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.
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
Confident Identification & Treatment
Confidently identify and treat the cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and somatic effects of religious trauma.
Ethical Grounding
Navigate complex power dynamics, purity culture, spiritual abuse, and authoritarian systems with ethical grounding.
Trauma-Informed Tools
Apply trauma-informed, body-based tools for regulation and integration.
Professional Network
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.
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.
$3,450
38 CE Credits
Ideal for professionals who prefer flexibility and independent study.
All recorded lectures and slide decks
Ebooks for each module
Self-paced learning
38 CE Credits
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).
$5,250
or 10 monthly payments of $575
43 CE Credits
Recommended for clinicians and coaches seeking some mentorship and networking, and CE credit.
All recorded lectures and slide decks
Ebooks for each module
5 group consultations
Monthly case reviews
Private Discord community
Monthly office hours
43 CE Credits
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).
$8,750
or 10 monthly payments of $925
48 CE Credits
Designed for practitioners building a long-term specialty in religious trauma work.
All recorded lectures and slide decks
Ebooks for each module
Unlimited case reviews
Private Discord community
Bi-weekly office hours
Monthly group consultations
5 live lectures + Q&A
Lifelong access to materials
48 CE Credits
Religious Trauma Practitioner Cohort
The 2025 Cohort is FULL!
Join the Waitlist!
I’m often asked, “where can I learn how to work with clients who have religious trauma?” Like many clients with religious trauma, the practitioners working with them also feel isolated in knowing how to understand and work with their clients in an effective and tailored way.
What if there was a place to expand your skills and knowledge to better serve your religious trauma clients?
For over a decade, I’ve supported professionals individually through consultation, mentoring, and supervision to learn how to work with this unique group of people. This exclusive training is meticulously designed for dedicated therapists, coaches, graduate students, and professionals eager to master the complexities of religious trauma. By joining, you’re committing to a one-of-a-kind training experience that will profoundly enhance your professional capabilities.
As a participant in this one-of-a-kind cohort, you will acquire unparalleled knowledge and hands-on training tailored specifically for addressing religious trauma and will…
Gain knowledge and practical training regarding working with religious trauma
Feel equipped to work with clients in a religious trauma informed way
Understand how to work with dynamics of high control religions, cults, and fundamentalism in a practical way
Receive support and connection from myself and other professionals
Embark on a transformative journey that will elevate your professional practice and foster profound personal growth.
Find renewed passion and confidence as you support your clients
You are a therapist, coach, practitioner, or graduate student (masters or PhD) or professional working with clients who have experienced religious trauma, adverse religious experiences, purity culture, fundamentalism, cults, or other high control groups
You want to deepen your understanding of religious trauma and how it functions in the body
You desire to expand your knowledge on dynamics of power and control in systems and relationships and the long-term impacts
You are ready to learn body-based approaches to resolving religious trauma
You want to learn practical tools and interventions to implement with your religious trauma clients
You desire to go beyond outdated models of “talk therapy” and cognitive interventions and support your clients in holistic trauma recovery
You recognize that this premium program requires both a significant emotional and financial investment, reflecting your commitment to excellence in treating religious trauma.
You are excited to help your clients live in a healing body and embrace a full life after high control religion
This is for you if:
Every month you’ll get:
Trainings and resources focusing on religious trauma specific issues:
Each month will include at least 90 minutes of lecture on topics geared specifically toward working with religious trauma. In addition to the lecture, we will dive into practical tools and ready-to-implement interventions that you can use with your clients. All resources and interventions will also be provided in a downloadable format. Continuing Education credits available!
Monthly Group Consultation:
Every month we will dive deeper into your questions, client cases, and offer feedback on the work you are doing with your clients. We’ll also use this time to tackle professional development, learning skills, and giving practical advice on how to work with clients.
Private Discord channel and bi-weekly Discord “office hours”:
Stay connected between our consultations with the use of a private discord group! Here you will have access to connect with with others in the Religious Trauma Practitioner’s Cohort, offer and receive daily support, and stay engaged. PLUS, on the “off weeks” where we do not have group consultation, I’ll be online for an office hour where I’ll be answering your questions, sharing feedback, weighing in on resources or anything else you need!
Professional Development:
Part of being an effective practitioner is through your own personal and professional development. The Religious Trauma Practitioner Cohort will offer resources and space for you to explore personally and integrate your personal experiences into your professional work. While professional development will be discussed in the monthly teachings, consultation groups, and discord, there will be specific exercises and invitations each month for your personal and professional growth.
Weekly Case Review, Conceptualization or Questions:
Each week Practitioners will have an opportunity to submit questions, a case review, follow up support from group consultations or previous case reviews, or person-of-the-practitioner issues/struggles. I’ll respond via video to each submission and send directly to the individual submitting the inquiry.
And More!
Apply today to find out what else you’ll receive in the Religious Trauma Practitioner’s Cohort!
What you’ll be getting:
Religious trauma education and ready-to-implement interventions to enhance the work you do with your clients
1
Access to a library of resources, skills, and tools to work with clients in a religious trauma-sensitive way
2
Real-life case application, conceptualization, and review
3
Connection with other professionals, personal and professional development, and networking
4
Increased confidence and knowledge as you support your clients through the religious trauma healing journey