⚠️ Content Note: This episode includes discussion of religious indoctrination, missionary culture, pastor's kid experience, and religious trauma.
This week on The Awakening, Tamara and I sit down with Josh Foster — licensed mental health therapist, coach, and someone who knows from the inside out what it means to be shaped by an all-consuming religious system.
Josh's story starts at age five, when his family converted to conservative evangelicalism. By seven, they had given away everything they owned and moved overseas as missionaries. For the next five years — including three spent living on ships sailing the world — Josh's entire reality was the evangelical missionary machine. When his family returned to the States, his dad went to seminary, making Josh both a missionary kid and a pastor's kid.
Ministry wasn't just expected. It was all he knew. He spent 23 years in it before the accumulated weight of religious trauma finally broke something open — and he walked away from evangelicalism for good.
Today, Josh works as a licensed mental health therapist specializing in religious trauma and indoctrination recovery. He helps people identify and unlearn the programming that high-control systems leave behind — the code that keeps running long after people have left the building. And this June, he's launching an 18-month course he built specifically for that work.
This is a conversation about what it really takes to get free.
In This Episode, We Discuss:
• Growing up in the evangelical missionary machine
• What it's like to be both a missionary kid and a pastor's kid
• How indoctrination shapes every decision — even after you've left
• 23 years in ministry and what finally broke it open
• The work of unlearning old programming code
• Josh's new course launching June 3rd for indoctrination recovery
Connect with Josh Foster:
🌐 Website: https://www.fosteringhopes.com
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fosteringhopescounseling/
Connect with Your Hosts:
Heather: https://linktr.ee/Happyheathersmiles
Tamara: TikTok @feralatheistjezebel321 | Instagram @tamarajo321
🎥 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAwakeningPodcast-w6s
📩 Be a guest: theawakeningpod@gmail.com
If Josh's story stirred something familiar — the sense that you left but the leaving isn't finished — you're not alone. Unlearning takes time. The fact that you're still asking questions, still reaching toward something true, is not weakness. That's the work. You belong here.
If you like what you here, check out other great pods on the BIG Media LLC Podcast Network!
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Zac and Barrett host What The Pod Was That with Cari Simmons, available everywhere you listen to podcasts.
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Check out Black White and Blue In the South, With Dr. Jumelle Brooks and Bill Kimler!
Politically Speaking with Erica Sampson, Kirsten Pruitt, and Emily Mayer is a sharp, engaging podcast breaking down politics with insight, wit, and a fresh perspective.
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All of these fantastic podcasts can be found on the BIG Media LLC Podcast Network!
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