Religion and Recovery from PTSD

Harold G. Koenig, M.D. is Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University Medical Cente, and has published extensively in the fields of mental health, geriatrics and religion. His research on religion, health and ethical issues in medicine has been featured on dozens of national and international TV news programs. He has given testimony before the U.S. Senate (1998) and U.S. House of Representatives (2008) concerning the benefits of religion and spirituality to public health. Donna Ames is a psychiatrist and Professor in Residence at the VA and UCLA in Los Angeles. She has worked for 30 years as a psychiatrist and was involved in psychiatric research for 7 years prior to her graduation from medical school. She is grateful and honored to serve Veterans every day. She is an accomplished researcher with over 100 publications, a sought after teacher and mentor and skilled clinician. Most importantly, she is a child of G-d, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a mother of 6 and grandmother of 6. Michelle Pearce, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Dr. Pearce is also a clinical psychologist who studies the relationship between religion/spirituality, coping, and health, as well as the integration of spirituality into the practice of psychotherapy. Her current research is on spiritually integrated cognitive processing therapy for moral injury and PTSD, as well as the development and evaluation of spiritual competency training for mental health professionals. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) at Duke University Medical Center and a second fellowship in Spirituality and Health at the Duke Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health. She is the author of the book Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Christians with Depression: A Practical, Tool-Based Primer.