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What happens when obedience becomes survival, and silence is enforced through fear of eternal damnation?

In this episode of The Angela Rose Show, I sit down with Michelle Stewart, activist, survivor, and author of JUDAS GIRL. Michelle grew up moving through a series of religious cults, including Hutterite, Bruderhof, River Brethren, Russian Orthodox, and an off-grid Amish-style commune led by a former Pathway Publishing editor. Each group claimed to hold “truth,” but used fear, shame, and religious coercion to suppress identity, voice, and thought.

🔍 We explore:

• Why Michelle used the word cult, and what actually qualifies as one
• Gender hierarchy, obedience, and early objectification in Hutterite and Bruderhof life
• The psychological toll of being called “worse than Judas” by her father at age 14
• Her struggle to reconcile faith, autonomy, and loyalty as a teenage church member
• The role purity culture played in grooming, coercion, and sexual violation
• How indoctrination prevented her from recognizing abuse, and her own worth
• The impact of untreated mental illness and betrayal within religious systems
• The life-saving power of education, language, and the right resources

Michelle’s story is one of surviving impossible choices, reclaiming power, and choosing to name the truth, even when it’s not welcome. As she says in the episode:

“You can only make choices from the mindset you know.”

📕 Her memoir JUDAS GIRL doesn’t offer a tidy ending.. It offers validation, insight, and a path toward clarity.

🛑 Trigger warning: This episode includes honest discussions of sexual abuse, spiritual manipulation, and suicide ideation. Please take care as you listen.

💬 If something in this conversation resonates with your story, comment below or message privately. You’re not alone.

📕 Get the Book

JUDAS GIRL by Michelle Stewart

Also available on Amazon and major bookseller platforms

🔗 Follow Michelle Stewart:

Instagram: @michelle_stewart_author - https://www.instagram.com/michelle_stewart_author

Facebook: @Michelle-StewartAuthor-61552318056042 - https://www.facebook.com/p/Michelle-StewartAuthor-61552318056042/

Michelle Stewart's Official Website: https://michellestewartauthor.com/

🔗 Follow Angela Rose:

Instagram: @angelarosemartin

Facebook: @angelarosemartin

TikTok: @angelaroseshow

🔖 Crisis Support Resources

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please reach out to one of the following:

• Crisis Text Line – Text TWLOHA to 741741
• Suicide & Crisis Lifeline – Call 988
• National Child Abuse Hotline – Call 800-422-4453
• National Domestic Violence Hotline – Call 800-799-7233
• RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) – Call 800-656-4673

You are not alone. Help is available.

Send us a text

“When I began to succeed, I found out quickly who was truly for me."

In this deeply personal episode of The Angela Rose Show, I sit down once again with my soul-friend and fellow survivor, Jessica Witmer of Wild Olive Branch Coaching. We’re not just talking about healing today, we’re talking about thriving. About reclaiming agency, success, and voice after a lifetime of compliance and oppression.

Coming from Amish and Mennonite cultures where entrepreneurship was “a man’s lane,” Jess and I open up about what it really means to launch a business as a woman from a high-control religious environment. This isn’t about hustle culture. It’s about health, ownership, and self respect. It's about choosing courage over what mind control had instilled in us.

🔍 We unpack:

• The loneliness of stepping into your potential
• How gender role expectations didn't work for us and why we broke those rules
• The painful loss of relationships when we stopped struggling and started thriving
• Writing as reclamation: turning our stories into strength
• Why success as a survivor is revolutionary

If you’ve ever felt like your healing or ambition made others uncomfortable, this episode is for you.

💬 Drop a comment, share your story, or just know this: you’re not too much. You have all you need to live out your deepest passion. Dream on!

🔗 Follow Jessica Witmer:

Instagram: @wildolivebranchcoaching

Facebook: @jessicawitmer

Coaching: Wild Olive Branch Coaching

🔗 Follow Angela Rose:

Instagram: @angelarosemartin

Facebook: @angelarosemartin

TikTok: @angelaroseshow

📢 Support This Work

Please like, comment, and share to help us reach more survivors ready to step into freedom.

📍 CRISIS SUPPORT RESOURCES

Crisis Text Line – Text TWLOHA to 741741

Suicide & Crisis Lifeline – Call 988

National Child Abuse Hotline – Call 800-422-4453

National Domestic Violence Hotline – Call 800-799-7233

RAINN – Call 800-656-4673

Send us a text

In today’s episode of The Angela Rose Show, I sit down with someone I deeply admire — Jessica Witmer of Wild Olive Branch Coaching. This is her story as a teenager, but it’s also the story of so many of us who grew up silenced, oppressed, and searching for safety in high-control religious environments.

Jessica was raised in an Amish household with 15 siblings, a strict environment, with emotional neglect and physical abuse that ran deep. She opens up about being the “outsider” in a church she would never be fully accepted into, dissociation and self-harm, and the unbearable shame that engulfed her for years. Her courage to revisit her teenage years and speak so vulnerably is nothing short of stunning.

