Live 2-Part Virtual Training

• Day 1: August 7, 2026 - 9am - 12:30pm PT | 11am-2:30pm CT | 12-3:30pm ET

• Day 2: August 14, 2026 - 9am - 12:30pm PT | 11am-2:30pm CT | 12-3:30pm ET

Length: 7 hours total including breaks each day

Facilitator: Anna Clark Miller, LPC-S, LMHC-S

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

Description

This clinical training (split into two days) will provide mental health professionals with the practical skills and clinical interventions they need to competently work with survivors of religious trauma and spiritual abuse. Attendees will learn to assess the unique impacts of these experiences and use trauma-informed, client-centered approaches to facilitate healing and growth. The content will be organized in four sections including (1) Clinical Competencies, (2) Interviewing and Assessment, (3) Treatment Goals, and (4) Theories and Modalities. Useful in-session tools will be shared throughout the training to provide attendees with practical applications. 

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will gain an understanding of the crucial clinical competencies and unique cultural considerations for treating religious and spiritual trauma.

2. Participants will be equipped with formal and informal assessment strategies to inform conceptualization and treatment planning for religious and spiritual trauma clients.

3. Participants will learn about evidence-based therapy modalities and a variety of practical therapeutic interventions for the treatment of religious and spiritual trauma.

Training Agenda

• Part 1: Clinical Competencies

  • Primary impacts of religious and spiritual trauma

  • Key terminology (spirituality, religion, spiritual abuse, religious trauma, high-control groups)

  • Prevalence and co-occurrence with other traumas

  • Clinical importance of addressing spirituality and religion in therapy

  • Trauma-informed approaches and client safety risks

  • Countertransference, clinician biases, and self-disclosure

  • Client transference and trauma reenactments

  • Retraumatization risks in therapy

• Part 2: Interviewing and Assessment

  • Formal and informal assessment tools

  • Evaluating the significance of spirituality and religion to clients

  • Assessing client symptoms of religious and spiritual trauma:

    • Fear and spiritual hypervigilance

    • Shame and disempowerment

    • Rigid thinking

    • Suppression, disconnection, and purity culture

    • Relationship dysfunction and social anxiety

    • Grief and loss

    • Spiritual struggles and cynicism

• Part 3: Treatment Goals

  • General recovery goals for religious and spiritual trauma:

    • Establishing safety and autonomy

    • Remembrance and naming

    • Healing from shame and expanding sense of self

    • Redefining relationships

    • Deconstruction and reclaiming spirituality

  • Adapting treatment to unique survivor experiences:

    • Women and men in patriarchal groups

    • Being born and raised in high-control groups

    • Current and former leaders

    • BIPOC discrimination and colonization

    • LBGTQ+ conversion practices

    • Spiritualization of illness and disability

    • Domestic violence and sexual assault

• Part 4: Theories and Modalities

  • Evidence-based therapy approaches for religious and spiritual trauma:

    • Cognitive-behavioral approaches

    • Existential & narrative therapy

    • Psychodynamic theory 

    • Attachment theory

    • Memory reconsolidation approaches (EMDR)

    • Somatic and expressive arts approaches

    • Parts work (IFS)

    • Group therapy

  • Practical tools and interventions that align with each theory

Sources 

Research sources and citations for this presentation can be found here: www.empathyparadigm.com/sources.

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.

Continuing Education Credits

This program offers 6.5 continuing education hours for attendees who register with CEUs included.

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.

Additional Information

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