Two women who grew up in the same secretive religious sect — and never met until this conversation — compare notes on what it actually costs a child to be raised without a self. As the FBI investigation into the Two by Twos (“Church With No Name,” also called The Truth or The Way) continues to expand, Kelly Thompson and Melissa Tigard talk about grooming, dissociation, purity culture, and what it took to rebuild an identity from nothing.
In this conversation you’ll hear:
• What life inside “the work” — the group’s full-time ministry — actually looks like day to day
• How childhood religious conditioning produces dissociation, compartmentalization, and addiction
• Why leaving physically isn’t the same as leaving psychologically
• How the same control dynamics that run a high-control religion show up in families, workplaces, and authoritarian politics
• What healing through creative work and reclaiming your own voice actually looks like
This is part of the Women Are Talking series from There’s Nothing Wrong With You (And There Never Was).
If this resonated, subscribe for more conversations on religious trauma, deconstruction, and recovery.
Thank you Jodi Sh. Doff, Kate Poll, Jamie Lee, Mona Mona, Jean Payne, and many others for tuning into my live video with Meliesa Tigard! Join me for my next live video in the app.
Had a great time meeting @Meliesa Tigard of Purple Door Journeys for the first time live on Substack!
See you there.
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