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Inner Light Companion podcast
The Inner Light Companion is a soul-nourishing podcast for those healing from religious trauma, emotional burnout, or spiritual disconnection. Hosted by Tamara Ridge, a therapist turned spiritual guide, each episode offers gentle reflections, guided meditations, and tools to help you reconnect with your inner light and Divine truth. Come as you are—this is a space for quiet healing, sacred storytelling, and deep belonging.
Episodes
30 episodes
Ep 29 - When Your Voice Goes Missing: 5 Communication Problems & How to Heal Them | Communication Intimacy #3
Have you ever nodded and smiled in a conversation while screaming something completely different inside? Or tried to pray, but the words felt hollow and performative? In this episode, we explore five major problems that Communication Intimacy s...
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Season 1
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Episode 29
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32:12
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Ep. 28 - Communication Intimacy - Week 2 - 7 Signs You're Truly Heard in Spiritual Conversations
Have you ever shared something deeply spiritual and walked away feeling more alone than before? Most of us have never experienced truly sacred communication—we've performed, edited ourselves, or stayed silent to stay safe.In this episode...
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Season 1
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Episode 29
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34:27
Bonus Episode: What Is Spiritual Counseling? (And How It's Different from Therapy)
For thirty years, I've worked as a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a secret: every time someone sat across from me, I knew that beneath their anxiety, depression, or relationship struggles was a deeper truth—that healing trauma remo...
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Season 1
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Episode 28
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9:20
Ep. 27 - Communication Intimacy - Week 1: Definition & Why It Matters Now
For the last 14 weeks, we've been deconstructing—naming what high-control religion stole from you. Today, we're turning a corner. We're moving from what was stolen into what you can build.Welcome to Communication Intimacy—the sacred art ...
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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40:32
Ep. 26 - Bonus: Reclaiming Sacred Freedoms - Freedom from Exploitation: How High‑Control Religion Uses Your Money, Body, and Safety
In this episode, Tamara names how high‑control religion—especially in its LDS expression—turns money, sexuality, and safety into tools of control, all in the name of obedience and love of the gospel.She weaves together whistleblower repo...
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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39:56
Ep. 25 - Bonus #13 Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms - Freedom of Identity & Self‑Development: Reclaiming Your Right to Become Who You Really Are
In this bonus episode of the Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms series, Tamara names one of the most invisible forms of religious abuse: the theft of identity and the right to grow into who you really are.She shares how high‑contro...
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Season 1
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Episode 25
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1:12:12
Ep. 24 - Teachings from the Masters: Spirituality That Can’t Be Bought
This episode is a deep breath after the heaviness of the Religious Freedoms series. Tamara turns toward the timeless teachings of the masters—Paramahansa Yogananda, the Bhagavad Gita, and Patanjali—to offer core spiritual principles that don’t ...
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Season 1
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Episode 24
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41:49
Ep. 23 - Bonus #12 Reclaiming Sacred Freedoms: Psychological Harm: Reclaiming Your Nervous System, Emotions, and Direct Line to the Divine
In this bonus episode of the Inner Light Companion, Tamara slows the series cadence to one Tuesday bonus episode for the next three weeks so she can honor her body, her nervous system, and the sacredness of this work—while giving you more space...
