The Religious Trauma Survival Guide: Education and Recovery Tools

by Anna Clark Miller

The Religious Trauma Survival Guide offers people with high-control religious experiences empathy and understanding. Readers are given language to help them understand what they've experienced, process their hurt and anger, and start healing. Each chapter includes multiple inventories, checklists, and personal reflection prompts to help readers connect more deeply with themselves and gain insight into how religious trauma has impacted them.

Part 1 of The Religious Trauma Survival Guide provides education about trauma symptoms, the impacts of religious trauma, the common dynamics of high-control religious groups, and other things that religious trauma survivors often experience. Part 2 of the book focuses exclusively on healing, offering a holistic view of trauma recovery. By the end of the book, readers will have practical tools for building self-compassion and healing.

Anna Clark Miller is a licensed therapist specializing in religious trauma and is herself a survivor of religious trauma. The book's content pulls from her personal experiences and her professional research on post-traumatic stress disorder, trauma recovery techniques, power and control dynamics, and mental health treatment strategies. Learn more at EmpathyParadigmTherapy.com.

221 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 6, 2023

Reviews

[Gee Rothvoss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Borrowed this one on Unlimited for a postgrad research assignment on therapy for RT survivors, and I must say that this little handbook has been extraordinarily helpful. Miller offers valuable insight into exactly what Religious Trauma encompasses (fear and anxiety, shame, rigidity and suppression, & relationship dysfunction), providing robust theoretical frameworks that she then adapts to religious abuse specifically. I found the examples she provided to be particularly handy in regards to understanding the ways that RT may show up in people's daily lives, even when not triggered. During the second half of the handbook, Miller offers self-assessment tools to get to know one's trauma better and different ways to start working through it step by step. Her five-stage model was incredibly helpful to structure my own intervention program, and I cannot recommend this book enough to scholars and RT survivors alike!

[Bayleigh Saulmon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some great points and places for reflection. I think I’m farther in my religious trauma healing journey than I anticipated because it kind of felt like an overview of what I already know, but it was a great refresher and would be excellent for someone just now starting the journey of deconstruction.

A quote that stood out to me: “the ultimate goal of deconstruction isn’t to fully reject the belief system, but to assess each element individually without jumping to forgone conclusions. Deconstruction isn’t always finding the “right” answers or reaching certainty. The goal is to be curious as you search for congruence.”

[Ben Wikner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful and much needed resource

[J White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical. Miller provides meaningful yet easily understandable information. The tools provided are doable and impactful.

[Anita Ojeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Great Companion for When Religion Hurts You

Whether You’ve been hurt by religion or know someone who has suffered, this is a great resource. It has checklists, inventories, and ample reflection questions to help the reader understand the role highly-controlling religion had in shaping their present.