The Religious Trauma Practitioner Certification

Become a Certified Religious Trauma Practitioner. A 10-month professional training and certification designed for therapists, coaches, educators, clergy, and other helping professionals who support survivors of high-control religion, spiritual abuse, and faith-based trauma.

This cohort-based program blends research-grounded education with embodied, trauma-informed practice—helping you grow your competence, confidence, and community in one of the most needed specialties in mental health today.

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**Why Specialization Matters**

Most trauma trainings stop short of addressing the complex intersections of faith, power, identity, and the body. Specializing in religious trauma requires more than good intentions or even deconstructing your own religious upbringing—it demands specialized knowledge, self-reflection, and embodied skill.

Practitioners in this field often ask:

How do I ethically explore belief systems without imposing my own?
What are the neurobiological and somatic patterns unique to religious trauma?
How can I help clients rebuild trust, belonging, and meaning after spiritual abuse?

This certification answers those questions with depth, clarity, and compassion.

What You'll Gain

By the end of the program, you will:

Confidently identify and treat the cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and somatic effects of religious trauma.

Navigate complex power dynamics, purity culture, spiritual abuse, and authoritarian systems with ethical grounding.

Apply trauma-informed, body-based tools for regulation and integration.

Deepen your own reflective capacity and confidence in discussing faith-related trauma.

Join a professional network of peers who are passionate about the movement toward healing and liberation from high-control religion.

You'll leave certified, equipped, and connected—ready to support your clients and community with excellence.

About the Certification

Upon completion, participants earn the designation of Certified Religious Trauma Practitioner (CRTP) and are eligible to receive up to 48 APA and NBCC-approved Continuing Education credits depending on the chosen track.

Duration: 10 months*
Format: Hybrid asynchronous + synchronous (recorded lectures, skills training, group consultation, live discussions, video feedback, ebooks, and peer community)
Community: Private Discord for ongoing connection, consultation, and support
Tracks: Choose from three certification tracks based on your professional goals (details below)

*The Self-Paced Practitioner Track can be completed at your own pace and timing; the Comprehensive Mentorship and Guided Cohort tracks include 10 months of support and participants may choose to use longer than 10 months to complete the required curriculum for certification.

The Curriculum

The Religious Trauma Practitioner Cohort is built on ten comprehensive modules that integrate psychological research, somatic approaches, and clinical experience.

Foundations of Religious Trauma

Explore definitions and frameworks for understanding religious trauma as a complex and chronic condition. Learn to identify how systemic control, doctrine, and spiritual abuse create patterns of trauma, and establish ethical foundations for working within this emerging specialization.

Religious Power & Control, Spiritual Abuse, and Adverse Religious Experiences

Examine how power, control, and manipulation operate within religious and spiritual systems. This module unpacks the dynamics of leadership, coercion, and spiritual authority, offering frameworks to identify and address spiritual abuse and adverse religious experiences in clinical and coaching contexts.

Introduction to the Nervous System

Develop a working understanding of the autonomic nervous system and how trauma—including religious trauma—shapes patterns of survival, regulation, and shutdown. Gain practical tools for helping clients recognize and work with their body's physiological responses.

Stabilizing the Nervous System

Learn somatic approaches to help clients regulate, resource, and re-establish safety in their bodies. Explore the physiology of trauma, how religious systems often override bodily intuition, and how to restore a sense of groundedness and self-trust.

Faith Deconstruction versus Religious Trauma Healing

Differentiate between cognitive deconstruction of belief systems and embodied trauma recovery. Understand why intellectual insight alone is insufficient for healing and how to guide clients toward integration rather than polarization or re-traumatization.

High Control Religion and Grief

Address the profound grief that arises from leaving religious systems—loss of identity, community, purpose, and belonging. This module teaches practitioners to companion clients through ambiguous loss and guide them toward meaning-making and emotional integration.

High Control Religion and Relationships

Examine how relational templates formed in authoritarian systems influence attachment, intimacy, and conflict patterns. Gain tools to help clients develop secure connections, navigate repair after rupture, and experience safety and reciprocity in relationships.

Self-Compassion, Self-Trust, and Embodied Boundaries

Explore how high-control religion undermines internal trust and self-compassion. Learn to help clients rebuild a compassionate inner dialogue, re-establish body-based boundaries, and make autonomous choices rooted in self-agency rather than fear or guilt.

High Control Religion and Sex

Investigate how purity culture, sexual shame, and moral control shape the body and sexuality. Learn to support clients in reclaiming pleasure, agency, and a self-directed sexual ethic through trauma-informed and embodiment-based practices.

Living in a Healing Body After High Control Religion

Integrate the full arc of healing by reframing religious trauma and complex PTSD as ongoing, body-based processes. Explore pacing, sustainability, and how to support clients in cultivating self-compassion and resilience as lifelong practices.

Each module includes:

Recorded lectures and skills demonstrations
Applied exercises and reflection prompts

Ebook with additional information, skills, practical applications, and professional development
Unlimited case consultation submissions with personalized video feedback

Optional readings and resource lists

Choose Your Track

Three cohort options are available to meet your professional needs and learning preferences

Self-Paced Practitioner Track

Begin today. Access all recorded content and slide decks to start your journey to become a Certified Religious Trauma Practitioner.

38 CE Credits

Ideal for professionals who prefer flexibility and independent study.

Guided Cohort Track

Enroll today; formal cohort begins March 1, 2026. Includes 5 group consultations, all recorded lectures and slide decks, ebooks for each module, monthly case reviews, private Discord channel + a monthly office hour with Dr. Laura, and certification (upon completing course requirements).

43 CE Credits

Recommended for clinicians and coaches seeking some mentorship and networking, and CE credit.

