Transcript
When I first began therapy,
I had a female civilian clinician.
I was very resistant and my opinion was that
"How could she understand?"
She had never been there, had no point of reference.
But over time I realized that
she didn't have to be there to care.
She may never understand
what I and others have been through.
But she's not there to understand,
she's there to teach a process.
How to rethink something, re-evaluate something.
A tool or a skill to practice and rehearsed,
as far as maybe a coping mechanism,
a relaxation technique, the way to move through
a moment or a trigger.
That's her job, her job's not to understand.
And that was a big turning moment for me,
not only understanding her role
or putting it in perspective,
but also understanding my role.
A key part of therapy, "treatment",
whatever you want to call it, psychotherapy,
(small introspecitve laugh) psychotherapy,
that's a long word that just means training, education.
Once I realized it was just training,
that's something I can deal with as a soldier.
I can handle training; I do a lot of training.
I train others
and just that shift in mindset from
broken, therapy, treatment,
kind of stigma, self-image, negative self-talk
that comes out of that "I'm broken"
to "Training. That's something I understand and can do"
makes a huge difference.
And any soldier, sailor, airman, marine
out there knows about training.
And you can all do training.