The feature film, The Magdalene Sisters, illustrates a historical example of community and religious factors that produced institutional abuse of vulnerable adolescent girls in a “laundry” run by Catholic nuns. Set in1960s Ireland, the film follows four adolescent characters through their experiences in a Magdalene asylum and the nuns in charge of the laundry who subject the girls to severe maltreatment. Youth exposed to institutional abuse or culturally sanctioned trauma are particularly vulnerable to a sense of victimization by purportedly trustworthy individuals and organizations. Using the film as the starting point, attendees discuss culturally burdened experiences of trauma and institutional abuse, and focus on resiliency factors relevant to recovery from such trauma.