Grounding Meditation: For The Deer Mother's Path

Grounding Meditation: Inner Sun, Inner Night

For The Deer Mother's Path – December 7, 2025

*For the reader: Speak slowly, with gentle warmth. Pause between paragraphs. Let your voice feel like soft light in darkness. Approximately 5-6 minutes.*

[Settling into presence]

Everything offered in this grounding is an invitation. Please engage in whatever way feels right to you. You are the sacred steward of your own experience.

Let's begin by arriving. Right here, with whatever this moment brings—your energy or exhaustion, your openness or resistance, your light or shadow.

Feel the contact between your body and what supports you—perhaps your chair, the floor beneath your feet, the gentle pressure of air on your skin.

If connecting with your body feels difficult today, you might bring awareness to your surroundings—the quality of light or darkness in your space, sounds near or far, or simply the sense of being held by this moment.

Reindeer by Circe Denyer CC0

[Finding your breath, finding your rhythm]

Now, I invite you to shift awareness to the quiet rhythms of your being. Notice your breath moving in and out—no need to change it, just witness its natural pace.

You might notice your heartbeat—steady, persistent, constant as the turning of the Earth.

Perhaps you sense warmth somewhere in your body—your chest, your belly, your hands. Or perhaps you notice coolness—your breath at your nostrils, the air on your skin.

Let your awareness settle there. You need only be present. Right now, that is enough.

 [Connecting to your inner sun]

In this gentle awareness, I invite curiosity: Can you sense warmth somewhere in your body? Maybe a place that feels most alive, most vital. Perhaps your heart center, or your solar plexus, or somewhere else entirely.

This is your inner sun—not blazing, not demanding, just steadily present. The part of you that persists through seasons. The part that generates warmth even in cold times.

You don't need to make it bigger or brighter. Simply notice it. This light that has carried you through every winter you've survived. Every dark time you've navigated.

Breathe into this warmth. Let it remind you: you carry your own light. You always have.

[Welcoming your inner night]

And now, with that same gentle curiosity, notice the darkness you carry. The parts of you that are still, quiet, resting. The spaces of not-knowing. The mysteries you hold.

This is your inner night—not frightening, not empty, but full of potential. The dark soil where things germinate. The quiet where deep knowing lives. The rest that makes all growth possible.

Your inner night might feel like the cool depths of a deep breath, or the stillness in your belly, or simply the sense of space within you.

You don't need to illuminate it or change it. Simply acknowledge it. This darkness that protects your deepest self, that holds your dreams, that gives your light something to shine against.

Breathe into this darkness. Let it remind you: you carry your own depth. You always have.

[Holding both]

For a moment, rest in this awareness: you are both. Light and dark. Sun and night. Warmth and cool. Action and rest.

You don't have to choose. You don't have to be only one or the other. You carry both—and this is your wholeness.

Like the winter solstice that approaches, you are the meeting place of darkness and returning light. Like the deer who lives on land and moves like sky. Like the breath that takes in air and releases it transformed.

Both. Always both.

If anything feels overwhelming, return to your anchor—your heartbeat, your breath, your connection to what supports you.

[Closing in wholeness]

When you're ready, begin to gently return. Come back to this moment. To the sensation of your seat or your feet. To your breath. To this body, this space, this gathering.

Perhaps wiggle your fingers or shift your shoulders. Notice the space around you. Take in a sound, the presence of others, the light—whatever kind—that illuminates your space.

You are whole. You are here. 

What Bessel van der Kolk Got Wrong: A Spiritual Companion’s Reflection on Trauma

The Score We Keep

Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score has become a sacred text in trauma discourse. It’s cited in therapy rooms, yoga studios, and spiritual circles alike. And yet, as spiritual companions, we must ask: what score are we keeping, and whose story does it serve?

This post is not a dismissal of van der Kolk’s contributions, but a curious unearthing of what lies beneath the surface: what he missed, what he himself has moved beyond, and how we, as spiritual companions, can hold trauma in ways that honor the soul’s journey toward wholeness. 

