For those who are not yet listeners to ATN’s podcast, Regulated & Relational, this new episode could be a great place to start. In Episode 106, Sheri Kreher, LCSW and the Trauma, Illness, and Grief (TIG) Coordinator for 24 school districts through the Genesee BOCES gives us her insight into Moral Injury and how this may be what many educators are struggling with during these post-pandemic years.
Moral Injury is defined as psychological harm incurred from committing, witnessing, or being subject to actions that violate one’s moral code and is now recognized by the American Psychological Association. Early descriptions of moral injury are found in the experiences of veterans. But now, many helping professions, such as health care, police work and educators are faced with systemic issues that involve either witnessing, experiencing or participating in acts that violate a person’s moral code. This leads to feelings of betrayal and ultimately can lead to despair.
Sheri noticed in the educators she worked with a growing sense of despair, and even wondered about the hopelessness she was feeling. This led her to the work of Joanna Macy and specifically to the book, Active Hope. Sheri explains that the work of Active Hope is a spiral called the Spiral of the Work that Reconnects. It’s a four-step process that is not linear, and therefore is repeatable. The four stages are described as:
- Coming from Gratitude (not othering people)
- Honoring our Pain for the World
- Seeing with New Eyes
- Going Forth
In Sheri’s work with educators she found a very high percentage of them (80%) felt powerless in their roles and many reported feeling betrayed by their leaders and systems. Starting this hope spiral with “what’s working” and “what positive differences have you and others made” helps us to become aware of what we value and even what power we each have. Gratitude helps us to connect to what we do trust. This makes it easier to honor the sorrow, grief and outrage we’re feeling.
Honoring our pain, especially in a group (and this work is best in community) can be very challenging. But there is decided healing in this stage as sharing your pain helps remove any loneliness or beliefs of being misunderstood or ignored.
Sheri says while the work is hard, it’s important to lean into the pain stage. Not in a way that individuals or the group becomes a “stuck” and “complaining”, but in a way that helps to unpack the emotions and to keep resentment and despair from growing.
I found significant value in the Seeing with New Eyes stage – in shifting our perspective to think of our situations and our pain in a new way. Sheri cited using questions like “Imagine what your student will reflect back on as a 60 year old about their days in your classroom. What will they remember and what will they feel about it?” Or the flip side “What would our ancestors say about the challenges we’re facing?”
Toward the end of the episode, Sheri made an incredible connection between this Moral Injury/Active Hope work and the importance of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child approach being used by many districts. She pointed out that WSCC is a CDC (Centers for Disease Control) framework for addressing lifelong student health in schools. And that it emphasizes the health of the individual within the overall health of the community. So does the Active Hope work, which points all the more to addressing Moral Injury in educators to create the healthiest school community possible…because of the direct impact on students’ lifelong health and safety.
As you can tell, Episode 106 of Regulated & Relational is packed full of thought-provoking information. We’re also excited that Sheri is offering an Academy Day session at our 2026 Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools Conference in June in Dallas – Active Hope: An Experiential Workshop Using The Work That Reconnects to Transform Educator Despair.
Registration for CTSS2026 is open – you can learn more at the link below. https://www.attachmenttraumanetwork.org/conference/
