As the U.S. sees a vocal resurgence of the religious right and the infusion of these beliefs across every level of government, Catholic psychologist Dr. Julia Sadusky, Psy. D. has set out to debunk harmful ideology within faith-based spaces.
“If you’re not getting rocks thrown at you by virtue of your support for a community that is marginalized, you’re probably not standing close enough,” Sadusky, who owns Lux Counseling and Consulting in Littleton, said.
In addition to being a licensed psychologist, Sadusky is an author and speaker who specializes in the unique intersections of faith, sexuality and gender identity. She has written several books including “Emerging Gender Identities: Understanding the Diverse Experiences of Today’s Youth,” “Gender Identity and Faith,” and “Talking with Your Teen about Sex: A Practical Guide for Catholics.”
According to Gallup’s 2023 polling, 68% of the country identifies as Christian—22% of which are Catholic. Over the past several years, LGBTQ+ issues and sexuality have taken center stage in U.S. politics with the religious right legislating everything from gender transition to sex education in public schools. But Sadusky said the two identities often overlap.
“There’s often the assumption that LGBT people don’t care about faith and spirituality, and that’s a mistake. Conversely, there’s an assumption that there aren’t LGBT people in the Church,” Sadusky said.
Sadusky is attempting to change that narrative for those at this tricky social intersection.
“In the LGBT community and the Church community, there are some super ordinant goals that we could all agree on and work towards, like preventing homelessness and suicide in LGBT youth. Isn’t that a problem we’d all want to address?” Sadusky said.
To make an impact, and help educate those at the forefront of this idealistic collision, Sadusky makes time to visit and interact with as many groups and people as she can.
“I travel about once a month to speak and that kind of thing,” she said. “It’s not always conferences, sometimes it’s a local church or a therapist training at a Christian counseling center.”
The psychologist also uses one-on-one therapy and small familial group settings to address questions and concerns regarding identity and sexuality. She uses phrases and acknowledgments that account for both individual struggles and the presence of God, like “God makes no mistakes,” and invites individuals into a space of curiosity and openness instead of judgment. Sadusky believes it is important to remember that love is a central idea of the Church, and that love is extremely important on the path to acceptance. Understanding and accepting someone goes a lot further than trying to change them.
“[In college] I started to have friends share with me, ‘I’m gay,’ and some of them had been pursuing ministries to change their orientation,” Sadusky said. “I had a negative feeling about that but didn’t know how to challenge that at the time. I just knew it was a negative approach.”
In the U.S., conversion therapy or adjacent “treatments” with the purpose of “correcting” one’s sexuality or gender identity can be found in nearly every state, according to a report from the Trevor Project.
“I had to come to terms with what I like to think of as a ‘shame script’—certain messaging around people and their experiences,” Sadusky said. “The biggest barrier I had was that as a younger child and teenager, I had those senses and sentiments as well.”
Sadusky sees similar “shame scripts”—faulty internal beliefs about oneself, others or God—in many of her clients, and she approaches that challenge from a place of personal understanding.
“I grew up Catholic. Church has been an important part of my life from an early age. I went to Catholic school, and I was always sort of an anomaly with how important my faith was to me as a little kid,” Sadusky said. “I [also] knew from a young age I wanted to be a psychologist. There were people I loved that had gone to therapy and had bad experiences, and so I wanted to learn more about mental health.”
Sadusky has taken that knowledge about mental health, gender, sexuality and her religious beliefs to counseling centers and faith-based institutions across the country. But she’s faced difficulties getting through to some clergy who can be a “tough audience,” as she puts it. Both her age and gender can be a barrier due to hierarchies and the importance of gender roles within the church.
“In a church where there is a sense of hierarchy, as a young person these are the people I look up to as spiritual guides. I feel like you’re supposed to teach me, I’m not supposed to teach you,” Sadusky said. “In some religious denominations, women teaching men is something people have concern about. You can feel that people aren’t quite used to having women in that role or as a guide, a teacher. In that way you get gendered biases.”
But Sadusky said she doesn’t just face these issues within faith-based spaces. She said she’s experienced gender bias elsewhere as well.
“In many spaces being a woman can be a challenge. I think we like to think that gender stereotypes are old news, but it still comes up and I’ve experienced that. I have male colleagues who have to tell people to say their first name, and I have to tell people to say ‘doctor’. It’s interesting that titles like that fall off.”
Despite these challenges, Sadusky has an undying passion for helping people think beyond the ideals that have been conditioned within them. She said there’s something impactful about coming up against the limitations of being a human and still wanting to help others.
“It has been impactful to figure out how to be in a field where there is corruption and harm, and many times you are completely powerless over systems that hurt people,” Sadusky said. “I’ve been struck again and again over witnessing people choose to live and stay against all odds. Seeing the best of humanity in my clients has really changed my life. I get to see the most freaking fierce and courageous people keep going. You can’t even articulate it well enough. That is life-changing.”