Researcher
Science-backed, Soul-centered
New Research and Novel Therapies for healing from Trauma and Adversity
What I’m Passionate About Exploring
I’ve always been drawn to life’s “big,” existential questions. Likewise, I’ve been fascinated by the fundamental human desires (like meaning, purpose, value, connection, resilience, and transcendence) that all the world’s wisdom traditions — both spiritual and secular — help people to satisfy, each in their own way.
My first foire into academic research was to explore how individuals leverage their beliefs and principles, rituals and practices, and identity and community to help buttress themselves in times of challenge and uplift them when things are good. I also spent a great deal of time looking at how people and groups take these most important aspects of human existence to their extreme — contorting them into an excuse for otherizing and other unhealthy or abhorrent behavior.
An embarrassing amount of heart attacks by the time you’re in your early 40s (such as I was) has a way of doubling-down on the whole knife-edge-of-life, awareness-of-death “thing.” Post HAs, my clinical training and practice led me to work in what I’ll call “edge experience” therapy and clinical ethics. It was there I learned about the burgeoning field of trauma research called moral injury.
Moral injury is commonly understood as a violation of a person’s core moral foundations in high-stakes situations that recasts how they see themselves, others, and the world. Such violations can result from a person’s own actions, actions they witnessed (including betrayal) or were made to do against their will or better judgement, or things they couldn’t prevent.
For reasons that could (and may someday) fill a book, moral injury (and moral distress, a related condition,) and resilience became my home.
My Research Interests and Novel Therapies/Programs
The short of it is that I’m interested in how people “story” their lives — how they craft them, shape them, imagine and reimagine them, and tell them (to both 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.
I’ve learned through bitter and wonderful experience that so much of our suffering is not caused by the factual events of what happened to us; rather, by the stories we tell ourselves about what happened. These stories are particularly important when it comes to moral transgressions, because our core values and sacred beliefs greatly influence how we act and interreact with others and the world — and make us who we are.
While experienced with various models of therapy and healing, my own integrative research in neuroscience, moral psychology, whole person and narrative therapies, and healing/expressive writing led me to develop embodied disclosure therapy (EDT), a new model of exposure-based writing therapy that incorporates somatic psychology and therapies, as they have been shown to be particularly successful in treating trauma. I also created the 6-fold path to self-forgiveness (6-FPSF) an interdisciplinary, narrative-based healing writing process for the treatment of moral injury, particularly self-induced moral injury, that draws upon theoretical literature, evidence-based psychological interventions, spiritual-oriented practices, creative arts, and somatic exercises. Both have been shown to be successful in early studies.
While EDT and the 6-FPSF are great tools for therapists or other mental health professionals, I have adapted them into workshops, programs, and online, self-directed courses for individuals and groups. For more information, check out the Soul Console Community. I’m also developing new courses that are targeted more generally for meaningful change, challenge, and loss and building resilience.