Taking a stand against Donald Trump as a public facing therapist and therapeutic trainer is not new to me and to my company, The Institute for Creative Mindfulness. As someone who grew up very conservative (with one parent even espousing many of the talking points of Christian nationalism during our childhood years), we tried to take as neutral and as welcoming of an approach in the early days of our career as an EMDR trainer. We are from Ohio. We know that there are plenty of licensed, conservative therapists in this state, with many of these conservatives identifying as Christian. We fully recognize that there are conservative or independent clients who support Donald Trump present for mental health and recovery services in our state, and they have a right to good care. We remembered what it was like to get our Master’s degree at Franciscan University of Steubenville, considered one of the most conservative Catholic institutions in the United States. It was there that much of what we thought we believed about ourselves, God, the church, and politics began to unravel. In the first two years that we spent in the profession, our active deconstruction away from conservative values continued and we began to experience an improved sense of mental health in our own lives. This full story of our deconstruction and reconstruction journey is detailed in You Lied to Me About God: A Memoir, available October 15.
Everything changed for me after the 2016 election. Yes, his election activated my personal trauma of growing up as a queer person in a religious, conservative, Christian nationalist context. Professionally, I knew that his continued garnering of power would spell further danger in our country for LGBTQ+ persons and women, which is why I felt I had to speak out more publicly about him, even at the expense of losing business. And as someone who has been studying the dynamics of spiritual abuse and religious trauma since my time at Franciscan University, I clearly saw cult dynamics at play in how Trump has secured and continues to secure power. As clinicians, it is a social justice issue for us to examine the rise of Donald Trump and how he impacts the United States through the lens of cultic studies. I’m bringing in one of the world’s leading experts on this topic, Dr. Janja Lalich (who you will likely recognize through her interviews on many documentaries) to have this discussion with me for the benefit of clinicians and the people we serve.
As soon as I announced the webinar some criticism came my way, which I expected. To address a few of the questions we’ve gotten, I want to assure clinicians who support Trump who are interested in attending the training that yes, they are welcome at the training. However, they might hear some things that will feel uncomfortable and that will challenge them to think more critically through an established cultic studies lens about what supporting Donald Trump means. Another question asked if supporters of Donald Trump will be characterized as members of a cult. Like many things in the area of cultic studies, we present you with the information—which we will do in this course through an established and defined lens—and then leave it for you to decide. We will acknowledge some of the key factors, supported by literature, as to why people in the United States are drawn to supporting Donald Trump. However, this training does take a strong position that when critically evaluated through cultic studies paradigms, Trump’s rise to power and the impact it has had on this country is more than a cause for concern.
If you’d like to read more about what Dr. Lalich has previously written on the topic for you to decide whether or not this training is for you, please check out these links:
Donald Trump and His Followers: Are They a Cult?
The Cult of Trump Can Be Healed. It Will Take Years of Work and Empathy, Not Shouting
The course will be held in real time on October 1, 2024 from 12:00pm-3:15pm for select CE credits. For more information and to register, click HERE. Sliding scale pricing is available.
If you are interested in the webinar but cannot attend in real time, we are selling recording replays for $25.00 that can be viewed at your convenience although we are not offering CEs with this option. For more information and to purchase, click HERE.
