Why This Book? 

How stories and myths can help support healing from religion:  

For women shaped by religion, especially those taught what a “good girl” should look like, stories and myths offer a different way in. Rather than telling you what to believe or how to interpret yourself, they invite you into your own inner wisdom. 

Through image and metaphor, stories and myths speak directly to the nervous system because they are non-coercive and leave you free to engage with what resonates and leave what doesn’t. This opens access to imagination and intuition, forms of knowing that were often discouraged or shut down in religious environments.

That freedom is deeply healing for anyone whose inner authority was once overridden.

These Stories Will Help You to:

• Notice those religious “good girl” patterns in real time (like over-explaining, overriding your gut, or feeling guilty for having needs)
• Recognize where you’ve been outsourcing certainty or approval to external authorities
• Experience yourself as complex and human, not in need of fixing
• Notice your intuition showing up in ordinary ways
• Relate to your anger, grief and desire with less fear or judgment
• Feel more at home in your body and inner world, rather than stuck in your head

I’ve been deeply shaped by the work of Clarissa Pinkola Estés. In my own life after leaving a high-demand religion, healing didn’t arrive through more effort or analysis, but through stories, imagery, and myth. They offered a softer way in, one that helped me move out of my head and back into trust with myself.

Over the past eight years, I’ve spent time with Women Who Run With the Wolves, both on my own and in long-term study with other women. Again and again, I’ve seen how powerful this work can be when it’s approached with care, curiosity, and shared in community.