Unsure which track is right for you? Schedule a discovery call to explore fit, pacing, and goals.

Book a Discovery Call

Comprehensive Mentorship Track

Enroll today; formal cohort begins March 1, 2026. Includes all recorded lectures and slide decks, ebooks for each module, unlimited case reviews, private Discord channel + bi-weekly office hours with Dr. Laura, monthly group consultation, 5 live lectures + Q&A and discussion on religious trauma-related topics, and video replay, life-long access to materials, and certification (upon completing course requirements).

48 CE Credits

Designed for practitioners building a long-term specialty in religious trauma work.

Guided Cohort and Comprehensive Mentorship Track Structure & Support

This isn't a passive online course—it's a guided professional development experience designed for integration and embodiment.

Group Consultation

Live sessions blend case consultation, applied practice, and discussion with Dr. Laura Anderson.

Community Connection

A private Discord channel provides daily peer discussion, shared resources, and networking among trauma-informed professionals across disciplines.

Asynchronous Access

All lectures and materials are recorded and drop on a monthly basis. All recorded material does not have an expiration date; participants can work at their own pace to finish required certification materials.

Personalized Feedback

Participants submit case reflections and receive individualized video feedback, ensuring concepts translate into real-world application.

Live Seminars (Comprehensive Mentorship Track ONLY)

Participants can attend 5-live seminars throughout the cohort that dive deeper into religious trauma related topics (video replay available).

Companion Ebooks

Participants will receive 10 ebooks correlating to the topics in each module. Ebooks contain continued learning, skills and interventions, clinical application, professional development, and resources.

Investment & Enrollment

Tuition:

Self-Paced Practitioner Track

$3,450

Includes 38 APA and NBCC Approved CEs

Join the Waitlist!

Guided Cohort Track

$5,250

or 10 monthly payments of $575

Includes 43 APA and NBCC Approved CEs

Join the Waitlist!

Comprehensive Mentorship Track

$8,750

or 10 monthly payments of $925

Includes 48 APA and NBCC Approved CEs

Join the Waitlist!

Sliding Scale/Reduced rates for the Guided Cohort and Comprehensive Mentorship tracks may be available when requested

Limited Availability: The Comprehensive Mentorship and Guided Cohort Tracks have limited spots available to maintain personalized feedback and consultation quality

Who This Program Is For

This training is for you if you are:

A licensed therapist, counselor, psychologist, or coach seeking deeper competence with religious trauma clients.

An educator, clergy member, or student wanting to understand trauma-informed approaches to faith and power.

A practitioner drawn to embodied, liberation-focused models of healing.

This training may not be for you if you are looking for:

A purely theological or faith-based approach.

A quick, self-help program without accountability or consultation.

A one-size-fits-all curriculum without reflection or embodiment work.

About Dr. Laura

Hello, my name is Dr. Laura Anderson. As a survivor of a high control religion and purity culture, I've taken my life experiences, along with my education and training, and clinical experiences to become an expert in religious trauma. My hope is to help you gain education, tools and skills, and confidence to work with people whose backgrounds include high control religion, dynamics of power and control, fundamentalism, cults, purity culture, adverse religious experiences, and religious trauma.

"I became the person I needed in my own healing journey..."

I first recognized dynamics of power and control inside my religion-of-origin when I was coming out of a domestically violent relationship. As I poured over my journals one evening, I couldn't un-see the similarities between the way my partner had spoken to and treated me, and my experiences inside of religion, various churches, and with dozens of religious leaders.

When I shared this with my therapist she agreed with my conclusions–but didn't feel that she would be equipped to help me navigate the impact and trauma high control religion had caused. After trying out many therapists, coaches, and other alternative support methods, I decided to get trained myself. I completed many advanced trauma trainings and certifications well as courses and trainings on the nervous system, dynamics of power and control, cult tactics, thought control and reform, and narcissistic dynamics, leaders, and relationships. I became the person I needed as I was healing from high control religion–and now I want to help others do the same.

"...and I am passionate about helping others do the same"

Continuing Education

This program offers up to 48 Continuing Education credits approved by the APA and NBCC.

Credit amounts vary by track and participation level. Participants will receive detailed documentation of hours completed and CE eligibility requirements.

What Participants Are Saying

I've taken dozens of trauma trainings, and this is the first that addressed the religious system itself as a trauma structure. It changed the way I practice.

— Licensed Professional Counselor

The feedback and case consultations made all the difference. I left with real skills and a deeper sense of integrity in my work.

— Masters Level Intern

FAQs

Have any other questions? Contact me and I'll be happy to answer.

If you're unsure which track is right for you, we recommend scheduling a discovery call to discuss your professional goals, learning preferences, and the level of support you're looking for. We can help you determine the best fit based on your specific needs.
This program offers up to 48 Continuing Education credits approved by the APA and NBCC. Credit amounts vary by track: Self-Paced Practitioner Track offers 38 CE credits, Guided Cohort Track offers 43 CE credits, and Comprehensive Mentorship Track offers 48 CE credits.
The Self-Paced Practitioner Track begins immediately upon enrollment. The Guided Cohort and Comprehensive Mentorship Tracks have formal cohort start dates of March 1, 2026, though you can enroll now to secure your spot.
Yes, payment plans are available for the Guided Cohort and Comprehensive Mentorship Tracks. The Guided Cohort Track offers 10 monthly payments of $575, and the Comprehensive Mentorship Track offers 10 monthly payments of $925.
We understand that life happens. For the Self-Paced Practitioner Track, you can complete the program at your own pace. For the cohort-based tracks, we offer flexibility and accommodations for extenuating circumstances. Please contact us to discuss your specific situation.