(((((((((((( Lisa ))))))))))))))

I am so sorry that you had that experience. IMO, that religious leader was very wrong, and should have helped you. If you come from a background where the leaders are less trained, they might not have really known how to help. I think that changes have been made to increase training and awareness so that leaders can deal with requests for help better now. Your story is, unfortunately, by no means the first one like that that I have heard, and it is tragic that children have been hurt that way. It's not the religion though, it's individuals who did the wrong thing.

I have a very similar issue with school counselors because there were several of them who knew how depressed and hurt I was and they failed me by doing nothing to help or to tell me that I had something that there was help for. I could have had a much different life if I had known. I tend to hold it against the entire profession, or at least I have, when really it was a mistake made by a few people, and now they are trained better.