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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55:56
Ep. 22 - When Safety Leads Devotion: How a Nervous System Reset Transforms Spiritual Practice
After nearly six decades of living in shutdown and over‑functioning, Tamara shares a tender update on a surprising nervous system reset that began just one month ago. She describes how a new tatami mat, a co‑regulating dog, and a night of deepe...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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14:51
Ep. 21 - Religious Trauma and the Body: How High‑Control Faith Hijacks Your Nervous System (and What Safety Feels Like)
What if your body wasn’t the problem in that church, spiritual community, or “transformational” retreat—what if it was wise?In this episode, Tamara pauses her “Naming the Sacred Freedom Restrictions of High‑Control Religion” se...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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40:15
Ep. 20 - Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms #11 Freedom of Privacy & Personal Autonomy
In this episode, Tamara exposes how high‑control systems erode the most sacred space you have: the private interior of your own mind. She breaks down how surveillance becomes a lifestyle — youth interviews, modesty policing, emotional monitorin...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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32:33
Ep. 19 - Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms #10 - Freedom from Manipulation & Coercion: Seeing the Invisible Patterns That Shape Your Spiritual Life
Manipulation inside high‑control religion rarely looks like manipulation while you’re inside it. It looks like love. It looks like protection. It looks like “spiritual guidance.” And for many of us, it becomes the emotional atmosphere we...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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52:21
Ep. 18 - Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms #9 - Freedom of Religious Practice: The Wound of Temple Exclusion & Reclaiming Your Spiritual Path
In this episode, Tamara explores one of the most painful but least acknowledged wounds in high‑control religion: the loss of belonging when the Church decides you aren’t “worthy” to enter the temple.From standing outside a loved o...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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24:25
Ep. 17 - Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms #8 - Financial Freedom After Religious Control: Healing the Scarcity Wound
In today’s episode, we’re unpacking one of the most painful and unspoken legacies of high‑control religion: financial fear that lives in the body.For many of us, money was never neutral. It became fused with spiritual worthiness, ...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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22:06
Ep.16 - Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms #7 - Freedom in Daily Life Decisions: How Survival Mode Quietly Controls Your Choices
For 59 years, I thought I was making my own choices — what to wear, what to eat, when to rest, how to give, how to spend my time. But a few weeks ago, my body revealed the truth: I wasn’t choosing.My dysregulated nervous system was.<...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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39:15
Ep. 15 - Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms #6 - Freedom of Information & Access: When Forbidden Knowledge Breaks Everything Open
What does it cost when you're forbidden from seeing, reading, or knowing anything outside of the authorized script?In this episode, I share three devastating moments of information control that shattered my trust in church leadership:
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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17:51
Ep. 14 - Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms #5 - Freedom of Association & Relationship: When Leaving Means Losing Everyone
I was standing in my living room, about to leave Mormonism, weighing the cost: Social support? Gone. Community? Gone. Lifelong friendships? Gone.The answer that came wasn't "yes, I can do this." It was: "I can't not."But I ...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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30:30
Ep. 13 - Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms #4 - Freedom Over Your Own Body: Reclaiming Bodily Autonomy After Religious Control
Before you listen: Tamara shares more vulnerability in this episode than ever before. Naming what was done to our bodies, as children, as women, as spiritual seekers, is both sacred work—and tough work. If you feel big feelings or body memories...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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26:42
Ep. 12 - Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms #3 - Silenced in the Name of God – Reclaiming Freedom of Expression & Communication
🎙️ This episode is part of the Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred FreedomsWhat if silencing your voice started long before church, marriage, or adulthood?In this brutally honest episode, Tamara Ridge unpacks how childhood...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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32:19
Ep 11. - Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms #2 - Freedom of Thought & Belief: When Questioning Becomes a Sin | Religious Thought Control & Reclaiming Your Mind
🎙️ This episode is part of the Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms (Episodes 9, 11–17)In this raw and soul-stirring episode, Tamara Ridge opens up about her journey through an emotionally abusive marriage and a high-cont...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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24:34
Ep. 10 - From Knowing to Feeling: How to Live as God’s Beloved (Even After Religious Trauma)
You know God loves you… but do you feel it?In this powerful capstone to our Spiritual Intimacy series, Tamara Ridge unpacks the journey from intellectually understanding divin...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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41:47
Ep. 9 - Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms #1 -Why I Say 'God' - Reclaming Sacred Language After Religious Trauma
🎙️ This episode is part of the Bonus Series: Reclaiming Your Sacred Freedoms Episodes 9, 11-17)After leaving organized religion, many of us water down our spiritual language to avoid triggering ourselves or others. But what if...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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27:13
Ep. 8 - How I Inherited Yogananda's Original Teachings (And Why You Don't Need Institutional Permission to Connect with God)
How did a former Mormon therapist end up teaching ancient yogic wisdom? In this deeply personal episode, I share my spiritual heritage story—how I inherited original teachings from Paramahansa Yogananda through a direct disciple who lived with ...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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31:08
Ep. 7 - Recognizing Divine Messages: How to Hear God Speak Directly to You (Even When Life Feels Quiet)
Episode 7: Recognizing Divine Messages - How to Hear God Speak Directly to YouYour windshield wipers start cycling on their own. A feather falls in your path when no birds are around. The exact thing you've been praying for shows ...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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53:04
Ep 6. - When God Feels Distant: Reclaiming Spiritual Intimacy After Religious Trauma
In this deeply personal and transformative episode, Tamara explores what it means to pursue an unmediated, direct connection with the Divine—especially after leaving the confines of organized religion. Drawing from her own experiences of...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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1:00:11