Shayna Sragovicz grew up in a family that became Orthodox when they were seven, moving from a largely secular Jewish childhood into Chabad schooling and eventually Modern Orthodoxy. In this episode, Shayna traces the contradictions they began noticing in seminary and college, how COVID disrupted the religious structures that had sustained their life, and how small acts of questioning eventually became a much broader process of deconstruction.
That process expanded beyond religion into gender, sexuality, career, family, spirituality, and community. Now a life coach working with people rebuilding their lives after religion, Shayna discusses self-trust, the difference between deconstruction and reconstruction, therapy versus coaching, and the challenge of figuring out what you actually want once the old rules are gone.
Resources
Shayna's coaching website: https://kacoachingmethod.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shayna.kacoaching/
Email: shayna@kacoachingmethod.com
Books:
Childfree by Choice - Dr. Amy Blackstone
The Origins of You - Vienna Pharaon, LMFT
The Power of Ritual - Casper ter Kuile
Timestamps
00:00 — Growing up as the child of baalei teshuva
05:40 — Entering public school and experiencing life outside the Orthodox bubble
11:18 — Why Shayna calls “Modern Orthodoxy” an oxymoron
16:01 — Seminary, women learning Gemara, and the beginnings of doubt
21:48 — COVID breaks apart the structures sustaining religious life
30:13 — Why leaving religion requires self-forgiveness and patience
32:37 — Queerness, gender, and deconstructing expectations beyond religion
45:03 — Rethinking career, children, and the life Shayna was “supposed” to build
48:56 — Becoming a coach: inner critics, intuition, therapy, and reconstruction
1:00:23 — Absolute truths, spirituality, community, belonging, and what comes next
