From Anxiety to Self-Trust: Trauma, Brain Health, and Service Dogs with Joanne Williams

Welcome to Brain Health and Healing. I'm Sondra 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 to Brain Health and Healing,

Receiving Adversity's Gifts. I

have a really wonderful guest with me today who's doing

something a little bit different. I have been bringing people

on who have experienced brain injuries and

recovered from them. This is a person who talks about something a

little different. She talks about post-traumatic stress

disorder and thinking of it as a brain injury,

as do I. So it's just like, I think about

whatever it is that Affects my thoughts and

my beliefs. I think of them as being thought injuries and

belief injuries. And post-traumatic stress

definitely qualifies as this. And through her own

experience of trauma, she now serves

other people as a therapist. And so

it's wonderful that we get to speak with her today and hear about a really

fun thing that she does. It's like I talk about

receiving adversity as gifts. Joanne took her

experience of trauma and turn it into something that I think is pretty cool.

So please meet Joanne Williams. As someone who came from

a family with anxiety and— a family

with anxiety and narcissism, I became a therapist

specializing in anxiety reduction and PTSD recovery,

offering one-to-one sessions to empower individuals and families

with tools and strategies. She personally and professionally

specializes in how to use their own dog

as a psychiatric service dog to reduce

anxiety. So much fun. So welcome to

Brain Health and Healing, Joanne. Please tell us a little bit about

your story. Oh, thank you, Sandra.

Yeah, you know, I think there's a little life

adversity in all of us, but you know, some of us have it a little

bit deeper, darker, and maybe a little bit

stuck. And I call it stuck when you—

that part of the brain, the amygdala, that's a fight, flight, and freeze just

keeps this stuff like it's happening now. I had a family.

My mother's quote was, if you worry about it, it won't happen.

So we were taught to worry. And I know that sounds a little cuckoo, but

yeah, worry, worry, worry, then it won't happen. So there was this

piece that anxiety lived within us

and that was normal, as well as a

father who really was not very interested

in his family and a brother who was completely

abusive and out of control. And nobody in the family

knew any parenting skills and what to do. And he was

the abuser on me, a younger

sister. And, you know, and it's even hard to

blame him because there was just no structure. It was just a

chaotic, unstructured, kind of

dangerous— household that a young, I'm gonna call

myself a sensitive child that was

intuitive about all these things, but overloaded

in my mind about what to do about. I had no idea.

You know, I think I did the classic what a child does,

pull the covers over their head and hope it goes away as a way to

deal with things. So from that, you know, I really

Knew I have to figure. And then, of course, then

I married a narcissist alcoholic fisherman that

this continued until I got counseling

myself. And that was some 30 years ago, but I'm like,

all right, this is it. I want to teach people. I want to show people

that there is hope. There is a way out,

even with what I call post-traumatic stress disorder that I consider a brain

injury that keeps that brain just on alert all the

time, all the time, all It's kind of like a house on fire. It's

just like the alarms are going off all the time in your head thinking

everything bad's gonna happen everywhere you go. And I

had to learn skills to calm that brain. And I did it

through counseling. And now that's what I do with my own

one-to-one counseling and coaching. So talk about

service dogs. Mm-hmm. All right.

So that was about 10 years ago. 13

years ago, I was on an airplane panicking,

kind of grabbing the person next to me, holding on with

white knuckles. And I had a little dog with me, but he was

not at that point what they were called, uh, an emotional

support animal. I didn't know about it. He was in a little bag

underneath the seat. And the stewardess

could see I was in distress. And I even was taking the little

dog out of the bag and hiding him and people were helping me keep him

back in the bag so the stewardess wouldn't yell at me. And

so finally she came up to me and said, do you know there's a program

that if you get a letter from your therapist, your little dog could be on

your lap the entire time to fly?

So I'm like, I'm a therapist. How come I didn't know about

this program? So I researched it and found out the laws

and ever since then I have been helping my clients

Understand there's actually three laws: the the Fair Housing Act

for housing, the flying law to fly with your dog, and the Americans with

Disabilities Act if your dog helps you with some of your

psychological symptoms. So ever since then, I

got my little dog certified, and now he flies on my lap.

And to me, it's life-changing. It it's like it's

like when you have your best friend next to you,

it just feels reassuring, and it helps to stop

that unsafety feeling. feeling in my brain that's always

telling me something, the plane's gonna crash, it's gonna be bad. Oh my God, this

da-da-da is gonna happen. And with him, it's just like,

we're good. So I've really helped a lot, and a lot of my

clients, I think most of my clients with, because they do have post-traumatic

stress disorder from these adverse life

experiences, this becomes, I find, their

first step possibly ever. out

of this crushing fear and

anxiety about going and doing things in life.

So for people who have brain injuries,

car accidents, strokes, falls, there's a

lot of emotions. They get all over the place and they

can have, you know, angry outbursts or

some people have no emotion at all. I mean, their emotions get all

dysregulated because of the injury to the brain and the imbalances in

and the hormones and all of these things. Would people who

have brain injuries, would some of them

benefit from having service dogs? Yeah.

