While not a full blog post, I thought that I’d share a recent podcast that I had the opportunity to participate in. Dr. Chris Quarto, a Counseling Psychologist in Tennessee, recently interviewed me about veteran and veteran family mental health. Follow that link or click on the picture above! The Read more…
There are some movies that are helpful when trying to explain combat and the impact of experiencing combat to those who haven’t been there. I’m not talking about Hollywood, although I do have a love-hate relationship with war movies. I don’t have the experience of Vietnam, but something tells me Read more…
This post was originally posted as part of the American Counseling Association Blog Project. Original post can be located HERE Consider what it was like when you first realized that you were part of something bigger than yourself. Maybe it was a team in school, or arriving for your first day Read more…
This post was originally posted as part of the American Counseling Association Blog Project. Original post can be located HERE In a continued effort to expand the topic of veteran mental health beyond PTSD and TBI, I thought that I’d give a deeper look into the mindset of the former military Read more…
Veterans are good at blowing stuff up. For most veterans, blowing stuff up is a skill that is taught in basic training. How to throw a grenade. How to place a Claymore mine. How to fire an AT4, a shoulder-mounted rocket. For some veterans, their occupational specialty taught them how Read more…
Our country can’t have a discussion about veteran mental health without talking about the extreme outcome of failure to address it: veteran suicide. On August 3rd, 2016, the Department of Veterans Affairs released a 45-page summary of a study by the Office of Suicide Prevention, titled Suicide Among Veterans and Read more…
This post was originally posted as part of the American Counseling Association Blog Project. Original post can be located HERE As part of this series of articles that explores the psychological impact of a veteran’s military service that goes beyond PTSD and TBI, the concept of Learned Helplessness is a significant factor Read more…
This post was originally posted as part of the American Counseling Association Blog Project. Original post can be located HERE In a previous post, I discussed how veterans experience more challenges than just PTSD and TBI, the primary conditions that most community members are aware of. In order to provide some deeper Read more…
“Man, you just don’t know. A part of me died in that city. I walked in there thinking I was Captain America, and walked out feeling like Doctor Doom.” The changes that happen in people can be stark and startling. Have you ever met someone after a long absence, and Read more…
Have you ever had one of those moments, somewhere between two and four in the morning, when your eyes spring open and you find yourself staring at the ceiling, hoping that you can get back to sleep but knowing that it’s probably not going to happen? Then the thoughts start to Read more…