Melissa Wolak, MS, CCC-SLP connects soul with science to facilate sustainable change and alignment with health, career and relationships as a Holistic Mindset and Brain Health Coach, Speech-Language Pathologist and Speaker in Boulder, Colorado. She provides education and empowering strategies to support functional, healthy lifestyle changes, productivity and wellbeing with the goal to decrease the effects of chronic stress or injury and optimize the brain’s potential while preventing cognitive decline and disease. She has earned her Bachelors and Master’s Degrees in Communication Science Disorders, has 20+ years working with clients in the medical and wellness fields with additional training in the areas of Brain Health, Food as Medicine, Memory, Mindfulness, Anxiety and Stress Management. See: melissawolak.com and on YouTube: Connect Soul and Science with Melissa Wolak.
Caregiver Now the Survivor
Jeanie Collitte was a caregiver for the elderly at a local Senior Care Facility. On September 14, 2011, Jeanie was involved in a horrific car accident. She turned in front of Mack truck filled with gravel, and was drug eighty seven feet. Jeanie was almost pronounced dead on scene, but a witness detected a faint pulse. The First Responders used the jaws of life to cut her out, and she was life flighted to Akron City Hospital…
Life has not been the same since that day in 2011, when the one who had always helped and cared for others, turned out to be the one who now needs the care. Caregiver turned survivor. Join us to hear more about Jeanie’s role shift, and the new path she is on.
Simon Says: Awareness Month, or Life
Join Kim and Simon as we wind up Brain Injury Awareness Month. We survivors never really “wind up” Brain Injury Awareness Month, because for many of us the saga continues for life. We’ll be talking about what Awareness Month means to us, new beginnings after Brain Injury, and whatever may strike our fancy as hopefully we’re closer to Spring in the air .. Time of renewal, hope, and positive change.
Transitions Between Life and Death
A Nurse’s Education About Life and Death, Becki Hawkins started as a nurse’s aide in 1971, became a registered nurse, and worked in oncology, hospice, and home health/hospice care. She later became a hospice chaplin and hospice volunteer. She retired from nursing and lives with her husband in Oklahoma.
Becki is now a speaker who shares her experience with hospice and oncology professionals nationwide. She continues to write her column and is working on her second book. She still visits patients on occasion, as a friend. Reach her at: BeckilHawkins@gmail.com – Be SURE to view her YouTube – Search- Nurse Becki Hawkins Transitions.
Men Against Domestic Violence
Charles Venditte, is Co-Founder and Chair or the Men Against Domestic Violence Action Coalition (MADVAC). He is a retired Sergeant of the Omaha Police Department, where he supervised the Omaha Police Domestic Violence Investigations Unit from 1997-2013. He is currently an Investigator with the Douglas County Attorney’s Office.
Bobby Brumfield is Co-Founder and Governing Chair of the the Men Against Domestic Violence Action Coalition (MADVAC). He is a former Omaha Police Detective and currently works as a Partner with a Crisis Management Advisory Firm, specializing in Workplace Violence.
Nothing About Us Without Us? Really?
Where better to visit in Brain Injury Awareness Month than a Brain Injury Support Group? The “Coffee Club: Support Group Goes Wild! 🙂
A support group provides validation, advocacy, awareness, and of course .. Support. What are some elements that make a support group successful, and what things tear them apart?
What other organizations have helped survivors, and which have failed them? What other treatments and sources of information have helped, and what issues have hurt? Thought it a good idea to hear from survivors themselves, the issues and challenges faced – And the new doors that can open along the way.
Healthcare and The Big Kid and Basketball
With more than 35 years of experience leading and serving in healthcare, Thomas Dahlborg also volunteers for a wide range of non-profits and loves his time coaching young men’s basketball.
In 2019 he expects to publish his healthcare book, From Heart to Head and Back Again … a journey through the healthcare system,about his experiences as both a patient who was told he would never work again and get in line for a heart transplant … and as a health leader with a mission to fix the brokenness of healthcare system.
Tom cares deeply about positioning individuals, teams, and communities to achieve their mission while living their values and cherishes the opportunity to engage in meaningful and impactful ways.
He is the author of the new book, The Big Kid and Basketball … and the lessons he taught his Father & Coach — based primarily on his days coaching recreational basketball. See: thebigkidandbasketball.wordpress.com
Tom co-authored the paper, Partnering with Parents and Families to Provide Safer Care: Seeing and Achieving Safer Care through the Lens of Patients and Families with Dale Ann Micalizzi and Hannah Zhu, MD.
TBI That Led to Epilepsy and Moving Forward
Meg Busing knows that everything can change in an instant. After emerging from a coma with a traumatic brain injury that would lead to a decade long battle with intractable epilepsy, she discovered that the world does not always understand invisible challenges. However, nothing has stopped her from boldly pursuing her dreams. As founder and Executive Director of the Midwest YouCan Foundation, Meg has created Camp YouCan-a unique opportunity for kids and young adults with Epilepsy to come together to see all that they CAN do. See: midwestyoucan.org for more information, and Meg’s TedX Talk.
Veteran’s Using HBOT for Results Not Imagined
Gordon Brown is founder of nonprofit Team Veteran Foundation, Inc. and Team Veteran LLC. He served in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War 1972-1980. He served aboard the aircraft carriers USS Oriskany CVA/CV-34 and USS Ranger CV- 61. He served in Guam in the mid 1970’s and worked with several government agencies to investigate and stop a major drug smuggling operation, moving heroin from Thailand through Guam bound for the U.S. Transferred to the Naval Drug Rehabilitation Center (NDRC) at NAS Miramar, he was promoted to Petty Officer 1st Class. MM1 Brown was a Senior Counselor, Suicide Prevention Officer, Military Liaison Officer for Narcotics Anonymous, initiating the therapy program that eventually became the standard core-therapy for the entire Naval Drug Rehabilitation programs worldwide. He proudly served in the U.S. Merchant Marines as an Engineering Officer from 1981-1993 and left the USNR as a LCDR. He’s a service-connected disabled veteran and also experienced a near fatal TBI affording him a unique perspective on the challenges that face our Veterans and their families associated with this injury. See: tvfaz.org
Dr Maria in the House Spreading the Joy
Dr Maria Romanas returns to expand on our series pertaining to Relational Skills. We have discussed self love, intimacy and this time, how to create and spread the love around! Of course all relational skills are pivotal, and something we should be reviewing, expanding and revisiting with frequency. Relationships of all kinds are challenging enough, especially in this time of conflict and the notable spread of hate.
Dr Maria is a staff pathologist, who suffered a severe TBI in 1984 that changed the course of both her professional and personal life. Eventually she attended an intensive holistic cognitive rehabilitation program (HCR) that improved her relational skills and the quality of her relationships. Listen how ..