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.
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.
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.
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 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 ..
More than simply a joyful mood, happiness is a state of well-being that encompasses a sense purpose and satisfaction. A growing body of research also suggests that happiness can improve your physical health.
Is happiness a choice? Perhaps a noun, coupled with a few verbs? Your thoughts dictate your emotions and your mental state. Although at times it can seem totally unmanageable, you have complete control over your thoughts. What path do you choose to take with your thoughts? Do you want to choose happiness? Do you believe you CAN achieve happiness after Brain Injury? Our definition of happiness may be transformative, not what we had expected. As we have changed, so too has our perception of happiness. We all desire to love and be loved, feel the euphoria of happiness, and live a good life. The trouble is after a life changing event, we may not immediately be able to discern the road to happiness. Join Simon and I as we raise the lantern to bring light to the path.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ~Viktor E. Frankl
Randy Mortenson – Author, problem solver, and Professional Motivational Speaker around the world, excels at working with professionals to overcome hurdles. His vast experience includes careers in finance and energy, a variety of entrepreneurship experiences, with board of director roles in public, and private companies, as well as non-profits. He is passionate and committed to restoring sanity in conflicted workplaces where compulsive behaviors are dooming success, often mirroring issues effecting the community at large.
His success in being a carrier of important life messages, stems not only from his business experience, but also from grave personal tragedy that propel others to either recoil from life, or to seek how their experience can help others. Randy chose the latter, spreading messages of help, hope, faith for cultivating a better quality of life.
Randy offers solutions to the phrase “I don’t know how”, most recently with his presentations: Integrity in Leadership, What If, and Just Do Something. Randy is a long time member of “The Speakers Hub” with great success in turning challenged situations, into stories of strength and success. For more see: randymortensen.com
Debbie Hampton recovered from decades of unhealthy thinking and depression, a suicide attempt, and resulting brain injury to become an inspirational and educational writer on brain, psychological, emotional, and mental health issues for Huffington Post, MindBodyGreen, and more. On her website, Debbie shares how she rebuilt her brain and life to find joy and thrive. She wants you to know that you can do it too! You can quickly learn the steps to a better you in her book, Beat Depression And Anxiety By Changing Your Brain, with simple practices easy to implement in your daily life. Improve your brain, improve your life.
A trauma trigger is a psychological stimulus that prompts recall of a previous traumatic experience. The stimulus itself need not be frightening or traumatic and may be only indirectly or superficially reminiscent of an earlier traumatic incident, such as a scent, sight, sound or feeling. Things can be going well, when suddenly we shift emotionally into a darker place, seemingly without warning or control. A Brain Injury is a Traumatic Event. Some of us have been diagnosed with PTSD post injury, some heal to their threshold and are never bothered emotionally again. Some are a composite of both. At the time of the Anniversary of Our Injury (mine is today), triggers can elicit a variety of emotions. Some years are soley a celebration of gratitude and life, while others, “triggers” can take us back to the place that defined our future carved in isolation and pain. Join me and offer your experience, as I offer mine and some facts to define.
With 2018 in the books and the holidays now behind us, we look forward to the coming year. What will it look like? While we don’t have a crystal ball, we do have a hand in the outcomes. What do we change, what’s worth keeping? Call In, Open Mic .. What if anything, does 2019 signify to you?
