Hi aurora. BTW your post is very reasonable length. Long posts are ones that take 15 minutes or longer to read (really there are some that long).

I have been in the church and found it hard to reconcile human sexuality and religion. It is so difficult that many people have to withdraw from religion because of these extreme beliefs.

It is totally natural to be attracted to a nurturing caring person like your T. Our most basic instinct is to reach out for nurturing. Not finding it or finding abuse can have deep effects on people that take time to work through.

A friend who is a survivor of abuse found that this challenge was important enough that they had to find someone they could talk to about these most basic issues. For them it was a therapist of another gender than they had because they had been locked into the situation and not making progress.

Some people take a risk that there therapist may not understand. I have heard about one person that started talking generally about how they found that they were more and more attracted to women and they did not feel comfortable with these feelings. That is something a good therapist can wrap their hands around.

Best place I have visited (must have a total of 5 posts - you now have 4 - 1 more to go - even replying to other's posts works) is the LGBTQ Chat in the Chatroom on Monday at 7PM EST till 8PM. If you want to go tonight, you can make 1 more post and they may show up in time. If not try next Monday.

You can also be an active member in other ways like supporting others in their questions, reading articles and posts http://forums.psychcentral.com that are applicable to your area of concern.

Please feel free to private message me or any of the Community Liaisons by left clicking on the name in blue to the left of their post) for questions or just to share.