I Belong to Me: A Survivor’s Guide to Recovery and Hope after Religious Trauma

"There is no more powerful kind of knowing than the one that lives in your bones. Levings offers us this knowing- translating her story into the wise, fierce, and clear guide needed for the pathway of recovery. With Levings by your side, you will be able to feel brave enough to turn stones over, learn what was kept from you, and return home to yourself. This book is an invitation out of who you had to be, into the fullness of who you are.” ―Hillary L. McBride, PhD, author of The Wisdom of Your Body and Holy Hurt

"Tia has the exceptional gift of meeting you with the kind of care I recognize as sacred. Through her gentle guidance and stories, she finds the unique, often elusive space for the complexity of trauma and deconstruction. This book will be a reference guide for years to come for those seeking the healing that can only come from doing the work. No one explains that work better than Tia Levings." ―Karla Kamstra, author of Deconstructing

"Eloquent. [I Belong to Me] focuses on how to recover hope after a religious trauma―in fact, any trauma―examining the journey in minute detail with the goal of nurturing a healthy mind and body." ―Booklist

"Tia Levings’s I Belong to Me thoughtfully and skillfully expresses the developing path forward for those of us deconstructing faith, not necessarily to replace it, but to rediscover what our trumped-up religion itself replaced and repressed: our humanity." ―David R. Morris, author of Lost Faith and Wandering Souls

"Today, when the devastating effects of religious trauma are widespread and well known, Tia Leving’s book I Belong to Me is an essential lifeline. Tia not only identifies the effects of high control religion, but offers a gentle, nourishing pathway for recovering agency and strength to chart a new path. Tia’s helpful practices are only matched by her superb way with words! A pleasure to read." ―Julie Bogart, author of Raising Critical Thinkers

"Tia Levings has an unflinching way of turning wounds into maps and making hard truths bearable. I Belong to Me reaches through the darkness like a knowing hand and refuses to let go until you find your way back to yourself." ―Bethny Ricks, author of Face Forward

"Compassionate and empowering, I Belong to Me offers a road map to help the betrayed children of American evangelicalism navigate the uncharted landscape of religious trauma. Her pages on estrangement in Christian families are the best I've read on the topic, and the way Tia carefully respects reader agency really makes this book stand out.” ―Marissa Franks Burt, author of The Myth of Good Christian Parenting: How False Promises Betrayed a Generation of Evangelical Families

"Few people write about religious trauma with the honesty, clarity, and compassion that Tia Levings brings to I Belong to Me. This book is both a witness and a guide, naming the harm so many have endured while offering a path toward healing, wholeness, and self-reclamation. For anyone trying to find themselves after toxic faith, this book will feel like the lifeline they have been longing for." ―Brandan Robertson, Author, Queer & Christian: Reclaiming the Bible, Our Faith, and Our Place At The Table