reclaim meaning in your life after bad theology hurt you
The church broke your confidence before you could even speak.
They said, “You were born a sinner.” And to what evidence did they point to? Infants crying to have their basic needs be met. Toddlers being curious. Children questioning. Teenagers exploring.
What was considered sin in the Church, was named as “normal childhood development” from those who played on Sundays, rather than sat in a cold, Church pew.
religious trauma disrupts attachment
How can a person trust themself and others with ease when being taught, “the heart is deceitfully wicked” since childhood?
Therapy and Mentorship Inquiry
Where to even begin healing after indoctrinated self-abandonment
Meet Kit Morgan
During the Satanic Panic, Kit’s grandparents and parents converted to the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB). Years later, Kit’s parents pivoted from the IFB and became members of the Southern Baptist denomination where their dad was ordained as a Southern Baptist pastor.
Kit was immersed into Baptist Culture and learned from a young age that love in the Church had its conditions. If you performed how they wanted you to, you were validated and made to feel so important, but when you went off-script? You were slandered in prayer chains and sermons. You would be at risk of losing it all… your home, job, family, friends, spouse, and even custody of your children if you stopped pleasing the Church.
Kit didn’t have the words to express their gender and sexuality when they knew that they were different. Kit was raised by their family and Baptist background to become a Christian wife and mother, but that idea never aligned with Kit. Expressing masculinity and romantic interest in boys and girls would be quickly shut down by those affiliated with their religious groups.
Kit spent over a decade of their life in classes, camps, and Christian Counseling that tried to mold their gender identity and sexual orientation into cisgender-heterosexuality, but it was useless. Conversion therapy couldn’t break Kit’s spirit. Kit (he/they) lives now out and proud as a queer trans man.
Becoming a Religious Trauma Therapist, mentor, and writer
Like other kids who grew up in strict, Christian upbringings, Kit’s options for college were limited so they became enrolled in Liberty University at 16-years-old. They quickly developed an interest of psychology and Christian Counseling studies there. They wanted to understand the methods that were used to harm them and other people whose sexuality and gender were molded into expressions that aligned with the Christian doctrine and counseling that they were given from the Church. This opened their eyes to how counseling methods were used for psychological, physical, and spiritual entrapment of people into non-affirming Christianity.
Kit experienced freedom after their Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a Christian Counseling minor, to choose where they wanted to study. They happily completed a Master of Social Work at Indiana University. And during their masters, Kit became involved in research. Kit’s research focused on justice of people incarcerated or at-risk of incarceration and attachment theory. Kit recognized that adverse religious experiences, placed people at greater risk of fearful attachment styles, addiction, and even incarceration.
Kit assisted in a conflict and attachment study at The University of Notre Dame and went on to be published in Alcoholism Quarterly and the International Journal of Criminal Justice. Their work published focused on harm reduction when experiencing reliance upon alcohol and the racial disparities in addictions treatment. Upon graduation, Kit provided trauma therapy to underserved populations across Upstate New York, amongst them were rural Gender and Sexually Diverse folks, Elder Civil Rights activists, former gang members and victims of gang violence, and conversion therapy survivors.
Religious Upbringings can shape your humor, desire, fear, and deepest insecurities.
Building The liberated porch
While living deep in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, Kit reflected on a place that they wanted to build for other religious trauma survivors who faced sexual and gender oppression. It would be a place for therapy, mentorship, and education about the mental health impacts of what happened behind closed doors of churches and Christian homes. Kit envisioned The Liberated Porch as a threshold before entering the expansion of fresh air after being cooped up for so long in the stuffy air of bad theology and indoctrinated suppression.
A few years ago, The Liberated Porch began as an Instagram account, and has since expanded to TikTok and Substack with over 23,000 online learners.
The Liberated Porch has grown into a podcast that’s hosted on Spotify, Apple, and Substack with solo and guest conversations about the intersectionality of religion, gender, and sexuality.
Kit’s education at The Liberated Porch has inspired people around the world. Kit was awarded a Marquis Who’s Who nomination in 2026 and has been a featured guest in Out Magazine, Colgate University, The AfterMeth: Gay Men Recovering from Crystal Methamphetamine and Chemsex Addiction podcast, The Gay Relationship Podcast with Tom Bruett LMFT, Beyond the Surface podcast with Australian cult and religious trauma recovery expert, and The Happily Never After podcast with Emmy Award Winner and former Co-Producer of The Oprah Winfrey Network, Heather McG.
Working with Kit at The liberated porch
The Liberated Porch began as a virtual classroom, and Kit has since developed The Liberated Porch into a place where people can receive therapy and mentorship. Kit is a licensed clinical social worker in Indiana, Virginia, and New York and sees clients for online therapy, who live in these states. Kit chose to be licensed in these states because each place holds a special place in their heart.
Indiana was the place where they were born and raised. Virginia was the state where they came to fall in love with the mountains in visiting their family, and eventually where they earned their undergraduate degree. New York was the place that they called “home” for the last 6 years.
At The Liberated Porch, Kit offers individual, family, and relational therapy to adult clients in Indiana, Virginia, and New York, and primarily works with religious trauma survivors and people with anxious attachment styles.
Kit dreams that by the time every hair on their head is gray, gender-affirming and sex-positive religious trauma therapy will become widely accessible. This is why Kit mentors other therapists who are wanting to build gender-affirming and sex-positive practices that are religious trauma informed.