Often, I find myself sitting across from a combat veteran who feels profoundly disconnected from humanity, buried in a hole dug by shame, convinced they are morally irredeemable after a moral rupture they can barely name, let alone speak aloud. The stories they carry feel forbidden. Early in my work, I tried to rely on the conventional techniques I had been taught, but something in me knew that moral injury was not responding because it is not simply a diagnostic construct. It is a soul wound. Veterans drowning in shame do not need quick cognitive restructuring or premature reassurance; they need someone willing to sit with them, soul to soul, without flinching. Existential–humanistic psychology (EHP) gave me language for what I was already discovering in practice: therapy is not primarily about fixing, but about presence, witnessing, and relational depth (Edelstein, 2015; Moss, 2015; Spaeth, 2019). It invites us to engage and explore moral anguish without pathologizing it and to honor responsibility, agency, and meaning making in the aftermath of a moral rupture. Spiritually informed EHP further calls us to show up as fully human, authentic, and soul-attuned clinicians, attending to the spiritual longing many clients bring into the room, a longing often overlooked in symptom-focused models (Cohen, 2019; Hammer, 2019). However, the unfortunate truth is that I was not adequately trained for this work in graduate school. If we are serious about reinvigorating our field, Division 32 has an opportunity to lead by advocating for required coursework in existential, spiritual, humanistic, and military cultural competencies—so that future clinicians are prepared not only to treat symptoms, but to sit courageously with the moral and spiritual dimensions of suffering.
Existential and humanistic theories were briefly mentioned on one page of a counseling theories book in my first semester. Spiritual and religious competence courses were not offered, even though I attended a Jesuit Catholic graduate school. Military culture and moral injury were not part of the curriculum. Humanistic psychology remains marginal in mainstream training (Henry, 2017), and spiritual competence is inconsistently integrated into required coursework (Vieten & Lukoff, 2022). I remember early sessions when veterans disclosed religious/spiritual disconnection, and I realized I lacked the framework to respond ethically and effectively. I had to seek additional training on my own. Both the American Psychological Association (2017) and American Counseling Association (2014) ethical codes are clear: we are to practice within our competence, avoid harm, and refrain from imposing our personal values, among other principles. When clinicians are not trained in existential, spiritual, and military cultural competence, we risk violating all three.
Many veterans now receive care in civilian systems and may avoid Veterans Affairs settings due to stigma or logistical barriers (Collins et al., 2024). Veterans often hesitate to disclose spiritual struggles because they fear misunderstanding or judgment (Mandelkow et al., 2022; Vieten & Lukoff, 2022). Military culture itself requires literacy—understanding duty, honor, cohesion, sacrifice, reintegration challenges (Collins et al., 2024; Kopacz et al., 2017). Without that competence, therapists working with them risk unintentionally invalidating the very people we are trying to serve. All of this leads me to one conclusion: existential, humanistic, and spiritual competencies should not be electives. They should be required components of graduate education.
If we know that clients bring moral and spiritual struggles into therapy—and we do—then training must prepare clinicians to meet them. If we know that moral injury affects veterans at significant rates—and it does—then military cultural competence must be built into trauma curricula. If we know that spirituality is central to meaning making for many clients, then spiritual assessment, interdisciplinary collaboration, and ethical discernment and integration should be developmental expectations, not optional interests. Competence is not static. It develops through structured learning, supervision, and reflective practice (Pearce et al., 2019/2024). Existential–humanistic foundations should anchor this work because they teach clinicians how to be present with suffering that cannot be neatly resolved (Spaeth, 2019).
As I reflect on my own path—from Marine wife and former financial advisor to therapist serving military service members and combat veterans, I recognize that this work feels like a calling, a form of soul care. I walk alongside service members as they navigate some of the most painful terrain imaginable. I help them reconnect with fractured parts of themselves and rediscover purpose aligned with their authentic values. The principle of common humanity guides my work. It reminds both me and those I serve that none of us suffers in isolation. When veterans feel seen and heard—not evaluated or corrected, healing becomes imaginable. As I deepen my commitment to spiritually integrated existential–humanistic therapy, I have come to view it as more than a framework. It feels like an embodied expression of love, authenticity, and faith in the human spirit’s capacity to heal (Cohen, 2019; Hammer, 2019). When I listen with my whole being—when I allow my soul to be fully present, I experience therapy as an act of moral witnessing. I am reminded of Nietzsche’s (1882/1974) question: What is most humane? To spare someone from shame (as cited in Taylor-Jones, 2023). In this shared journey, I am transformed alongside those I serve. But I also know how easily I was unprepared.
Moral injury invites EHP to expand itself and calls on the discipline to go beyond neutrality into moral witnessing. Beyond individual meaning-making into moral meaning-making. Division 32 has an opportunity to advocate for something concrete: graduate programs that treat existential–humanistic and spiritual competence as core developmental learning rather than elective enrichment or intellectual curiosity. In a cultural moment where moral suffering is increasingly visible, our profession needs clinicians who are formed, not just trained.
Reinvigorating existential–humanistic psychology is not just about nostalgia. It is about remembering who we are as a discipline. EHP has long been described as a rich tapestry of voices that has profoundly shaped contemporary psychology, even when not explicitly credited (Schneider et al., 2015). Now, in a time marked by moral rupture, existential uncertainty, and spiritual fragmentation, its voice feels especially necessary. If we are willing to cultivate presence, humility, and courage in ourselves and in our training programs, we may not only prevent EHP from becoming a historical footnote—we may help it become a guiding light for the next generation of clinicians (DeRobertis, 2013, 2016, 2020). And when one soul is able to sit with another without turning away, healing becomes not only possible—but shared. When I sit with a veteran who believes they are beyond redemption, it is important that I show up with authenticity, integrity, humility, and depth. That kind of presence does not happen accidentally. It is cultivated. And our graduate programs should reflect that. In a time when veterans seek dignity, we must be prepared to meet them.
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