Thoughts on World Mental Health Day World Mental Health Day October 10, 2023 The theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day is “mental health is a universal human right.” The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health as “a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize …
Spirituality and Mental Health The September 13, 2023, newsletter from the John Templeton Foundation featured an article titled “When therapists prescribe prayer: the movement toward spiritually integrated psychotherapy” by Annelise Jolley. Journalist and essayist Jolley summarizes the history of counseling and therapy, beginning with Sigmund Freud in the early 20th century. Freud …
Understanding Moral Injury: What Servicewomen Need to Know Introduction Military servicewomen are no strangers to challenges, both physical and emotional. While they display strength and resilience in the face of adversity, there’s a hidden battle that often goes unnoticed: moral injury. This unique psychological and spiritual burden can impact their well-being in profound ways. Today, …
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Sound of Freedom Review The movie The Sound of Freedom, currently playing in theaters, has stirred up a remarkable amount of controversy. The dramatized true story of Tim Ballard, an agent in the Department of Homeland Security who resigned from his job to track down pedophiles in Colombia, South America, has ignited debate on the …
One Was a Soldier In the book One Was a Soldier, by Julia Spencer-Fleming, Reverend Clare Ferguson declares to her unborn child “I’m a pretty crappy mother all the way around, and you haven’t even been born yet.” The setting for this remark is a small town in upstate New York called Miller’s Kill. A kill …
Divine Inspiration and the Rocky Path Whenever we set out to accomplish a goal, we encounter tons of problems, usually a lot more problems than we bargained for or predicted. The challenges often surprise us and it seems that the easier we think something should be, the more likely we are to experience obstacles. As …
Old Memories, Fresh Wounds Dr. Daniel Roberts, along with a partner, conducts a moral injury study for women veterans. (We are still looking for participants. If you are a female veteran and experienced something while serving that caused inner conflict or went against your moral values, consider contacting us: Contact Us Page). Although military sexual …
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Why Male Clergy Need to Understand Moral Injury in Women In the United States, most clergy are male. Approximately 95% of U.S. Army chaplains are men (U.S. Army, 2014) and only 12% of churches have a woman in the senior leadership role (Hartford Institute for Religion Research, 2006). There are many women in institutional ministry …
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Caring Deeply about the Underserved By Dr. Daniel Roberts Sixteen years ago, I began a journey that would transform the rest of my life. In February of 2002, I entered the military chaplaincy as a member of the dominant group – a White, male, conservative Christian. In my prior service as an infantryman, I had …
Military Sexual Trauma and Moral Injury: Understanding the Difference Military sexual trauma (MST) comprises a range of harmful experiences, including rape, sexual coercion, attempts at forcible sexual contact, and sexual harassment (Conrad et al., 2014). Estimates vary across studies, and the definitions that the Veterans Administration (VA) has used over the years have changed, as …
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