It all begins with an idea.

A brilliant young student sits frozen before a blank page. Their mind soars through theological paradoxes with ease, yet their thoughts refuse the permanence of paper—blooming like psychic skywriting only to vanish rather than risk choosing between their own voice and the voices that shaped them.

This clinical case, viewed through Dr. Jason Jost's framework of evangelical trauma, reveals a hidden therapeutic challenge. Children raised under the unblinking gaze of absolute truth learn to hide their authentic selves, even from themselves. Like this student whose ideas appear and dissolve rather than demand permanence, they develop sophisticated defenses against the dangerous act of self-assertion.

The case illuminates how psychoanalysts unfamiliar with evangelical child-rearing may unknowingly replicate these accommodation patterns—becoming another transcendent authority the patient must please. Drawing from Jost's insights and Peter Shabad's work on human agency, this training explores how therapeutic dynamics can mirror the original family system where emerging selfhood was consistently subordinated to divine will.

Participants will learn to recognize these patterns and develop approaches that create space where the sacred and personal need not exist in opposition—helping patients like this student finally allow their beautiful thoughts to remain on the page.