Do you work with people who have religious trauma?
Looking for more information?
Or colleagues to discuss your unique cases?
Journey Free’s Helping Professionals Group is designed to provide both education and support.
This is for you if you are a psychotherapist, social worker, life coach, or other helping professional who works with clients recovering from harmful religion.
Meet other professionals working with religious trauma in monthly video conference sessions in which we:
- Discuss special topics in working with this population.
- Provide personal support for each other
- Case conference
Get access to relevant research and academic articles
Access to our archive of previous session recordings, including discussions about the following topics:
- Fear of Hell
- Creating meaning after leaving religion
- Coping with religious family over the holidays
- Purity culture & sexual healing
- Using psychedelics for treatment
- Homeschooling in fundamentalist families
….and many more!
Watch sessions of Dr. Winell with clients
This entire program is available for a monthly subscription of $75 per month, and you can stop any time.
Schedule a free consultation with Dr. Winell upon applying, and find out if this is right for you.
Still learning your way around religious trauma?
As part of our helping professionals group, take advantage of opportunities to gain experience and knowledge.
- Co-facilitate the Release and Reclaim support group with professional feedback
- Watch for common themes across conference calls and forum discussions
- Receive referrals from Marlene’s private practice in the intern program
- Schedule one-on-one consultation with Marlene
- Present on any topic related to religious recovery for 20 min at a professional development session 1x/year (followed by a group discussion)
"Participating in the Professional Development Group has given me the opportunity to connect with and learn from others who also understand the pain of living with Religious Trauma Syndrome and are passionate about shepherding others through their own RTS."
Meet Dr. Marlene Winell
Marlene has been working with “reclaimers” – people recovering from toxic religious experiences – for over 30 years. She was the first to name religious trauma and Religious Trauma Syndrome in her academic articles published in 2011. She believes that mental health professionals have a lot to learn about treating religious harm.
Dr. Winell has studied with leaders in the field of trauma treatment such as Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and Dr. Eric Gentry and takes a body-oriented approach to religious trauma recovery. Among many influences she recommends these books to other helping professionals:
- The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
- Forward Facing Trauma Therapy by J. Eric Gentry
- Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors, by Janina Fisher
- Trauma and Recovery, by Judith Herman
- Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving, by Pete Walker
Dr. Winell always focuses on the therapeutic relationship as holding primary importance for healing. Other principles and important areas of knowledge such as safety and understanding of toxic religious experience inform her practice, training, and supervision. In working with clients, she also draws from the following approaches:
- Inner Child Work
- Clinical Guided Imagery
- Narrative Therapy
- Somatic Experiencing
- Trauma Treatment
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Psychoeducation
- Relationship Counseling
- Life Coaching
- Sex Therapy
- Expressive Arts Therapy
- Group Therapy
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
- Mindfulness
"Dr. Marlene Winell is a specialist in human development with a passion for helping people and a vision of getting 'Religious Trauma Syndrome' accepted as a recognized category of trauma diagnosis in the mental health field. Her book, Leaving the Fold: A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving their Religion, is a classic. I recommend it it to anyone interested in helping people heal from religious trauma. Marlene is compassionate and kind and very knowledgeable. I am hoping to continue hearing about her evolving plans to teach, train, and develop more resources for people to heal."
