Born & Raised: Treating Developmental Trauma from High-Control Groups

Friday, February 26, 2027 at 12-3:15PM ET / 11AM-2:15PM CT / 9AM-12:15PM PT

Length: 3.25 hours, including a 15-minute break (3.0 continuing education credits)

Facilitators: Anna Clark Miller, LPC-S and Michelle F. Moseley, LCMHC

Intended Audience: Helping professionals including counselors, psychologists, and social workers.

DESCRIPTION

Survivors who experience the trauma of high-control groups during their crucial developmental years often present to therapy with distinct needs and challenges that require a tailored approach. Unlike adults who "opt-in" to high-control environments with an established pre-group identity, individuals born or raised in these settings experience pervasive control over their identity formation with far-reaching impacts. This presentation explores how authoritarian structure, coercive control, fear-based ideologies, and dysfunctional group norms shape a survivor's sense of self, cognitive development, attachment styles, and sense of autonomy.

Facilitated by Anna Clark Miller, LPC-S and Michelle F. Moseley, LCMHC, this course equips clinicians to recognize the nuances of developmental religious/spiritual trauma in born-in survivors. Participants will examine clinical considerations related to family dynamics, purity culture, scrupulosity, multi-generational pressure, and more. The course provides actionable, trauma-informed therapeutic frameworks to navigate power dynamics in therapy, reframe shame-based narratives, establish client autonomy, and foster healthy identity exploration.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1) Differentiate between the impacts of high-control groups on those involved during childhood vs. those who opt-in as adults.

2) Identify the unique signs and symptoms of developmental trauma from high-control settings.

3) Incorporate trauma-informed therapeutic approaches tailored to this population into clinical work.

SOURCES 

Research sources for this presentation can be found here: www.empathyparadigm.com/sources. Specific citations will be included in the slides.

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.

Michelle F. Moseley, LCMHC (she/her) is a licensed mental health counselor in North Carolina. She has a masters degree in clinical mental health counseling and has worked in the counseling field since 2015. Prior to pursuing a career in the mental health field, she worked in various ministry roles for over a decade and has lived experience of high-control dynamics and religious trauma. Michelle now specializes in supporting individuals who are navigating shifts in their personal beliefs and/or the impacts of spiritual abuse and religious trauma. In addition to both individual and group therapy, she provides continuing education for other mental health professionals and educational workshops for the general public. Michelle has shared her expertise related to high-control groups on a variety of podcasts, authored the inaugural entry on "Religious Trauma" for the 2027 update of the ACA Encyclopedia of Counseling and is the lead author of a chapter on religious trauma in the forthcoming Integrating Spirituality and Religion into Counseling (4th ed.), with an expected publication date in mid-2027. You can learn more about Michelle and her work at MichelleFMoseley.com Licensing: LCMHC North Carolina #12491.

CONTINUING EDCAUTION CREDITS

This program offers 3.0 continuing education hours.

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.

QUESTIONS

Please send questions or accommodation requests to info@empathyparadigm.com.