What is Institutional Betrayal? And How Does It Relate to Church Abuse?
One of our roles at Awake is to help our community begin to understand the pain felt by people who have experienced abuse in the Catholic Church.
A form of trauma known as institutional betrayal trauma often contributes to the wounds carried by people abused in the Church. It occurs when leaders of an institution fail to protect the people in it from harm or do not respond with support when someone reveals that they’ve been hurt. It’s not limited to the Church; institutional betrayal can also occur in organizations including the military, schools, and sports teams.
Lori Daniels, PhD, LCSW
Institutional betrayal trauma affects each person differently, but often the “memories of the rejection experienced by a once-trusted institution feel worse than the actual assault due to the depth of disappointment and betrayal experienced by the survivor,” explains Lori Daniels, associate professor of social work at Hawai’i Pacific University, who is currently writing a book about institutional betrayal.
Daniels has a doctorate in social work and worked for many years for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs with veterans who had PTSD in the aftermath of combat, as well as women and men who experienced sexual assault during military duty. These military sexual assault cases led Daniels to start exploring the topic of institutional betrayal trauma. Her forthcoming book is Collaborative Recovery: Experiential and Person-Centered Approaches After Sexual Assault and Institutional Betrayal.
Institutional Betrayal: A Violation of Trust
Betrayal trauma was first described in the 1990s by researcher Jennifer Freyd, professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, Daniels says. Trauma was typically thought of as a result of war, violence, or natural disasters, but Freyd introduced the idea that personal relationships could also be a source of trauma. She writes that “betrayal trauma occurs when the people or institutions on which a person depends for survival significantly violate that person’s trust or well-being.” (Check out our previous interview with Jennifer Freyd about the need for “Institutional Courage.”)
Unlike trauma from, say, war or a car accident, betrayal trauma can feel “far more intimate and personal,” Daniels says. The victim-survivor trusts the institution so deeply that they believe they must have brought the harm on themselves. They are left with an altered ability to trust themselves and others.
Victim-survivors of betrayal trauma may have difficulty in future relationships and suffer from depression, anxiety, and a lack of self-esteem. Healing from betrayal trauma is complicated, but survivors benefit from learning more about the topic and understanding that they are not alone, Daniels adds.
She warns that institutional betrayal can be hard to pinpoint, especially in a sprawling institution like the military or the Catholic Church. “What initially may appear as an isolated incident of sexual abuse within an institution may be later revealed to be a systematic issue,” Daniels says. Leaders may minimize an assault and make it hard for victims to report. “It’s easier to disregard or diminish an isolated incident,” she adds. As a result, systemic problems can take time to become obvious.
If a victim in an institution chooses to report that they have been harmed, the “one who reports may be ostracized or rejected by the institution and faced with an ‘Us vs. Them’ attitude,” Daniels explains. “Our society is unfortunately well-trained to victim-blame quickly.”
Healing from Betrayal Trauma
The wounds of betrayal trauma can be complicated and take time to heal, but in her years of working with people who have suffered from this particular type of trauma, Daniels has found multiple ways to help.
Educating Victim-Survivors About Trauma and Triggers. It helps victim-survivors to learn all they can about betrayal trauma. For example, Daniels often sent her clients home with worksheets to help them identify trauma triggers: the words, sounds, sights, or smells that “triggered” them or caused them to experience intrusive thoughts about a previous traumatic event. She encouraged clients to watch themselves closely to identify their triggers. “They often come back and say, ‘I guess I get triggered a lot more than I thought,” she says. Being aware of how trauma operates in the body may make trauma responses less upsetting, giving survivors more power and control, Daniels adds.
Creating an Individual Plan for Healing. Many types of therapy can help people recover from trauma, including cognitive behavioral therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Daniels says. But she prefers to work with patients to create a personalized plan based on their individual triggers and the information revealed in their recurrent memories and dreams. Survivors may be tempted to avoid these difficult images and thoughts, but they often contain important clues, “telling a survivor what needs to be healed,” she says.
Turning Away from Silence and Secrecy. Holding painful memories and images inside instead of voicing them and sharing them with a supportive person can cause the pain to linger and prevent healing, Daniels says. For example, she once worked with a 77-year-old veteran who continued to believe that he had done something to cause his assault, especially after he reported the incident to a spiritual leader who immediately kicked him out of the room. “Secrecy by a survivor can keep the cycle of self-blame going for many, many years,” she says.
A Message for Institutional Trauma Survivors
When we asked Daniels what she would say to people who have experienced institutional betrayal trauma, she offered these words for survivors:
“Do not take this journey alone.”
“You are not alone. Start your journey of healing by including those who have demonstrated to you that they genuinely care about you.
Do not take this journey alone. You would be surprised how many people will be able to identify with your story. And if there's no one around you immediately in your close zone, there are people in your larger community who most definitely can relate to your story. Find them and talk to them. Find a therapist who's willing to hear your story. Learn how to heal in a healthy way, versus self-shaming and denigrating and blaming. Tell somebody about that stupid recurrent nightmare that you have, and work toward disarming it in a healthy way.
You did not create this. Believe others when they tell you that it's true. Take time to empower yourself and disempower the perpetrator. The best way to do that is to break the cycle of secrecy, isolation, and self-blame. Do the opposite. Share your story with others who are good listeners.”
—Erin O’Donnell, Editor
