Finding Your Future Again: Brain Injury, Cognitive Training, and Hope with Herbert Heagh-Avritt

Welcome to Brain Health and Healing. I'm Sandra

Lee. This show is for people living with head injuries and

the families and supporters who love them. If you are ready to

reclaim your life, identity, and dreams for the future, you are

in the right place. Welcome, everybody, to Brain Health and

Receiving Adversity as Gifts. I have a really wonderful

guest on with me today. He does similar work to what I do, and

so I'm really loving talking with him about how he does it,

how I do it, and how it's a little bit different. So,

welcome Herbert Hayvert. He's a cognitive brain training coach,

speaker, and traumatic brain injury survivor who is

passionate about helping people strengthen the way their brains

process information. He describes himself as a personal

trainer for your brain, working with adults who want to think

more clearly, overcome brain fog, strengthen executive

function, and perform at a higher level, he also is working

with people whose brains process information differently,

including many with ADHD, autism, and acquired brain

injuries, helping them build stronger cognitive skills and

greater confidence. Welcome, Herbert.

Herbert Heagh-Avritt: Thank you, Sandra. It is a pleasure to be

here today. Thank you so much for inviting me.

Yes. So Herbert is also wonderful to have here on

Brain Health and Healing because he has had multiple brain

injuries himself, and the process of recovering from that

and regaining his capacities is something that he loves sharing.

So, Herbert, why don't you tell us some stories?

Herbert Heagh-Avritt: All right. Well, it kind of started many

years ago. I was I was an avid snowboarder, and the first time

I went snowboarding was right after college, and I came home

with a concussion and whiplash, but I was so in love with the

sport and what I I bought all of my snowboarding gear, boots,

boards, bindings, everything, and and just started living on

the mountain. And over the years, I had several

concussions, and then about 15 years ago, I had a really,

really bad crash, and it took me a really, really long time to

hit the ground. And so I caught a back edge going really, really

fast down a steep hill. And you know, I had time to think. Like,

you know, I heard that like people who like drunk drivers

are typically survive their crash because they're so

relaxed. I was like, maybe if I relax really hard, and so I like

physically like relaxed all my body, and it still knocked me

out. I don't remember coming to a stop. I just remember sudden

pain, and then it was quiet, and then I was lying still. But I

hurt my shoulder and I hurt my hip, and and so I was really

going after that stuff with the doctors. And but then it's like

I started losing my emotional control. I started yelling at my

employees, which is very very not like me. There was a lot of

things that I used to be able to do in my business that stopped

working. So I would sit down to do what I do my work, and I just

it just stopped. It didn't it didn't happen, and I thought I

was going crazy. My life got really really dark. I got really

really depressed. I ended up losing my business, and I had to

fire my six employees. I was and at just as I was losing the last

of my money, I ended up at at an Aiman clinic, and I had my brain

scan, and it showed a tremendous amount of damage. When the

doctor actually was reviewing my file, he came out and said,

"Wow, you're remarkably well put together for as much brain

damage as you have," and that almost ended me. That that sent

me even darker down the spiral to where it's like, because I

couldn't control myself, I couldn't stop saying stuff. When

people would get mad at me, I would I would like burst out and

I would, you know, say stuff that was inappropriate. And so I

I made my life really small. It got really dark, and I didn't

want to be alive anymore.

Wow! So, did you receive any medical treatment?

Herbert Heagh-Avritt: Yeah, actually, I did. I went to a lot

of doctors, but they just wanted to give me a different pill.

