Our Mission

I was on the island of Corpus Christi when I met Steven.  He was still dealing with the death of his best friend, a veteran who took his own life.  For the rest of the week, I continued meeting veterans everywhere I went, who were mentally struggling with no end in sight.  One veteran told me about his trip to the VA for PTSD.  By the end of the appointment, he was handed a brown paper bag filled with multiple prescriptions and told the instructions were in the bag.  He spoke about how he felt as he walked out the door.  He sat down on a bench outside, looked down at the bag, and was overcome with fear and confusion.  He truly felt alone in that moment.  How could this be his future?  He knew what he was signing up for, the possiblity of death.  No one talked about what happened when you came back alive, but mentally broken.

As a therapist and trauma specialist, it broke my heart because I know there is a way to heal.  When I got back home to Dallas, I reached out to the PTSD department at the Dallas VA.  I inquired about the standard treatment protocol and how long it took to get started with treatment.  What I found was a system that did not understand the depth of destruction PTSD causes, and the waitlist was long.  There was no structure in place for healing the whole body, which requires more than just psychotherapy, but all of the medical departments are separate and not working together to heal our veterans.  After the brain experiences a traumatic event, new neural pathways are created in a desperate attempt to maintain normalcy.  The brain is trying to survive, but the trauma is keeping the mind in disarray.  Soon after, the body starts to be affected because the control center (i.e. the brain) is not functioning correctly.  It is stuck in the trauma.  By the time PTSD has set in, which is a minimum of 6 months after the traumatic event, the whole body is in disarray with each disrupted system affecting the other.  

I cannot know everything I know, and not help the very people that made it possible for me to live freely and independently.  I will first utilize a small group of first responders and veterans to show the advanced efficacy of an integrated treatment protocol targeting the physiological, neurological, and psychological problems.  After the pilot program, we will start training medical professionals across the country to treat PTSD for healing instead of managing symptoms. 

Healing is possible.