This audiobook discusses post-traumatic stress. There are clinical questions such as “Does positive religious coping enhance resiliency?” Alternatively, “Can moral injury trigger posttraumatic symptoms?” Finally, “How do traumatized individuals make meaningful clinical improvements, or minimal important changes, on a therapeutic journey that embraces post-traumatic growth?”

Caregivers need clinical training, so they triage mental health problems in ways that promote post-traumatic growth. In this audiobook, the concepts of moral injury, religious coping, and crisis intervention are discussed with the aim of equipping caregivers to engage mental health issues. A guiding light is personal pastoral experience as an emergency room chaplain.

Emergency room (ER) chaplains, along with other first responders, treat trauma patients before these patients are physically safe or have been medically cleared. Therefore, this audiobook discusses trauma treatment in crisis situations, such as military deployment and drug dependency. It also discusses medical emergencies that involve gunshot wounds, blast injuries, and cases of chronic victimization, such as emotional abuse, child maltreatment, domestic violence, and deliberate self-harm. Hospital chaplains and other first responders need an array of empirically supported trauma treatments.

This audiobook is a collection of case studies. Case study participants describe their “wild brain”. Each clinical interview is “wild" because the conversations describe post-traumatic symptoms. This soldier said, “I had to kill the kid.” Then he discussed how other kids, about the same age, had lobbed hand grenades at him, fired rifles, detonated landmines, or triggered booby traps. In Vietnam, kids fought as combatants. Therefore, he had to kill the kid. “Having to kill the kid,” or thinking that killing the kid in combat was necessary, exemplifies the distress and disorientation of moral injury.

God’s grace heals moral injury. God’s grace heals PTSD. This is the empirical finding, which will be argued throughout this spiritual audiobook.

Dr. Mark Robertson specializes in crisis intervention, trauma pastoral care, critical incident stress management (CISM), and mass casualty (MASCAL) response. For 20 years, Dr. Robertson worked as an emergency room chaplain. Three times, he deployed (as a military chaplain) in support of combat operations. Dr. Robertson has counseled more than 1,000 battle casualties, which includes American military, coalition warfighters, and terrorist insurgents—or enemy prisoners of war (EPOWs).

Dr. Robertson has more than 100,000 hours of clinical experience responding to traumatic events, such as terminal illness, industrial accidents, gunshot wounds, blast injuries, line of duty deaths (e.g., police officers, firefighters, US military), morgue viewings, and dignified transfer of human remains.

The Rev. Dr. Mark Robertson, EDD, MS, MDiv., NCC, CTTS, USAF (retired)
Diplomat, Clinical Pastoral Education
College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (CPSP)
National board-certified counselor
Certified trauma treatment specialist