NorthJersey.com
As an ordained minister and clinical social worker for over three decades, Bergenfield s Pamela Pater-Ennis has grown all too familiar with what she calls religious trauma.
Many of her clients have been abused by clergy, ostracized by religiously judgmental families or rejected by their churches when they came out as gay, she recalled in a recent interview.
Faith is supposed to offer a sanctuary from suffering. But it can turn ugly, said Pater-Ennis, 62, who runs an interfaith counseling service with offices in Teaneck and Hoboken. Her mission, she said, is to help people make sense of it when religion turns bad.