If it feels like no one fully understands what happens at the intersection of domestic violence and the larger systems survivors are forced to navigate, this conversation is for you.
So many women we serve are not only healing from coercive control. They are also trying to make sense of what happens when the systems they believed would help instead dismiss their experiences, restrict their choices, or prevent them from acting in ways that align with their values.
Dr. Summer Rippe, one of my therapists, colleagues, and friends, recently completed research on moral injury among women survivors of domestic violence. Her work examines how coercive control, betrayal, and constrained moral agency can disrupt a survivor’s sense of identity, values, and moral selfhood.
In this episode, we talk about what moral injury can look like, how it differs from other ways we understand trauma, and the impact of being forced to make impossible choices. We also discuss how institutional betrayal can deepen the harm when survivors are disbelieved, blamed, or pressured to participate in decisions they believe may hurt themselves or their children.
We discuss the possible impact of this and future research on the professionals that survivors find themselves relying on.
If you have ever thought, “I knew what my child needed, but I wasn’t allowed to protect them,” this conversation may help put language to an experience that has been incredibly difficult to explain.
Connect w/ Summer: https://www.instagram.com/emergingmeaningcounseling/
About Summer: Dr. Summer Rippe is a counselor educator, researcher, and licensed professional counselor candidate specializing in complex trauma, dissociation, domestic violence, and moral injury. She recently completed her Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision at Colorado Christian University, where her dissertation explored the lived experiences of moral injury among women survivors of domestic violence. Her research examines how coercive control, betrayal, and constrained moral agency can disrupt survivors’ sense of identity, values, and moral selfhood. In addition to her research, Summer teaches master's level counseling students and provides trauma-focused clinical care, with a particular interest in helping survivors move toward meaning, integration, and moral repair.
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