Defeated in her marriage and disheartened with the church, Angela Sue Garvey recalls growing up in the evangelical church during the purity culture of the ’90s. Once married, she found herself sitting across from an evangelical pastor who advised her to be quiet and submissive to a husband who routinely destroyed her. 

She recounts her spiral into a decade-long spiritual crisis and the growing bitterness and cynicism she felt as she questioned her place in the church and with God. Still wanting to find love, Garvey opens up about starting over and the spiritual baggage that followed her into a second marriage and motherhood, while still desperately trying to find belonging.

It’s her story of heartbreak, deconstruction, and quitting things that weren’t for her anymore, including bad theology, holding grudges, and hiding from criticism with thoughts on restaurant prayer, Zumba twerking, eHarmony, and who is going to hell. 

Tiny Homes & Tummy Tucks is for those who are questioning everything they were taught about God and for those who innately feel like the red-headed stepchild of Christianity. It is a timely story related to church hurt, deconstruction, and faith reconstruction. 

Angela Sue Garvey is a professional home organizer and therapist. Her goal with this book is to support women formally deconstructing faith, to rebuild faith after church hurt, and to find healing. 

Hi, I’m Angela. I’m the founder of Life on Purpose School and a licensed therapist in Washington State.

I work with women who feel overwhelmed, anxious, or disconnected from themselves, often after years of holding everything together, prioritizing others, and pushing through without enough support.

My approach to therapy is grounded in reducing shame and rebuilding self-trust. We look at how emotional patterns, relationships, and everyday environments shape mental health, because overwhelm doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s reinforced by the systems you’re living inside of.

With a background in both therapy and professional organizing, I’ve seen that meaningful change happens when insight is paired with practical, supportive shifts in daily life. Therapy here isn’t about fixing you or pushing you to try harder. It’s about creating conditions where your nervous system can settle, and clarity can return.

Therapy here is steady, supportive, and paced to meet you where you are. You don’t need to arrive with clarity or a plan. We take this one step at a time, together.