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Digital Seminar

Religious Trauma, Spiritual Abuse and Cult Recovery: Treating the Trauma Caused by Adverse Religious Experiences


Speaker:
Anna Clark Miller, LPC-S
Duration:
6 Hours 15 Minutes
Language:
Presented in EN, subtitles in EN and FR, handouts in EN and FR
Copyright:
Jul 21, 2025
Product Code:
POS150350
Media Type:
Digital Seminar


Description

Clients afraid they’re going to hell because they had sex with their boyfriends. Clients burdened by shame and disowned for exploring their sexual identities. Clients abused or shunned when they dared to question the rigid beliefs enforced by their church, family, or partners.

These aren’t the sensational stories of celebrities, cults and abuse garnering widespread focus in the media. These are regular people, lots of them, participating in mainstream religious communities, and carrying the weight of spiritual wounds that so often go unnoticed or unnamed.

Today these clients are recognizing their religious trauma. And more of them than ever before and looking for specialized treatment.

In this training you can watch religious trauma expert Anna Clark Miller LPC-S to get the knowledge, skills, and therapeutic approaches you need to confidently work with individuals who have endured religious trauma, spiritual abuse, and the effects of high-control environments.

In just one day, you’ll get what you need to:

  • Assess for the presence and extent of spiritual abuse and religious trauma
  • Understand underlying dynamics that keep clients stuck in oppressive religious environments
  • Connect clients with sources of meaning-making and connection of their own choosing (whether religious or not)
  • Tailor therapy to diverse identities including women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and more

And much more!

Don’t miss this chance to illuminate the path to recovery and transformation for this rapidly growing clinical population.

Purchase now!

Credit

Program Information

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.



Canada Credit - *

NOTE: Tuition includes one free CE Certificate (participant will be able to print the certificate of completion after passing the online post-test (80% passing score) and completing the evaluation). Instructional methods will include PowerPoint, didactic lecture, and others.

Continuing Education Information:  Listed below are the continuing education credit(s) currently available for this non-interactive self-study package. Program content is reviewed periodically per accrediting board rules for currency and appropriateness for credit. Credit approvals are subject to change. Please note, your licensing board dictates whether self-study is an acceptable form of continuing education, as well as which credit types are acceptable for continuing education hours. Please refer to your licensing board's rules and regulations. If your profession is not listed, please contact your licensing board to determine your continuing education requirements and check for reciprocal approval. 
For other credit inquiries not specified below, please contact info@pesi.com or 800-844-8260 before purchase.

Materials that are included in this course may include interventions and modalities that are beyond the authorized practice of your profession.  As a licensed professional, you are responsible for reviewing the scope of practice, including activities that are defined in law as beyond the boundaries of practice in accordance with and in compliance with your profession's standards.  

For Planning Committee disclosures, please see the statement above.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

 


Canada Credit - ---

Earn up to 6.25 CE hours. Please see below, for more details, as credit amounts vary by jurisdiction and profession. 


Canada Credit - Canadian Counsellors and Psychotherapists

PESI, Inc. is approved by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association to offer continuing education for counsellors and psychotherapists. PESI, Inc. maintains responsibility for the program. This self-study activity is approved for 6.0 credit hours.


Canada Credit - Social Workers - National ASWB ACE

PESI, Inc., #1062, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: January 27, 2023 - January 27, 2026. Social workers completing this course receive 6.25 Clinical continuing education credits.

 

Course Level: Intermediate Format: Recorded asynchronous distance. Full attendance is required; no partial credits will be offered for partial attendance.

 

Canadian Social Workers: Canadian provinces may accept activities approved by the ASWB for ongoing professional development.


Canada Credit - Canadian Psychologists

PESI, Inc. is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. PESI, Inc. maintains responsibility for the program. This program is approved for 6.0 self-study continuing education hours. Full credit statement at: www.pesi.com/cpa-statement


Canada Credit - Other Professions

This self-study activity qualifies for 6.25 continuing education clock hours as required by many national and local licensing boards and professional organizations. Save your activity advertisement and certificate of completion, and contact your own board or organization for specific requirements.


US National Boards - Addiction Counselors - NAADAC

This self-study course has been approved by PESI, Inc., as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #77553. PESI, Inc. is responsible for all aspects of their programming.

This self-study course offers 6.0 continuing education contact hours in the Counseling Services skill group. Full attendance is required; no partial credit will be awarded for partial attendance.


