Group therapy to help veterans heal after morally painful combat experiences
Official title: Consulting after Combat: Interviewing Service Members and Veterans to Develop a Therapy to Restore Functioning and Reintegration after Moral Injury Events
Funded at Olin Teague Veterans Center · NIH-11222650 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project will create a group therapy to help veterans who feel guilt, shame, or trouble connecting with others after morally injurious events in combat regain functioning and rebuild relationships.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Olin Teague Veterans Center NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Temple, United States) |
| Project start | November 1, 2021 |
| Project end | October 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| NIH project number | 5IK2RX003495-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11222650 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are veterans with PTSD or ongoing distress tied to potentially morally injurious events who report guilt, shame, difficulty trusting others, or problems reintegrating after deployment.
✕Less likely to help
This approach is unlikely to help people whose problems are unrelated to moral injury (for example, those with primarily danger-based trauma without moral conflict or non-trauma psychiatric conditions).
What this research studies
Researchers will interview service members and veterans about morally injurious experiences to inform a new relational dynamic-based group therapy manual. The therapy will focus on linking current symptoms and life stresses to combat-related moral injuries and personal history. Sessions are designed to happen in the presence of attuned, sympathetic fellow veterans who can resonate with emotions like guilt, shame, anger, and disgust. The end product will be a treatment manual aimed at improving daily functioning and quality of life for affected veterans.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this therapy could reduce distress from moral injury and help veterans reconnect with others and improve day-to-day functioning.
How similar studies have gone: Existing PTSD treatments often focus on danger-based trauma and are less tailored to moral injury, and while emerging moral-injury therapies show promise, relational group approaches like this remain relatively new and not yet widely proven.
Where this research is happening
-
Olin Teague Veterans Center
Temple, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: O'brien, Sheila Frankfurt — Olin Teague Veterans Center
- Study coordinator: O'brien, Sheila Frankfurt
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.