Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................1
Summary........................................................................................................................................1
Application.....................................................................................................................................3
Critical Thinking Questions...........................................................................................................3
Bibliography...................................................................................................................................5
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Introduction
In his book, The Combat Trauma Healing Manual: Christ-Centered Solutions for
Combat Trauma, Christopher Adsit gives us ten steps to follow. The first five chapters/steps are
what will be focused on in this report.
Summary
The first step, which is Chapter 1, titled “Where is God?”, speaks on the question of
where God was during the atrocities some have faced. Seeing the tragedies of war can make
some question if there is a God or even where He was in the moments of tragedy. Adsit talks
about how “your condition is due to the sinful actions of evil me – not God.”1 Adsit then covers
how God is not the enemy and that He is the only god who suffered like humanity. Closing out
the chapter Adsit talks about whether or not good can come out of suffering. Adsit reminds the
reader that God does exist and that He loves us.
The second step and chapter, titled “What Happened to Me?’, investigates the reason
there is physical and psychological wounds caused by combat. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD) is talked about quite a bit in this chapter. Adsit opens with information on what causes
PTSD, then continues the natural course of the physiology, psychology and theology of PTSD,
the lingering effects of PTSD that don’t just magically go away once the cause of the trauma has
ended. Adsit uses a very good comparison of walking on a frozen lake that begins to crack and
the person staying on high alert to prevent further cracking compared to your brain staying on
1 Christopher B Adsit,The Combat Trauma Healing Manual: Christ-Centered Solutions for
Combat Trauma (Newport News, Va.: Cru Military, 2015), 13.
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high alert after a traumatic event to prevent further trauma.2 Adsit then goes through the
remainder of the chapter talking about symptoms of PTSD, a little bit about Traumatic Brain
Injury, and closes out talking about “The Way Out”, which is some of the process to live with the
trauma and its effects.
Chapter three is titled “Where’s the Hospital” and is broken into two parts. The step
discusses how to construct a healing environment for the individual. It lists five elements that are
crucial to the healing environment. Those five elements are: The Holy Spirit, The Word of God,
Prayer, The Christian Community, and Your Mindset.3 The first two elements are covered in
Chapter 3A and the last three are covered in Chapter 3B. Adsit goes in depth with each of these
elements and explains in detail how to implement each element into the healing process.
Chapter four, titled “How Did I Change?”, helps the individual recall what happened in
the trauma. Adsit talks about how the traumatic events of war were pushed aside and must now
be taken care of. Whether these things need to be “thought about, judged, responded to, emoted
over, mourned, accepted or rejected, filed away properly”4, they were left alone to keep the
individual safe and alive. Adsit covers how to recall the memories and how to let the trauma out
for healing. Adsit refers to this as a long-delayed debriefing and works through the process of
sharing it in multiple ways.
Chapter five, “How Can I Stand It?”, talks about processing the loss and grief. Adsit
discusses how to understand grief, grief’s purpose, and how “normal” grief looks. Adsit goes
over how not to grieve and how to grieve and includes a grief cycle chart to visualize the
information. The final section in chapter five goes over some helpful things to do while in
2 Adsit, 26.
3 Ibid., 33.
4 Ibid., 52.
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mourning. These points and ideas are meant to help the grieving individual realize that it is ok to
grieve and to help them move through the grief cycle in a natural manner.
Each chapter/step is ended with a prayer for the reader to pray. Each prayer is intended to
keep the person in tune with God throughout the process of healing from the trauma. God is
always the focus in each step and Adsit does well at incorporating this throughout the steps.
Application
In my personal life, I have dealt with grief and loss just as others have. Some of the steps
in this book would have been helpful when I was going through this grief. I will say that if I
know of anyone who has had combat trauma or a recent loss, I will probably recommend this
book to aid them in their healing. Adsit does a good job of making the book relatable and easy to
read. He implements the steps and Bible truths well and it allows the “God part” to not seem
forced in his writing.
This book could be a great addition to anyone’s library that is going to be working with
combat vets or wants to understand how to help people with PTSD. The book focuses on combat
trauma, but I feel as though it could be utilized in multiple other situations as well. Most of the
steps even have enough information in them to use individually for specific instances. The step
on grief and mourning could be used in many scenarios where a person has lost someone.
Critical Thinking Questions
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Question 1: Could a person (non-Christian) utilize the information in this book without the Bible
integration and the “God talk”?
Question 2: Would it be possible to utilize individual steps in the book for different scenarios
where a person might not need all the steps?
Question 3: Is this book able to be used by someone who is not a combat veteran and whose
trauma is not from combat?
Question 4: Would you run the risk of pushing a person away from your help if you tried to
implement some of the steps that include the Bible in them?
Question 5: Do you run the risk of making the person feel that their trauma is not as big a deal
as they are making it when you try to use the part of Step 1 that their trauma produces good
results?5
5 Adsit, 17.
