Natasha Helfer Parker interviews Laurie Mohlman, an LDS therapist and member of the Mormon Mental Health Association, who works with women on parole from the Utah state prison system. They discuss many different topics including how women coming from LDS backgrounds can get involved in activities that lead to doing prison time, the types of themes both in and out of the church that these women struggle with, the types of help the LDS Church offers women as they integrate back into society, and most interestingly the women’s perspectives themselves on why on the one hand they report loving the church and the support they feel while at the same time stating they will never return to their home wards. This will also be a helpful podcast for ward and stake leaders who are trying to support members of their congregations who have experienced such hardships.
Laurie currently works as the Clinical Therapist at Orange Street Community Correctional Center, a halfway house in Salt Lake City, providing substance abuse and trauma therapy to women on parole from the Utah State Prison. She also works in private practice in Springville, Utah.
Adverse Childhood Experiences Study
Many thanks to The Lower Lights for the beautiful bumper music.
Donations to Mormon Mental Health are tax deductible and go directly to support the costs of producing the podcast.
Natasha Helfer Parker, LCMFT, CST runs an online practice, Symmetry Solutions, which focuses on helping families and individuals with faith concerns, sexuality and mental health. She writes at The Mormon Therapist for Patheos: Hosting the Conversation of Faith, runs Mormon Sex Info and is the current president for the Mormon Mental Health Association.
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