Restoring Freedom Summit
Date: January 11, 2023
Time: 8:30am to 5:00pm
Where: University of Utah College of Social Work
Okazaki Community Meeting Room
395 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
About this event
The Restoring Freedom Summit is ideal for Mental Health Professionals, Law Enforcement, first responders, clergy, counselors, supportive friends and family of survivors. The Summit is sponsored by the University of Utah’s College of Social Work, Gender Based Violence Consortium and The Women’s Resource Center, plus The Healing Center for Complex Trauma, and Holding out HELP. This is a groundbreaking training event where the topic of ritual abuse and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) resulting from it will be addressed in a comprehensive way. Healing from this type of abuse is complicated due to the amplified dissociative symptoms that arise from the coercive and controlled programming that is often employed by ritual abuse groups to maintain victim compliance and secrecy.
Survivors of ritual abuse are regularly misdiagnosed, unable to find competent and sustainable treatment, and are often mistreated because of their extreme symptoms. Many to most will die before they can receive appropriate care. Without proper healing and support, survivors remain imprisoned within their traumatized minds and bodies, unable to enjoy true freedom. But this can change with compassion and intention. The Restoring Freedom Summit will empower all who wish to support survivors of such profound trauma with knowledge that allows us to see the hidden wounds, the person rather than the symptoms, and instill hope for true healing that restores choice and freedom to each survivor as a whole person.
Topics covered include:
- Discussing the reality of ritualistic abuse, what it is, and how it manifests
- Understanding DID specifically created through ritual abuse, its breadth and intensity
- Barriers to treatment and strategies to engage the survivor in safety and healing
- Vicarious/Secondary Trauma for clinicians, caregivers, interviewers, etc.
- The impacts on the survivor’s family, now and into the future
- Attuned listening/neurodynamic non-abandonment for clinicians
- How ritual or spiritual abuse can show up in the world of polygamy
- Grounding/Re-regulating: Quiet room, grounding activities, and support
- The University of Utah’s Women’s Resource Center will have on-site mental health support
- Opportunities for networking and sharing best practices
Click here to view our speaker lineup.
The vision for this event came from Kimberli Koen who is the President and Founder of The Healing Center for Complex Trauma. She is a survivor of ritualistic sexual abuse (RSA) and has made it her mission to bring awareness and training for professionals and frontline workers who may work with other survivors of RSA. She is an active member of the Utah Trafficking in Persons Task Force, University of Utah Gender Based Violence Consortium, National Survivor Network and the National Leadership Institute.
This summit will provide 5.5 hours of CEU credit as well as the opportunity to network with other professionals and clinicians.
Registration is now closed.