Actually, I had a client last week that she fell, well, she

fell and got a concussion, but bad enough that she's

dizzy all the time. She's nervous. She's afraid she's gonna

fall again. So she's got this, what she called, this

anxious feeling about going and doing anything. So

she got a dog. And she

immediately felt the difference of

reassurance. And when your brain feels

reassured, that just changes the way the

stories that you tell yourself about going

into the world and doing more things. And,

you know, the dog itself did not help the actual

brain injury, but I'll tell you, I think it might help her

heal better because if you're not anxious and stressed

Rest, I think that's not sending the cortisol

and the other stress hormones in there, and it would allow some of the calming.

You know, the other thing I teach every single

client is a breathing technique that was

researched to send a calming chemical into your

body and calm you even within 1 minute. And it's called the

4 and 8 breathing, and it stimulates the vagus nerve.

So that's another one that I think Anyone and everyone.

It really helps to reset the

thoughts that can get in a loop that you get in that you

can't get out of because of the brain injury.

Brings you back down into grounded and centered and gives you

a chance to practice getting into a new mindset or a new

way of looking at something. But you can literally feel this calming

come into your body. In minutes. And then

again, you just have that chance to feel

calmer in moments. Yes. So valuable.

So a really common experience that people have when they've had

brain injuries is of things being kind of out of

control and this, this, you know, fear

and as well, um, the experience of not being

seen. Or feeling like they're not seen because

if it's not visible and they feel

like people don't realize that they're injured. And so

having this experience of not being seen and then,

you know, just this anxiety and

maybe not so much about what's going to happen, but

what's not happening or what, you know. Mm-hmm. So it's like there's

so many things that lead to this

imbalanced emotional Mm-hmm. And so, um,

practic— I like, I like having people take away practical

strategies that they can apply to their life

from the show. So a practical strategy that

anyone here can use, whether you've got a brain injury

or post-traumatic stress or trauma, or just having

difficulty with whatever it is you have during the day, if you feel this

anxiety, to do the breathing.

Absolutely. And I know— Minutes. Minutes. Yes.

And in my experience, part of the value of that

is that it brings you into the present moment,

paying attention to physical sensations.

Yes. You can't be stuck in the past. You can't be stuck in the

future. It brings you to right now. And that alone

is calming. And

then another practical strategy is possibly getting a dog.

Absolutely. I'm going to add another one because, you know,

our nervous system really doesn't know the difference between a threat from the past or

the present. So it's getting in your

nervous system. And so I think there's a lot of

shame and blame that goes into this also. I don't want

people to know that I'm nervous about this because I can't think straight like I

used to. And so There's that other emotional

piece that I think is really important to take off

yourself and just be, you know,

work on some more of acceptance about

the current situation that's going on

that you can do something about. The other

technique that I've done, I've used a lot and I

did a podcast, I can't, Anxiety Simplified. I don't remember the number of it.

But it is also getting into your body,

getting into your gut. And that's part of

that breathing will help you get into your intuition. Because

I think that's part of this whole process to trust yourself again,

instead of looking out there, are they going to be okay? And, you know,

them believe in me. No, believe in yourself. But your

intuition is our in— instinctual

way to understand things about your own needs.

And I think with, well, especially with PTSD, I

know we get cut off from our head to our body

and it just stays in your head. And that's why a lot of this is

just repetition and rote about, I can't, I don't know how, and I don't know

where to go. When you can breathe and get to

feel into your body, where is it going on? Is it

panic in your heart? Is it in your gut? Because

that's to me another key. Get into your body. If it is

movement, if it is the breathing, any way you can, and

then that is where you can start to build trust again

within yourself. Oh yes. And is a dog that can help you do that?

Yes. I see this

energetically, right? When I am working with people, I am working with the

flow of the energy going through the body. And when energy's

flowing through the body, connecting to the earth, then I can think,

And my body works. And this is part of what helps the

brain to be able to repair itself is having that

energetic flow. And I work with that energetic flow. And

like Joanne was just saying, when I get worried or

stuck or afraid or in this trauma, it's like it cuts

off the energy flow right here. Yes. And it's

like, like she was describing this, in my head

and disconnected from my body. And so the thing that I tell my

people all the time, time is allow the energy that's stuck in your

head to go down your body, be in your body, and

connect you to the earth. And this makes the difference

often immediately. Immediately.

I agree. And you know, you know, I think the reason why

that happens, and I think this is important for people to

understand too, that part, one of the

symptoms, one of the major coping ways Is

avoidance. It's like we get taught

to not do what you just described. Avoid, avoid. It'll go away if I

don't look at it. If I don't feel it, it'll go away. It does

not go away. It gets stuck in your body, just like you're showing it in

energetic ways. You can see it, feel it.

And so this is like the little kid in the

fire. They just pull their head out or go in the closet

and they hope it's going to be okay because that is the level of avoidance

of coping skills they only No. So building coping skills

beyond, a lot of times avoidance

is usually somebody, you need some help. A professional may

need to help you, but don't let thinking, oh, I'll put it off

to tomorrow that it'll be better. Sooner or later, it's a

sooner or later. It has to be dealt with. Yes.

