Is Shame Holding You Back?
Shame...hopelessness...guilt...helplessness...when we experience these, it can turn our worlds upside down. We feel alone, sometimes afraid to ask for help or seek community. We isolate ourselves and fall deeper and deeper into a place that consumes us. Can you ever escape? Or will you become a statistic?
Dr. Carter Check believes that moral injury is a wound that we can't see, and it's one that can leave us feeling more alone than ever before, because we aren't able to grieve the loss that goes along with it. But we aren't alone, and there are ways that we can heal the trauma and rebuild the parts of ourselves that we feel we lost. In this pivotal episode, Dr. Carter talks about his work as a suicide prevention specialist - why he chose this path for himself and why he knows that we can save more people if we work together as a community and are willing to ask for a helping hand.
From his website, drcartercheck.com:
Moral injury is the unseen wound that takes lives in silence.
Dr. Carter Check has made it his mission to change that.
A former Army Cavalry Scout turned Healthcare Ethicist and Board-Certified Chaplain with a specialty competency in Suicide Prevention, Dr. Carter Check is a national voice in moral injury care, ethical leadership, and upstream suicide prevention. His work is both professional and personal, having walked his own journey through moral injury, he now works to ensure that others never have to walk it alone.
For nearly a decade, Carter has served on an integrated suicide prevention team within the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is a co-developer of one of the VA’s first structured group interventions for moral injury—REAL (Reclaiming Experiences and Loss)—which supports trauma recovery through companioning, grief integration, and meaning reconstruction. While REAL was co-developed within a VA context, Carter’s broader work builds on these foundations with his own original frameworks for healing, including CareFrontation, Translucent Chaplaincy, and HunTherapy.
A bestselling author, speaker, and researcher, Carter’s reach extends beyond clinical systems. His book Healing in the Wild introduced outdoor therapy as a tool for moral clarity and post-traumatic growth. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Moral Injury at Oral Roberts University and is completing a Ph.D. in Healthcare Ethics at Duquesne University. His academic focus centers on moral health: the alignment of identity, values, and responsibility in the wake of trauma.
Carter’s ethical leadership framework—Translucent Chaplaincy—equips leaders to embody moral clarity, relational ethics, and presence-based decision-making. His work supports Veterans, first responders, and healthcare professionals who face ethical pain, burnout, and spiritual exhaustion.
Beyond the classroom and clinic, Carter finds healing in wild places. As a PGA HOPE Ambassador, competitive 3D archer, and whitewater guide, he uses nature immersion, ritual, and story to help others reclaim purpose. His nonprofit, HunTherapy.org, supports outdoor healing for Veterans and first responders, including annual rafting pilgrimages on the Ocoee River—where rapids become metaphors for resilience, surrender, and strength.
“Every day, Veterans, first responders, and healthcare professionals silently carry wounds no one can see. My life’s work is to ensure they don’t have to carry them alone.”
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