I'm sorry for the delayed response; I was out of town for about a week and since have been busy catching up at work.
Thank you all for your responses, it does help to talk with others that are in or have been in the same boat as me. I find that most people just don't understand unless they have been through it themselves. (for example, most have a hard time imagining being disowned by one's parents and think that I am having a temporary spat with mine that will just blow over with time) There was abuse in my situation, and that is something my therapist understands and can help me with for the most part. It's everything else that I think is hard for her to understand completely. It's not that she doesn't try, and she is very objective in a lot of ways. As far as the abuse goes, she can help with the emotional damage that has resulted from being in an abusive marriage (physical, emotional, etc) but there was more to it than just those things.
But she seems to have a hard time understanding the scope of the religion and its affect on members and ex-members. She also doesn't completely grasp the magnitude of the situation I have with my parents. I can't really hold those things against her though, she has never been through anything like this herself, and hasn't to my knowledge ever even known someone with a situation even close to mine. I do see the value in going, if for no other reason than it gives me a safe place to let things out and talk through it all. I guess I just feel that there is a cap on how much that can help though, because it's not going to change the situation, and I don't think anything she says or suggests can actually change the situation for the better. The best I can hope for is changing how I feel about it. So for now I will keep going with the goal of improving myself.
I'm sorry if I got a little too long-winded. I will check out the links more thoroughly this week. Thanks again for the input. :)
BF