Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Finding Regulating and Somatic Healing “The body always leads us home . . . if we can simply learn to trust sensation and stay with it long enough for it to reveal appropriate action, movement, insight, or feeling.” – Pat Ogden Before I learned about deconstruction, I viewed regulation only as the rules that governments enforce to manage the... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Learn to be Who You Are (Authenticity) “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” –Oscar Wilde If you are walking away from religion or a high-control family, you will experience PTSD because, for most of your life, someone has told you who you should be, what you should do, or how you should believe. Now that you have separated and started... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide (Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand) Get Into Your Body “Your real self may be hiding somewhere, look for it within, when you find yourself, you can freely be what you want to be.” – Michael Bassey Johnson Many religions suggest that our bodies are inherently flawed, leading to suspicion of their signals. This perspective is both misguided and harmful. Embracing a trauma-informed approach allows us to... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Get Some New Friends “Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.” – Dalai Lama I vaguely remember my grade school friends. In second grade, my two friends were a freckle-faced, short person... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Learn to be Where You Are (Presence) “The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future.” – Eckhart Tolle Ms. Beaty was one of my favorite teachers. Back then, teachers took attendance by calling each student’s name and asking them to respond with “here” or “present.” Although both responses indicated the same thing, we now recognize that they... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Get Away from Your Trauma “Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.” – Peter A. Levine When I first stepped away from the pulpit and my role as a pastor, my immediate reaction was to seek solace in a larger church. I soon began searching for ways to reconnect with ministry experiences. Yet,... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Getting Out of Survival Mode “You are not lazy, unmotivated, or stuck. After years of living your life in survival mode, you are exhausted. There is a difference.” – Nakia Homer After leaving religion, I quickly realized that I had unresolved traumas I didn’t know how to face. For 20 years, we operated at full throttle, striving to do “God’s work” as... Read more
Are you serious about deconstruction and asking bigger questions? If that’s the case, this book was created for you. As a former pastor, I made the mistake of deconstructing a bit and then trying to start something new, as I was trained to do. The problem with that approach is that I wasn’t ready to begin something new. I hadn’t delved deeply enough or asked enough questions. The first stage of deconstruction typically includes assessing our beliefs regarding hell and... Read more
After spending several years in the deconstruction world, I benefited from the wisdom of those who traversed it and eventually realized what I shouldn’t do. As in many instances before, pastors and ministry workers demonstrated the lesson of what NOT to do. I am part of this indictment because I was also a former pastor. I will share the mistakes I made that led me to write this book and provide insights on a better way to proceed. When... Read more
A Course Correction for Deconstructing Evangelicals “You are not lazy or unmotivated or stuck. After years of living your life in survival mode, you feel exhausted. There’s a difference.” – Nakia Homer After leaving religion, I quickly realized that I had unresolved traumas I didn’t know how to face. For 20 years, we operated at full throttle, striving to do “God’s work” as if Jesus were returning tomorrow. We acknowledged our issues while also recognizing the efforts we needed to... Read more
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