Mary Preston is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She began her counseling work with children in the school system, followed by working with military members and their families. After leaving Catholicism, Mary was forced to take a hard look at how religion shaped her upbringing and created her hypervigilance and anxiety, as well as how it affected her relationships.
Mary’s passion is in learning how purity culture and the gender binary are tools that religions use to keep us feeling shameful, weak and sinful around sex. She is currently studying the intersection of narcissism and religious abuse, and how we can make ourselves more aware of the tactics that pull us back into high demand/high control groups. Mary is the co-host of the podcast Real Life Wellness with Mary and Keysa, the host of the youtube channel Peace After Religion, and the admin for the Facebook group, Religious Trauma Recovery.