Ache is a Passport

In her debut mini-collection, poet and IFB cult survivor Amanda Dzimianski offers those suffering from spiritual abuse words of healing, hope, and affirmation. Religious trauma and spiritual deconstruction download a myriad of painful emotions to our bodies and souls-burning anger, debilitating fear, suffocating confusion, deepest grief. Underneath it all, there is a transformative invitation: listen to your own longings, and you may find yourself freer than you ever imagined. Composed for both the exvangelical and the deconverted, these poems honor, mourn, and celebrate the journey out of religious suppression and into self-love and spiritual empowerment. For the church-wounded who have spent life -bargaining with a deity -people-pleasing in the name of faith -tamping down every desire -judging emotion -fearing divine retribution -rebranding or ignoring intuition -suffering to keep others comfortable -hiding a true self underneath layers of community-defined acceptability -pursuing religion's brand of holiness at the expense of curiosity, dreams, ambitions, and/or physical and mental health ...these poems are for you.