Speaker

For 20+ years, Dr. Michele DeMarco has been working with veterans, warfighters, and their families to heal the invisible wounds of war. She has worked especially closely with the Special Operations Forces community, including Navy SEALS, Pararescuemen, Green Berets, Army Rangers, Air Force Special Tactics, among others. Select organizations Michele has worked with and spoken at include the VA, Brothers Keeper Veteran Foundation, Pararescue Foundation, 5BY5 Performance Therapy.

Michele has served the veteran community as a clinical director, therapist, program director, workshop leader, speaker, strategist, and consultant. Her research on moral injury has focused heavily on veterans and warfighters, as has her writing, particularly on her blog for Psychology Today, "Soul Console: Healing from Moral Injury."

Select talks include:

• “So, That’s What It’s Called”: Moral Injury is Different Than PTSD
• "That Was F***ed Up": Healing From the "Invisible Scars of War"
• Unbroken: A Warfighter's Field Manual for Healing, Health, and Performance
• When Leaders Betray Leaders: The High Costs of Moral Injury in Leadership, and the Importance of Building Moral Resilience
• Soul Shattered Strong: Transforming Moral Pain Into Moral Resilience
• Facing What You Can’t Forget: Introducing the Six-Fold Path to Self-Forgiveness
• Restoring Right Relationships: Courage, Conscience, and Connection
• Writing the Wrongs: The Power of Writing to Heal Moral Injury
• Taking Command of What You Can’t Control
• You Are Not Your Wrongs: Moving From Eternally Damaged to Temporarily Challenged
• Life Gone Sideways: Finding Purpose and Perspective in Transitioning from Servic
• Operator Syndrome and Moral Injury: A New Approach to Healing the Whole Person

Dr. Michele DeMarco has been working with law enforcement and first responders since 2001, when the horrific events on 9/11 brought an entirely new level of “invisible wounds” to this courageous community. She has worked closely with federal agents, including Border Patrol, Homeland Security, and FBI, as well as SWAT and ERT teams. During and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Michele has worked especially closely with emergency medical services professionals to help them heal from rampant moral injury and moral distress. Likewise, in the aftermath of the sociocultural unrest of recent years, including policing and border issues, Michele has worked both to raise awareness of moral trauma in this population, and to help agents regain dignity, maintain integrity, and heal. Her article “A Growing At-Risk Group for Moral Injury and Moral Distress” about Border Patrol Agents received national attention from professionals in the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and Department of Homeland Security.

Michele has served the law enforcement and first responders’ communities as a therapist, program director, workshop leader, speaker, strategist, and consultant. Her research on moral trauma and moral resilience has focused heavily on these communities, as has her writing, particularly on her blog for Psychology Today, "Soul Console: Healing from Moral Injury." 

Select talks include:

• • “So, That’s What It’s Called”: Moral Injury is Different Than PTSD
  • When Leaders Betray Leaders: The High Costs of Moral Injury in Leadership, and the Importance of Building Moral Resilience
  • Soul Shattered Strong: Transforming Moral Pain Into Moral Resilience
  • Restoring Right Relationships: Courage, Conscience, and Connection
  • Facing What You Can’t Forget: Introducing the Six-Fold Path to Self-Forgiveness
  • Writing the Wrongs: The Power of Writing to Heal Moral Injury
  • Taking Command of What You Can’t Control
  • You Are Not Your Wrongs: Moving From Eternally Damaged to Temporarily Challenged
  • Life Gone Sideways: Finding Purpose and Perspective in Transitioning from Service
  • Transforming Moral Anguish Into Post-Traumatic Growth
  • A Soul Divided: Ethical Responses and Possibilities for Healing Moral Trauma

For 20+ years, Dr. Michele DeMarco has been working with healthcare and social service professionals to tend the invisible wounds of healing and caregiving. As a therapist, clinical ethicist, and teacher, Michele knows firsthand the moral weight that these courageous and benevolent individuals carry and the moral challenges that arise daily. She has worked closely with ER, pediatric, OB/GYN, trauma, cardiac, oncology, and women’s health (including abortion), and palliative care groups. She has also worked with disaster management and crisis teams. Select organizations Michele has worked with and spoken at include Stanford, Massachusetts General Hospital, Partners Healthcare, Beth Israel Lahey Health, Spaulding Rehabilitation, Ascension, Newman University, The American Heart Association, Go Red for Women, the State of Vermont, and the Red Cross, among others.

