I Belong to Me: A Survivor's Guide to Recovery and Hope After Religious Trauma

What does it mean to heal from trauma caused by the people, beliefs, and practices of your faith? And to rebuild a sense of self, when high-control religion said you shouldn't have one?

Indoctrinated from early childhood to obey, conform, and want what others wanted for her, Tia Levings learned love and acceptance meant being someone other than herself.

After years of abuse in a violent marriage and high-control religion, Tia Levings escaped with her children (a story told in her memoir, A Well-Trained Wife) and thought the hardest was behind her.

But leaving was just the beginning.

With an audacious persistence to reclaim her life, Tia set off on a 15-year quest to psychological peace. The result is an emotionally regulated, actualized, self-aware woman who is able to tell her harrowing story without retraumatizing herself --a woman who can reach back to help others claim what's theirs. If trauma took your past, it shouldn't get your present and future too.

Through a series of personal stories, therapeutic stages, and resources, Tia Levings guides readers through the journey that helped her leave abuse, rediscover selfhood, and heal her mind, soul, and body after religious trauma --so that you can too.

Author: Tia Levings
Publisher: St. Martin's Essentials
Published: 05/05/2026
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.34lbs
Size: 9.51h x 6.54w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781250374271


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 04/01/2026

About the Author
TIA LEVINGS is the New York Times bestselling author of A Well-Trained Wife. She writes about the realities of religious trauma, decoding fundamentalist influences in today's culture. Her work and quotes have appeared in Teen Vogue, Salon, the Huffington Post, and Newsweek. She also appeared in the hit Amazon docu-series, Shiny Happy People. Based in North Carolina, she is mom to four incredible adults and likes to travel, paint, and daydream.