I want to add a different term for "trauma". The term 'spiritual imbalance' has been used in some indigenous cultures to refer to the experience van der Kolk terms 'trauma'. I find it interesting to use that phrase as a way to expand how I think, and to remove the overused (and let's face it) buzzword: trauma. When we speak of spiritual imbalance, we shift from a clinical framework that often focuses on damage and pathology to one that suggests the possibility of restoration and realignment. This language invites us to consider not just what has been broken, but what sacred equilibrium might be recovered. It acknowledges that our deepest wounds often occur at the level of spirit and meaning, disrupting our connection to ourselves, our communities, and our sense of place in the larger web of existence. The word 'imbalance' itself suggests that what has been thrown off-kilter can, with proper tending, be brought back into harmony.

I know there are other ways to talk about the ways life experiences continue to echo and affect us long afterward. I encourage you to find other phrases and descriptions as a way to expand how we live with, how we heal, and how we thrive.

Each reframing also honors the wisdom of cultures that understand healing as a restoration of spiritual wholeness rather than simply the absence of symptoms.

Neuroscience of PTSD. ScienceWorks Behavioural Healthcare. Kiesa Kelly

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie: A Reconsideration of Unearthing

Van der Kolk’s model assumes that trauma must be excavated, faced, and reprocessed. This is the foundation of many trauma therapies: exposure, EMDR, somatic experiencing. But what if healing doesn’t always require digging?

Some practitioners and scholars argue that focusing on health, resilience, and present-moment safety can be just as, if not more, effective than revisiting pain:

• Existential and Philosophical Perspectives
  Trauma theorist B. T. Reuther suggests that over-focusing on trauma can hinder a full understanding of human experience. Instead, integrating spiritual imbalance into a broader existential framework allows for healing through meaning-making and embodiment.

• Pluralistic Counseling Psychology
  Catherine Athanasiadou-Lewis critiques the dominance of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral models. She advocates for eclectic and psychodynamic approaches that honor the complexity of the psyche and allow for healing without direct confrontation.

• Ethical Concerns
  Anne Rothe’s critique of postmodern trauma theory warns against turning "trauma" into a sacred object that must be unearthed and venerated. She calls this “irresponsible nonsense,” arguing that such models can confuse victimhood, retraumatize listeners, and obscure ethical clarity.

Archeological Dig. Designed by Wannapik

The Spiritual Lens: Spiritual Imbalance as Sacred Threshold

In spiritual companionship, spiritual imbalance is not pathology. What can it be if we apply a spiritual or wholeness lens?

• Wholeness Over Wounding
  Van der Kolk’s model often implies that spiritual imbalance leaves us permanently broken. But spiritual traditions teach that wounds are portals. As Jalalaldin  Mohammed Rumi says, “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” We must move from scorekeeping to soul-tending.

• Embodiment Without Fixation
  While van der Kolk emphasizes body-based therapies, he sometimes treats the body as a battleground. In contrast, spiritual practice invites us to inhabit the body as a temple. We are not attempting to fix something broken. We show up to listen. Breathwork, dreamwork, and movement are not cures; they are conversations.

• Relational Holding
  Trauma healing is not a solo endeavor. Companions hold space. We do not diagnose. We witness. We do not ask, “What happened to you?” but “What is seeking to be born through this pain?”

DBT for Trauma. ScienceWorks Behavioral Healthcare. Kiesa Kelly

For the Companion: How We Hold What Hurts

As spiritual companions, we are called to:

• Resist reduction: Avoid reducing spiritual imbalance to neurobiology or symptomology. Honor its mystery, its mythic dimension.
• Center the margins: Hold stories that dominant narratives erase. Listen for the voices beneath the score.
• Practice presence: Healing is not accomplished through pure technique. It requires presence. It is the sacred act of sitting beside someone in their becoming.

Beyond the Score

Van der Kolk gave us language for trauma. But language is not the whole story. The soul speaks in symbols, silence, and sacred rupture. As companions, we travel with questions, not answers. We travel with awe.

