messages can create a constant focus on body image and lead to struggles with self-acceptance. Michelle also shares her work as an educator, teaching faith leaders about mental health and the impact of purity culture. She emphasizes the importance of faith leaders understanding the power of their words and the need for self-care and honoring personal rhythms.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

03:08 The Impact of High Control Religion

08:26 Transition to Mental Health Counseling

13:20 Finding Community and Training

24:13 Defining Diet Culture and Purity Culture

26:13 The Relationship Between Diet Culture and Purity Culture

29:48 Intersection of Diet Culture and Purity Culture

35:05 The Impact of Purity Culture on Women

37:36 Power Dynamics and Dependency

38:05 Relationship between high control religion and body image

39:27 The impact of high control religion on body image struggles

40:08 The constant pressure to change one's body

41:23 The difficulty of resting and accepting one's body

43:23 Educating faith leaders about mental health

47:19 The importance of faith leaders understanding purity culture and body image

48:39 Taking care of oneself and honoring personal rhythms

50:38 The power of words and the impact of faith leaders

52:10 Rapid fire questions

55:00 Where to find Michelle's work

Your Friend, The Therapist is hosted and produced by Kari Fillian. You can follow the show on Instagram at @yourfriendthetherapistpod. Subscribe to my Substack for more musings: https://yourfriendthetherapist.substack.com/

You can listen to the show on Substack, Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

This podcast is free to listen to and download. If you'd like to support my work in creating this podcast, you are welcome to make a donation via PayPal.