You have dedicated your life to protecting US citizens and our way of life and we call you a hero.  If you were a character in a movie, you would have that “happily ever after moment” and the credits would roll.  But life doesn’t just end at that moment.  At some point in time, you continue on with your life.  But how do you do that?  With what you’ve seen, done, been through, and been a part of, how do you just go home and make believe everything is the same? 

They say coming home is the hardest part of deployment and after 7 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, I agree.  Life here is chaos.  Civilians don’t get those jokes that made you part of a team.  They don’t understand anything you’ve been through even if they want to.  Friends and family may want you to talk but you don’t want to talk with anyone.  You don’t want to “put that on them,” they would probably judge you if they knew the truth, or they wouldn’t get it. Talking about your service can lead to people potentially asking uncomfortable questions or telling you you’re a hero when you just feel lost or unheroic. Why bother getting help? I signed up for this so I should be able to deal with the consequences.

Does any of this sound like you?

• You feel disconnected from your life

• You’re bored

• You’re lonely - you went from living in a big community and now it feels hard to connect

• Anger takes up a lot of your day to day, you find it hard to calm down even from the little things

• You’re avoiding things you used to enjoy because it might upset or remind you of painful things

But there are things you can do to make it easier and dare I say “be happy” again.  I understand your “symptoms” are the very skills that kept you alive and I respect that.  With some adjustments, they can serve you in this crazy civilian world too. Together we can work on reconnecting with the civilian part of your life: you weren’t born in the military and you can reconnect to other facets of your life. I can help you with that.

You might have an idea of what therapy is like, maybe from the few times you went and it didn’t work out how you would have liked. Maybe other people’s opinions of Veterans have colored how you see yourself getting help. You’re no stranger to hard work and to be honest, therapy can be hard work. I’m here for that, to walk you through the tough stuff while giving you options on how to build your life outside of therapy. What happens out of the office after therapy is just as important as what’s going on in the office during your session so you’ll have guidance there as well.

Are you nervous about things showing up on your medical records and affecting your career?  Just ask me about a self-pay option so your insurance company can’t even request your records.  Just make that call at 406-272-4545 so we can start releasing you from those things you wish you didn’t have to carry.  It really is possible.