Jesus in the Psych Ward: Religious trauma and mental health recovery, with Kristi Williams Artwork

Slutty Grace | Deconstruction, Christian Universalism, & Faith Beyond Fear

Slutty Grace is a Christian deconstruction podcast exploring Christian universalism, progressive Christianity, radical grace, and faith beyond fear. For wanderers, exvangelicals, doubters, and wounded believers rethinking hell, healing from toxic religion, and rediscovering a God rooted in inclusive love.

This is a space where fear-based faith gets reexamined through radical grace.

Through thoughtful interviews and honest reflection, we wrestle with eternal torment theology, LGBTQ+ inclusion, church harm, and the assumptions we inherited — not to tear faith down, but to rebuild it around love.

Slutty Grace names what polite religion often avoids: that God’s love is wider than we were told, mercy is not scarce, and belonging is not conditional.

If you suspect grace is bigger than fear — you’re not alone.

Written, hosted, edited and produced by Jeromy Johnson.

All Episodes

Slutty Grace | Deconstruction, Christian Universalism, & Faith Beyond Fear

Jesus in the Psych Ward: Religious trauma and mental health recovery, with Kristi Williams

March 03, 2026 • Jeromy Johnson • Season 2 • Episode 32

0:00 | 46:59

What happens when religious trauma collides with mental health crisis—and your old faith doesn’t survive the fall?

In this raw and deeply honest conversation, Kristi Williams shares her journey from high-control Christianity to psych ward hospitalization—and into real mental health recovery.

Together, they unpack religious trauma, psych ward hospitalization, nervous system dysregulation, and the long road of mental health recovery after high-control Christianity.

Raised inside Seventh-day Adventism, Kristi shares how years of fear-based theology, end-times anxiety, perfectionism, and spiritual pressure shaped her nervous system long before she realized it. After postpartum stress, insomnia, pandemic fear, and accumulated trauma pushed her into psychiatric crisis, she found herself in a psych ward—terrified, unraveling, and unexpectedly encountering radical, judgment-free love.

What followed wasn’t a tidy testimony. Her faith collapsed. Theology stopped making sense. Attempts to “CPR” her old belief system failed. But something deeper began to emerge.

We explore:

Religious trauma and its impact on the nervous system
Why changing theology alone doesn’t heal trauma
Body-based trauma healing and daily regulation practices
Cognitive belief shifts vs. subconscious integration
Insomnia, fight-or-flight, and nervous system burnout
Deconstruction after mental health crisis
Rebuilding faith after psychiatric hospitalization

Kristi explains why trauma isn’t just a belief problem—it’s stored in the body. And why real recovery requires working with the subconscious, grief, and nervous system patterns shaped by high-control religion.

If you’ve experienced church hurt, deconstruction, spiritual abuse, anxiety around hell or the end times, or mental health struggles connected to faith, this conversation offers language, tools, and hope.

This is not theology from a distance.
This is trauma work in the aftermath.
This is grace that meets you at rock bottom.

Send a text

Support the show

_______________________________________________________

Grace doesn’t hold back. She breaks the rules, softens hearts, and loves without apology. The open, universal, unapologetic love of God. Together we’re building a braver, more honest space. Thanks for your support and for listening.

Got a story, question, guest suggestions, or topic idea? Email me.
Please share if you believe this show and its message of grace is important in our time—keep it spreading!
Be sure to follow on whichever podcast platform you use.

Slutty Grace Facebook Group

Episode written, hosted, edited and produced by Jeromy Johnson.