Inner Light Companion podcast
The Inner Light Companion is a soul-nourishing podcast for those healing from religious trauma, emotional burnout, or spiritual disconnection. Hosted by Tamara Ridge, a therapist turned spiritual guide, each episode offers gentle reflections, guided meditations, and tools to help you reconnect with your inner light and Divine truth. Come as you are—this is a space for quiet healing, sacred storytelling, and deep belonging.
Inner Light Companion podcast
Ep. 18 - Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms #9 - Freedom of Religious Practice: The Wound of Temple Exclusion & Reclaiming Your Spiritual Path
In this episode, Tamara explores one of the most painful but least acknowledged wounds in high‑control religion: the loss of belonging when the Church decides you aren’t “worthy” to enter the temple.
From standing outside a loved one’s wedding while family gathers inside, to decades of everyday “just come to church” pressure, Tamara breaks down how exclusion becomes a spiritual injury that lives in the nervous system long after you leave.
Inside this episode:
• the truth behind “You can choose… as long as you don’t actually choose”
• why temple exclusion creates an attachment rupture, not a doctrinal disagreement
• how “just” language (just come, just participate, just bear your testimony) dismisses your inner truth
• the erasure of women inside the temple’s true order of prayer
• how coercive spirituality hijacks your sense of worthiness and belonging
• reclaiming direct access to the Divine—no mediators, no gatekeepers
• the freedom to raise your children outside a system built on fear, shame, and obedience
• how spiritual sovereignty feels in your body: safety, grounding, breath, softness
Tamara closes with embodied practices to help you release coercive conditioning, rebuild true belonging, and trust the inner voice that’s been leading you home all along.
You were never meant to earn love through ritual.
Your spiritual belonging was never meant to be conditional.
Get your Guided Meditation for Reclaiming Yourself after High-Control religion here
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🌿 The Inner Light Companion is hosted by Tamara Ridge, LMFT — guiding spiritually curious souls into deeper connection, intuitive healing, and divine remembrance.
💌 Connect with me:
Website & Guest Submissions: www.innerlightcompanion.com
Spiritual Counseling: www.guidinglightspiritualcounseling.com
Instagram: @innerlightcompanion
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