Establishing a support network is not a radical or new idea for a Green Beret to comprehend. Yet, it’s the most overlooked and least valued idea when it comes to addressing our mental health issues within our Military. When a Soldier finds the courage to finally stop and ask for help, they are no longer facing the next set of battles with their team, squad, or platoon at their side. They are stepping boldly into the unknown by themselves.
If they’re lucky, they still have their family. For many however, it’s a long journey of self-reflection, healing, and treatment without support.
While I was dealing with my own Mental Health crisis, I realized that I couldn’t go through this journey alone. I needed support, I needed a community, more importantly I needed others like myself that I could trust and share what I was going through. I was fortunate enough to receive inpatient care at an all Military Treatment Center. While the care, staff, and treatment was absolutely amazing, the most vital aspect of the treatment was the peer to peer engagement and support from a community of survivors that were just like me. In my experience, nothing is more valuable than being able to engage in healing with others. This is exactly what REBOOT Recovery was designed to do. To provide service members and their families with the tools and community needed to overcome their trauma, and regain control of their lives.
From its inception REBOOT Recovery was founded with the sole purpose of providing the service member with the best support and the tools necessary to overcome their trauma. The program was created by Jenny and Evan Owens in 2011. As an occupational therapist at the Warrior Resiliency and Recovery Center at Fort Campbell Kentucky, Jenny saw first-hand, the true cost of service and the long lasting effects of PTSD and unresolved trauma. After seeing how much her patients were struggling with the trauma that they had yet to unpack, she and Evan decided that it was time to take matters into their own hands.
The program that they developed was REBOOT Recovery. A 12 week, faith based, and peer lead course that was developed to help not just the service member or veteran, but their loved ones too. Its designed to help individuals identify their trauma and finally heal. What started out in the living room of Jenny and Evan Owens home, quickly grew into a vast network of healing and support. Perhaps one of the most interesting and impressive aspects of REBOOT Recovery is the fact that they don’t just have one course or one option for healing.
REBOOT Recovery offers three courses for overcoming trauma. Trauma REBOOT, which is aimed at helping the average everyday person overcome their traumatic issues. REBOOT Combat Recovery for Military, focuses on our active duty and veteran community and their military specific trauma. Finally, there’s REBOOT First Responders, with the central focus of this course being our LEO, EMS, Fire fighter, Medical professionals, and corrections personnel. This course is aimed at helping them heal and resolve their specific trauma. The best part about REBOOT Recovery is that it can be found in every state and they even have an International Presence. REBOOT Recovery is an available resource to our service members in Camp Humphreys in South Korea, Camp Courtney in Okinawa Japan, and they’re even in Kyiv.
Making the choice to get help is hard, staying on the right path can oftentimes seem even harder. Habits and routines are hard to change, but if you do the work and stay engaged with a network it can be much, much easier. I was fortunate enough to find a like-minded friend and we developed our own support group in the local area. We also expanded and now offer a free support group meet up through Zoom. Simply go to www.securityhalt.com, click on events and sign up for our Thursday night support group. If you need something more, and are looking for a formal course to help you start on the journey to healing, please go to www.rebootrecovery.com and take your first steps to healing, surrounded not only by love and support but by others like you that can help guide you down the road to recovery.
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