The body may keep the score, but the spirit keeps the song.

Beloved, you are whole, holy and worthy,

Rev. Amy
Companioning soul-weary change-makers becoming rooted, aligned and alive again.

---

For Further Exploration

• van der Kolk, Bessel. The Body Keeps the Score – A foundational text in trauma discourse, exploring how trauma reshapes the body and brain.

  Scheeringa, Michael. The Body Does Not Keep the Score – A critical review of van der Kolk’s claims, challenging the scientific basis of trauma narratives.

  Rothe, Anne. “Irresponsible Nonsense: An Epistemological and Ethical Critique of Postmodern Trauma Theory” – A sharp critique of trauma theory’s cultural elevation and ethical implications.

  AlAmmar, Layla. “This Book is Trash” – A literary trauma scholar’s blunt critique of van der Kolk’s erasure of systemic and marginalized trauma.

  Reuther, B. T. “Philosophical and Existential Perspectives on Trauma” – Offers a broader framework for understanding trauma through meaning-making and embodiment.

  Athanasiadou-Lewis, Catherine. “A Critical Evaluation of the Conceptual Model and Empirical Evidence for PTSD Treatments” – Advocates for pluralistic approaches beyond trauma-focused CBT.

See Also on This Blog

• Body Grief - Clarifies the difference between trauma and body-related losses. Discusses spiritual companioning with explorers who have grief related to their bodies. 
  https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2026/03/body-grief-when-body-itself-is-loss.html 

• Trauma Integration in Spiritual Tending – Offers grounded approaches to accompanying seekers who carry trauma, with attention to scope of practice, spiritual safety, body-based practices, and the sacredness of the healing journey.

• Bearing Witness to Moral Injury – Explores how spiritual companions can support those wrestling with ethical pain and inner conflict.

• Introduction to Trauma-Informed Spiritual Tending – Outlines key principles of trauma-aware companioning and how they support safety, agency, and healing.

• Supporting Souls in Shadows: Spiritual Direction and Depression – Offers insights for accompanying seekers through times of grief, depression, and spiritual dryness.

• Traveling with Despair: Consent, Companionship & the Sacred – Explores how spiritual companions can meet seekers in despair with consent-based care, avoiding rescue impulses. Draws on mysticism, trauma wisdom, and the sacredness of shadowed journeys.

This Heart of Sacred Tending series is ©2025 Amy Beltaine, all rights reserved. You may freely reprint any blog post, website, or print resource. Simply include the following attribution, and if you print online, make the link at the end live:

Article ©2025 Amy Beltaine, all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. This article and hundreds of others, along with other free resources, are available at www.AmyBeltaine.info

St.Teresa of Avila: Duende and Spiritual Tending

Teresa of Avila: Mystic, Rebel, and Spiritual Guide.

I’d like to introduce you to Teresa of Avila. Teresa and I were introduced in 2011, and I fell in love. She was many things, but above all, she was her whole self. She teaches me to celebrate and live fully into all the sacred and diverse parts of myself.

She has become a spiritual mentor despite us living centuries apart! Her ability to integrate mysticism with daily life speaks directly to modern seekers balancing spirituality and action. 

She was born in 1515 in Avila, Spain, land of Flamenco and bull fights. Her world was changing, like our world is changing now. A new world had been discovered, and Spain was full of new ideas, just as our world has expanded with satellites and the internet. 

I sought Teresa out because she was an excellent administrator AND an insightful mystic, proving that you can survive, even thrive, with one foot in the sublime and one in the here and now. This balance, this harmony between the mystical and the practical, is the work of a minister, of a person of faith. We must integrate our love of the world into our day-to-day tasks. 

I can relate… Sometimes I am most comfortable completing tasks and accomplishing goals. Sometimes I am most comfortable being soulfully responsive and connecting. Always, I am aware of the one when I am experiencing the other.

Saint Teresa, inspired by the Holy Spirit, c. 1672, by Josefa de Óbidos; in the Church of Nossa Senhora da Assunção, Cascais, Portugal.