US National Boards - Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, and Clinical Nurse Specialists – ANCC

PESI, Inc. is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Nurses completing these self-study materials will earn 6.25 contact hours. Expires: 04/24/2027.



Handouts

Speaker

Anna Clark Miller, LPC-S's Profile

Anna Clark Miller, LPC-S Related seminars and products

Empathy Paradigm Therapy


Anna Clark Miller, LPC-S, grew up on the mission field and spent her early adulthood working and volunteering in churches. As a counseling grad student, however, she became aware of her body’s trauma responses and started connecting them with past experiences in highly controlling religious communities. Today she specializes in treating survivors of religious trauma. Her book Religious Trauma Survival Guide: Education and Recovery for Survivors and Professionals, offers a tangible path to healing from high-control religious experiences. She is also the host of the podcast, Martyr, She Wrote for religious trauma survivors who are looking for education, empathy, and recovery. Each episode features an interview with a survivor or expert on topics including abusive religious leaders, religious OCD, BIPOC and queer experiences, clergy religious trauma, and more.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Anna Clark Miller has employment relationships with Empathy Paradigm Therapy, Dallas Therapy Collective, and Empathy Paradigm. She receives royalties as a published author and is a podcast host for Martyr, She Wrote. Anna Clark Miller receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Anna Clark Miller has no relevant non-financial relationships.


Additional Info

Program Information

Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)

Access never expires for this product.

For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com.


Questions?

Visit our FAQ page at https://www.pesicanada.ca/faq or contact us at https://www.pesicanada.ca/contact-us.


Objectives

  1. Identify the importance of addressing clients’ spiritual struggles.
  2. Examine how religion can be both a coping resource and source of stress and trauma.
  3. Identify how the restrictions and coercive tactics associated with high control environments can lead to mental health disorders.
  4. Utilize interview questions to get information about a client’s exposure to spiritual abuse.
  5. Choose interventions to provide culturally competent care to clients who have experienced religious trauma.
  6. Determine gaps and limitations in the existing research on religious trauma.

Outline

Religious Trauma: Core Concepts and Characteristics

  • The historical context of religious trauma
  • Define religious trauma, spiritual abuse and related terms
  • Identify characteristics and distinguishing from other forms of trauma
  • How religious trauma shapes one’s sense of identity, self-worth, and beliefs

High Control Dynamics in Religious or Cult Contexts and Their Traumatic Impacts

  • Power and control within religious contexts and their implications on trauma
  • The cycle of spiritual abuse
  • Control mechanisms and their psychological aftermath
  • The tactics of thought reform
  • When they leave: spiritual crisis, isolation, and stigmatization

Signs, Symptoms, Screening, and Assessment

  • Religious Trauma Syndrome: the components of RTS
  • Behavioral, emotional, and psychological signs
  • Spiritual Abuse Questionnaire: assess for the presence and extent of spiritual abuse
  • Interview techniques to elicit clients’ experiences of religious trauma
  • Stages of religious identity development
  • Analyze case studies to apply assessment concepts

Religious Trauma Treatment Guide: Key Considerations and Approaches

  • Using Judith Herman’s stages of recovery as a roadmap for treatment
  • Channel countertransference into insight, growth, and therapeutic breakthroughs
  • Explore your own religious/spiritual experiences and biases
  • Cultural dynamics and culturally relevant support
  • Mastering the balance of self-disclosure and therapeutic boundaries
  • Explore complex spiritual grief
  • Treatment approaches from IFS, EMDR, somatic strategies, and more to help clients:
    • Heal from binary thinking
    • Explore survival strategies for these overwhelming environments
    • Develop self-compassion
    • Process early negative beliefs that were supported by harmful doctrines
    • Connect with the wisdom of their bodies
    • Restore shattered boundaries and form healthier relationships
  • Research, limitations, and treatment risks
  • Indications and contraindications

Tailoring Your Therapy to Diverse Identities:

  • Working with specific populations recovering from religious trauma
  • Address the unique experiences of women
  • BIPOC: the intersection of religious trauma and racial identity
  • LGBTQ+: Navigating the complexities
  • Recognize the needs of neurodiverse clients

Target Audience

  • Counsellors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Addiction Counsellors
  • Art Therapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Nurses
  • Psychiatrists
  • Physicians
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

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