S5E12 | Connie Baker LPC - Religious, Spiritual & Sexual Abuse Survivor & Trauma Recovery Specialist

Today I’m honored to introduce you all to: Spiritual, sexual and religious abuse survivor, educator, writer and author, podcast host and podcaster, Masters Level University Instructor, Licensed Professional Counselor, seminar teacher, conference speaker, clinical supervisor, writer, trauma recovery specialist, published author, trained life coach, private practice owner who works with her own clients, and an absolute inspiration: Connie Baker

Connie’s was born into a family with conscientious parents that loved, supported, and cared about her. From the outside looking in, they looked like a typical ‘normal’ family, but lurking beneath the surface, there was a dark side that was hidden from plain sight. Her parents were rigid, strict, authoritarian, and very harsh with Connie’s discipline, and there was a demand for absolute compliance that Connie learned immediately as a young child to survive. She was supported by her parents as long as she was being good and the code word for her family was ‘responsibility’. These strict standards led to Connie became a very compliant and high-achieving child and adolescent back in the late 60s and 70s. She was raised in a country church in Southern Oregon that was full of unassuming, good-hearted people - and the church naturally reinforced all of the family themes that Connie had been conditioned to unconsciously accept at home. The theology and the culture of the church went along to strengthen the rigid, unbending demand for the same particular behavior patterns of perfection, compliance, obedience and responsibility her parents had always expected of her.

The church Connie was attending during that time also happened to be pastored by someone who - three years earlier - had publicly confessed to having molested his own foster daughter. And when Connie was 16, this very pastor caught her alone on four different occasions and kissed her on the lips. Connie was silent about this violation for years - she knew the story of his foster daughter and knew no one would take her story seriously. This sexual violation helped further normalize this type of behavior and paved the way for more abuse down the road in Connie’s life at the hands of church clergy.

Connie has spent over 25 years healing, recovering and understanding the dynamics of the complex trauma she had experienced. She married, became a mother, and went back to school to become a mental health therapist in order to help others who were put in the same position as her to become a victim of spiritual, religious, sexual and complex trauma and abuse at the hands of authoritarian figures who were supposed to be protective of children and young adults. Connie has a YouTube channel under name @ConnieABaker, a book called ‘Traumatized by Religious Abuse’, and a ton of resources on her website, www.connieabaker.com including webinars and religious abuse recovery essentials. Connie’s passion is infectious and her healing journey is nothing short of inspirational. I know you will all love her as much as I do.

In her own words:

“I now have the remarkable privilege, joyful privilege, sacred privilege of walking with those whose lives have been injured or broken at some point by spiritual abuse. May my small story and my restored happy life and being give hope, inspiration, and healing to those of you
who've traveled the same path.”

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CONNECT WITH CONNIE:
YouTube: @ConnieABaker-mo7ii - https://www.youtube.com/@ConnieABaker-mo7ii
Website: https://connieabaker.com/
Purchase book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TDT6YQL?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_0ZSY8C2ZYQ70M0JSC56H&starsLeft=1&skipTwisterOG=1
FB Public Page: https://www.facebook.com/ReligiousAbuseRecovery/
FB Private Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ORACommunity/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/connie_a_baker/

CONNECT WITH THE IMAGINATION:
EMAIL: imagineabetterworld2020@gmail.com
My Substack: https://emmakatherine.substack.com/
BUY ME A COFFEE: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theimagination
All links: https://direct.me/theimaginationpodcast