WHAT COMES AFTER "WRONG"?

Remaking life in the aftermath of wrong,

with one of today’s leading voices

in moral trauma and moral resilience.

New Book by Michele DeMarco, PhD
WRITING THE WRONGS: A Guided Journal for Healing Moral Injury

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Reader Reviews)

"This is no mere journal—it’s an embodied journey of reckoning and reconnection, making us feel held in our darkest moments... Weaving cutting-edge neuroscience with ancient wisdom, Writing the Wrongs is medicine for our times.— Albert Wong, PhD, author of The Healing Trauma Workbook          

Are you haunted by the bitterness of betrayal, a crisis of conscience, or a "values violation" when life experiences haven't aligned with your core beliefs and principles? Do you find yourself struggling to reconcile the impossible, unimaginable, or unbearable with deep, lasting emotional or spiritual pain as you try to navigate the aftermath? If so, you may be suffering from moral injury.

Writing the Wrongs introduces a breakthrough, evidence-based writing program for healing moral injury to help you transform moral pain into peace, purpose, and possibility. (Part of New Harbinger’s esteemed "Journals for Change Series.")

Dr. Michele DeMarco

Welcome. I’m glad you’re here.

Dr. Michele DeMarco

I’m Michele — an award-winning writer, therapist, clinical ethicist, and academic researcher working at the leading edge of one of the most important, but little-known areas of trauma and resilience today. It’s called moral injury and its cousin moral distress (the field, generally, is also referred to as moral trauma). And it’s different than depression, anxiety, feelings of burnout, grief, or defeat, even posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Moral trauma happens when your core moral foundations are violated in high-stake situations, which recasts the way you see yourself, others, and the world, and can cause changes in behavior that signal a loss of trust, connection, self-worth, and meaning. These painful experiences are not a “disorder” of the mind, but rather a weight upon the heart and soul, which is why they are commonly called “soul wounds” — because they cut to our core or essence, to the very things that define us.

Moral trauma can feel like you’re carrying the weight of the world. While these painful and disorienting fundamental human struggles have plagued people for millennia, finally, we know what to call them, how to identify them, and increasingly, how to help people heal and transform from them.

If you haven’t heard of moral injury or moral distress, I invite you to learn more — because there is a good chance either you or someone you know has felt its profound effects.

Write Life
Author, Healer, Researcher, Speaker, & Souljourner

About Michele DeMarco, PhD

A native Bostonian, Michele has been traversing the edges of the human condition for as long as she can remember, crafting a bold, soul-centered story about how to respond to the worst experiences of life with the best of oneself. Part tragedy, comedy, quest, and mystery, Michele draws on her experience as a writer and storyteller, therapist, neuroscience and truama researcher, teacher, spiritual counselor, even world-wise strategist and executive level communications and marketing officer.

Michele also employs her own harrowing soulful experiences, including three heart attacks by her early 40s and the loss of a child. 

With 20+ years of experience with individuals, groups, organizations, and institutions, in the public, private, and social sectors, Michele helps others remake life when right goes terribly wrong.

🖋️

Author & Writer

“We’re all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?”
–11th Doctor Who

Dr. Michele DeMarco is an award-winning writer, author, and storyteller who knows that any story worth its weight in gold (or soul) has tension, conflict, even heartache. Stories mimic life–and the story of life, with all its triumphs and tragedies, defines Michele’s writing.

Some is heady and academic. Much is conversational and inspirational. A few stir the pot of comfort and controversial. All of it aims to integrate hearts and smarts in the service of stirring readers’ souls in a way that excites, ignites, enlightens, and empowers. Michele's writing has been widely published, including in The New York Times, The Hill, POLITICO, The Boston Globe, The Free Press, Psychology TodayThe War Horse, Frontiers in Psychology, among others. Her books include Writing the Wrongs: A Guided Journal for Healing Moral Injury and Holding Onto Air: The Art and Science of Building a Resilient Spirit. She is also the author of the Psychology Today blog "Soul Console: Healing from Moral Injury" and one of Medium’s Top Writers for Mental Health and Health.

🩶

Healer & Speaker

“In a world experiencing a dearth of soul, Michele’s approach to tending “soul wounds” is a poetic answer to tending moral pain and rewriting the narrative of life.”
Valeria McCarroll, PhD, LMFT, author, speaker and educator

We often think that right and wrong is simply black and white, but there's nothing simple about moral adversity — or easy about healing these entrenched and invisible “soul wounds.” Michele has seen the psychospiritual and relational damage of unreconciled moral trauma. She's also witnessed the profound effects of moral repair and moral resilience through her counseling, teaching, training, programming, and in her own life. 

Michele’s science-driven, soul-centered approach to moral trauma has made her a trusted advisor to leading nonprofits, institutions, think tanks, and companies, from military/veterans and law enforcement, to healthcare and social service, spiritual/faith groups, education, business, and more.

