University of Idaho ecumenical minister and WSU psychology professor create support group for students with religious trauma
If churches and religious groups are responsible for causing trauma, then churches and religious groups have a moral responsibility to actively address that harm, said George Fricks, an ecumenical minister who serves students at the University of Idaho.
When Fricks – executive director of the Ecumenical Campus Ministries Association, which operates R House student center (formerly known as the Campus Christian Center) adjacent to campus – first came to the university, he heard that a large percentage of students report concerns with religious trauma, he said. Later, he led a workshop with staff and doctoral interns at UI’s Counseling and Mental Health Center about the intersections of religion and trauma.
But he wanted to take further action.
Religious leaders “need to be, in my opinion, on the forefront of trying to figure out how we solve this and how we do better,” Fricks said. “Not to say that we’re going to be perfect, but we need to be making steps forward.”
For the past year, Fricks has been collaborating with Lucas Huckaby, a scholarly assistant professor of psychology at Washington State University, to create a curriculum for a peer-driven religious trauma support group. The initial group is slated to begin this spring at UI.
What is religious trauma?
The Religious Trauma Institute – whose materials have helped guide Fricks and Huckaby – defines religious trauma as “The physical, emotional or psychological response to religious beliefs, practices or structures that is experienced by an individual as overwhelming or disruptive and has lasting adverse effects on a person’s physical, mental, social, emotional or spiritual well-being.”
A 2023 study led by the Global Center for Religious Research found that 27-33% of U.S. adults have experienced religious trauma at some point in their life, and the researchers noted that this is a conservative conclusion.
Religious trauma is a burgeoning area of psychology, Huckaby said. Psychologists use different frames for trauma, and religious trauma fits in the frame often called “little-t trauma”: events that are not life-threatening, but are life-altering.
“Unlike other forms of, maybe, physical trauma, (religious trauma) is really, deeply entwined with identity,” Huckaby said. “Morality is another huge part of it, and purpose, and relationships.”
Religious trauma can be especially challenging because negative events are often entangled with positive things like love and goodness, Huckaby said. People with religious trauma may struggle with behaviors such as scrupulosity, “which is like religious OCD,” he said.
Leaders of churches and other religious institutions often don’t believe religious trauma exists, Fricks said. For example, a clergy member may say they were not being abusive, but simply speaking the truth.
“Abuse is not defined by intent. It’s defined by what happens – the impact on the person,” Fricks said. “We can try to mitigate, we can try to set up boundaries. That kind of education, that kind of knowledge, just really does not exist broadly in the realm of institutions of religion.”
How the support group works
The 12-week support group curriculum was developed by Huckaby, Fricks and a group of WSU undergraduate psychology student volunteers: Amelia Black, Dalen Palmer, Lune French and Evelyn Hankins.
For Fricks, it was particularly important to create a curriculum based in ethics and psychology. Young adults are increasingly turning to counseling to work through their problems, and religious leaders should value this tool, he said.
In addition to Huckaby’s professional guidance, the team also received a grant from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to pay a licensed professional psychologist to review the curriculum, cover the cost of program materials and fund a student intern to co-facilitate the pilot group with Fricks and Huckaby.
They’re still in the process of finding participants for the pilot group, which will meet at R House and will be free of cost. The curriculum includes a facilitator guide and a take-home workbook.
A support group is not the same as a therapy group, Huckaby noted. Therapy groups must be led by licensed professionals and aim to change thoughts and behavior, as well as process trauma. A support group focuses on building peer connections, developing coping skills and reducing isolation.
Addressing isolation is particularly important to students with religious trauma, who may feel ostracized by friends or family members or afraid that people they love won’t accept their identity, Huckaby said.
Keith Hansen, executive director of UI’s counseling center, said the center has passed out flyers about the group, and providers can refer students to it. He said the center doesn’t keep statistics about religious trauma, but it’s an area of interest for him and he’s worked on it with clients.
“Very few mental health programs talk about working with faith systems, and particularly faith-based trauma,” he said. “I kind of gave (counseling center providers) a brief training and understanding of it so they can help refer clients over there.”
Goals of the program
Huckaby and Fricks emphasized that the group does not aim to change participants’ religion.
“The group is not trying to get people back in or get people out. It’s very neutral,” Huckaby said.
Hansen said that neutrality was a reason he is willing to refer students to the group.
“I need to know that (students) are going to be allowed the freedom to develop and go their own path in faith, that the system isn’t built to unduly influence them toward one path or another,” he said. “I really got a strong sense of that talking to (Fricks and Huckaby), that that was a cornerstone of what they were doing.”
Students of any religious background will be welcome in the first group, but Fricks and Huckaby expect most participants will come from evangelical Christian or Latter-day Saints backgrounds, since those are the most prominent religious identities in the area.
They’re also the backgrounds the team is most familiar with. Huckaby completed his doctoral internship at the University of Utah’s counseling center, and his dissertation examined prejudice from American Christians related to sexual, gender and religious identity.
Fricks and Huckaby were both raised evangelical and now attend Refuge Church in Pullman. Fricks’ spouse, Elle Grover-Fricks, is pastor at Refuge, which Fricks described as “a nondenominational but ecumenically minded congregation in good standing with the progressive mainline churches on the Palouse.”
The first support group will help inform how the curriculum needs to evolve, Fricks said: “This is all, at this point, journeyman work. You’re learning on the job site. We’re creating the principles on how we do that so we can navigate it safely, and then it’s just going to be learning as we go.”
Fricks said they are currently looking for funding to expand the group to the WSU campus, and that they’ll consider increasing the number of groups at UI if there’s demand. He said the program will always be free for students.
Training therapists and religious groups
Huckaby and Fricks said they plan to use the learning they gain from leading the support group to expand the knowledge of religious trauma in their respective fields.
Huckaby said there is a great need for psychology clinicians to understand religious trauma – especially in areas with “problematic Christian or hyper-partisan Christian groups.” In his own training, he learned about race, culture and sexuality, but religion was rarely discussed.
“As a therapist and as a psychologist, specifically in our ethics code, it says that we work to gain competency, especially around cultural issues,” he said.
On the ministry side, Fricks said he hopes to work with religious leaders to become more aware of how trauma and abuse occur, and how they can better monitor themselves and their institutions.
He said he wants to give clergy members tools to discern when people need to be referred to professional counseling. He also hopes to engage with congregations.
“We need to be equipped to interact with young adults to come into congregations who probably, statistically, have trauma – religious trauma specifically,” he said. “We can’t just let that go.”
This story was written in partnership with FāVS News, a nonprofit newsroom covering faith and values in the Inland Northwest.