Michele has served the healthcare and social service communities as a therapist, program director, workshop leader, speaker, strategist, and consultant. Her research on moral injury has focused heavily on these populations, as has her writing, particularly on her blog for Psychology Today, "Soul Console: Healing from Moral Injury."

Select talks include:

• So, That’s What It’s Called: Moral Injury and Moral Distress Are Different Than PTSD
• A Soul Divided: Ethical Responses and Possibilities for Healing Moral Trauma 
• Indivisible: Moving Beyond Self-Care to Self-Stewardship
• Soul Shattered Strong: Transforming Moral Pain Into Moral Resilience
• Facing What You Can’t Forget: Introducing the Six-Fold Path to Self-Forgiveness
• You Are Not Your Wrongs: Moving From Eternally Damaged to Temporarily Challenged
• Braving Betrayal: How to Restore Right Relationships
• Whole Soul Living: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in the Aftermath of Wrong
• Rightsizing Responsibility: Maintaining Perspective and Finding Purpose When Life Goes Sideways
• Restoring Right Relationships: Courage, Conscience, and Connection
• Writing the Wrongs: The Power of Writing to Heal Moral Trauma

Moral injury and moral distress in business is one of the least researched and attended areas of moral trauma, often being confused with burnout or stress. As a former C-level executive and Board of Trustee, Dr. Michele DeMarco has seen first-hand the capital costs, not only to individuals but also to a company’s bottom line, that can result from unaddressed moral injury and moral distress. She has worked closely with executives and senior leadership to help them better understand what moral harm is and how it directly undermines people, teams, and organizations, and how building moral resilience is the necessary antidote.

Select topics include: 

• So, That’s What It’s Called: Moral Injury and Moral Distress Are Different Than PTSD
• When Leaders Betray Leaders: The high costs of moral injury in leadership—and the importance of building moral resilience
• Moral Injury in the Workplace: Capital Costs of When Business Becomes a Battlefield
• Take Command of What You Can’t Control
• Indivisible: Moving Beyond Self-Care to Self-Stewardship
• Facing What You Can’t Forget: Introducing the Six-Fold Path to Self-Forgiveness
• Restoring Right Relationships: Courage, Conscience, and Connection
• Writing the Wrongs: The Power of Writing to Heal Moral Trauma
• Transforming Conflict Well

For 20+ years, Dr. Michele DeMarco has been working with both individuals and faith leaders, congregations, and their families to heal personal and collective “soul wounds.” As an interfaith minister, spiritual counselor, and conflict transformation professional, Michele has witnessed the profound and various ways beliefs and principles, rituals and practices, and identities and narratives can become twisted, hijacked, and weaponized; how power corrupts and good goes bad; and how an imperfect and limited world sometimes life throws us into situations where the stakes are high and no outcome is good, and we or others act, doing what we or they otherwise know to be bad, aware that harm will come, in one way or another, to ourselves or to another.

Michele has worked with and spoken to individuals and groups from all wisdom traditions about moral injury and moral trauma, as well as lost innocence, crisis of faith, meaning and purpose, spirituality and health, religious extremism, and interfaith relations, and more. Her ground-breaking book Holding Onto Air: The Art and Science of Building a Resilient Spirit that tackles the experience of lost innocence has received international acclaim.

Select talks include:

• “So, That’s What It’s Called”: Moral Injury is Different Than PTSD
• Whole Soul Living: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in the Aftermath of Harm
• Soul Shattered Strong: Transforming Moral Pain Into Moral Resilience
• Facing What You Can’t Forget: Introducing the Six-Fold Path to Self-Forgiveness
• Restoring Right Relationships: Courage, Conscience, and Connection
• Writing the Wrongs: The Power of Writing to Heal Moral Injury
• Taking Command of What You Can’t Control
• You Are Not Your Wrongs: Moving From Eternally Damaged to Temporarily Challenged
• Whole Soul Living: 8 Superpowers for Thriving When Life Goes Sideways
• Taking Command of What You Can’t Control
• Indivisible: Moving Beyond Self-Care to Self-Stewardship
• A Soul Divided: Ethical Responses and Possibilities for Healing Moral Trauma 
• Finding Hope and Healing in The Midst of Pain and Suffering
• Timeless Resilience for Epochal Times
• Transforming Conflict Well
• Emotional Health and Spiritual Wellness