Month: December 2018

HAPPY BOXING DAY!! Kim and Simon discuss how all fared for the holidays, and look ahead at goals for the New Year! Join them as you rest after the Mad Dash of the Holidays, and prepare to move forward into a New Year, with new beginnings. Join them. 🙂

We’re here with you .. Great holidays, or not so much .. Call in and share your season, your heart, your feelings with Kim and Matt.

Dr. Chrisanne Gordon is a physician, author, filmmaker, innovator, and advocate for the successful reintegration of veterans with traumatic brain injury. Her book, Turn the Lights On! A Physician’s Personal Journey from the Darkness of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) to Hope, Healing, and Recovery, was published in January 2018, and documents her own TBI recovery and the research and resources available for TBI diagnosis and treatment.

She founded Gray Matter Innovations, a company focused on creating digiceutical solutions for the treatment of TBI, especially in military veterans.

Dr. Gordon was called to action, beginning with a part-time position at the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Columbus, Ohio, where she performed second-level screening for the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suspected with traumatic brain injuries. These experiences led to the production of a documentary to educate the military world about the signs and symptoms of the injury and to educate the civilian world about the difficulties with reintegration our heroes were experiencing as a result of their service.

The film, Operation Resurrection, was completed by Patton Productions in 2013, and demonstrates solutions for health care, education, and employment for our returning 450,000 veterans with TBI.She also founded the non-profit Resurrecting Lives Foundation (RLF), which follows through with the solutions set forth in the documentary, promoting collaborative efforts between military and VA resources, and the civilian community. RLF continues to serve as a voice for our heroes with TBI and the families who struggle to care for them.

Dr. Gordon was invited to discuss the necessity for civilian collaboration in the reintegration of our service personnel in many relevant venues. For more, see website: resurrectinglives.org

Dr. Tim Conway earned his PhD in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Neuropsychology from the University of Florida. His background as a clinical research scientist produced publications on dyslexia, learning disabilities, aphasia, alexia, fMRI, auditory working memory and various cognitive disorders. Dr. Conway is the Director of The Morris Center clinics in Florida, and The Morris Centre Trinidad and Tobago, which serve national and international clientele by providing a transdisciplinary team approach to the assessment and successful treatment of language, learning, motor, sensory, mood, anxiety, behavior and executive function difficulties or other Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Dr. Conway is the CEO of the Neuro-development of Words – NOW!® company, an online EdTech company that provides evidence-based and research-based online tutoring with highly-trained eTutors using the four NOW! Programs™ (reading/spelling, comprehension/memory, grammar/writing and mathematics). For more see: themorriscenter.com

There are a LOT of Holiday geared programs around this time of year. One that I’ve watched every year of my life (REALLY long time), is Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. I began to consider what messages that show was sending. Hmmm .. I guess I could relate to the underpinnings of a few of those differences from a young age. Worse since my brain injury when I couldn’t recognize myself, or communicate “the new me”.

One message is that people who are “different” are less desirable. They are judged, manipulated and controlled. They are lonely and isolated. Thus, holding a perception of not fitting in with the status quo. Even easier to feel like that issue is rubbed in this time of year. Before my brain injury, I took those differences as being “unique” or “out of the box” compared to most folk, as a good thing. That was a special, freeing feeling. There was nothing to measure up to, because being ME was enough. There were no comparisons, because there is none. We are each unique, not to be compelled to conform to someone else’s notion of “normal”. Was that a dream? Some place “different” took on a new meaning, that equates with something bad, ignored or frowned upon. Reasons for being banished from people or groups, realizing fears and insecurities once foreign to me. A challenge of self confidence. We all have our abominal snow men.

In the movie they face their fears and move forward, with all the pieces falling into place. The pain morphs into the happy ending everyone craves, as the screen goes blank. Negative minds were changed. Confidence was restored. The we changed from a bullying sort of dynamic, to a appreciative love and acceptance ever more. So is it only like that in the movie? Can real life mirror the art? Join us, share your take.