They wanted to put me on antidepressants. One doctor

like, "Oh, you just need more vitamin D because it's a

seasonal thing, and you're not getting enough sunlight." And

it's like I know better than that, and so I actually, like I

said, was running out of money at that point. So I started

doing stuff for myself, and I started looking online and doing

research. And there was a lot of videos about how psychedelics,

like you're one and done. If you're depressed, and you can

take a large dose of psychedelics and be. Okay, so I

did, and it didn't work. And so for three years, I did more and

more and more in different kinds, trying to figure out what

was going on with me. And it actually made it worse. I got

more and more depressed because I would have these amazing

experiences and things happen, but I still wasn't getting my

life back together, and then about four years ago, I ended up

down in Mexico, and I did ibogaine. And during the

ibogaine experience, my brain was defragmented. I came out of

that ready to live again, ready to be alive, and I started

rebuilding my life, but even as I started rebuilding my life,

and I was ready to do all of that stuff, there were still

things that weren't working. And so, no matter how hard I tried,

I got different coaches. I'd got mindset coaches, and I would

like push that button as like, okay, go, and I would like try

and start to do the work, and I would just hit these walls or

these holes, and I would start, and just everything would go

away. And no matter what I did, it just wasn't all coming into

focus. It wasn't working. My wife and I started a business

during that time, and I became like the inspiration. And we we

have a podcast, and I could do that, but the work that I needed

to do for myself wasn't happening. And then at the

beginning of this year, actually, I met John Kennedy,

who teaches the Kennedy Method and Combat Brain Training. He

was on our podcast, and I went through his process. And just

after the sample session, I could feel things changing in my

brain. It wasn't mindset work. It wasn't games like you know.

You see the Mahon, the Majong commercial to say, "Oh, if you

do this, it fixes your brain, makes you smarter." I was really

good at those games, but it wasn't connecting the things

that needed connecting. And after I worked with John Kennedy

for one session, like I'm in, I'm all in. I got certified. I

went through this whole process, and as I went through the

process, I started reconnecting those things, and I was able to

start regaining some of my functionality. Now I have hurt

myself a lot, so I have to keep doing this a lot, or I I do it a

lot, and because it's like I got really damaged, so it it's

taking me quite a lot of work, but as I continue to do the

exercises and continue to do the work, I reconnect more and more

of my brain, and I'm able to do more of the things that I had

lost. I got my emotional back. I got my my ability to to plan

back. I I finally see myself in the future. So for a long time,

every time I looked into the future, I saw a beautiful

future. But if ever I put me into the picture, it fell apart

and got really bad. So, so this gave me back my future. It gave

me back my life, and it made my past more of a lesson for how I

can help people going forward instead of being a victim to

what happened on the mountain.

So, for those of you who have been listening to me

here on Brain Health and Healing, talking about the

neuroplasticity exercise that I use, what Herbert is talking

about is what I have been doing, and this is part of why I have

been getting the results that I have been getting with my

clients. So, hearing him talk about the transformation that

has occurred through bringing this in, I am so happy for you,

Herbert, and happy that you are able to work with other people

with this same method, so who is it you're working with now, and

how are you helping them?

Herbert Heagh-Avritt: I I can actually work with anybody with

a brain. However, my passion, my avatar, that when I'm on stage

and the people that I'm talking to right now are traumatic brain

injury survivors who who hurt themselves, and even after years

of working on it and doing different things, there are

still aspects of what they used to do that didn't that don't

work. That you know that they they get into the coaching and

it's like oh I can do this and then they go do it and it's just

gone. And sometimes it works and then it's gone and then it's

kind of there. So it would be like oh look I can do it. I can.

I'm here. I'm back. Yay! And then I would start. And then the

next day I couldn't do it anymore. And it was it was

driving me nuts. And so that again put me into a really deep

depression. And I and through the psychedelic work, I also

found a lot of people that were like me that even with the

psychedelics, and even though it could increase your wanting to

live and it increased your neuroplasticity, it didn't

reconnect though those parts of my brain that weren't working.

And so I want to help people out of that darkness, out of that

pain, out of that feeling like they're going crazy and that

they're broken. Because you're not broken, the information was

still all in there. I was just separated from it. And once I

started doing these these exercises and started doing the

brain training, then I started creating new pathways back to

it. And and then it's like magically, it's like oh, I can

do this again. Now there's still there's still pockets that

aren't working. There's still a lot that I need to keep doing

going forward. But I'm encouraged because every time I

do this, more and more reconnects, and I just keep

getting better and better.

Amazing, amazing, amazing!

Herbert Heagh-Avritt: Thank you.

So for those of you in the audience, if you are

interested, Herbert's gift is a sample session, like he just was

talking about. So, the contact information for him and the link

for being able to do that with him is going to be in the show

notes. So, what other message do you have for people?

Herbert Heagh-Avritt: You know, one of one of my favorite

analogies that I give with my clients is it's like walking

across a field, an empty field, right? So, if if someone when

they build a new apartment complex, and if and there's like

fields around it, and there's sidewalks to go around. The kids

are going to find a shortcut, and they're going to walk across

that field. And the first couple times, it's like you'll see

where the grass is laid down, and then as more and more people

walk across it, it turns into like a little narrow track. And

then as more and more people walk across it, it gets a little

wider. And then when it gets wet, and you walk off of the

track, and then you start you start making it wider and wider.