We talked about what it’s like to wake up from survival mode and realize you’ve never been taught how to live. How even after escaping abuse, the battle isn't over—it just changes. Jessica shares what helped her begin to heal, the poem she wrote that still gives me chills, and the powerful meaning behind her “I think you should stay” hat and self harm transformation tattoo.

💬 What we dive into:

• Jessica’s experience growing up Amish and feeling like an outsider
• Self inflicted violence, and how it became a way of coping
• How she escaped her abusive home at 17
• What healing actually looked like… messy, non-linear, and painfully beautiful
• Why her scars and her story no longer carries shame

If you are struggling with your mental health, I hope this episode reminds you: there is nothing wrong with you. You were never the problem. And you are absolutely worthy of compassion and recovery. I think you should stay.

🖤 Follow Jessica:

Instagram: @wildolivebranchcoaching

Facebook: @jessicawitmer

Coaching & Support: Search Wild Olive Branch Coaching

🎙️ Follow me (Angela Rose):

Instagram: @angelarosemartin

Facebook: @angelarosemartin

TikTok: @angelaroseshow

🔔 Subscribe for more real stories from survivors who’ve turned pain into purpose.

❤️ If You Need Immediate Help

📍 CRISIS SUPPORT RESOURCES

Crisis Text Line – Text TWLOHA to 741741

Suicide & Crisis Lifeline – Call 988

National Child Abuse Hotline – Call 800-422-4453

National Domestic Violence Hotline – Call 800-799-7233

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) – Call 800-656-4673

You matter. Your story matters. And healing is possible.

Send us a text

I’ll never forget the moment Jessica said, “Before I ever abandoned myself, I was abandoned by others.” That line was profound.

In this episode of The Angela Rose Show, I sit down with my friend Jessica Witmer, trauma coach and founder of Wild Olive Branch Coaching, to have a raw conversation on what realistic trauma recovery looks like.

Jessica grew up with 15 siblings in a high-control religious community where abuse, silencing, and survival became the norm. In this episode, we go there. The hard parts. The invisible wounds. The parts nobody wants to talk about in church.

We unpack:
-How self-abandonment starts early in religious trauma
-How fear and shame are baked into obedience
-How abuse doesn’t always leave bruises—but always leaves impact
-The grief of discovering what was done to you was never your fault
-And how reconnecting with your body changes everything

This isn’t surface-level healing. This is real. This is raw. This is recovery.

💬 Drop a comment if this resonates, you are not alone. Feel free to email Jessica or Angela Rose if you are looking for safe trauma recovery resources.
🧠 "If no one else believed you, I hope you still find the courage to believe yourself." ~Wild Olive Branch Coaching

—

🔗 Connect with Jessica Witmer
Instagram: @wildolivebranchcoaching
Facebook: @jessicawitmer
Coaching & Support: Search Wild Olive Branch Coaching

🎙️ Follow Angela Rose:
Instagram: @angelarosemartin
Facebook: @angelarose
TikTok: @angelaroseshow

📢 If this conversation meant something to you, please like, comment, and share. It helps us reach more survivors and amplify these powerful stories.

#TheAngelaRoseShow #ReligiousAbuse #SpiritualAbuseRecovery #ReligiousTrauma #WildOliveBranchCoaching #Jessicawitmer #ComplexTrauma #SelfAbandonment #SurvivorStories #cultrecovery #traumarecovery #amish #mennonite #mentalhealth #abusesurvivors #mentalhealthawareness #religiousabuse #hiddenabuse

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What happens when your body becomes both the site of trauma and the canvas for healing?

In this vulnerable conversation, I sit down with Ann, a survivor of sexual and spiritual abuse within a Mennonite community. Together, we unravel the weight of twisted love messages, the cost of silence, and what it means to reclaim the parts of yourself once stolen.

We talk about the long-term impact of childhood rape, the tangled lines between church and God, and how healing doesn’t always look like a testimony with a pretty ending. Ann shares how her tattoos became symbols of resilience, authenticity, and ownership of her own body.

If you’ve ever felt silenced, confused by love, or blamed for your pain, this space is for you.

We are not here to perform healing. We’re here to tell the truth, even when it’s still unfinished.

🕊 Subscribe for more unfiltered stories from survivors. Your voice matters.

🎙 The Angela Rose Show

▪️ Connect with Ann Detweiler:

Blog: abundantredemptionblog.wordpress.com
Facebook: facebook.com/abundantredemptionblog
Instagram: @mrs_anndetweiler

▪️ Follow Angela Rose:

Instagram: @angelarosemartin

Facebook: @angelarosemartin

TikTok: @angelaroseshow

Send us a text

In this raw and unfiltered testimony, a Mennonite cult survivor bravely recounts her harrowing experiences of spiritual, emotional, physiological, and physical abuse. Plunged into despair with thoughts of suicide, her story is a powerful reminder of the impact of abuse and the difficult road to recovery. Please like, comment, and subscribe for more relatable life stories and support for survivors.

🎙️ Follow me (Angela Rose):

Instagram: @angelarosemartin

Facebook: @angelarosemartin

TikTok: @angelaroseshow