Targeted Search | Page 2

Common Barriers Encountered When Seeking Mental Health Services

There are many barriers that people encounter when seeking mental health support from outside sources. Here are examples of what the most common barriers sound like and some recommended courses of action you can take to start moving past whatever is standing in your way.

What to Expect at Your Therapy Appointment

You made an appointment to see a therapist. Now what?

The Comparison Trap

The Comparison Trap Caregiving After Brain Injury.jpg

We admit, despite celebrating Steven’s recovery, we did fall into the dismal comparison trap. "Why is Steven’s rehab roommate already walking?" "His accident was as severe as Steven’s; how did he escape a craniectomy and the helmet?" "How did she escape the epilepsy curse?"

Kelly Catlin, Concussion, and Suicide

Kelly Catlin, Concussion, and Suicide.jpg

The consequences of mild traumatic brain injury turn worlds upside down. Headache, double vision, and balance difficulties are the most obvious problems, but less visible symptoms can be the most insidious and difficult to manage.

The Fierce Heart of Hope

Hope is complicated. It represents believing something can improve, despite the current state of circumstances. It also means having the courage to believe when things appear hopeless. I have become well acquainted with the infinite value of hope, but also the tightrope on which it teeters.

Is There a Simple Solution to a Complicated Problem?

Though solutions come in unexpected places, I never expected my local Target store to hold to key to freedom from one of my biggest challenges since my brain injury – living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Chrysalis: Reinventing A New Narrative for Life after TBI

Chrysalis reinventing a new narrative for life after TBI.jpg

Less than a year after the Cosmopolitan magazine article was published, a car crash derailed my prospects in documentary film. The auto wreck left me with a brain injury and redefined what it meant to truly start over. Like two sides of the same coin, suddenly there was life before TBI and life after TBI.

How Do I Reach Out to a Professional to Start Getting Treatment for My Mental Health?

Kristin Gwin, a Social Worker at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center understands that getting help can be an intimidating process. She offers advice on how to get started by letting a professional know you want help.

A Good Job Done Well: Conquering Brain Injury One Step at a Time

Conquering Brain Injury One Step at a Time.jpg

For the past 14 years, I’ve been living a reasonably productive life with a brain injury. All things considered, I’ve done pretty well except for one big stumbling block.

What Can I Expect at My First Mental Health Appointment?

You’ve reached out for help, you’ve found the right provider, now Kristin Gwin from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center shares what to expect at your first appointment.

How Do I Choose the Right Mental Health Provider for Me?

Once you’ve taken that first step to get help, the next step is to find the right provider. Here's how to determine when a provider is a good fit.

Can Meditation Help After Brain Injury?

Meditation may hold some benefits for those with TBI, but currently there is not enough research on the ability of those affected by TBI to meditate or the impact of meditation on those with TBI, and the few published studies report different results, so its effectiveness remains to be proven.

What You Need to Know about Battlefield Acupuncture (BFA)

Did you know the military uses auricular acupuncture? Watch CAPT Scott Cota discuss some common questions about battlefield acupuncture.

Acupuncture for Brain Injury: Ancient technique complements modern medicine

Acupuncture can be highly effective in treating a wide range symptoms associated with traumatic brain injuries, such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, and headaches.

Musical Healing for TBI and PTSD

Music therapy is an evidence-based therapeutic application for the treatment of brain and psychological injuries such as TBI and PTSD. Substantial scientific evidence supports how and why music therapy works, but it also can be understood intuitively.

Art Therapy for TBI

Watch how art therapy can provide a non-verbal opportunity to process things that may be uncomfortable to put into words.

The Mysteries of CTE

Dr. Jim Kelly on what we know and don't know about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

What Do I Do If I Think I Have Sustained a Concussion?

Do I need to go to the ER? Should I make an appointment to be seen by my doctor?

2,259 Days and Counting

Caregiving is hard. The lack of support for adults with brain injury (in our area) is ridiculous. I find myself wanting to scream when people ask, "Don't they have services for that?”

Therapeutic Lying After Brain Injury

Some may question the morality of lying. As I moved deeper into my new role as a caregiver, I reached out to learn as much as I could about caring for someone with mom’s type of brain injury. My mistruths are categorized as Therapeutic Lying.

The Long Haul

It’s been six and a half years since I began this brain injury journey. Or, to compute, 2,372 days, 56,928 hours, 3,415,680 minutes. As I think back, I take pride in each of those days (the bad ones included), remembering too vividly a time in which I was convinced we couldn’t make it at all.

The CTE Diaries: The Life and Death of a High School Football Player

The CTE Diaries The Life and Death of a High School Football Player.jpg

Zac Easter knew what was happening to him. So he decided to write it all down—to let the world know what football had done to him, what he’d done to his body and his brain for the game he loved. And then he shot himself.

Book Review: Love You Hard by Abby Maslin

BOOK REVIEW: Love You Hard: A Memoir of Marriage, Brain Injury, and Reinventing Love

This book packs a lot of wisdom. You’ll learn about aphasia; you’ll understand ambiguous loss; you’ll follow Abby down dark hallways and into sunlit rooms and learn what it means to own a life built on raw truth.

The Complexity of Ambiguous Loss

The emotional equivalent of being caught in the undertow came earlier this week. I was scrolling through old photos, reconnecting to moments captured in time. I found my mind trapped in the tumultuous waters of ambiguous grief, fighting my way to the surface.

Do Better Science to Silence Critics

Dr. Ann McKee shares plans for upcoming studies that will silence critics once and for all.