About Journey Free
Reclaim the life you choose.
Leaving a high-control religion behind can turn your world upside down. Even after stepping away, you might feel a sense of guilt, fear, confusion, loneliness, or the sense that you’ve lost your footing.
At Journey Free, we understand what you’re going through. While the work of deconstruction and freeing yourself from old beliefs can be painful, disorienting, and deeply personal, we’re here to remind you that you don’t have to navigate any of this on your own.
Who We Are
Journey Free began with one question: What happens after you leave?
In her clinical practice, Dr. Marlene Winell saw the same thing again and again: people who had left high-control religious environments, but were still reeling from the impact of what she came to identify as Religious Trauma Syndrome (RTS).
Today, Journey Free offers trauma-informed individual coaching and support groups for those healing from religious trauma, as well as ongoing professional development for therapists and coaches who are serving this demographic.
Our team includes trained facilitators, coaches, and practitioners – many with lived experience in high control religions – who understand how specific this work is and can provide focused, specialized support for leaving religion and rebuilding your life on your own terms.
What We Do
We support you through the hard work of recovery after harmful religious experiences, focusing on the long-lasting effects that stay in your body and mind even after you’ve left.
For Individuals
One-on-One Coaching
If you’re looking for focused support as you work through fear, shame, intrusive beliefs, grief, anger, and the after-effects of religious conditioning, this is a space for you to talk openly about what’s coming up for you. In our work together, you’ll rebuild trust in your own thinking and explore greater self-connection in order to make choices that feel authentically yours.
Membership-based online community: Release & Reclaim
Release & Reclaim is a facilitated, private online community for folks like you who are healing from religious trauma. Inside, you’ll find up to 4 monthly live support calls, a private, moderated forum, and others who understand your journey.
For Professionals
Professional Development
Our ongoing psychoeducational group is for therapists, coaches, and practitioners whose work supports those with religious trauma. Journey Free’s Professional Development group offers a space to learn alongside peers via monthly live calls with focused presentations, real case discussions, and shared insight and support from Dr. Winell and other licensed professionals. It includes access to resources, recordings, and other ongoing learning.
Who We Help
Religious trauma can come from many different traditions that manifest as patterns of high control, rigid rules, pressure to conform, and fear as a form of control.
We have supported the healing journey of people coming from Christian fundamentalism, evangelicalism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholicism, Islam, Orthodox Judaism, and many more.
It’s not just the trauma experienced while in a religious community. A secondary trauma is experienced as loss of community, identity, belonging, and purpose.
You might feel anxious without knowing why, guilty, even when your beliefs have changed and unsure how to trust your own decisions. We understand and we can help.
Dr. Marlene Winell
Journey Free was founded by Dr. Marlene Winell, a licensed psychologist with over 30 years of experience in human development and religious trauma recovery and author of Leaving the Fold: A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving Their Religion.
She was the first person to coin the term Religious Trauma Syndrome (RTS), giving language to an experience many people were having but couldn’t fully explain. Having personally experienced the journey of leaving a fundamentalist background,
Dr. Winell brings both professional knowledge and personal empathy to this work, and leads a team equally dedicated to helping you navigate the challenges of deconstruction.
Journey Free operates as a team that includes Dr. Marlene Winell as Director, Erin McIntosh as Operations Manager, Jayme Winell as Associate Director and a team of clinical professionals and volunteers. Reach out if you are interested in joining our team and continuing the work of Dr Marlene Winell!
Featured outlets include:
Additional appearances include professional publications, interviews, and podcasts focused on religious trauma, deconstruction, and recovery.
You’re Looking for a Way Forward
Rest assured: leaving a high-control religion is the beginning, not the end of your story.
Understanding religious trauma can help you make sense of what you’re feeling. Our team at Journey Free can offer trauma-informed support to help untangle what lingers and within a progressive, supportive community you will find a way forward.
Are you ready to reconnect with your authentic self, define your values, find meaning, and create a life free from dogma and fear? We are here, ready for you to join us and heal.