Moral injury.
It’s a term that often evokes images of soldiers deep in the fog of war or perhaps of a surgeon in scrubs holding their head in their hands in the hallway of a hospital emergency department.
A therapist sitting quietly in their office or in the cubicle of a community mental health agency’s open office plan isn’t really what pops into most people’s heads when someone says the words “moral injury.” But maybe sometimes it should be.
As therapists, we are in daily intimate contact with the moral complexity of human beings. And we also have front row seats to the profound moral failings of the large systems that we and our clients regularly have to navigate.
Today, I'm talking with Dr. K Hixson, a dear friend, colleague, and mentor of mine, as well as a community treasure in our therapist community here in Portland.
Dr. Hixson and I get into some of the big factors that contribute to moral injury among therapists like individualism and the burdens of excessive responsibility that we place onto individual clinicians, and how the larger systems that we operate within prevent us from living out our own values, both as clinicians and as regular humans.
Listen to the full episode to hear:
Learn more about Dr. K Hixson:
Learn more about Riva Stoudt:
Resources:
What is Moral Injury - Syracuse University Moral Injury Project
Ep 3.3 - Unraveling Popular Ideas: Challenging Neuroscientific Narratives in Therapy with Kristen Martin
Ep 3.2 - Finding Our Place in the Lineage of Therapeutic Practice
Ep 3.1 - Between Mysticism and Modernity: Reclaiming the Jewishness of Therapy with hannah baer
Introducing The Kiln: Revolutionizing The Therapy Training Landscape
EP 2.12: 10 Things I Have Learned in 10 Years as a Therapist – Part 2
EP 2.11 - 10 Things I Have Learned in 10 Years as a Therapist – Part 1
EP 2.10 - Client Relationships in the Trenches: The Role of Self-Validated Intimacy
EP 2.9 - Immediacy in Therapy: Breaking the Fourth Wall with Dr. K Hixson
EP 2.8 - Paradox, Love, and the Therapeutic Journey
EP 2.7 - Let's Talk About Sex: A Humane Approach to Sexual Boundary Violations with Dr. Andrea Celenza
EP 2.6: The Vulnerability of the Therapist as Client
EP 2.5: Behind the Scenes: When Therapists Become Clients with Dr. Elena Herrera
EP 2.4: What Happens When Our Clients Encounter Our Humanity?
EP 2.3: Normalizing Vulnerability: The Power of Authenticity in Client Relationships with Onyx Fujii and Asher Pandjiris
EP 2.2 Deep Play: Exploring the Therapeutic Playground
EP 2.1: Balancing Goals and Healing in Therapy: Navigating the Tension with Silvana Espinoza Lau
Ep 18 - Therapists as Makers of Culture
Ep 17 - The Intimacy and Aliveness of Clinical Supervision with K Hixson
Ep 16 - Marketing With Integrity
Ep 15 - Is Ethical Marketing Possible? with Rachael Kay Albers
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