Duende-Passion/Wildness

What thrilled me about Teresa was her Duende. Duende can be translated as Authenticity or as Soul, as in “you've got Soul.” Teresa had Duende. 

Like all young women of her day and class, she was raised, like I was, to be a Lady, and a wife. Teresa could have married anyone she desired. She was renowned for her wit, her humor, and for her shapely legs. However, she heard a call, and she acted. Against her father’s wishes, she seized the day. She literally climbed over the household wall in the middle of the night, to go enter a convent. I could have stayed comfortable in my well paid, stable job as a corporate middle-manager, but I was called by duende. 

I imagine she sometimes felt like I do… About to burst with the amazingness of life. Listening to the compelling music that calls me to action. Like her, I have struggled to be true to myself instead of doing what was laid out for me. 

Over the years I’ve chosen heroes, and goddesses to learn from. I chose Teresa because she developed qualities I am cultivating in myself… Teresa was human. She doubted herself sometimes, she struggled, she failed, and she kept on learning and growing and forging her path. 

On my wall at home I have this quote from Joseph Campbell: “If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take.” And a friend added a corollary: “Even though you will stumble and fall, it is still your path.”

Teresa founded over 17 cloisters and almost as many monasteries. Some time shortly after she founded her first Carmelite cloister, a group of young nuns found Teresa at midnight, in the kitchen, voraciously devouring a roasted partridge. “What are you doing?” They cried, scandalized. “I’m eating a partridge,” She answered, “When I fast, I FAST, and when I eat partridge, I EAT partridge.” Then she resumed eating, seizing that moment.

Living life fully and authentically, doing what you are led to do, without apology? That’s who I am when I am in flow with divine love. That is who I am when I am at the bedside of a dying person, and his wife and I are singing. That is who I am when I am standing on a street corner, holding a sign that says “We Celebrate Diversity.” That is who I am when I am fully present and who I aspire to be. That is the advice I hear when I am about to do something scary. Duende: “just be yourself.” 

Duende is also wildness.

Earthy/Discalced 

Teresa’s prayers were graphic, (the sun), physical (the bird cradled in God’s hands), and earthy (The bride who finally receives the bridegroom’s kiss). Of course she was earthy, she loved perfume, played the tambourine, and wore bright orange. (I favor purple.) 

Teresa knew prayer was earthy because her God, too, was earthy. “Lord, you are on the earth and clothed with it.” Teresian prayer involves all of our five senses: Touch, sight, smell, sound, and taste. Prayer, she described as ‘a sweet fragrance’. and sin? It’s “a foul-smelling stench”. 

Teresa’s wild, embodied spirituality teaches us that spiritual direction is not just about lofty ideas—it is lived, danced, feasted, and felt in the body. She reminds us that divine presence is found in both fasting and feasting, in silence and song, in suffering and joy.

My thealogy is “Earth-based”. This is what I mean when I say that… I am grounded in the senses. I attend to the sacred earth. 

The reformed movement that St. Teresa co-founded is called the Discalced Carmelites. Discalced or “shoeless” is meant to represent austerity and humility. The choice to go without shoes was also a connection with the earth. Barefoot, or sandal-foot, you feel everything in the ground you stand upon. As God instructed Moses at the burning bush, ‘take off your sandals in this Holy Place.' Going shoeless is an affirmation that every place is holy, every place is sacred.

Ah, now I know why I feel compelled to remove my shoes during ritual, or when at home, or when connecting deeply with someone during spiritual companioning. 

I imagine Teresa would recognize that “mountain posture” in Yoga helps you stop doing and just BE. That the term “being grounded” is meaningful and holy.

Roast Partridge 

Humor, music, and Fun

Many years of living in college towns and attending or working in universities have given me a tendency to want to footnote myself, to be perfectly serious, and to be taken perfectly seriously. Teresa had little patience for too much piousness.

She knew that holiness was not about severity but about authenticity. “God deliver us from sour-faced saints,” she wrote. This is a lesson for spiritual companions, joy is a sign of the Spirit, and laughter is a form of prayer.

