Moral Injury and PTSD: Finding the Path Back With Chaplain Larry Brant

Trauma can leave more than fear behind. For some people, it leaves a deep sense of shame and a feeling that something inside them is broken. In this episode of Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, host Nazish talks with Navy chaplain and author Larry Brant about PTSD, moral injury, and the long, non-linear road back to restoration.

Larry shares how years of combat exposure changed his sense of safety, why it took him so long to seek professional help, and what he leans on during hard days: faith, trusted people, and a counselor. He explains the difference between fear-based trauma and moral injury, why both need attention, and offers two grounding practices, a differentiation exercise and a simple body check. His message for anyone who feels broken is that there is a path back.

About the Guest:

Larry Brant is a U.S. Navy chaplain with a Doctor of Ministry degree and the author of Restoring the Broken: A Ministry Leader's Guide to Understanding and Healing Moral Injury. He works where trauma, faith, and recovery meet, and speaks from his own lived experience with PTSD. Larry is not a medical doctor and does not give medical advice.

Key Takeaways:

• People in helping roles can struggle to ask for help. Larry calls it the Superman syndrome, and he reminds us that needing support does not make anyone less than.
• Avoiding triggers can quietly shrink your life. Larry found he was staying out of situations that reminded him of the past, and missing things he might have enjoyed.
• PTSD is fear based. Moral injury comes from acts or failures that go against your deepest values, and it often brings shame, guilt, and isolation.
• Larry says that when PTSD and moral injury exist together, both need attention, and they call for different kinds of support: emotional and psychological for one, ethical and spiritual for the other.
• Try a differentiation exercise: when something triggers you, step back and ask what in this moment is similar to the past and what is different. Focus on the differences to ground yourself in the present.
• Notice your body's early signal. Larry's is hot ears. Learning yours can help you step away, breathe deeply, and regroup.
• Recovery is not a straight line, and setbacks are part of the road. You may not be exactly who you were before, and that is okay.

Connect With Larry Brant:

Book website: restoring-the-broken.com
Book: Restoring the Broken: A Ministry Leader's Guide to Understanding and Healing Moral Injury
Email : chapsbrant@yahoo.com
Larry offers spiritual guidance and a listening ear, not medical advice.

Episode Chapters:

00:00 When Trauma Starts to Feel Like Who You Are
01:04 Welcome and Meet Larry Brant
01:33 A Navy Chaplain Outside the Wire
08:29 Why He Finally Asked for Help
09:35 Helpers and the Superman Syndrome
11:26 What Held Him When the Pain Came Back
14:22 Reading the Body's Early Warning Signs
17:17 What Moral Injury Is and How It Differs From PTSD
21:34 You May Feel Broken, But There Is a Path Back
22:35 Where to Find Larry and His Book

 

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