Rev. Dr. J.R. Thicklin is a nationally recognized clergy leader, domestic violence practitioner, author, trainer, and advocate whose life’s work has been devoted to bridging the often-difficult intersection between faith, domestic and sexual violence, culture, accountability, and healing. For more than three decades, Dr. Thicklin has worked to challenge the silence surrounding domestic violence—particularly within faith communities and African American communities. His work is grounded in a simple but urgent conviction: the church must be more than a place where wounded people come to pray; it must also become a place where they can find safety, informed support, accountability, and pathways toward healing.

As President of Destiny By Choice, Inc., Dr. Thicklin has provided culturally specific domestic violence education, prevention, intervention, and community engagement while helping faith leaders and organizations better understand the dynamics of abuse. His work has included direct service within domestic violence centers, education in schools and universities, research addressing domestic violence within African American communities, and facilitating Safe Return Domestic Violence Programs in correctional institutions, engaging justice-involved men around violence, responsibility, accountability, and change.

Dr. Thicklin is co-author of Speaking of Faith: Domestic Violence Programs in the African American Church and developer of the Clergy Toolkit on Domestic & Sexual Violence, created in partnership with the Palm Beach County Sexual Assault Response Team. His work has contributed to research and professional conversations examining culturally specific responses to domestic violence and the critical role faith communities can play in prevention,mintervention, and healing. His commitment to breaking what he describes as the “Holy Hush” has extended beyond training rooms and pulpits. He produced a series on Domestic Violence and the Silent Church and hosted the national podcast Hope & Healing: A Journey to Wholeness, creating spaces for candid conversations about abuse, trauma, faith, accountability, restoration, and the responsibility of communities to respond differently.

Dr. Thicklin also serves as President of the Palm Beach County Clergy Alliance and as President and Chief Consultant of J.R. Thicklin Consulting & Training, LLC, through which he provides training, consultation, and technical assistance to faith communities, nonprofit organizations, governmental entities, and community-based systems. His ability to speak authentically in both sacred and secular spaces has made him a sought-after keynote speaker, trainer, consultant, and facilitator. Yet at the heart of his work remains ministry. With more than four decades of ministry and pastoral leadership, Dr. Thicklin understands that victims and survivors often turn to faith leaders during some of the most dangerous, confusing, and vulnerable moments of their lives. He has therefore dedicated a significant part of his ministry to equipping clergy to recognize abuse, respond without causing further harm, support survivors, hold those who cause harm accountable, and build partnerships with trained community professionals.

It is from this intersection of pulpit and practice, faith and advocacy, culture and community, accountability and compassion that Dr. Thicklin writes Breaking the Holy Hush: Bridging Hope & Healing: A Faith-Based Guide to Addressing Domestic & Sexual Violence.For him, this work is more than professional—it is ministry. It is a call to help transform sacred spaces into safer spaces, break generations of silence, and remind those wounded by violence that faith should never be used to keep them bound, and the Church should never become a sanctuary for abuse.

Dr. Thicklin continues his work with one enduring purpose: to bridge hope and healing so that individuals, families, faith communities, and entire communities can move from silence to awareness, from awareness to action, and from brokenness toward wholeness.