And I say that's how this brain training works. What you're

doing is you are walking across that field, and you are creating

a new pathway. And the amazing thing about this work is when

you get it right, and you make and you don't make any mistakes

in the in the exercise, it's like staying right in the path.

But every time you make a mistake while you're going

through it, it's like stepping off of the path, and it makes it

wider. So not only does getting it right is good for you, but

the mistakes that you make are actually even probably more

important than getting it right, and through that process, that

starts going out in your life. So when you make a mistake and

you're out in you're doing your regular stuff, and you make a

mistake, it's like, oh, that's a mistake. What's the next thing

to do right? So instead of dwelling on the mistake and

looking back and beating yourself up for what you did

wrong or not doing it right, it's like, okay, well, how do I

get back in the path? How do I go back to being right? How do

do I need to slow down a little bit? Do I need to speed up a

little bit? What do I do to get back to the next appropriate

thing I need to do? And that was one. That's a big, big, huge

thing that most people have trouble with. And so that's one

of the most amazing things, and and so instead of taking the

long way around, you shortcut and you create more direct paths

to where you need to be instead of wandering around through the

brain damage trying to get to the next thing. And so it helped

me capture my thoughts in in the biblical way, capture my

thoughts and turn them over to Christ, so it creates the

separation between your your monkey mind and your working

mind, and so all of those all of these things are happening all

at the same time. And as you're going through your day, it's

like, oh, this I feel that, and now I know how that's happening,

and oh, this I can do that better now, and you know, four

years ago, where I am now, I I couldn't even begin to tell you

how amazing it is. Now, three years ago, two years ago, it's

like I am such a different person now. Now I'm starting a

new business. I have clients. I am growing. I am prospering. I'm

happy. I'm smiling. I'm here talking about this stuff, and

you know, a couple years ago, this this wasn't even possible,

even with all the work I was doing. So, what I really want to

tell people is is no matter where you are, it can get

better. If you're in that darkness, you can come back out

of that and build yourself a life back. You don't have to

feel broken anymore, and you don't have to be depressed

anymore. And all of these tools, while it's it's such a simple

exercise, it is still profoundly deep, and it can make such a

difference in your life that that you can rebuild it. You

don't have to to stay in that darkness.

Absolutely, it's amazing. So, what I have found

when talking with people who have had brain injuries is. That

very often they have lost hope. They are so down in in in the

dumps, you know, feeling like they're broken, and they don't

think that recovery is possible for them. And one of the things

I love about the combat brain training is that it makes it

easier to show them an improvement. Something changed

from the beginning of the session to the end of the

session, or even from the beginning of a short demo to the

end of the short demo, so that they start as like, "Oh, it is

possible for me to change. It is possible for me to, oh,

recover," and so they start believing a little bit that they

can actually get better. And without that belief, without

that hope, they're not going to get better. And so that's

something that is really critical to get people over from

that, you know, hopeless into actually progressing.

Herbert Heagh-Avritt: Yeah, another amazing thing about it

is even after one session, the changes are permanent. The way I

describe it is if your brain level is here and you do a

session and you're here, then even if you don't ever do

another one in 10 years, if your brain goes down, you're still

that much above where you would have been. So, if you're doing

the brain training and you make it way up here, it's permanent.

And even again, as you age, you you do slowly slip, and if it

goes down, you're still that much more above where you would

have been had you not done these exercises. So, it's not it's not

a like you go to the gym and you work out and then you stop and

the muscles go away. This is if you if you do these processes,

you are creating new pathways in your brain. And once the once

the brain cells fire together and wire together, then you have

access to that path from then on. It's not something that if

you if you step away from it for a long time that it goes away.

When you come back and you do more, you pick up right where

you left off, and you take it to the next level. So each each up

level is a permanent up level,

which is really wonderful because unlike a lot

of things where you make progress and then you revert,

and then you make progress and you revert, so it's like saying

you've created a new nerve connection, a new synapse, a new

possibility that you will continue to have access to. So

yes, thank you for that. So I have an interesting question for

you, Herbert. When you imagine like things going really well in

the future, like where you're going, what do you see yourself

doing, and what do you see happening?

