The group therapy program for Military Sexual Trauma (MST) mirrors the combat stress and moral injury group program in that it focuses on reconnection and empowerment. Betrayal trauma (Freyd, 1998) is at the core of MST. Betrayal trauma occurs when those who are supposed to protect and respect you violate you in the basest ways. The focus of the therapy addresses moral injury inherent in this type of betrayal and focuses on finding a path of reconnection to others and oneself and empowerment by “casting out” the perpetrator(s) in the context of a group of “worthy others” (i.e. those that have experienced the same injuries).
