Category
An Approach to Moral Injury and Trauma Recovery
Proceeds benefit Bay Area Trauma Recovery Clinical Services
2 CE hours available
Moral injury and betrayal are often an overlooked dimension of trauma—one rooted not only in fear and threat but in violations of deeply held moral beliefs and values.
While trauma therapies have historically focused on fear conditioning and avoidance learning, many survivors struggle instead with moral pain: guilt, shame, anger, and loss of trust in self or others following events that transgress their sense of right and wrong.
This form of suffering, sometimes referred to as “the wound to the soul,” emerges when individuals cannot reconcile their actions, inactions, or betrayals by trusted others with their moral framework.
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) offers a uniquely powerful model for addressing moral injury by targeting the processes that maintain human suffering—experiential avoidance, fusion with self-critical narratives, and disconnection from values.
Within an ACT framework, moral pain is not pathologized but understood as an expression of what deeply matters to the individual. The goal is not to erase guilt or moral anguish but to help clients hold these experiences with compassion and engage in values-consistent action.
Join Praxis Continuing Education and Training and Robyn Walser online for a 2-hour training to learn an effective approach to this complex issue, and support a good cause.