In Part 2 of their conversation with licensed marriage and family therapist Ashley Buckner, the Sunday School Dropouts crew explores the deeper psychological and therapeutic impact of Mormon purity culture. Ashley shares clinical insights into how LDS structures such as worthiness interviews, the Law of Chastity, and confession culture shape a person’s relationship with their body, sexuality, and sense of autonomy. Drawing from both her professional work and personal experience growing up in an unorthodox Mormon community, Ashley discusses the lasting effects purity culture can have on survivors of childhood sexual abuse, including shame cycles, anxiety, disembodiment, and difficulty trusting oneself. The conversation also addresses institutional failures within the church’s handling of abuse, gender specific harms caused by purity teachings, and what real healing can look like through body based therapies, supportive communities, and rebuilding safety and self trust outside high control religion.

Share your purity culture stories with us by leaving a voicemail or sending your story to us!

Guest Info:

Social Media: @ashleyb_therapy

Resources discussed in this episode:

Melissa Urban - The Book of Boundaries

Non Violent Communication book

Non Violent Communication graphic

This podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery

The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.

The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups.

Follow Andrew on Instagram @andrew_kerbs

Follow Andrew’s post-SDA account @lifeafteradventism

Follow Andrew’s account on neurodivergence and high control religion @divergent.faith

Join Andrew’s Substack (Kerb Your Enthusiasm) www.andrewkerbs.substack.com

To begin working with Andrew as a coach, schedule your FREE inquiry call here

Follow Laura on Instagram and TikTok @drlauraeanderson or on her website: www.drlauraeanderson.com

Join Laura’s Substack (Therapy in the Headlines) www.drlauraeanderson.substack.com

To work with Laura as a coach, therapist, consultant, or to inquire about other services, you can do so here

Hosts:

Laura Anderson and Andrew Kerbs

In this first of a two part conversation on Sunday School Dropouts, Andrew Kerbs and Laura Anderson sit down with Ashley Buckner, LMFT, to explore her journey growing up in an unorthodox Mormon home in Cedar City, Utah, and the lasting impact of purity culture and childhood sexual abuse. Ashley shares what it was like to grow up in a “less than” Mormon family with a Catholic father prior to his baptism, the pressure to perform worthiness, and the shame of being born to parents who were pregnant before marriage. She reflects on how purity culture shaped her understanding of her body, sexuality, and value, and how secrecy and silence created the conditions for abuse to remain hidden for years.

Ashley bravely recounts being sexually abused at age four by an older family member and the way cultural messaging around sex and worthiness reinforced silence and self blame. She opens up about not disclosing the abuse until age twenty, leaving the LDS church after moving to Los Angeles, and how experiences of unconditional love outside Mormonism shifted her perspective. The conversation also explores why talk therapy alone was not enough for trauma recovery and how brainspotting and other nervous system based approaches helped her access healing stored in the body. Together, they unpack how trauma and shame live in the hips and stomach, why embodiment and safe relationships are essential for recovery, and how sharing shame in safe spaces begins to loosen its grip.

Share your purity culture stories with us by leaving a voicemail or sending your story to us!

Guest Info:

Social Media: @ashleyb_therapy

Resources discussed in this episode:

Melissa Urban - The Book of Boundaries

Non Violent Communication book

Non Violent Communication graphic

This podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery

The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.

The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups.

Follow Andrew on Instagram @andrew_kerbs

Follow Andrew’s post-SDA account @lifeafteradventism

Follow Andrew’s account on neurodivergence and high control religion @divergent.faith

Join Andrew’s Substack (Kerb Your Enthusiasm) www.andrewkerbs.substack.com

To begin working with Andrew as a coach, schedule your FREE inquiry call here

Follow Laura on Instagram and TikTok @drlauraeanderson

What happens when purity culture and diet culture collide? In this episode, Laura Anderson and Andrew Kerbs sit down with writer Ashley Dunston to unpack the complicated overlap between evangelical theology, fat phobia, and body shame. Ashley shares her story of growing up in Colorado Springs during the peak of 1990s and early 2000s purity messaging, navigating intense pressure to present a “perfect” family image, and being pushed into gastric bypass surgery at just 19 years old. After losing 100 pounds in a year, she faced not only the physical consequences but the emotional and spiritual fallout that followed.

Together, they explore how phrases like “your body is a temple” became tools of control, how food and weight were moralized in church spaces, and why purity culture often excluded or invisibilized girls who did not fit a narrow beauty standard. The conversation moves through grief, bodily autonomy, medical fat phobia, and the painful unraveling of a faith identity that once felt essential. Ashley also reflects on healing, learning to trust her body again, reclaiming desire as strength rather than weakness, and the hope she sees in younger generations finding more diverse and affirming representations of their bodies.

Guest Info:

Website: AshleyDunstonWriter.com

Social Media: Instagram: @ashley_dunston_writer, https://substack.com/@ashleydunstonwriter

This podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery

The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.

The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups.

Follow Andrew on Instagram @andrew_kerbs

Follow Andrew’s post-SDA account @lifeafteradventism

Follow Andrew’s account on neurodivergence and high control religion @divergent.faith

Join Andrew’s Substack (Kerb Your Enthusiasm) www.andrewkerbs.substack.com

To begin working with Andrew as a coach, schedule your FREE inquiry call here

Follow Laura on Instagram and TikTok @drlauraeanderson or on her website: www.drlauraeanderson.com

Join Laura’s Substack (Therapy in the Headlines) www.drlauraeanderson.substack.com

To work with Laura as a coach, therapist, consultant, or to inquire about other services, you can do so here

Hosts:

Laura Anderson and Andrew Kerbs

Music by Benjamin Faye Music @heytherebenji