When I remember that I am enough, without the footnotes, and don’t have to take myself SO seriously, I can be fully my genuine self, and I connect with the divine and those around me. Ministry with Duende is a lot more fun. AND contagious.

Teresa loved to sing, dance, and play. Her poems were accompanied by instruments, such as castanets.  Singing is my spiritual practice, and laughter is deeply healing. I love being playful and goofy, and I’m so glad that someone I admire so much modeled goofiness. 

The Fool card in the Tarot card deck is full of meaning for me. One interpretation of the fool card is “Trusting one’s elf/Trusting oneself.” The picture on that card is of a child turning handsprings, next to a crocodile-infested river and other perils. The sacred fool is playing with life, seeing the glory, in the midst of disaster and pain. You can laugh while forging your path and bring your inner elf to your work.

And Teresa worked hard! She criss-crossed Spain and Portugal, founding convents. 

Th Ecstasy of St Teresa, photo by Napoleon Vier CC3.0 

Pain

Life was not all work and play for Teresa. She had moments of communion with the divine that were exquisitely painful. So intense they hurt. She describes one of those moments as being pierced by a flaming arrow through the heart. Modern medical experts theorize that she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, an immune disorder that I also suffer from. (and yes, it sometimes feels like there are flaming arrows shot through my joints.) Like Teresa, I need to find harmony between caring for my body and soul, and caring for the world and my work. But her suffering helped her to feel her oneness and compassion with and for other beings. We all have moments, even days or weeks, when our compassion, our awareness, our connection to others, causes us deep pain, grief, and even despair. This pain is the source of social justice work. 

My awareness of others’ suffering breaks my heart. And creates energy. Energy to speak truth and take action; Energy to show up, to listen, to care, to give, and to receive. Just as the Buddha taught: With true compassion, you become aware that all life is suffering, so you must respond by taking real-world action. 

Song and Prayer

Teresa of Avila wrote music as well. Nada Te Turbe translates as “let nothing disturb you”. Wow! That wild woman wrote that sweet and soothing song. She had duende, AND stillness. She was witty and reverent. She was goofy, and she worked hard. She fasted and feasted. She suffered and she celebrated. She was authentically all those parts of herself. 

Her definition of what she called “mental prayer” was used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and is what we refer to as contemplative prayer: "Contemplative prayer [oración mental] in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us."

Teresa’s understanding of prayer as an intimate conversation mirrors how we approach spiritual direction today: not as experts dispensing wisdom, but as companions who hold space for seekers to encounter the Divine within themselves.

Spiritual Direction

Late in life, Teresa wrote the book “Interior Castle.” Interior Castle is considered a cornerstone of Christian mysticism and one of the earliest guides to spiritual direction. She describes the soul’s journey inward, moving through seven “mansions” toward divine union. 

This resonates with modern frameworks of spiritual growth, as we move through stages, or way stations, of spiritual exploration, such as shadow work, psychological integration (e.g., Jungian individuation), and contemplative depth work in spiritual companioning. This model remains influential in spiritual companionship today, offering a vision of progressive deepening in relationship with the sacred.

In spiritual direction, we accompany seekers as they explore these ‘mansions’ within, deepening their connection with the sacred.

For Teresa, discernment was not about making quick decisions but about cultivating deep listening. Her practice of recollection, drawing the mind inward to be present with the Divine, reminds us that spiritual direction is not about offering answers, but about guiding seekers into their own sacred wisdom.

[For more about mysticism and spiritual companioning, see this post: https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-roots-of-spiritual-direction-desert.html]

Teresa as Mentor

Teresa’s legacy is an invitation to bring our whole selves into our spiritual practice, to embrace both contemplation and action, to be fierce and tender, mystical and practical. As we journey alongside seekers in spiritual direction, may we follow her lead: listening deeply, loving boldly, and trusting the divine in all things.

These gifts of example and insight were given to us by mystics like Teresa, and now, they are ours. May we each be able to celebrate and live fully into all the sacred and diverse parts of our whole selves as we find our own spiritual directions. 

