Note and Reflections about the Program

Speaker 1 00:00:02 Hi, everyone. Welcome to the TBI therapist podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Jen, where we explore the heart of brain injury.
Speaker 1 00:00:20 Hello and happy summer. I hope you are enjoying all that summer is bringing if you’re listening to me in the us or a climate like mine, I will say that because I always forget that there are people possibly in different climates, like down under, I see some of you, Australian listeners and New Zealand listeners down there. So I’m always curious about what the weather is like there. And so you could always send me a message and let me know what your weather is like. Cuz I get curious about stuff like that. This is probably my favorite time of year here in Maine and my PLS are blooming. So I’m very excited about just all the things that summer brings. So I wanted to just pop on and give you a little update on the podcast and what’s gonna be coming over the summer. So I’m gonna take a couple weeks off the program.
Speaker 1 00:01:12 Well, AF maybe another week after this time, this is gonna be airing. It’s the 4th of July in the us and that’s a pretty big holiday. So we like to party party and do fireworks. And so I’ll be taking some time off of recordings and I plan to come back in the summer with a summer series, I’m thinking on brain injury emotions. So if you have any questions about brain injury emotions, I’d love to answer them for you. Just send me a message, uh, via email or through my website. There’s a contact button@tbitherapist.com. If you had a contact, you can drop me a line there. So besides that, I’ve just really enjoyed doing the podcast and getting feedback from you. Or since I guess we started this in November, I say we, because I’m talking about you and I, but it’s just me. It’s just me behind the bat, Mike, right now, it’s just me answering messages.
Speaker 1 00:02:15 It’s me editing and doing all the things. So I’m going to take a couple weeks off for this summer, but I just wanted to share some insights as well about what I’m noticing from what I’m learning from people after brain injury. And one of the biggest things is that I’m seeing a theme with people just starting something new. So starting a new hobby, a new sport, like I had Erica Bagit on and she talked about running. I had, I had Fred Rutman who took up a new hobby of reading, like a religious text, which I know sometimes reading for people after brain injury doesn’t work, but sometimes it doesn’t like some people exercise. Isn’t the thing that is working for them. So running a marathon, wouldn’t be a thing for other people reading like some dense text, wouldn’t be a, a thing that they would do in their recovery.
Speaker 1 00:03:07 So what I know about a brain injury is that if I’ve seen one brain injury, I’ve seen one brain injury. So every person’s recovery is different and what they can do after their injury is different. So for example, that just that reading and running are kind of two very different things in the body, but that has been helpful for each one of those survivors individually. And it, for each one of them, it has been doing something that’s growing their brain in a new way. And I would say I’ve also had survivors that I’ve worked with over the years, startup painting again, one of my first guests on the podcast, which was the first episode, which you should listen to. Oh my gosh, I loved that interview. And she’s a wonderful keynote speaker here in the state of Maine. So check that episode out and her name is Carol star.
Speaker 1 00:04:02 So I’m going to start numbering my podcast episodes, cuz I realize, huh? If I tell you about a episode, you might wanna know like where to look. So that was the first, that’s the first episode. If you scroll the way down and I think I’m actually gonna re-air that one over the summer. So if you don’t have time, I think I’ll, re-air it in August, we’re gonna have an archival AR August. So I might do a poll and vote for your favorite episodes of the season. And I might do a new intro and, or not might just re-air those. So maybe those you haven’t listened to, you can catch up on in August, but I do wanna have some new content for you in July and I’m recording right now for the fall. So I’m working on recording some new episodes. So Carol star, she talked about actually she talked about, uh, paint by number.
Speaker 1 00:04:53 So for her doing anything cognitively challenging was a no go, but she could paint by number because there was a pattern, there was a routine she could do it. And so I really liked hearing from her about what worked for other survivors. I’ve known, they’ve just found other hobbies like drone flying, which you wouldn’t think would be a hobby, but it is it’s really cool. And so there are different things that people kind of get into and it becomes their thing where they’re, you know, using their brain in a different way. My guest last episode, Mac Lawson, episode 25, I numbered it <laugh> go me. She talked about comedy, so she does stand up comedy and she needs to remember her lines. So that has worked for her and helpful in her brain injury recovery. So for you survivor, if you can think about what is something that I can do, what are things that I can do right now that can be helpful to me is that for a lot of people it’s been making, doing recipes or building things, something where it’s a step by step and can really help you use your brain in a different way.
Speaker 1 00:06:11 So I just wanted to leave you with that reflection. And I think I’ll probably have a little compilation episode. I’d love to do that where I would gather some tips. My puppy is coming in,
Speaker 2 00:06:22 Sit down, sit,
Speaker 1 00:06:26 Okay. He AC <laugh>, my dog had his collar on. So I tried to get him to sit down there and I edited that portion out. So also I have a couple of coaching spots left for the summer. I just have two. So if anybody is interested in coaching after their brain injury, so what do I do? What does that even mean? Coaching after brain injury? So I can’t provide mental health treatment in a coaching capacity or practice psychology across state lines, right? If you’re in the us, but I can see someone for coaching anywhere in the world. And so what I’ve developed is my signature framework and I will talk about that on another episode, but I really go about recovery in a very kind of linear way. I see it in certain sections and our tasks are different. And I give you tools that I know have worked for survivors.
Speaker 1 00:07:19 I give you that and a lot of resources do this work on your own, or if you can’t find mental health support or the type of brain injury support in your community, that I could help you with that or assist you in finding the right help where you live. I find that there’s a lot that we can do on our own and with the kind of guidance gentle kind of holding around those things that people can do a lot. So if you are interested in learning more about my coaching offerings, you can go to TBI therapist.com/work with me. And there’s some information about my framework and I’ll probably put an episode about that as well. So at the time of this recording, it is also trauma awareness month here in the us. And I just that’s one of my trauma and brain injury is something I’m passionate about.
Speaker 1 00:08:13 It’s something I feel that is not often looked at together. And so one of the core things on this podcast will be discussing mental health, of course, but trauma and brain injury, because it is my area of expertise. Also, I’m gonna bring people on that are not in my wheelhouse that, you know, I hope to bring on some more professionals that I don’t know things about what they do and I wanna learn. And I think you would benefit from learning from that. So if there’s anyone in particular that you would love to have on the podcast, like a type of professional, say like a physiatrist or something like that, I can try to work on that and get that person on the program. So reach out to me. I’m at TBI therapist.com/contact and you can find all of my stuff there. Okay. Have a great one.
Speaker 3 00:09:10 Thank you for joining us today on the TBI therapist podcast, please visit TBI therapist.com for more information on brain injury, concussion and mental health. The information shared on today’s podcast is intended to provide information awareness and discussion on the topic. It is not clinical or medical advice. If you need mental health or medical advice, please seek a professional.