Attachment Theory and Religious Trauma

Details

Format: Live Zoom Webinar

Date/Time: Friday, Aug 21, 2026 at 9-10:30am PT  \ 11a-12:30pm CT  \  12-1:30pm ET

Length: 90-Minutes

Facilitators: Anna Clark Miller, LPC-S and SC Nealy, LPC

Target Audience: Helping professionals including counselors, social workers, and community leaders.

Description

How do harmful religious and spiritual experiences shape a client's capacity for connection? This 90-minute virtual training dives into the clinical applications of attachment theory for survivors of religious and spiritual trauma. We'll examine the complex dynamics of high-control systems that can contribute to developmental trauma and disorganized attachment styles. You'll learn the common signs and symptoms of these unique attachment wounds and treatment strategies for supporting clients. Lastly, we'll address the ethical implications for clinicians navigating their own biases and attachment histories. 1.5 continuing education credits available. 

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be equipped to identify the interpersonal wounds inflicted by religious and spiritual trauma and how they contribute to disorganized attachment styles.

2. Participants will connect common symptoms of religious/spiritual attachment wounding to actionable treatment goals designed to foster secure attachment in clients.

3. Participants will evaluate the ethical implications of clinicians' personal biases, attachment histories, and countertransference risks when working with survivors of religious trauma.

Training Agenda

Part 1: Introduction to Attachment Theory and High-Control Systems

Part 2: Parent-Child Bonding and Developmental Implications

Part 3: Addressing Client Symptoms and Moving Forward

Part 4: Ethical Considerations in the Therapeutic Relationship

Q&A Time

Continuing Education Hours

This training offers 1.5 NBCC-approved continuing education hours (available for purchase).

Empathy Paradigm has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7921. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Empathy Paradigm is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Presenter Qualifications

Anna Clark Miller, LPC-S, LMHC-S, NCC, is a licensed counselor and clinical supervisor practicing in Texas, Washington, and Oregon. She has a masters degree in counseling psychology and has worked in the counseling field since 2015. As a counseling graduate student, she learned about religious trauma and its impacts on people from high-control religious communities, igniting her interest in this specialty. Today she specializes in treating survivors of religious and spiritual trauma and training the mental health professionals who work with them. She is the author of For God's Sake: Recovering From Religious Trauma, which offers a path to healing from high-control religious experiences. Through her company, Empathy Paradigm, Anna manages the Religious Trauma Therapist Directory and a library of other practical resources for religious trauma survivors and mental health professionals. Licensing: LPC Texas #75728, LPC Oregon #C8578, LMHC Washington #LH61328702, NCC #718936.

SC Nealy (they/she pronouns) is a licensed psychotherapist, the Arlington-based business owner of LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative, and an award-winning speaker and author with over seventeen years of clinical specialty in LGBT+ issues, religious trauma, and relationship counseling. As a bestselling novelist, they've sold over 250,000 fiction novels and highlight queer love and relationships throughout their work as a writer and as a therapist. They live right here in Arlington with their wife and three children, and are also on the Board of Directors for Capital Pride. Their company, LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative, is a team of all queer and trans identifying therapists that has proudly supported over 500 LGBT+ clients and their family members throughout the DMV area find healing with queer and trans affirming mental health care that highlights accessibility, advocacy, and collaboration within the community.

Additional Information

Learn more about the work of Anna Clark Miller at www.empathyparadigm.com and SC Nealy at https://lgbtcounselingdmv.com/.

Send questions or accommodation requests to anna@empathyparadigm.com.

Pricing

$95: Live attendance and 1.5 CEs

$70: Live attendance, no CEs

$50: Recorded training, no CEs

*All registrations will include 6-months access to the recording.

REGISTER HERE