Herbert Heagh-Avritt: Well, so this is a new a new phenomenon

for me because up until the beginning of this year, I didn't

have a future. That's just the easiest way I I can explain it

because I see amazing things happening around the world right

now. I am so thrilled with with the developments that are

happening in the way people are are being given back their own

power. But whenever, like I said, whenever I put myself into

that position, I couldn't see it. Now, where I was four years

ago to where I am now is an absolute miracle. My worst day

today was a is a dream come true from where I was four years ago.

So, looking forward to where I am four years from now, I can't

begin to imagine how amazing that's going to be if I keep if

I keep progressing like it is. I'm building a clientele. I'm

coming. We just came out of our bankruptcy, and so we are

rebuilding our finances and our life, and so as this continues

to to expand, it's like we have plans to travel. I have plans to

bring this to more people. I'm going to be speaking about it

more and and helping more people. I'm going to be trying

to create some sort of a platform where more people can

come in and maybe get some help on their own, and then when they

need actual individual coaching, I'll be able to step in and help

that. So I'm I'm trying to find ways to be able to help more

than one at a time or or a couple at a time. I want to be

able to bring people in and let them experience this and realize

its potential and just get more and more people help and help

again because that darkness, waking up every day not wanting

to be alive, getting on a plane hoping the plane crashes so that

you're not responsible for for taking yourself out, driving in

a car hoping somebody crosses the lane and hits you. That.

That is that is a terrible way to live your life every day, and

see, I still even feel that, and I feel it, and I don't, I hate

to be those guys that always cry about their past because that

was preparation. That was God setting me up to be able to help

more people who are in my situation because I met a lot of

people who are who are in this place along the way, and and we

we didn't have a lot of ways to help each other. And now, when I

run into these people, it's like you know what, I can help you. I

can I can help you get better. I can make things easier for you

in your life. And even if you don't ever get back to where you

were, you could rebuild your capacity and move forward and

create a life that's better than where you are.

Fabulous! So, for those of you who want to connect

with Herbert, his contact information and the link for

signing up for that session with him will be in the show notes.

So, what is the last thing that you want people to remember?

Herbert Heagh-Avritt: That it's not over. That no matter where

you are, even if you feel like you're done, it's like stand up,

take one more step. Some some days I could all I could do is

stand up, and some days I could like take just a little step,

and some days I could move a little more. But take a step;

it's not over. If you're breathing, if you're awake, if

you're listening to this, then there is hope, and it can get

better. And I can help. I can help you take a couple of those

steps.

Thank God for that. Thank you for being on Brain

Health and Healing, Herbert, and thank you, audience, for

listening today. Think about what you can take home as gems

from what he shared. Even if you don't contact him, what can you

learn? What can you benefit from in your day today through

listening today? Thank you.

Herbert Heagh-Avritt: Yes, I would like to thank you for

having me on your show too. It is a pleasure, and I know that

again we do similar things. So thank you for for doing it as

well. You're a hero to so many people who who have lost hope,

and now you give them that hope back, and and you know so many

people just talk about the problems, and you're out making

a difference, and so so you are a hero in my book for how you

help people as well. So so thank you for having me on the show,

and thank you for doing what you do.

Heroes celebrating each other, very good. Thank

you. Wonderful talking with Herbert, and he does similar

work to I to what I do. Uses the same technique; he does a little

bit differently. So it's like I use the intuitive sound healing,

and I'm working with the brain, but he's using the combat brain

training. And you heard him talk about the results, how it

transformed his life experience, and how it's helped other

people. So, if you or somebody you know has had a brain injury,

I would love to talk with you. Contact me for a share your

story call, where you and I can talk about your experience, and

then we can see about working with you to help you. Or if you

want to talk to Herbert and do one of the sample sessions with

him, then go ahead and contact him through the link in the show

notes. So, what did you learn today? What can you take from

this conversation that you can apply to your life, even if you

don't do the brain training with either of us, things that you

learned here today are so helpful. I know one that I know

is like having hope, having that belief, just trusting. So, thank

you for listening to Brain Health and Healing: Receiving

Adversity's Gifts. Go to the Facebook group and comment. What

did you appreciate about today, and how is this going to apply

to your life? Look forward to talking with you soon. Imagine

what's possible. Your brain heals itself every day.