Empowering Women Through Stories of Resilience
What happens when faith is used as a tool for control—and how do you begin to heal after escaping it?
In this episode of Honest Christian Conversations, I sit down with Mischelle Saunders-Gottsch to talk about resilience, spiritual healing, and finding genuine faith after growing up in a cult environment. Mischelle shares her story with honesty and courage, reflecting on what it means to disentangle faith from manipulation and rediscover truth rooted in love, not fear.
This conversation isn’t about sensational details or pointing fingers. It’s about understanding how unhealthy religious systems can distort faith—and how God gently leads people toward healing, freedom, and restoration.
Together, we explore thoughtful and necessary questions:
How do we discern healthy faith from harmful control?
What does healing look like after spiritual abuse?
And how can honest conversations help protect others and bring restoration?
Mischelle’s journey reminds us that faith grounded in truth brings freedom—not fear—and that healing is possible, even after deep spiritual harm.
⬇️ Listen now to step into this conversation.
After listening, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Wife. Mother of five. Podcaster. Fiction Novelist
Ana is the host of the Honest Christian Conversations podcast and a prodigal saved by God’s unending grace.
She grew up in a legalistic Christian home where asking questions often felt wrong. In her early twenties, overwhelmed by confusion and hurt, she walked away from her faith. Yet even then, God’s love never stopped pursuing her. At thirty years old—and after a painful second divorce—He brought her back to himself, and she has never looked back.
As Ana returned to Christ, she began rebuilding her faith from the ground up and asked the questions she once feared to ask. Along that journey, she discovered inconsistencies, misplaced teachings, and even lies woven into the Christianity she grew up with. Instead of destroying her faith, this only deepened it. Out of that discovery, she founded Honest Christian Conversations. Ana's heart is to help others navigate the same tension she once lived with: wanting to know the real Jesus while sorting through the noise of deceptive teachings, spiritual manipulation, and “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
Everything she creates flows from gratitude for the God who rescued her, restored her, and continues to shape her into who He intended her to be.
5.00 (41 Reviews)