📖

Researcher

“Through research each scientist grows as a human being and helps others to do likewise.”
–Pope John Paul 11

Michele has always been interested in how people “story” their lives — how they craft them, shape them, imagine and reimagine them, and tell them (both to themselves and others); what influences people’s stories and how they prioritize them in their mind; and ultimately, how they live their stories, and what that means for a person’s ability to thrive, particularly in the aftermath of meaningful challenge or wrongdoing.

Her research spans the fields of moral injury, psychology, trauma, neuroscience, and somatic and creative art therapies, respectively, conflict transformation, and world wisdom and spirituality. Out of this research, she developed and published a therapeutic approach to healing moral injury called embodied disclosure therapy (EDT), a healing writing program called Imaginal Writing, and a model for forgiveness called the 6-fold path for self-forgiveness (6-FPSF), respectively. 

🕊️

Souljourner

Only those who risk going too far can find out how far one can go.”  –T. S. Eliot

Michele has been on a “souljourn” since she was young and realized, through hard won wisdom, that we live in a world which doesn’t naturally venture out to edges—unless forced, usually because of some devastating or painful experience, like moral trauma. Those liminal, soul awakening experiences have served as Michele’s GPS as she navigates the path of life after wrong and helps others to do the same.

Michele created the Soul Console Community (or Base Camp) to help those facing soul wounds better understand what moral trauma is, how it lives inside us, and how that shapes the stories we tell about ourselves and affects our relationships with others and the world. Learn more about Michele’s inspiring story. Hear from other souljourners in Michele’s latest project “In the Black Hours,” a bold collection of photographic vignettes and stories about moral injury. Get resources to support you, loved ones, or clients. And join the conversation. 

Write Life
Explore

Not sure where to begin?
We can help with that.

Write Life
Get the book that changed how we think about adversity
Book by Michele DeMarco, PhD
HOLDING ONTO AIR: The Art and Science of Building a Resilient Spirit

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"Michele DeMarco has written a wise and welcoming guide to what comes after survival — the rebuilding of hope, spirit, resilience, and joy."  — Anne Lamott, New York Times best-selling author          

With poignant wisdom and refreshing insight Dr. Michele DeMarco explodes traditional myths of resilience and shows what it takes to thrive through any of life’s challenges. DeMarco situates meaningful challenge and loss specifically in the context of “lost innocence,” and challenges common notions that we can think our way out of despair and back to a “normal” happy life when the unimaginable shatters it.

Featured

Writing the Wrongs:     Building Moral Resilience in Troubled Times

In conversation with renowned literary agent Kimberley Cameron

Dr. Michele DeMarco and Kimberley Cameron discuss Michele's new book Writing the Wrongs: A Guided Journal for Healing Moral Injury and how it can help people to not only tend our deepest wounds, like betrayal, a crisis of conscience, or "values violations," but also build moral resilience--and find hope, courage, and connection in your darkest moments.

Dr. Michele DeMarco recording Holding Onto Air: The Art and Science of Building a Resilient Spirit
Write Life
Soul Console Community
18589099_10212183884086872_9141720025390374562_o

Welcome to Soul Console Base Camp

Soul Console is a burgeoning community, grounded in trust and validation, and chock-full of resources that can help you regain a sense of wholeness, integrity, and connection. Whether you’re feeling crushing emotion, the fear of stigma, numbing from scars, the sense that others “wouldn’t understand,” “couldn’t understand,” “don’t really care,” or would “judge you,” you needn’t suffer any longer--and you're not alone.

Resource Hubs
BIO
More About Michele
RESOURCES
Free stuff you can download
"SOUL CONSOLE"
Michele's Blog @ Psychology Today
ART & STORIES
"In the Black Hours" Voices of Courage
Write Life
Featured Articles
man and woman holding each others hands
Relationships

Moral Injury and the Agony and Power of Love

At its core, moral injury is about trust and our sacred relationships.
man sitting on sofa
Moral Injury

Bouncing Back From Moral Injury

How neuroscience and somatic therapy helped a special forces vet find new life.
person sitting on top of gray rock overlooking mountain during daytime
Well-Being

6 Underestimated Drivers of Well-Being

Research shows these psychospiritual forces may be critically important for decreasing risk of illness and death and boosting ...
two person in yellow, red, and black parachute under blue sky during daytime
resilience

How to Cultivate Moral Resilience

Moral resilience is the antidote for the powerlessness felt from moral distress.
Moral Injury

What Not to Say to Someone Dealing with Moral Injury

Knowing how to be present without overstepping boundaries can help a loved one.
Write Life

"We cannot recreate our lives going backward. We can only reclaim our life moving forward."

-Michele DeMarco, PhD, from Holding Onto Air: The Art and Science of Building a Resilient Spirit