After #ChurchToo: An Introductory Course on Purity Culture for Clinical Professionals with Emily Joy (Online)
Offering 6 CE Credit Hours
Friday, July 30, 2021
9:00am-4:30pm EST
ABOUT THE COURSE
This online workshop aims to educate, inform and empower clinical professionals about the issues surrounding purity culture that lead to the crisis known as #ChurchToo, so that they can better serve their clients who are struggling with the aftermath of religious sexualized violence. Led by one of the leading authorities on the topic, the workshop will address the definition of purity culture and the history behind it, showing therapists why clients may be coming to them with problems caused by purity culture and the unique historical and cultural context in which it arose. Key theological concepts and doctrines that make up purity culture as well as the ways that they are most commonly manifested will be explained in this opening section. Next, the presenter will share case studies, both real-life and composite, of people affected by purity culture and the negative emotional, spiritual, sexual and relational consequences that often result from being steeped in it during formative years. She will also share from her own lived experience with the phenomenon. From there, anxieties therapists might have about not being theologically knowledgeable or feeling as though it is “not their lane” to attempt to deal with a client’s theological beliefs are addressed. This section addresses the very traceable, solid lines between purity culture and abuse/neglect/dysfunction in order to make the case that far from being a matter of theological obscurity or “sincerely held religious beliefs” that harm no one, purity culture is actually a risk factor for all kinds of negative mental, physical, and spiritual health outcomes and is absolutely an appropriate place for therapeutic intervention. Finally, the presenter and discussant lay out concrete strategies for addressing purity culture with clients, guided by these core questions:
What are the most effective ways to begin speaking about purity culture? What are other issues that arise as purity culture is dismantled, and how can therapists help their clients manage anxiety around those issues?
What strategies work best for those with specifically religious, body-based traumas?
How can therapists walk alongside clients in their process while also understanding the demonstrable fact that purity culture is a dangerous ideology that does not lead to health and wholeness for most?
Clinical counselor and trauma specialist Jamie Marich, Ph.D., LPCC-S, LICDC-CS, REAT, RYT-500 joins the course as the clinical discussant/co-presenter.
Attendance at the entire main training (9:00am-4:30pm EST) is required to receive CEs. No partial credit can be awarded. After paying for this course you will receive an email from Thinkific to complete your registration and receive access to your course dashboard.
Objectives
After this course, participants will be able to:
(1) To define purity culture and articulate an understanding of the historical and cultural issues at play when it comes to speaking about and competently addressing purity culture in clinical settings.
(2) To identify clinical signals and symptoms that suggest a client may be impacted by purity culture.
(3) To determine where the impact of purity culture is showing up in “real life” for the client (e.g., presentations of abuse, neglect, dysfunction) and develop an appropriate plan to address.
(4) To explore the role of the therapist in addressing issues around spirituality, religion, and purity culture, addressing any fears or barriers to “going there” with clients.
(5) To address their client’s belief in or commitment to purity culture and to help them feel that that is a genuine part of their work as a mental health practitioner.
(6) To implement tangible clinical strategies for assisting clients who are struggling with purity culture and help therapists examine the unique elements of recovering from purity culture that they can incorporate into their practice.
About the Instructor
Emily Joy Allison
Emily Joy Allison is an author, poet and yoga teacher. She holds a degree in philosophical theology and apologetics from Moody Bible Institute and is currently pursuing a Master of Theological Studies from Vanderbilt Divinity School. In November 2017, as the #MeToo movement was going viral, Emily came forward with her own story of abuse at the hands of her church and launched the #ChurchToo movement overnight. She has been writing and speaking about religious sexualized violence and its theological underpinnings for many years, and her work has appeared in publications like Time, Teen Vogue, Mother Jones, Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post, Jezebel, and more. Emily lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
About the Instructor
ICM Founder & Director Jamie Marich
Dr. Jamie Marich (she/they/we) began her career as a humanitarian aid worker in Bosnia-Hercegovina from 2000-2003, primarily teaching English and music. Jamie travels internationally teaching on topics related to trauma, EMDR therapy, expressive arts, mindfulness, and yoga, while maintaining a private practice and online education operations in her home base of Akron, OH. Marich is the founder of the Institute for Creative Mindfulness and the developer of the Dancing Mindfulness approach to expressive arts therapy. Marich is the author of EMDR Made Simple: 4 Approaches for Using EMDR with Every Client (2011), Trauma and the Twelve Steps: A Complete Guide for Recovery Enhancement (2012), Creative Mindfulness (2013), Trauma Made Simple: Competencies in Assessment, Treatment, and Working with Survivors, Dancing Mindfulness: A Creative Path to Healing and Transformation (2015), and Process Not Perfection: Expressive Arts Solutions for Trauma Recovery (2019). Marich co-authored EMDR Therapy & Mindfulness for Trauma-Focused Care along with colleague Dr. Stephen Dansiger in 2018, and their new book with Springer Publishing Healing Addiction with EMDR Therapy: A Trauma-Focused Guide released in 2021. North Atlantic Books published a revised and expanded edition of Trauma and the 12 Steps in the Summer of 2020, and they released The Healing Power of Jiu-Jitsu: A Guide to Transforming Trauma and Facilitating Recovery in 2022. Her latest release with North Atlantic Book, Dissociation Made Simple: A Stigma-Free Guide to Embracing Your Dissociative Mind and Navigating Life came out in January 2023. She has three more projects in the works with North Atlantic Books, including her personal memoir about surviving spiritual abuse called You Lied to Me About God, due out in Autumn 2024.
The Huffington Post published her personal story of being out as a clinical professional with a dissociative disorder in May 2023. The New York Times featured Marich’s writing and work on Dancing Mindfulness in 2017 and 2020. NALGAP: The Association of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Addiction Professionals and Their Allies awarded Jamie with their esteemed President’s Award in 2015 for her work as an LGBT advocate. The EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) granted Jamie the 2019 Advocacy in EMDR Award for her using her public platform in media and in the addiction field to advance awareness about EMDR therapy and to reduce stigma around mental health. Jamie also sits on the editorial board of the EMDR Journal of Practice and Research, and she was the 2008 winner of the Poster Research Award at the EMDRIA Annual Conference.
The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is approved by the following organizations to offer 6 continuing education (CE) credits for this course:
State of Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board
The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is an approved provider of continuing education by the State of Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board for counselors, social workers, and marriage/family therapists. Approval: #RCS091306
American Psychological Association
The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is approved by American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Institute for Creative Mindfulness maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
National Board for Certified Counselors
The Institute for Creative Mindfulness has been approved by National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6998. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Institute for Creative Mindfulness is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Association of Social Worker Boards
Institute for Creative Mindfulness, #1735, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Institute for Creative Mindfulness maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 03/16/2021 – 03/16/2021. Social workers completing this course receive 6 continuing education credits.
A General Note About Approvals
Please also note that APA-approved sponsors are accepted by many state boards, such as California BBS and major licensure boards within the state of Pennsylvania. In both of these cases, separate paperwork does not need to be filled out. Many state boards also accept out-of-state providers, which is why our Ohio approvals appear on every training. In some states, pre- or post-program approval forms must be sent, and you are responsible for checking into the rules of the licensure board in your state as to what is required. Please let the Institute for Creative Mindfulness know if you need support documentation in any way for these pre or post-program approval applications.