Supporting Clients Recovering from Religious Trauma 

Understanding Religious Trauma Through a Coercive Control Lens

High-control religious environments often function in ways strikingly similar to coercive control in domestic violence.

This framework can be profoundly helpful for professionals.

Common elements include:

• Authoritarian leadership and unquestionable authority
• Control over behaviour, thoughts, emotions, relationships, and identity
• Fear-based compliance (punishment, exclusion, eternal consequences)
• Suppression of autonomy, curiosity, and consent
• Shame as a primary regulation tool
• Conditional belonging and love

Clients who leave may appear “free” on the outside yet internally remain:

• Hypervigilant
• Terrified of being wrong
• Disconnected from intuition or body
• Struggling with decision-making
• Experiencing grief, rage, and profound identity rupture

What You Will Learn

• A clear understanding of Religious Trauma Syndrome (RTS)
• Practical criteria and red flags for identifying harmful religious systems
• How religious trauma overlaps with:
          - Complex trauma
          - Attachment injury
          - Developmental trauma
          - Nervous system dysregulation
• Why leaving does not equal healing
• How to assess readiness and pacing
• Language that validates harm without invalidating spirituality
• How to support meaning-making, autonomy, and self-trust

Tools & Resources Included

This training is highly practical and clinically usable.

• Pre-recorded teaching modules
• In-depth workbooks and reflective exercises
• Client-ready PDFs
• Guided audio hypnotherapy sessions designed to support:
          - Safety
          - De-shaming
          - Reclaiming inner authority
          - Reconnecting with the body and intuition
• Reflection questions for both practitioner and client
• Slide presentation for groups or professional education
• A curated list of recommended resources that were invaluable to my own recovery, and remain deeply relevant today

A Trauma-Informed, Stigma Aware  Approach

I worked full time as an alcohol and other drug (AOD) counsellor for a not-for-profit agency in Australia and throughout that time I spoke to numerous clients who had been discharged from mental health support services they desperately needed for wrap around support. 

Mental health professionals often advised a client that they did not feel equipped to continue to see them as a client, despite the client being referred to a specialist AOD agency and them not being the primary clinician.

I created this training to try and manage this gap as I know firsthand what helped and did not help with my clients and have streamlined it to be both practical and holistically supportive.  I also wished to include hypnotherapy as an effective evidence-based tool for use in managing behaviour/habit change.   

Alcohol use is one of the most common and most delicate topics that emerges in therapeutic work.

Often, it isn’t the presenting issue.

It can appear quietly, partway through the work, often due to shame, stigma and fear of discrimination.

A client may say:

• “I probably drink more than I should.”
• “I use wine to switch my brain off.”
• “I’ve tried to cut back… it never sticks.”
• “I don’t know if I need to stop or just get control.”
• My family are concerned about my drinking.  

For many professionals, this moment brings hesitation not from lack of care, but from responsibility.

What This Course Is — and What It Is Not

Why This Training Matters

Many clients:

• Do not yet know what kind of change they want
• Feel ashamed even raising alcohol use
• Have tried “just stopping” and struggled
• Do not feel aligned with AA or 12-step programs
• Are overwhelmed by conflicting advice
• Have never been supported through change with compassion and structure

Professionals need knowledge, language, and confidence.

Alcohol Basics 

• How alcohol affects the body, brain, and nervous system
• Why understanding standard drinks matters
• Australian low-risk drinking guidelines
• Why people underestimate intake
• How alcohol interacts with stress, trauma, and sleep

Harm Minimisation 

• Evidence-based strategies for reducing harm
• Practical tools for controlled drinking trials
• Tracking use without judgement
• Supporting clients to evaluate what works for them

Supporting Abstinence 

• How to support clients who choose to stop drinking
• Maintaining change outside AA frameworks
• Building regulation, routines, and supports
• Identity shifts after stopping

Triggers, Cravings & Lapses

• How triggers develop
• How cravings work in the body and brain
• Tools to manage urges
• Understanding lapses without shame
• How to support recommitment after a lapse

Working Ethically Within Scope (Australia)

This training aligns with ACA, PACFA, and AHPRA principles, including:

• Working within scope of practice
• Client autonomy and informed consent
• Trauma-informed care
• Do no harm
• Appropriate referral and collaboration

Professionals will be supported to:

• Recognise when referral is indicated
• Encourage medical or specialist input when required
• Continue providing therapeutic support alongside referral
• Reduce shame, fear, and disengagement during transitions

The Outcome

By the end of this course, you will not be expected to:

• Diagnose
• Manage withdrawal
• Replace specialist services

Instead, you will:

• Feel confident responding to disclosure
• Know what questions to ask and which to avoid
• Understand alcohol use in context
• Support change without stigma
• Maintain strong rapport
• Provide informed, ethical, wrap-around support
• Know when and how to refer without abandoning the client

Hypnotherapy is presented in this training as a complementary tool, not a replacement for medical care, specialist AOD services, or therapeutic relationship. It offers an additional layer of support for clients who benefit from repetition, reflection, and subconscious learning as they build and sustain change.

Hypnotherapy is included in this course as a supportive, evidence-informed adjunct for clients who consent to its use, particularly where alcohol use has become a habitual or conditioned response to stress, emotion, or routine.

Bonus for Professionals: Clinical Confidence Hypnotherapy Audio

As a bonus, professionals who enrol in this course receive a confidence-building hypnotherapy audio designed to support clinicians across all areas of practice.

This guided audio helps strengthen clinical presence, self-trust, and calm communication, supporting both conscious and subconscious alignment in therapeutic conversations.

Through gentle imagery and future-pacing, clinicians are invited to step into their most grounded and confident professional self, enhancing clarity, rapport, and effectiveness in their work. 

The audio is intended as a supportive personal resource, complementing training, supervision, and reflective practice.