Envisioning and Exploring Recovery from Moral Injury

An interdisciplinary conference that took place on 7-9 April 2025 in Durham, UK

In early April 2025 more than 75 people came together from eight countries across Europe, North America and Australasia to envision and explore recovery from moral injury. They came from 17 different charities and nonprofits, 7 government or healthcare organisations and at least 6 churches and ecclesial bodies, representing at least 16 different vocations - from clinician to clergy to social worker to theologian to filmmaker to historian - just to name a few, and many had experienced moral injury themselves in various contexts.

The presentations are listed below and many of the speakers have generously offered resources from their presentations to share here. Where there is a link to slides or full text, it opens a pdf where you can find out more about their presentation. In addition, some people offered reflections on the conference afterwards and links are also provided for these below.

Participants told us that being able to pool their expertise from such a wide variety of perspectives and contexts was very valuable in exploring pathways to recovery. Particular strengths of the conference included hearing from people with personal connections to moral injury and discussing communal experiences of healing including approaches that attend to the social, cultural and spiritual aspects of repair. Participants continue to outline the ways in which the discussions have influenced their own journeys and their work and they tell us they are continuing to benefit from having made new connections to take forward their work collaboratively.

We are very grateful to everyone who came and shared their experiences and expertise with so much openness, respect and compassion.

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Presentations

Ioannis Athanasiou (Church of England and Goldsmiths University of London) 
‘This is bigger than therapy’: Exploring the potential of coproduction to aid recovery for victims and survivors of abuse in the Christian faith communities
Slides | Church of England survivor participation webpage

Amanda Bonson (Combat Stress and King’s College London) 
Restore and Rebuild (R&R): Developing a treatment for symptoms associated with moral injury

Eunil David Cho (Boston University) 
Experience of child soldiering on moral injury and moral agency development

Kristine Chong (Shay Moral Injury Center) 
Recalibrating repair: Depathologizing moral injury and orienting towards collective movements

Kevin Denholm (University of Otago and chaplain to the film industry in Aotearoa New Zealand) 
Behind the lens: Exploring moral injury and pathways to healing in Aotearoa New Zealand’s film industry
Webinar coming soon

Jo Finch (University of Suffolk) and Cath Pickles (Restitute, a UK-based organisation supporting people caring for survivors of sexual or violent crime)
'You can't explain what it does to you…': Secondary systemic moral injury and the impact on parents/carers of children who have been sexually abused
Slides

Tenley Force (UNC Medical Center and Duke University) 
Repairing the healers: Moral repair as the missing step between moral injury and moral resilience in registered nurses

Aaron Fuller (Shay Moral Injury Center and US Navy Reserve) and Christopher Bowen (Roanoke College in the US)
More than “someone to talk to”: Possibilities for chaplaincy in leading collective moral repair and resiliency in institutions
Full text | Aaron Fuller's moral injury substack

Fiona Gardner (author of Love Song for a Wounded Warrior) 
Envisioning and exploring repair after moral injury
Blog

Brendan Geary (Marist Brothers, Durham University and the University of Glasgow) 
Clerical sex offenders and moral injury

Jane Grovijahn (Our Lady of the Lake University, USA)
The provocative power of minoritized bodies and moral injury

Rosemary Kellison (Florida State University) 
How moral injury complicates moral repair

Angela Kennedy (Innovating for Wellbeing Ltd and Trauma Informed Community Action CIC) 
Rediscovering rewarding working lives
Slides

Rhona Knight (Durham University) 
Sacrifice by association: A moral injury too far?

Nicole Le Jeune
Trauma and moral injury in the Didache

Jennifer Loop (Admirato and Durham University) 
Horizons of recovery: Bearing witness to moral injury in the lives of adult survivors of childhood incest

Timothy Mallard (Durham University) 
Deeply held values, principles and beliefs: Moral injury and and the ethics of regulating modern and future war
Slides

Phil McEvoy (Age UK and psychotherapist in private practice) 
Moral injury in care partners of people with dementia: A psychodynamic perspective
Full text

Gill McGill (Northumbria University Newcastle), Shannon Allen (Northumbria University Newcastle) and Brian Powers (Durham University)
LGBT+ veterans and moral injury: Addressing the legacy of the UK military gay ban policy
Slides

Dayne Nix (US Naval War College) 
It's the poetry! Insights for understanding and treating moral injury
Slides

Alison O'Connor, Sophie Redlin and Simon Edwards (Moral Injury Partnership)
‘I’m not alone’: Sharing the findings from Reflect and Renew, a feasibility study into the effectiveness of a group-based intervention for moral injury in frontline workers across occupational groups
Slides

Chrisie Pullin, Nikki Power and Laura Radcliffe (University of Liverpool)
A systematic literature review of moral injury in pre-hospital emergency personnel: Causes, experiences and coping mechanisms

Stephen Radley (University of Roehampton, London) 
The camera never lies: The challenges and opportunities of participant photography as a pathway toward the restoration of social trust to promote recovery from moral injury
Slides

Michael Robinson (University of Birmingham)
A home fit for heroes? Great War veterans in 1930s Britain

Mark Santow (Providence Clemente Veterans' Initiative and University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth) 
Bruises on the soul: Moral injury, the humanities and the Providence Clemente Veterans Initiative

Morven Shearer (University of St Andrews)
Moral challenge: Prevention is better than cure

Atsushi Shibaoka (University of Divinity, Australia)
Envisioning recovery, re-envisioning moral injury: A theological perspective
Full text

David Smith (Birmingham City University)
Natural justice, natural law, moral conscience and moral injury: Drawing a conceptual line
Slides

Sue Spencer (freelance facilitator and independent scholar) 
Glimmers and sites of possibility: A poetic inquiry into recovery from career failure in healthcare
Full text

Fiona Sweeney (NHS and Nottingham Trent University), Rahmanara Chowdhury, Iram Shah and Belinda Winder (all at Nottingham Trent University)
‘It’s not recovery, it’s discovery’: A phenomenological understanding of moral injury experienced by service users detained in forensic psychiatric settings
Slides

Elizabeth Tillman (UCONN School of Medicine and Hospital of Central Connecticut) 
The consequences of moral injury: A case scenario in capitalist medicine
Full text

Pascale Waschnig and Kitrina Douglas (University of West London)
Shattered trust: The silent wounds of moral injury in relatives of missing people
Slides | Project webpage

Tony Wright (Forward Assist)
Moral injury and military sexual trauma
Slides

 

Post-conference reflections

Kitty Ellison (Homeless Link)
How does moral injury relate to the homelessness sector?
Full text

Aaron Fuller (Shay Moral Injury Center and US Navy Reserve)
Thoughts from the ICMI Annual Conference, 7-9 April in Durham, UK
Full text