You Found The Right Place. You've Carried This For Too Long
I'm Lisa Magdalena B.A. Hons. The Original Ex-JW Therapist. Let's Heal Your JW Trauma.
Whether you left the Jehovah's Witnesses last week or twenty years ago.
Whether you were disfellowshipped, faded, or simply woke up and walked away.
Whether you are still inside — PIMO, physically in and mentally out —
trying to find a way forward that does not cost you everyone you love.
Whatever brought you here today, you are in the right place.
And you will never — not once — have to explain yourself.
My name is Lisa Magdalena. I am The Original ExJW Therapist.
Keith Playford's daughter. Third-generation ex-Jehovah's Witness.
Shunned at 16. Homeless. Blood cancer survivor.
And the only therapist in the world who has spent 26 years
working exclusively with ex-Jehovah's Witnesses —
from lived experience, from the inside, from a congregation in Margate
where my father died at 28 for a doctrine the Governing Body quietly retired in 2026.
I understand your JW past. Not from a textbook.
From a Kingdom Hall.
Who I Help
I Work With Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses At Every Stage Of Their Journey.
You were disfellowshipped or shunned
and you are carrying the specific, devastating grief of losing living people
— parents, siblings, lifelong friends —
who treat you as though you no longer exist.
You faded and you are living in the exhausting tension
of navigating a believing family while trying to build
a life the organisation would never have permitted.
You are PIMO — physically in, mentally out —
and you are looking for support from someone who truly understands
the impossible complexity of that position.
You left years ago and you thought you were over it.
But something — a Governing Body announcement,
a Memorial invitation through the door,
a conversation with a believing family member
— has shown you that the JW past is still running in the background of your life.
You are newly awake and the ground has disappeared from beneath you.
You do not know who you are outside of the organisation's framework.
You do not know where to start.
You are LGBTQ+ and you are carrying the specific, layered trauma
of being told from childhood that who you fundamentally are
is wrong, sinful, and spiritually dangerous.
You lost someone to the blood doctrine
— including the 2026 policy reversal that confirmed
what you already knew and still offered nothing by way of accountability.
You tried mainstream therapy and sat through session after session
explaining what a judicial committee is,
what the two-witness rule means, why the blood doctrine kills people
— using emotional energy that should have been going towards healing.
Whoever you are.
Wherever you are in the world.
Whatever brought you to this page today.Y
ou are in the right place.
Why Lisa Magdalena
Lived experience that cannot be taught.
I grew up inside the organisation. Third generation. I carried the No Blood card.
I was shunned at 16. I was homeless.
I survived blood cancer by accepting the very transfusions
that were denied to my father.
I built a life — slowly, painfully, and then with extraordinary beauty
— from the inside out.
When you sit with me, you are sitting with someone who does not need
you to explain a single word of your JW past.
The relief my clients describe in that first session
— the relief of finally being with someone who already knows —
is unlike anything mainstream therapy can provide.
The results that follow.
Not just emotional validation, but real, measurable, lasting transformation.
Clients who came in unable to trust their own minds,
leaving with genuine freedom of decision.
Clients who came in drowning in JW guilt,
leaving with a moral compass that is entirely their own.
Clients who came in terrified of Armageddon,
leaving with peace.
Clients who came in carrying decades of shunning grief,
leaving with the capacity to love and be loved without conditions.
That is what 26 years of specialised ExJW Therapy produces.
What Brings Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses To This Page
These Are The Experiences That Bring Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses To Exjwcounseling.Com.
If you recognise yourself in any of these
— you are exactly who I am here for.
JW Religious Trauma
The specific psychological and emotional damage
caused by life inside the Jehovah's Witnesses organisation.
The guilt, the shame, the fear, the cognitive dissonance.
The wounds that generic therapy has never quite reached.
JW Shunning Recovery
The grief of losing living people. The abandonment trauma.
The shame that the organisation frames as your own fault.
The long, complex work of rebuilding genuine connection
after conditional love.
Identity Loss After Leaving Jehovah's Witnesses
The disorienting crisis of losing the only framework for self you have ever known.
The work of discovering who you actually are
— outside of the role the Watchtower assigned you.
JW Blood Transfusion Trauma
The specific grief, rage, and cognitive dissonance
of losing someone to the blood doctrine
— or of the 2026 policy change that confirmed the rule was always human, never divine.
My father Keith Playford was 28 years old.
This work is personal to me.
LGBTQ+ ExJW Therapy
The double burden of being told that who you are is fundamentally wrong.
The internalised shame. The disfellowshipping over identity.
The long, brave work of building pride and self-worth after spiritual abuse
.Online ExJW Counselling
Wherever you are in the world.
Whatever timezone. Whatever country.
Via Zoom audio, privately, from the safety of your own home.
Expert ExJW therapy without borders.
In Memory Of My Father, Keith Playford
He was 28 years old.
He was a loyal, faithful brother in the Margate congregation in the UK.
He refused a blood transfusion because the faithful and discreet slave
told him that was what Jehovah required.
I was two years old. I grew up without him.
I grew up carrying the No Blood card that could have taken me too.
I ran away at 16. I was homeless.
I survived blood cancer by accepting the very transfusions that were denied to him.
I built a life — on a houseboat on a beautiful English river,
with a partner who loves me without conditions, three cats, a golden puppy,
Stevie Nicks on the record player — that Keith Playford never got to live
.And I have spent 26 years making sure that the people he left behind
— people like you —
do not have to carry their JW past alone.
Every client who walks through my door and begins to heal
is doing something Keith never got to do.
They are choosing their freedom.
That is what this website is. That is what this work is.And it is waiting for you.
Your Next Step
You do not need to have it all figured out.
You do not need to be in crisis.
You do not need to have left the organisation a certain amount of time ago
or reached a certain stage of recovery.
You just need to be ready for one honest conversation
with someone who already understands.
The $47 taster session is 30 minutes via Zoom.
Private. Secure. Worldwide. No obligation.
No explanation needed. Just you. And me.
And the beginning of something that could change everything.
The Watchtower told you that you were not worth outside help.
The Watchtower was wrong.You are worth this.
Whenever you are ready, I am here.
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Let's Talk! Find Out How We Can Help.
Book your 30-minute Zoom Taster Session today and experience the power of expert ExJW Therapy.