A doctor, with many years of formal education and training, may or may not be a healer. In some cases, the way a doctor practices is the reason why a veteran drops out of treatment, never to return. But a “Doc,” someone who builds the kind of deep trust veterans had in the service with their medics—that person is a healer.

Based on more than a decade of walking with warriors in the trenches of mental warfare, I’ve observed that there are a number of fundamental paradoxes about the nature of moral injury that are not captured in our current understanding.

Although they have some overlapping challenges, Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) and Moral Injury are not the same thing. A service member or veteran may have PTS, Moral Injury, or both. The mental state of someone with PTS is that of someone who feels unsafe...

Many people in society—including a fairly large number of therapists—seem to think that veterans come back traumatized by what they see and do in combat.