Moral Injury
Clue: This is the term for the damage done to one's conscience or moral compass when that person perpetrates, witnesses, or fails to prevent acts that transgress their own moral beliefs.
Answer: What is a moral injury?
Clue: This term describes your overall sense of self-worth and personal value.
Answer: What is esteem?
Clue: These are negative, rigid thoughts that keep you from recovering after a traumatic event.
Answer: What are stuck points?
Clue: This is the first and most crucial step in being able to challenge a stuck point.
Answer: What is identifying or noticing the thought?
Clue: The goal of challenging a stuck point is to develop a new, more realistic one of these.
Answer: What is a balanced or alternative thought?
Clue: A hallmark emotion of moral injury, this feeling is often connected to an act you did or failed to do.
Answer: What is guilt or shame?
Clue: A common thought that harms esteem after a trauma is the belief that you are fundamentally broken or this.
Answer: What is feeling "damaged" or "unworthy"?
Clue: Words like "always," "never," or "completely" are examples of this type of language often used in stuck points.
Answer: What is extreme or all-or-nothing thinking?
Clue: This technique involves looking for factual information that either supports or goes against your stuck point.
Answer: What is examining the evidence?
Clue: Letting go of blame for things that were outside of your control is a powerful act of this.
Answer: What is self-forgiveness?
Clue: Unlike the fear-based reaction common in PTSD, moral injury is based on the violation of these.
Answer: What are one's morals, values, or ethical beliefs?
Clue: This practice involves treating yourself with the same kindness and understanding you would offer to a good friend.
Answer: What is self-compassion?
Clue: "It was all my fault" is a classic example of a stuck point related to this.
Answer: What is self-blame?
Clue: This common therapy worksheet helps you see the link between an Activating event, your Beliefs about it, and the emotional Consequences.
Answer: What is an ABC Worksheet?
Clue: After a moral injury, taking actions that align with your personal values (like helping others) can be a form of this.
Answer: What are making amends or taking reparative action?
Clue: These are the three types of events that can cause moral injury: an act of commission (doing something wrong), an act of omission (failing to do something right), and this.
Answer: What is betrayal (by a leader or others)?
Clue: This action helps rebuild esteem by intentionally noticing and appreciating your positive qualities and successes.
Answer: What is recognizing your strengths?
Clue: An example of a stuck point is, "If I let people get close to me, I will be hurt," which is a belief that affects this.
Answer: What is trust?
Clue: This is a method where you (or a therapist) ask open-ended questions to explore and examine your own thinking patterns.
Answer: What is Socratic questioning?
Clue: This is the process of changing a belief from "The world is completely dangerous" to "The world has dangers, but I can take steps to be safe."
Answer: What is reframing?
Clue: Psychiatrist Jonathan Shay, known for his work with veterans, described moral injury as this type of wound.
Answer: What is a "soul wound"?
Clue: According to Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), trauma commonly disrupts five key areas of life: safety, trust, power/control, intimacy, and this one.
Answer: What is esteem?
Clue: Stuck points are opinions or beliefs that are not 100% this.
Answer: What is a fact?
Clue: A key part of challenging blame is separating this, which is about your role in causing an outcome, from this, which is about the intent to cause harm.
Answer: What are responsibility and blame?
Clue: In CPT, the ultimate goal is not to forget the trauma, but to healthily change your worldview to incorporate the experience. This healthy change is called this.
Answer: What is accommodation?