Research and scholarship are among the ways I make sense of the world.
My scholarship is rooted in social work and guided by a commitment to understanding the complexity of human experience. I believe social work is uniquely positioned to bring together psychological, social, spiritual, and environmental perspectives in ways that deepen both research and practice.
My research focuses on trauma, behavioral health, spirituality, moral injury, identity, and the ways people make meaning after life’s most significant disruptions. I am especially interested in resilience, posttraumatic growth, religious identity, affiliation, and transition, clinician well-being, and social work education.
While my work is grounded in rigorous scholarship, I care deeply that it remains connected to the lives of real people. I am passionate about helping ideas travel—from scholarship to practice and from the classroom into everyday life. I believe the best scholarship doesn’t stay on the page; it changes the way we understand ourselves and care for one another.
Areas of Interest
- Trauma and resilience
- Spirituality and mental health
- Religious transition and identity reconstruction
- Moral injury
- Attachment and relational healing
- Burnout and clinician well-being
- Behavioral health practice
- Social work education
- Qualitative and mixed-methods research
Selected Publications
My work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals, scholarly reference works, and collaborative research projects spanning trauma-informed care, spirituality and mental health, behavioral health, and social work education.
Published Research
Báez, J. C., & Lichlyter-Klein, M.W. (2022).
Using a creative award presentation to review semester content and leave a lasting impact. EdTech Books.
https://edtechbooks.org/designing_engaging_interactive_synchronous_online_classes
/unit_2_whole_class_activity_examp
Summary: Explores the use of a creative awards presentation as an engaging way for students to review course content, reflect on their learning, and bring meaningful closure to a semester.
Báez, J. C., Lichlyter-Klein, M.W., & O’Connell, M. (2023).
Trauma-informed care. Oxford Bibliographies in Social Work. Oxford University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780195389678-0323
Summary: Provides an interdisciplinary overview of trauma-informed care, including its theoretical foundations, development, and application across social work practice and systems of care.
Báez, J. C., & Lichlyter-Klein, M.W. (2025).
Transformative-emancipatory praxis. In J. C. Báez (Ed.), Issues of Equity: Key Concepts in Qualitative Research. Routledge.
https://www.routledge.com/Issues-of-Equity-Key-Concepts-in-Qualitative-Methods/CreswellBaez/p/book/9781032908526
Summary: Examines transformative-emancipatory praxis as an approach to qualitative research that attends to power, equity, and the relationship between knowledge, research, and social change.
Johnson, S., & Lichlyter-Klein, M. W. (2026).
Posttraumatic growth and spiritual change in women’s substance use recovery: A trauma-informed positive psychological perspective. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 1–20.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.2026.2700724
Summary: Examines the relationship between trauma, posttraumatic growth, and spiritual change among women in substance use recovery, with particular attention to how recovery can involve changes in meaning, identity, and spirituality.
Research in Progress
Multiple authors
Moral Injury in the Law Enforcement Context: Insights from a Cognitive Interviewing Study.
Summary: Uses cognitive interviewing to examine how law enforcement officers understand and respond to existing measures of moral injury, with implications for how moral injury is conceptualized and measured in law enforcement settings.
Lichlyter-Klein, M.W., & Johnson, S.
Losing My Religion: Disenfranchised Grief and Religious Trauma in Women Who Have Detached from Evangelicalism. Phenomenological study.
Summary: Explores the lived experiences of women who have detached from evangelicalism, focusing on religious trauma, disenfranchised grief, and the relational and identity losses that can accompany leaving a religious community.
