SOULJOURNER

We all may just be “passing through,”
but what we do while we’re here matters.

Soul console

Welcome. I’m really glad you’re here.

I’m Michele — a therapist, clinical ethicist, writer, and researcher who’s spent the last two decades on a “souljourn,” studying trauma generally, moral injury, moral distress, and lost innocence specifically, and resilience.

“Soul wounds” happen when our core values, beliefs, or bonds are violated. And they hurt, I know well. But you’ve come to the right place.

I created the Soul Console Community to help people like you better understand what a soul wound is, how it lives inside you, and how that shapes the stories you tell to yourself and how that affects your relationships with others and the world. I also created this community to provide support that speaks to your specific experience of a soul injury. Maybe that “injury” is something you did, which haunts your days and nights, or else it's a violation that was done to you, including betrayal. It could also have been something you witnessed or were forced to do against your will or better judgment that left you feeling powerless. Maybe it was simply a painful situation or terrible outcome that you couldn’t prevent.

Honoring pain, reconciling difficult truths, transforming ways of thinking and being, and restoring moral integrity starts here.

We cannot recreate our lives going backward.
We can only reclaim our life moving forward.
-Michele DeMarco, from Holding Onto Air: The Art and Science of Building a Resilient Spirit

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Featured

“Is That What It’s Called?!”

with Jon Debauch, Founder, Mr. Spirituality Podcast

Digging deep, clearing the air, and getting down to brass tax about what moral injury and soul wounds really are — and what must be done to reclaim your sense of self, heal essential relationships, and move forward in life with integrity, peace, and hope. Part 1 of my conversation with Jon Debauch.

Coming Soon!
Person looking through a crack in the wall.
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Featured Articles
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Relationships

Moral Injury and the Agony and Power of Love

At its core, moral injury is about trust and our sacred relationships.
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Moral Injury

Bouncing Back From Moral Injury

How neuroscience and somatic therapy helped a special forces vet find new life.
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Well-Being

6 Underestimated Drivers of Well-Being

Research shows these psychospiritual forces may be critically important for decreasing risk of illness and death and boosting ...
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resilience

How to Cultivate Moral Resilience

Moral resilience is the antidote for the powerlessness felt from moral distress.
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Trauma

That Powerlessness You Feel Is Called “Moral Distress”

Cultivate moral resilience instead.
Moral Injury

What Not to Say to Someone Dealing with Moral Injury

Knowing how to be present without overstepping boundaries can help a loved one.
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NEW BOOK BY MICHELE
HOLDING ONTO AIR: The Art and Science of Building a Resilient Spirit

Holding Onto Air is the first book to illuminate the dual nature of loss — the science behind it and art of transforming it.

With poignant wisdom and refreshing insight, trauma researcher and therapist (and triple heart attack survivor), Dr. Michele DeMarco, explodes traditional myths of resilience and shows what it takes to thrive through any of life’s challenges. DeMarco situates meaningful challenge and loss specifically in the context of “lost innocence,” and challenges common notions that we can think our way out of despair and back to a “normal” happy life when the unimaginable shatters it. Leveraging advances in emotion science, somatic psychology, neuroscience, and trauma, Holding Onto Air brings the body and spirit into the solution, as much as the mind, and so presents a truly integrated, “whole person” approach to building resilience. It also makes spirit accessible for anyone of any background or belief — or no aligned belief.

More than a rudimentary map for navigating grief and loss’ rocky terrain (with tired tropes and shop-worn strategies), DeMarco offers a unique and trusted guide for an arduous journey every human being will have to face — the realization of evil, pain, or mortality that occurs after a person experiences trauma.

Coming Fall 2023, by Berrett-Koehler!

Preorder Now
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Not sure where to begin?
We can help with that.

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Soul Console Community
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Welcome to the Soul Console Community

Soul Console is a burgeoning community, grounded in trust and validation, and chock-full of resources that can help you regain a sense of wholeness and integrity. Whether you’re feeling crushing emotion, the fear of stigma, numbing from scars, the sense that others “wouldn’t understand,” “couldn’t understand,” “don’t really care,” or would “judge you,” you needn’t suffer any longer in solitary and self-severing silence.

Come See
Resource Hubs
About Me
More About Michele
Gifts for You
Free stuff you can download
"Soul Console"
Michele's Blog @ PT
Art & Stories
"In the Black Hours"
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New Course By Michele
ResilientU: Healing Writing to Cultivate Moral Resilience

Join us for this new 28-day self-guided course that helps you build your “moral muscle,” so that in any situation, you can hold your center, act with confidence, and maintain your integrity. It's one of the few scientifically backed writing programs out there.

Opening September 1, 2023

Register Now
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