Women’s Issues & High-Control Religion; Reclaiming Pleasure, Assertiveness, & Secure Attachment to Self
This presentation explores how patriarchal high-control religious systems—such as Mormonism—systematically disrupt women’s relationship with pleasure, assertiveness, and internal trust. Drawing from clinical observation, attachment theory, and Internal Family Systems (IFS), this talk outlines a three-part pattern often seen in women healing from religious trauma: the vilification of pleasure, the erosion of assertiveness, and the resulting insecure attachment to self. Participants will examine how these dynamics interact and compound one another, contributing to emotional disconnection, relational dysfunction, and diminished self-authority. The presentation concludes with clinically grounded antidotes and treatment approaches that support repair, integration, and reconnection to self.
Mellissa Perry Hill, MS, LPC is a Licensed Professional Counselor and approved clinical supervisor based in Arizona, where she owns and operates Inner Compass Counseling & Consultation, LLC, a small group practice serving clients in Arizona and Utah through virtual and in-person care. Her work centers on supporting individuals and couples healing from religious trauma, spiritual abuse, and faith transitions, with particular experience working with those impacted by high-control religious systems, including Mormonism.
Mellissa’s clinical approach integrates EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), DBT, and narrative therapy, with an emphasis on nervous system regulation, identity reconstruction, values-based living, and restoring internal authority after spiritual harm. Her work is shaped by both professional training and lived experience navigating faith transition and major life change.
She is the author of the Faith Transition Journal, a self-published reflective resource created to support individuals processing disaffiliation, grief, and meaning-making after leaving religion. Mellissa has developed and facilitated curricula and group experiences for local faith-transition and religious-trauma communities and regularly provides consultation, supervision, and education for clinicians working in this area.
Mellissa has been a guest on numerous podcasts and professional conversations focused on religious trauma, ethical mental health care, and post-faith identity development. She also maintains an active online presence through her professional community and Instagram platform, @mellissaperrytherapy, where she offers education, reflection, and resources for both clinicians and clients. She is certified as a sex-informed professional and works with couples navigating intimacy, attachment, and relational repair after purity culture and spiritual conditioning.