Why Community Matters for LDS Therapists, Mormon Mental Health Professionals, and Clinicians Serving Faith Transition
By Kristy Money, PhD, LP
If you’re a therapist who works with LDS, Mormon, post-Mormon, or Mormon-ish clients, you’ve probably found yourself trying to explain your work to another clinician.
Sometimes they understand.
Sometimes they don’t.
Because while anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship struggles, and identity questions are familiar to every mental health professional,Mormon mental health often comes with its own unique cultural context.
Clients navigating LDS faith transitions may be grieving the loss of a community while trying to preserve family relationships. Others are exploring life after leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-daySaints. Some still consider themselves active members but are wrestling with difficult questions about belief, identity, or belonging. Many identify somewhere in between—as nuanced believers, post-Mormon, ex-Mormon, or simply “Mormon-ish.”
For therapists, psychologists, counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists, it can be incredibly meaningful work.
It can also be lonely.
Many clinicians serving the LDS community are the only person in their practice—or sometimes even their town—who specializes in Mormon mental health, religious trauma, or faith transition therapy. It isn’t always easy to find colleagues who understand the unique cultural, family,
and spiritual dynamics that shape this work.
That’s one of the reasons the Mormon Mental Health Association (MMHA) exists.
Community is part of staying healthy as a clinician.
We spend our days helping others process grief, uncertainty, trauma, shame, relationship challenges, and identity changes. We encourage clients to seek connection because we know healing rarely happens in isolation.
The same is true for therapists.
Talking with colleagues who understand your work can help reduce professional isolation, spark new clinical ideas, normalize difficult cases, and remind us why we chose this profession in the first place.
Feeling connected to other LDS therapists and mental health professionals serving Mormon populations can be one of the best protections against burnout.
And sometimes, the most meaningful moments happen between presentations.
Meeting another therapist whose brain works the same way yours does.
Discovering you’re not the only one asking difficult questions about how culture, religion, family systems, and mental health intersect.
Those conversations have a way of staying with you long after the conference ends.
Join Us at the MMHA Conference July 30–31
We’ll be bringing together psychologists, counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, researchers, coaches, graduate students, and other professionals who care deeply about LDS mental health, Mormon mental health, religious trauma, faith transitions, and
supporting individuals and families navigating Mormon culture.
Whether you’re new to working with LDS clients or you’ve spent years serving Mormon communities, you’ll find thoughtful presentations, practical clinical insights, meaningful conversations, and a welcoming professional community.
Come to learn.
Come to connect.
Come to remember that you don’t have to do this work alone.
We’d love to welcome you.