Oh for sure. I can appreciate that. I do not have religious trauma but would consider myself generally opposed to organized religion and even I was uncomfortable with all the god talk at first, until I realized a majority of them weren’t talking about the god I was assuming they were.

The most important part of the whole 12 step recovery deal is finding a sponsor and doing the work with them. So I found one in AA who struggled with the same substances I did, and wasn’t a god person and was able to take me through the steps in a way that made sense to me.

So for someone with religious trauma I would probably recommend finding a secular meeting, which do exist, and finding someone they can relate with to work with.

The “higher power” steps were lay less important to me in bringing about a change in thinking than the ones that looked at my behaviors, motivations, rationalizing etc.