Date: Monday, April 13, 2026
Time: 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET
Location: Tate-Turner-Kuralt Auditorium, 1st Floor
Format: Hybrid
- Livestream via Zoom, or
- In person: UNC School of Social Work, 325 Pittsboro Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
CE Credit: 2 CEs, read for full information on credit types awarded.
Fees: $35 (scholarships available)
Description:
Many individuals are navigating life within political, institutional, and environmental systems that conflict with their values. Moral pain can arise when people feel complicit in harm, powerless to act, or unable to prevent violations of what they believe is right. These experiences can manifest as guilt, grief, anger, numbness, or disconnection and are often pathologized or overlooked. First recognized in military settings, the frameworks of moral injury and moral distress now hold broader relevance for anyone living or working within systems that harm others, even when they have little control.
Dr. Warren Kinghorn will outline the historical and ethical foundations of moral injury, highlighting how it names forms of suffering often mistaken for dysfunction. Dr. Jason Nieuwsma will discuss how Acceptance and Commitment Therapy offers a values-based, non-pathologizing approach to healing. Participants will reflect on what it means to live—and help others live—with integrity in the face of systems we cannot fully control, and how emotional responses may also point to sites of responsibility and action.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of the training participants will be able to:
- Describe the concepts of moral injury and moral distress and identify their relevance in both client and clinician experiences.
- Recognize emotional, cognitive, and behavioral indicators of moral conflict in clinical and broader societal contexts.
- Apply ACT-based strategies to help individuals clarify values, hold moral pain with psychological flexibility, and move toward meaningful action.
Trainer: Jason Nieuwsma, PhD is a clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also serves as Associate Director for Integrative Mental Health in the Department of Veterans Affairs. His work focuses on integrating evidence-based psychotherapies into medical and spiritual care settings, with a particular emphasis on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), moral injury, and collaborative work with chaplains and clergy. Dr. Nieuwsma has led national initiatives within the Department of Veterans Affairs to address moral injury among veterans and healthcare providers. He has developed and evaluated ACT-based, group interventions for moral injury and trained VA chaplains and clinicians in cross-disciplinary approaches that recognize both psychological and spiritual dimensions of moral distress.
Trainer: Warren Kinghorn, ThD, MD is a psychiatrist and theologian at Duke University, where he serves as Associate Research Professor of Psychiatry and of Pastoral and Moral Theology. He co-directs the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke Divinity School and is a staff psychiatrist at the Durham VA Medical Center. His work explores the intersections of mental health, trauma, spirituality, and moral meaning. Dr. Kinghorn is a leading voice in reframing moral injury as an ethical and relational response to wrongdoing or betrayal, rather than as a psychiatric disorder. Drawing from theology, philosophy, and clinical experience, he teaches and writes about how spiritual and moral frameworks can support healing. His work often focuses on veterans and others in caregiving roles, while emphasizing the institutional and social contexts that shape experiences of moral injury.
References:
- Borges, L. M., Barnes, S. M., Farnsworth, J. K., Drescher, K. D., & Walser, R. D. (2022). Case conceptualizing in acceptance and commitment therapy for moral injury: An active and ongoing approach to understanding and intervening on moral injury. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 910414–910414. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.910414
- Cahill, J. M., Kinghorn, W., & Dugdale, L. (2023). Repairing moral injury takes a team: What clinicians can learn from combat veterans. Journal of Medical Ethics, 49(5), 361–366. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2022-108163
- Kinghorn, W. (2020). Challenging the hegemony of the symptom: Reclaiming context in PTSD and moral injury. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 45(6), 644–662. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhaa023
- Meador, K. G., & Nieuwsma, J. A. (2018). Moral injury: Contextualized care. The Journal of Medical Humanities, 39(1), 93–99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-017-9480-2
- Nieuwsma, J. A., Brancu, M., Wortmann, J., Smigelsky, M. A., King, H. A., Meador, K. G., & VISN 6 MIRECC Workgroup. (2021). Screening for moral injury and comparatively evaluating moral injury measures in relation to mental illness symptomatology and diagnosis. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 28(1), 239–250. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2503
- Nieuwsma, J. A., Smigelsky, M. A., Wortmann, J. H., & Meador, K. G. (2025). Piecing it together: Collaborative group care for moral injury. Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40501-024-00341-w
- Nieuwsma, J. A., Walser, R. D., Farnsworth, J. K., Drescher, K. D., Meador, K. G., & Nash, W. P. (2015). Possibilities within acceptance and commitment therapy for approaching moral injury. Current Psychiatry Reviews, 11(3), 193–206. https://doi.org/10.2174/1573400511666150629105234
- Sun, D., Phillips, R. D., Mulready, H. L., Zablonski, S. T., Turner, J. A., Turner, M. D., McClymond, K., Nieuwsma, J. A., & Morey, R. A. (2019). Resting‐state brain fluctuation and functional connectivity dissociate moral injury from posttraumatic stress disorder. Depression and Anxiety, 36(5), 442–452. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22883
UNC Chapel Hill – Clinical Lecture Series