Spiritual · Meaning
Moral Injury Worksheet
When you did or witnessed something against your code
Moral injury — a term from combat literature, now widely used — is what happens when you did, witnessed, or failed to prevent something that violates your deepest moral code. It's not PTSD, but often co-occurs.
The event(s)
What happened; what part I played, or witnessed, or couldn't prevent
The moral code that was violated
What I believed about how things should be, or how I should be
What I've been doing with the weight
- Silence / secrecy
- Self-punishment
- Numbing (substances, work, dissociation)
- Trying to make it right in unrelated ways
- Cutoff from communities that would remind me
Movement forward
A witness (person / faith figure / community); a repair, real or symbolic; a way to live differently going forward
Not the same as guilt
Moral injury does not fully respond to standard therapy alone. It usually needs meaning-making, witness, and often a spiritual or community dimension.