Rev. Mary Brown and Erica Podrazik
Silence Broken
New Orleans, Louisiana
Silence Broken is a New Orleans faith-based organization dedicated to the mental and spiritual healing of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse and to equipping faith leaders to build communities that are inclusive, trauma-informed, and survivor-centered. Rooted in the conviction that silence protects systems of harm, the organization works to transform how faith communities respond to survivors of abuse. Through pastoral formation, educational workshops, and collaboration with mental health professionals, Silence Broken helps religious leaders across traditions develop ministries grounded in truth, compassion, accountability, and established trauma-care practices.
Its Faith Leader Workshop Series provides clergy and lay leaders with practical tools to support survivors in ways that complement—rather than replace—professional mental health care. Guided by a vision of churches where survivors are embraced rather than stigmatized, Silence Broken is helping faith communities confront long-standing cultures of silence and create pathways toward healing, restoration, and wholeness.
About Rev. Dr. Mary Brown
Rev. Dr. Mary Brown
Rev. Dr. Mary Brown is the founder of Silence Broken and an ordained Baptist minister with a deeply ecumenical background in theological education, pastoral care, and faith-based ministry. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Eastern Baptist Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry from Boston University. Her vocational calling has been profoundly shaped by her own experience as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and by her later recovery of repressed memories in midlife. Through that experience, Dr. Brown became acutely aware of the spiritual harm caused when churches fail to speak honestly about abuse or provide meaningful support to survivors.
Drawing on decades of ministry experience, Dr. Brown has dedicated her work to helping faith leaders confront difficult truths with theological integrity and pastoral sensitivity. Her leadership centers on creating spaces where survivors are no longer isolated by shame or silence and where congregations are equipped to respond with compassion, accountability, and informed care.
About Erica Podrazik
Erica Podrazik
Erica Podrazik is a writer, content developer, and qualitative researcher whose work focuses on narrative strategy, community-centered research, and educational design. She holds a Master of Arts degree from Tulane University and brings a strong interdisciplinary background to Silence Broken’s educational and formation initiatives.
Erica began developing Silence Broken’s Faith Leader Workshop Series after recognizing a critical gap in the organization’s early programming. Joining the organization during its first year, she saw the urgent need for practical educational resources that could equip clergy and faith leaders to minister effectively to trauma survivors, particularly survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Her work has focused on helping create what she describes as “a first attempt to draw together clinically-aligned, spiritually rich, and theologically-grounded material” that enables faith leaders to understand trauma and its impacts, respond appropriately to disclosure, provide nuanced spiritual care, and cultivate emotionally and spiritually safe faith communities.
At Silence Broken, Erica helps shape curriculum, workshop materials, and communication strategies that translate complex conversations about trauma, faith, and healing into accessible and actionable resources for faith communities.
The Impact of the Work
Silence Broken addresses one of the most entrenched and damaging realities surrounding child sexual abuse: silence itself. Although trauma associated with sexual abuse is widespread, many survivors never disclose their experiences, particularly within religious environments where discussions of abuse have historically been minimized, avoided, or stigmatized. This silence often protects abusers while deepening the isolation, shame, and spiritual injury experienced by survivors.
By directly engaging faith leaders and institutions, Silence Broken seeks to change the culture that has too often enabled passive acceptance of exploitation within religious communities. The organization equips clergy and ministry leaders to speak truthfully and responsibly about abuse, affirming that abuse is never the fault of the child, never reflective of God’s desire, and never beyond the possibility of healing and restoration. Through workshops, pastoral education, and collaboration with mental health professionals, Silence Broken helps congregations move away from harmful responses rooted in denial or stigma and toward trauma-informed practices grounded in compassion and accountability.
The organization’s Faith Leader Workshop Series is central to this effort. Designed for leaders across denominations and religious traditions, the workshops provide practical guidance for supporting survivors in ways that are spiritually grounded and clinically informed. Participants are trained to recognize the long-term impacts of trauma, respond appropriately to disclosures, and cultivate faith communities where survivors are believed, supported, and connected with professional care when needed.
Erica relates “Our profound hope is that this workshop series trains faith leaders to do something most have never been taught to do: Provide spiritual support and pastoral care for trauma survivors. When faith leaders can help cultivate circles of safety for survivors to disclose their experiences, survivors access another avenue of support and healing, and faith communities grow (both spiritually and numerically).”
At its core, Silence Broken is working to ensure that faith communities become places of truth-telling, healing, and restoration rather than silence and exclusion. By helping religious institutions confront abuse openly and responsibly, the organization is contributing to broader cultural change that empowers survivors to reclaim their voices and pursue healing within supportive spiritual communities.
As members of the Invested Faith network, the Silence Broken team understands this work as part of a larger movement of leaders committed to transformation, learning, and community-rooted change. Reflecting on the meaning of the fellowship, Erica shares:
“To be an Invested Faith Fellow is to be in community with a group of talented and passionate professionals who know that we’re never done learning, our work is never (quite) finished, and there is always something we can do to put a little more good into the world.”
