Adaptive Disclosure: A New Treatment for Military Trauma, Loss, and Moral Injury

by Brett T. Litz, Leslie Lebowitz, Matt J. Gray

A complete guide to an innovative, research-based brief treatment specifically developed for service members and veterans, this book combines clinical wisdom and in-depth knowledge of military culture. Adaptive disclosure is designed to help those struggling in the aftermath of traumatic war-zone experiences, including life threat, traumatic loss, and moral injury, the violation of closely held beliefs or codes. Detailed guidelines are provided for assessing clients and delivering individualized interventions that integrate emotion-focused experiential strategies with elements of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Reproducible handouts can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.

205 pages, Paperback

First published November 16, 2015

Reviews

[Andrew Montgomery · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very helpful read. I highly recommend it for any chaplain or mental health provider working with veterans with PTSD. As awareness and research around moral injury continue to expand, I think it’s imperative for any chaplain and mental health provider in the VA/DoD to be able to identify and treat it, and this book certainly equips for that work.

I learned a lot about moral injury in general, alongside, of course, how to treat it with adaptive disclosure. I particularly found helpful the idea that PTSD can be broken down into three types: fear of death, grief and loss, and moral injury. This seems to be true of many of the veterans I’ve worked with in PTSD treatment, although I would argue that often the categories aren’t so clearly separated as the book suggests. I’ve certainly worked with veterans who experience moral injury as a result of losing service members under their command, so they need to both grieve the loss and make peace with their moral injury.

I’ll definitely be rereading a few of these chapters to implement some of the techniques/breakout components that focus on grief and loss and moral injury.

[Christopher Pokorny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written manual on how to facilitate Adaptive Disclosure treatment for moral injury. The authors provide keen insights into the culture and ethos of the military, which do not substitute for a lack of familiarity with the military, but greatly augment!

Recommend for chaplains and therapists who regularly work with military and veteran populations!