Treating Religious Trauma: An Integrative Framework for Clinicians
By Ann Russo, LCSW
Available for pre-order now. Published by PESI Publishing.
A religious pendant swings from a rearview mirror. Someone offers a casual blessing at dinner. A bell drifts from a building nearby and the body reacts before the mind can catch up. Heart rate climbs. Muscles brace. Breath tightens. Most people have no words for what just happened in their body. They learn to ignore it, explain it away, or blame themselves for feeling it at all.
This is religious trauma. It is not a misinterpretation of faith, a crisis of meaning, or a failure of resilience. It is identity level harm, created by high control religious systems that condition fear, obedience, and self surveillance. That conditioning is often held in the body as well as the mind. For decades it has gone unnamed in clinical settings. Clients get treated for anxiety, depression, shame, or relational difficulty while the religious conditioning underneath those symptoms goes untouched, because neutrality toward religion, theological illiteracy, and spiritual bypass have let that harm persist inside therapy itself.
I am Ann Russo, LCSW, MA Theology. I built the Religious Trauma Treatment Model out of two decades of clinical practice and study, and out of my own life. I grew up in a queer family in an era and a place where that made us a target, and religion gave people permission to threaten us. I know what it is to hide the truth of your life to survive it, and I know what it costs to eventually stop. That history is in every page of this work. RTTM integrates trauma science, psychology, neuroscience, and theology so that therapy can interrupt this kind of harm instead of quietly repeating it.
About the book
Religious trauma is real, common, and still hard for many clients to name. This book gives clinicians a clear, structured way to recognize it and treat it.
It is built on the Religious Trauma Treatment Model (RTTM), the framework I developed in my clinical work with people who have been harmed by religious environments.
RTTM in Practice and Education
- I provide psychotherapy informed by RTTM for adults impacted by religious trauma, spiritual abuse, and faith based harm. Treatment focuses on how religious control has trained the body, constrained identity, and distorted relational safety, delivered through licensed, trauma-informed clinical care.
- RTTM is also taught to mental health professionals through training and educational programs, equipping clinicians to recognize religious trauma, understand how it works, and avoid reenacting religious control dynamics inside the therapeutic relationship itself.
- Training supports ethical integration of RTTM into independent clinical practice.
- The book, Treating Religious Trauma: An Integrative Framework for Clinicians, published by PESI and available for pre-order now, lays out the clinical foundations of RTTM and makes the case that religious trauma is real, common, and treatable.
If you’ve ever felt alone in the therapy room—or unsure how to help a client whose wounds are wrapped in religion—this book is your guide.
Who it's for
Therapists, counselors, social workers, and other mental health professionals who work with clients who have left, are leaving, or are questioning a high-control or harmful religious setting.
About the RTTM
The Religious Trauma Treatment Model (RTTM) is the clinical framework behind the book. I created it to give providers a practical approach to treating religious trauma that respects each client’s beliefs, history, and goals.
About the author
I am Ann Russo, LCSW, MA Theology, the creator of the RTTM. I train and consult with therapists and organizations on religious trauma, sexuality, and inclusive, trauma-informed care.