Blessed be.

Beloved, you are whole, holy, and worthy,

Rev. Amy

——————————————

Information from SDI on Teresa of Avila: https://youtu.be/1aPyx5daW50

• Video from Mirabai Starr https://youtu.be/1aPyx5daW50 Mirabai has also written a book on St. Teresa.

• Holy Daring: The Earthy Mysticism of St. Teresa, the Wild Woman of Avila

  by Tessa Bielecki and Adam Bucko 

———————-

Nada te turbe 

(Letrilla que llevaba por registro en su breviario) 

(Translation, below)

Nada te turbe; 

nada te espante; 

todo se pasa;

Dios no se muda, la paciencia todo lo alcanza

Quien a Dios tiene, nada le falta.

Solo Dios basta.

May nothing disturb you;

May nothing astonish you;

Everything passes;

God does not go away, patience

can attain anything.

Who who has God within, does not lack anything.

God is everything!

Bearing Witness to Moral Injury

Bearing Witness to Moral Injury

Moral injury isn’t just a concept for soldiers returning from war. It happens when we see— or participate in— actions that violate our deepest sense of right and wrong. It’s the wound left behind when the moral order we trusted collapses before our eyes.

David Brooks, longtime conservative commentator, recently put words to this experience:

“I just think shame, moral shame. It’s a moral injury to see the country you love behave in this way.”

He was responding to the mistreatment of Ukraine’s president in the White House, but his words speak to a broader experience many are feeling. Whether through political betrayal, institutional failure, or even personal relationships, people are struggling with the pain of witnessing what should not be.

Danaid (The Source), artist: Auguste Rodin 

When Integrity Meets Betrayal

Moral injury is not only a psychological wound but a spiritual one. It shakes our trust in what is good, in what is just, in what we thought was sacred. It can leave us feeling cut off—not just from our communities, but from the sacred, from meaning, from the very ground of our being.

It can show up as:

• Shame (“I should have done more.”)
• Grief (“This is not the world I believed in.”)
• Disillusionment (“Everything I trusted feels false.”)
• Isolation (“No one else seems to feel this as deeply.”)

For those rooted in faith or spirituality, moral injury can become a crisis of belief. Where is the Divine in all this? How can goodness still hold when corruption, cruelty, and injustice seem to thrive?

 Damage inside capitol building from Jan 6 2021 CC0

How We Can Support Those Experiencing Moral Injury

Moral injury can affect anyone—spiritual seekers, caregivers, activists, people working in institutions they once trusted, or simply those paying attention to the world.

If you are a spiritual companion, chaplain, or caregiver, you may find yourself sitting with people who are struggling with these wounds. If you are a friend or family member, you may notice loved ones withdraw, struggle with despair, or wrestle with what it means to live with integrity.

Regardless of your role, there are ways to offer presence and support:

• Naming the wound – Acknowledging that moral injury is real and valid helps people feel less alone.
• Honoring values – The pain of moral injury comes from a place of deep integrity. Helping someone reconnect with what matters to them can be grounding.
• Creating space for lament – Grief needs expression. A lament practice can allow for the mourning that moral injury requires.
• Encouraging action – For some, healing comes through renewed purpose—whether activism, service, or simply small acts of integrity. Exploring one’s way of making a difference can be a powerful path forward.
• Inviting connection to the Sacred – Whether through prayer, ritual, scripture, or personal experience, people may need to rediscover where the holy is present—even in the midst of brokenness.

Tikkun Olam Painting by Dorothy Zhu

Healing in a Broken World

Moral injury doesn’t always resolve neatly. The world remains wounded. But healing can come through companionship, through finding meaning in the struggle, and through choosing—again and again—to live with integrity, even in the face of betrayal.

For those experiencing moral injury, the invitation is not to deny the wound but to bring it into relationship—with the Divine, with trusted companions, with the deeper truths that sustain life.

None of us have to carry moral injury alone. When we travel, whole-hearted, with each other, healing—imperfect though it may be—becomes possible.

