Mental health | Couples Therapy | Individual Relationship Support | Trauma & Abuse Recovery
One Chance to Listen: What Rachael Denhollander’s Story Teaches Us About Believing Survivors
This article explores why many survivors of abuse remain silent for years and how silence can function as a powerful survival strategy. Using Rachael Denhollander’s experience of speaking out against Larry Nassar, the piece highlights the role of fear, shame, disbelief, and the nervous system’s freeze response in keeping survivors quiet. It also examines betrayal trauma, where abuse is perpetrated by someone trusted or depended upon, making disclosure feel even more dangerous. The article emphasises the profound impact of being believed, the importance of creating safe spaces for disclosure, and how finding one’s voice—when the time is right—can be a meaningful step toward healing and reclaiming agency.
The Importance of Exploring Our Past: Lessons from an Old House
Unresolved trauma is like cracks in the foundation—hidden but damaging over time. This article explores how past experiences, family dynamics, and institutional harm (including spiritual abuse and religious trauma) shape mental health today. Learn why therapy often revisits the past to repair these foundations and build resilience. Refuge Psychology, with Christian psychologist Kylie Walls, offers compassionate support for healing from abuse, trauma, and faith-related challenges.
The Insufficient Self-Control/Self-Discipline Schema: When Discomfort Always Wins
Do you struggle to follow through, act on impulse, or find discomfort and frustration almost impossible to tolerate? The Insufficient Self-Control schema may explain that pattern — discover where it comes from and how schema therapy can help.
The Entitlement/Grandiosity Schema: When the Rules Don't Apply to You
Do you feel that ordinary rules and limitations shouldn't apply to you, or find yourself frustrated when others don't recognise your worth? The Entitlement schema may explain that pattern — discover where it comes from and how schema therapy can help.
The Negativity/Pessimism Schema: When You're Always Expecting Things to Go Wrong
Do you find it hard to trust good times, or feel like you're always waiting for something to go wrong? The Negativity/Pessimism schema may be driving that persistent undercurrent of dread — discover where it comes from and how schema therapy can help.
Soft Start-Ups in Relationships: Gottman Relationship Therapy Provides a Key to Better Communication
This article explains how soft start-ups—a concept from Dr. John Gottman’s relationship research—can help couples raise concerns without triggering defensiveness or conflict. By expressing feelings and needs gently rather than with blame or criticism, partners can protect emotional connection and work together more effectively. Using insights from Schema Therapy for Couples, the article also explores the deeper emotional triggers that lead to harsh communication and offers practical strategies, examples, and reflection questions to help build healthier, more connected conversations.
The Vulnerability to Harm or Illness Schema: When Catastrophe Always Feels Just Around the Corner
Do you live with a persistent sense that something terrible is about to happen? The Vulnerability to Harm or Illness schema may explain that constant feeling of dread — discover where it comes from and how schema therapy can help
Allowing Space for Acknowledgement of Honest Mental Health Difficulties in Faith Communities and Churches
Creating emotionally safe faith communities begins with compassionate language and honest support. When churches listen, validate emotional pain, and walk alongside those who suffer, they reflect the heart of grace, mercy, and belonging.
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.
