Mental health | Couples Therapy | Individual Relationship Support | Trauma & Abuse Recovery
When Choice Isn’t Really Choice: The Reality of Coercion
Coercion can appear in relationships, workplaces, churches, and faith communities through emotional pressure, manipulation, withholding, and spiritual abuse. This article explains the meaning of coercion, coercive control, and subtle threats, showing how they erode autonomy, trust, and wellbeing. Learn how coercion impacts intimacy, family, leadership, and religious settings, and discover strategies to recognise coercive behaviour, break unhealthy patterns, and seek safe, trauma-informed support
Family Estrangement: Grappling with the Pain and Confusion
A exploration of family estrangement, faith, trauma, religious trauma and boundaries — examining when distance becomes necessary and how healing can occur with compassion and discernment.
The Mistrust/Abuse Schema: When You're Always Waiting to Be Hurt
Do you find it hard to trust people, or expect to be hurt or betrayed in relationships? The Mistrust/Abuse schema may be at the heart of it — discover where it comes from, how it shapes your life, and how schema therapy can help.
The Emotional Inhibition Schema: When Feelings Feel Too Dangerous to Show
Do you find it difficult to show emotions, or feel more comfortable keeping feelings locked away? The Emotional Inhibition schema may explain that pattern — discover where it comes from and how schema therapy can help.
From Defensiveness to Dialogue: Tools for Healthier Interactions
Defensiveness is a common response to criticism, but it can harm relationships, families, workplaces, and faith communities. This article explores types of defensiveness, psychoanalytic roots, and impacts on communication. Drawing on John Gottman’s research and Schema Therapy, it provides practical tools to move from defensiveness to dialogue, strengthen emotional safety, and build healthier connections at home, work, and in spiritual settings.
Breaking the Scrupulosity Cycle: What Drives Religious OCD
Scrupulosity is a form of religious OCD where faith becomes entangled with fear, guilt, and intrusive thoughts. Learn how faith-sensitive psychologist Kylie Walls helps break cycles of obsession and compulsion using evidence-based, compassionate therapy.
You Can Have Faith and Still See a Psychologist
Feeling anxious, low, or overwhelmed doesn’t mean you’ve lost faith. Discover how therapy and Christian belief can work together to support mental health, strengthen resilience, and help you reconnect with peace through faith-sensitive care.
The Dependence/Incompetence Schema: When You Don't Trust Yourself to Cope
Do you struggle to trust your own judgment or feel like you can't cope without others to guide you? The Dependence/Incompetence schema may be at the root of it — discover where it comes from and how schema therapy can help.
About KylieHi, I’m Kylie Walls, a registered psychologist and the founder of Refuge Psychology.
My practice is shaped by professional experience, research, and a long-standing commitment to supporting people navigating complex emotional, relational, and faith-related experiences. I have worked with individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and faith traditions, and I have also held volunteer and professional roles within church and ministry contexts. These experiences have deepened my understanding of the unique dynamics that can arise when wellbeing, identity, and faith intersect — and the importance of care that is both sensitive and clinically grounded.
I have published research on control, attachment, and emotional regulation, and have previously worked as a Domestic and Family Violence Advisor within a faith-based organisation. I began my career as a teacher and later spent time working in photography, but my ongoing interest in people — their stories, relationships, and inner worlds — led me into psychological practice. I bring both professional and lived experience to my work in a way that is clinically grounded, respectful, and client-led.
Areas of Interest
I offer support to adults who may be:
Managing general mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, stress, grief, or life transitions — whether or not these are connected to faith or ministry.
Navigating confusing, painful, or high-pressure experiences in church or ministry environments, including those recovering from spiritual abuse, coercion, or high-control faith settings, including cults.
Pastors, ministry leaders, and caregivers experiencing stress, burnout, role strain, or relational challenges within ministry or leadership roles.
Experiencing domestic and family violence, coercive control, or destructive relationship patterns — whether in intimate partnerships, family, community, or faith-based contexts.
Experiencing scrupulosity / Religious OCD or distress related to rigid or fear-based beliefs.
Facing workplace challenges, including bullying, power imbalances, role strain, or organisational conflict, and the emotional toll these experiences can create.
Couples seeking support around communication, connection, conflict patterns, recovery after relational harm, infidelity, or navigating values and expectations within relationships.
Inclusive and Client-Led Care
While I have a particular interest in supporting people from faith backgrounds, I welcome clients from all backgrounds. My focus is on providing compassionate, trauma-informed, and ethical psychological care that honours each person’s values, experiences, and goals for wellbeing.
This is a collaborative space, shaped by your needs and values.
