About Michele DeMarco, PhD
Welcome
I’m happy you’re here.
I’m Michele — an author, researcher, healer, and speaker who’s spent the last two decades on a “souljourn,” studying trauma generally, moral injury and lost innocence specifically, and resilience.
Officially ...
I’m an award-winning writer and a specialist in the fields of psychology, trauma, health, and spirituality. I’m also a professionally trained therapist, clinical ethicist, and academic researcher who’s spent the last two decades studying trauma generally, moral injury and lost innocence specifically, and resilience. I’m 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, respectively.
My writing has appeared in national and international publications, including the New York Times, POLITICO, The Hill, The Free Press, The Boston Globe, The Daily News, Psychology Today, The War Horse, and Medium, among others. I’ve been featured as a psychology and spirituality expert for MindBodyGreen, The Daily News, Integrative Practitioner, Lifehacker, Bloomberg/WNBP Radio, Partners HealthCare, the American Heart Association, and numerous podcasts. My upcoming novel, About Others, won the national Mystery Writers of America’s Helen McCloy Award for Mystery Writing. I've taught writing (non-fiction, academic, and fiction), healing writing, psychology, trauma, conflict transformation, and ethics at esteemed institutions and organizations.
A native Bostonian, I hold a Ph.D. in Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), master’s degrees in World Religion and Ethics, Comparative Culture and Conflict, and Psychology, via a consortium comprising Harvard University, Boston College, and Boston University, a bachelor’s degree in religion from Boston College, and professional certificates in Conflict Transformation, Mediation, and Spiritual Counseling, respectively. I've also studied Marriage and Family therapy at Antioch University and have done further academic coursework in education, law, business, marketing and communications, and criminal justice. I'm represented by Kimberley Cameron & Associates.
Ultimately ...
I’m an ardent believer that the same life that brings us joy also (sometimes) brings us pain. More importantly, that every aspect of life — including and especially soul wounds — has a role to play in making us who we are today and who we’ll be tomorrow. (FYI, this doesn’t mean “making lemonade out of lemons” or grudgingly accepting “the moral of the story”). It’s about integrating these experiences into the narratives we live by. As I wrote in my new book, Holding Onto Air: The Art and Science of Building a Resilient Spirit, we don’t always have control over the events in life, but the script we live by is ours to write — and write it we must, as only we can.
When I was young and glowing with innocence, my imagination couldn’t have conceived the “plot twists” in my own narrative that I’d have to contend with, including several unexpected close calls with death, meaningful health challenges, and my own moral injuries, not the least of which has to do with the loss of a child. These days I’m trying to “Live G”: with gratitude, grace, generosity, and grit, as I wrote in this feature article for Psychology Today. (Admittedly, some days are more successful than others.)
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area (praying the now-sullied city on the hill will return to its former glory) with a guy who is basically MacGyver and two unabashedly spoiled Maine Coons cats named Seamus and Sophie.
Check Out Michele's Books
Writing the Wrongs
Weaving cutting-edge neuroscience with ancient wisdom, Writing the Wrongs introduces a breakthrough, evidence-based writing program for moral trauma.
Holding Onto Air
The groundbreaking book that changed the way we think about meaningful loss and adversity.
"Writing the Wrongs is an intelligent and well-thought-out guide to going inside and journaling one's pain and one's relief. Anyone who takes the time to engage with the book and do the work will find help for their suffering."
-FRED LUSKIN, PhD, author of Forgive for Good, Director of the Stanford Forgiveness Project, and affiliate faculty member of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley
"Holding Onto Air is 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
"In a world experiencing a dearth of soul, Michele compassionate approach to moral injury is a poetic answer to tending the personal wounds of the individual self."
-VALERIA MCCARROL, PhD, LMFT, faculty at California Institute of Integral Studies, psychedelic educator/consultant, writer, and speaker
"Writing the Wrongs is a crucial resource that adeptly combines scientific rigor with compassionate insight. DeMarco’s innovative use of writing as therapy provides the tools necessary for individuals to reclaim their narrative and begin the journey to recovery."
-BILL EDMONDS, LTC (Ret) Army Special Forces, author of God Is Not Here
"DeMarco offers a science-based GPS to navigate the adverse terrain of moral injury and trauma—which strikes a particular chord with combat veterans like me. The writing prompts are meticulously crafted and foster awareness, acknowledging the past, reshaping the present, and envisioning a hopeful future. DeMarco’s work is set apart by her profound insights and compassion, and her astute identification of moral trauma as ‘soul wounds.’"
-TROY ARCE, DACM, LAc, Career Pararescueman and Combat Rescue Officer, and veteran community care provider