Module 10: The Living Experience of Healing

This final module reframes religious trauma and Complex PTSD (CPTSD) as chronic, body-based conditions that require long-term, integrative care rather than linear recovery. While traditional trauma models often emphasize resolution or symptom elimination, this approach centers sustainability, embodiment, and pacing. Clinicians will explore three key reasons why religious trauma must be understood through a chronic condition lens: its origins in prolonged relational and systemic harm, its somatic imprint on the nervous system, and the culturally reinforced shame survivors often feel when healing is non-linear. By shifting focus from “getting over it” to “living with and through it,” this module encourages practitioners to support integration over resolution—reducing shame, validating long-term processes, and honoring the body as a central site of healing.

The second half of the module offers three trauma-informed, body-based interventions that help clients develop sustainable practices for regulation and long-term recovery. These include somatic techniques that rebuild interoceptive awareness, support boundary repair, and promote a felt sense of internal safety. Designed specifically for survivors of high-control religion and complex trauma, these tools acknowledge the body’s history of suppression and teach clients to engage with it as a partner in healing. The practices are structured to foster endurance, resilience, and self-trust—helping clients shift from viewing their body as a source of spiritual threat to a safe and trustworthy home for their ongoing recovery.

This course is approved by APA and NBCC for 1.25 Continuing Education Credits.