134: She Escaped a Cult at 30

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On a very special episode of the</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">She Doesn’t Settle</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">podcast, my guest is Melissa Lyons West, a thoroughly remarkable woman who joins me to discuss her experience growing up in a Fundamentalist cult and her brave decision to ultimately leave.  Melissa opens up the episode by detailing the repressive environment that is living in a commune and why it wasn’t until she met another woman who challenged her own beliefs that everything she believed to be true started to unravel.  Before abandoning life in the commune, Melissa struggled with suicidal ideations, depression, physical abuse, and severe backlash if she chose to stray from the Fundamentalist Baptist norm.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Since then, she’s put in a lot of mental health work, raised children trauma-free with her husband, and even started coaching other women with similar backgrounds.  And that’s not to say that it all came easily.  On her journey to freedom she made her way to Thailand and back, suffered the loss of her mother, and had to work through intense bouts of denial.  So today, she talks about all that and then some.  Most importantly, she talks about borrowing courage, especially when you don’t have any yourself. With that said, join us today to hear about Melissa’s incredibly inspiring story and learn why she is no longer willing to sacrifice herself to make others feel comfortable.  </span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>The Finer Details of This Episode:</strong></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Why Melissa’s sharing of her story felt like reclaiming her power</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Why repressive environments are breeding grounds for abuse</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Questioning her own beliefs</span></li> <li style="font-w