Purity Culture and Religious Patriarchy (Nov 2026)

Friday, November 13, 2026 - 2-4pm ET | 12-2pm CT | 11am-1pm PT 

Length: 2 hours

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

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

DESCRIPTION

The spiritual abuse of purity culture and religious patriarchy inflict a complex web of suppression and trauma that are difficult to unpack. Women, men, and LGBTQ+ survivors suffer unique impacts related to identity, sexuality, gender roles, body autonomy, and more. These experiences can lead to symptoms ranging from sexual pain to identity confusion.

This clinical training explores ways to address these nuanced topics in therapy while meeting your clients where they are. It offers useful clinical tools for assessing symptoms, raising awareness, and creating treatment goals that are tailored to client experiences in patriarchal religious systems. Facilitator, Anna Clark Miller, takes a religiously neutral approach that prioritizes client autonomy as they seek healing on their own terms.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Participants will gain an understanding of the complex layers of control and abuse involved in purity culture and religious patriarchy.

2. Participants will learn unique differences in how women, men, and LGBTQ+ survivors are impacted by sex and gender-based spiritual abuse.

3. Participants will be equipped with assessment questions, treatment goals, and practical therapeutic interventions for treating survivors of purity culture and religious patriarchy.

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.

CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS

This program offers 2.0 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.

QUESTIONS

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