You are whole, holy, and worthy,

Rev Amy

---

For Further Exploration

For Further Exploration

• Military Moral Injury and Spiritual Care by Brite Divinity School: A comprehensive resource for religious leaders and caregivers addressing moral injury in veterans and others affected by military service.
  https://chalicepress.com/products/military-moral-injury-and-spiritual-care?srsltid=AfmBOoo2aWNuABrQ9-GmHKRar4_gTT_vLoq8dU3Ej-S-Yw3sfdibj-CU&utm_source=chatgpt.com

• A Spiritually Integrated Approach to Treating Moral Injury: An article reviewing spiritually integrated group therapy designed to treat moral injury and associated syndromes.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9685023/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

• Trauma-Informed Spiritual Direction: The Why's, What's and How's: A blog post discussing the importance of trauma-informed spiritual direction and its impact on spiritual caregivers.
  https://www.rootgrowthrive.com/blog/trauma-informed-spiritual-direction-the-whys-whats-and-hows?utm_source=chatgpt.com

• Moral Injury Psychoeducation Group Program Handbook: A handbook providing guidance on healing from moral injury through compassion and empathy.
  https://www.mirecc.va.gov/visn16/docs/moral-injury-psychoeducation-group-program-handbook.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com

• Spirituality and Morality by the National Center for PTSD: An article exploring the relationship between spirituality and moral injury, offering insights for spiritual care providers.
  https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/care/toolkits/clergy/spiritualityMorality.asp?utm_source=chatgpt.com

• Moral Injury Resources by Volunteers of America: A collection of videos, materials, and research on moral injury for various audiences, including caregivers and clinicians.
  https://www.voa.org/moral-injury-resources?utm_source=chatgpt.com

• Moral Injury and the Pilgrimage of Moral Restoration: An article discussing trauma-informed spiritual direction to restore a sense of safe and nurturing connections to self, others, Spirit, and the planet.
  https://noticethejourney.com/f/moral-injury-and-the-pilgrimage-of-moral-restoration?blogcategory=Trauma-Supporting+Care&utm_source=chatgpt.com

• Moral Injury Reconciliation: A Practitioner's Guide by Dr. Lewis Jeffery Lee: A guide for treating moral injury, PTSD, grief, and military sexual trauma through spiritual formation strategies.
  https://jmvh.org/article/moral-injury-reconciliation-a-practitioners-guide-for-treating-moral-injury-ptsd-grief-and-military-sexual-trauma-by-dr-lewis-jeffery-lee/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

See Also These Blog Posts

When the World is on Fire: Why Spiritual Care Still Matters
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/04/when-world-is-on-fire-why-spiritual-care.html
This post discusses the role of spiritual care and resilience in times of crisis, aligning with themes of moral injury and the need for care in a fractured world.

The Sacred Fire of Anger
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-sacred-fire-of-anger.html
Explores how anger, when understood and expressed wisely, can be a powerful tool for transformation, justice, and healing—a key aspect of dealing with moral injury.

When the World is on Fire: Why Spiritual Care Still Matters
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/04/when-world-is-on-fire-why-spiritual-care.html
This post discusses the importance of spiritual care during times of societal upheaval, aligning with themes of moral injury and the need for compassionate presence.

The Sacred Fire of Anger
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-sacred-fire-of-anger.html
Explores how anger, when understood and expressed wisely, can be a powerful tool for transformation, justice, and healing—a key aspect of dealing with moral injury.

Companioning the Unexplainable: Spirituality, Mental Health, and Meaning
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/02/companioning-unexplainable-spirituality.html
Discusses the role of spiritual companionship in navigating experiences that challenge conventional ways of knowing, relevant to those grappling with moral injury.

This Heart of Spiritual Direction series is ©2025 Amy Beltaine, all rights reserved. You may freely reprint any blog post, website, or print resource. Simply include the following attribution, and if you print online, make the link at the end live:

Article ©2025 Amy Beltaine, all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. This article and hundreds of others, along with other free resources are available at http://www.AmyBeltaine.info