Restored Relationships wants vicars, priests and pastors to be able to spot the signs of all offences but specifically coercive control.
It's a new crime and carries a maximum punishment of five years in jail but can be very hard to spot as its psychological.
Three police forces have confirmed they're launching a pilot scheme to train their officers to better spot the signs.
Coercive control is when a partner displays a pattern of behaviour to remove their spouse from their friends and family so they are isolated and forced to do things they do not want to.
Examples include confiscating a mobile phone, monitoring time and depriving them of basic needs.
Mandy Marshall, from Christian charity Restored Relationships, told Premier's News Hour church workers should also be trained up to police standard.
She said: "We want to see churches trained in recognising signs of abuse.
"We want churches to be aware of these issues and to be trained in these issues and to be able to respond well when they see it happening, to enable people to be restored."
It is positive that police will be more aware of the signs, she said, and added: "The good thing is that they've recognised that there is a need to actually train police officers.
"In the report that they did [it showed that] a lot of police think of domestic abuse as violence, but we hope that actually this will enable police to spot those signs of coercive and controlling behaviour and take action sooner."
She said there are many things officers and church workers can be looking out for: "That includes things like threats to a person, shaming them, coercive threats to a child, it can be isolating a person from their friends and family.
"It can be depriving them of their basic needs, it could be repeatedly putting them down, monitoring their online communications."
Coercive control is thought to be the most high risk form of domestic abuse leading to greater long-term physical and psychological injury.
It comes as research for the College of Policing found a number of risk factors are being overlooked and police are mainly looking for signs of physical violence.
The results of the pilot scheme will be released next year.
Listen to Premier's Aaron James speak to Mandy Marshall here:
