I’ve experienced trauma as a former Green Beret and combat veteran. I went through my own struggle with depression and transition challenges. In fact, I almost took my own life six years ago. After two decades of service I came home to a world I didn’t recognize, inhabited by people who didn’t seem to know the first thing about me.  When I reached the lowest point in my struggles with transition, I turned to written story as a form of therapy. I realized that although the story was mine, I was talking about the frustrations of hundreds of thousands of transitioning military members.  I found story as a way to close those transition gaps and help heal the wounds of war.

“As I worked through my story of hitting the massive IED, I felt years of suppressed trauma start to unwind. I found that not only did sharing my scars help me work through my own pain, but it helped the people who were listening as well. Learning to share my stories in the service of others was a major turning point in my recovery. It gave me my life back. Now, I teach other veterans and their families the amazing power of storytelling. I no longer feel like I have to be a warrior or suffer in silence. I finally get to be myself.”

#CombatStorytelling