Tag: trauma

EOLPodcast

Ep. 324 End-of-Life Care for Veterans with Qwynn Galloway-Salazar

kwyattmd

Learn how to meet the unique needs of veterans and their families as they face the end of life.

My guest Qwynn Galloway-Salazar is a behavioral health professional and end-of-life doula who, as an Army veteran herself, specializes in the needs of veterans and their families facing end-of-life challenges. She discusses her work strengthening behavioral health systems for SAMHSA’s Service Member, Veterans, and Their Families Technical Assistance Center and her work with an initiative to reduce the incidence of suicide in the military and veteran population. She is passionate about teaching end-of-life professionals to provide sensitive, trauma-informed care to their patients who are veterans. Learn more at her website:

www.intheirhonor.info

Listen here:

This episode includes:

  • How Qwynn was inspired to become an end-of-life doula specializing in veteran care
  • The unique needs of veterans who are facing the end of life
  • Questions to ask patients who are veterans
    • Did you serve in the armed forces? or a loved one close to you?
    • Which conflict?
    • Which branch of service?
    • Combat or non-combat?
  • The importance of screening for mental health issues in veterans receiving care
  • How the end-of-life needs of women veterans differ from those of men
  • How stoicism in military culture can interfere with pain and symptom management at the end of life
  • Many veterans experience shame, isolation, moral injury and survivor’s guilt that they have difficulty talking about
  • The importance of recruiting veterans of all ages as volunteers in hospice
  • The family members of veterans also have a need to tell their stories and be heard
  • The value of presence and soul-to-soul heartwork when working with dying veterans
  • Tips for practicing trauma-informed care with patients who are veterans
  • Suicide prevention work for veterans that is currently taking place

Links mentioned in this episode:

If you enjoy this content please share it with others and consider leaving a review on iTunes. Thanks again to all supporters on my page at Patreon.com/eolu! Your contributions make all the difference.

EOLPodcast

Ep. 302 Life Centered Therapy for Trauma, Grief and Dying with Andrew Hahn PsyD

kwyattmd

Learn new tools for dealing with the pain of trauma, loss and grief through an innovative therapy process.

My guest Andrew Hahn is a psychologist who has long sought to help people live more contented and healthier lives by blending Eastern and alternative philosophies with his traditional training. He developed Life Centered Therapy based on research on violence and loss trauma, kinesiology, and energy psychology in addition to Buddhist and Eastern psychology. He shares how he works with people dealing with trauma, grief and the dying process. Learn more at his website:

www.lifecenteredtherapy.com

Listen here:

This episode includes:

  • What is Life Centered Therapy (LCT)
  • Trauma is basically something that happens in life that can’t be handled
  • Healing is to help others master what they haven’t been able to handle in the past
  • Why medications alone are not sufficient for helping people heal trauma
  • How LCT differs from traditional psychotherapy
  • How physical symptoms can be clues to something deeper going on
  • How muscle testing (kinesiology) is a communication method for the soul
  • Why allowing ourselves to grieve is the way out of suffering
  • We need to feel the pain itself rather than feeling pain about the pain
  • The core experience of loss is inner emptiness
  • We have to grow to certain stages of development before we can fully handle the traumas of life
  • Why we shouldn’t deny our traumatic experiences but also shouldn’t identify with them – we simply have to be with our emotions about them

Life is trying to evolve through us by creating more love … and we’re trying to evolve by realizing who we really are, which is unity.

Andrew Hahn PsyD

Links mentioned in this episode:

If you enjoy this content please share it with others and consider leaving a review on iTunes! Thanks again to all supporters on my page at Patreon.com/eolu! Your contributions make all the difference!

End of Life, EOLPodcast, Spirituality

BONUS 5: Love Over Fear – Stories for Precarious Times

kwyattmd

Welcome to this weekly bonus series of brief stories designed to touch your heart and offer you comfort, joy, laughter, and inspiration as we face uncertain times together! Remember always to choose LOVE over fear!

Story 5: The Power of Silence

The Power of Silence

Featured Poem:

A-Blessing-for-One-Who-is-ExhaustedDownload

by John O’Donohue

When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,
Time takes on the strain until it breaks;
Then all the unattended stress falls in
On the mind like an endless, increasing weight,
The light in the mind becomes dim.
Things you could take in your stride before
Now become laborsome events of will.
Weariness invades your spirit.
Gravity begins falling inside you,
Dragging down every bone.
The tide you never valued has gone out.
And you are marooned on unsure ground.
Something within you has closed down;
And you cannot push yourself back to life.
You have been forced to enter empty time.
The desire that drove you has relinquished.
There is nothing else to do now but rest
And patiently learn to receive the self
You have forsaken for the race of days.
At first your thinking will darken
And sadness take over like listless weather.
The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.
You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.
Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.
Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.
Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself.
Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.
Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.

EOLPodcast, Grief, Spirituality, Tragedy

Ep. 93 Treating the Trauma of War: Psychiatry Meets Shamanism with Jeff Black MD

kwyattmd

Find out how a psychiatrist is successfully helping veterans with unhealed trauma by using alternative practices.

 

PodcastTrauma

ALBlackcropped In this episode I am featuring an interview from the Death & Afterlife Summit with Dr. Jeff Black, a psychiatrist who uses unconventional methods to successfully treat trauma in veterans. A few clips of this interview were featured in the Suicide Series and I wanted to share the entire interview with you.

 

As a follow-up to the Suicide Series I want to further address the issue of suicide in veterans: at this time 22 veterans take their own lives every day. This statistic is a heartbreaking tragedy and it’s time we work hard to help heal the emotional and spiritual burden that veterans bring home from war. Dr. Black and others describe the aftermath of trauma as “soul loss” and he uses shamanic rituals to help his patients recover the pieces of their souls that have been taken away by war.

In Episode 92 I performed a Fire Ceremony for my father to heal his wounds and to release my grief. This was recommended to me by Dr. Black and during the ceremony I felt the power of ritual to transform our losses into grace. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Dr. Jeff Black.

Tune in every Monday for a new episode! Until the next time …

Face Your Fears.                       BE Ready.                      Love Your Life.

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