So people here on Brain Health and Healing have heard me say

Where do these things come from? They come from

early in life, usually when we were

really young and did not have logical capacities.

Exactly. So we developed these belief systems, these

compensation patterns, survival mechanisms. There's our

dog. We developed these survival mechanisms, right?

Then, and then they're, they're in the closet. And then when

something happens, we pull in the survival

mechanism and have this non-adult adult

behavior. And, you know, it's

just like, it makes sense that we do this. And so to take

care of that child self, we need

someone like a trauma therapist or an NLP practitioner

or someone to help us because we can't do it ourselves.

I'm too close to it to be able to do it myself. Yes.

And so you here on Breath and Health and Healing have heard me say this

many times. I need outside

help. I can't do it alone. And so

Joanna, as a trauma therapist, is wonderful at

doing exactly this, helping you to be

inside yourself and stay grounded and stay

yourself. Yeah. And it's

really that integration. And that's what's getting kind of

above it, like you're saying, so you can see it because You are too

close. And that avoidance again is

one of the symptoms in this disorder,

post-traumatic stress disorder. That's

what you learn when you're a little kid. What else can you do if you're

little and you don't have logic yet? Avoid. So you

can build skills. You can do something,

especially starting With, I like, that's why I like learning to

trust yourself. So you dare kind of to look

at this stuff and trust yourself that you can figure it out.

Figuring it out makes so much difference. When I

think this just happens to me and it's out of my control

and I'm helpless about it, then I feel helpless

and it's like, ugh, I gotta just give up. And it's

like when it's like, oh, This actually makes

sense. There's logic to it. It

takes some of the charge off of it.

And it's like, oh, I'm doing that again. And it gives

me the ability to choose. Sometimes I may choose and sometimes I

won't, but awareness and then being able to

identify, it's like, oh, this makes sense why I am doing this.

That gives you a door. to be able to change the pattern.

I agree. And now I think part of this also what you're

talking about is with brain injuries,

it really does scramble our body's internal

compass and to understand this

stuff that we're talking about. So again, I hope

people will take it off themselves. A lot of times when I work with

people, I wanna, 'cause I wanna set here, I want them to know this is

not your personality. This is because something

happened to you adversely from the

outside that you're now internalizing and just trying to figure it

out. But this, just please don't blame yourself

because that adds insult to injury and it

doesn't really help. Because to me, what PTSD

causes is false perspectives.

When you look at the past and think it's still happening now,

it's not giving you good information. Because your brain is just to

keep you safe, right? That's all. But that's where the gut

can come in and your gut feelings and that intuition,

because that can give you more of the truth.

Am I safe right now? Look around. Yeah,

I've got my whatever so I don't fall down again. I've got my dog so

I can feel reassured, you know, or all the things, whatever you need to do,

do it. So that you can build that reassurance

and trust again. And I'll tell you, building that gut to me is a real

key with all of this.

This has been wonderful. So for you in the audience,

this was kind of like an accident. We wound up recording

today because we had it on the schedule. I thought I was gonna be on

her podcast and I guess she thought she was gonna be on mine. We didn't

have a plan and it wound up being just right.

Because one of the things that I am doing here is not just bringing

in people who have experienced head injuries and recovered from them, we're

bringing in tools, we're bringing in experts to

help you know we can

heal from these things. And so getting Joanne's

wonderful perspective as a trauma therapist

on what these things are like. And it so crosses

over, right? Trauma is trauma. Yes.

And the responses that we have to them are

com— they make sense when we allow ourselves

to see them that way. And getting the objective

perspective of an experienced practitioner is so

helpful. So thank you for bringing that wonderful

perspective to us today, Joanne. Oh, thank you.

And I do have a gift. And because I do want to share more of

this, because, and I actually did my

300th podcast on my

podcast, Anxiety Simplified, on this whole issue of

healing through life hurts. The Mind-Body Recovery

Guide is what I have as a gift because I go into

more of how this even echoes through life.

As the echo effect, because it's usually not one thing that

happens here. There is accumulation of hurts that can happen

through time. So yes, I want you to have

this gift, use it. It's practical. It's like a workbook

journal. Or to find out more, you can find, go

to servicedogpro.com. And I love working with people and their dogs. I know

my guy came up here and if you noticed, he was looking at me

because Because I was probably getting a little wound up or

anxious, right? So he picks that up

and comes up and gets in my lap to

be able to again calm me.

That's wonderful. Thank you. So it's going to be in

the show notes, how to get Joanne's wonderful gift and how to

connect with her. Before

we go, I have a different kind of a question for you. So

Joanne, imagine the future you want to

have in the world, whatever that might

be for yourself, for the world. What are you seeing

and what are you doing when the world is being the world

as you envision it? I see

a world without judgment. I see a

world that is open and

inviting with everybody's different brains,

every different kind of brain there is that we don't see it as the

right, the wrong brain. It's like your right and left hand, which is

better. I just see it as part of who we

are and what we came here To share with

each other. And that, that becomes

really what this world is about, is about

sharing each other's truths and

really sensitivities. Because I feel like

most people are very sensitive, and especially with a

brain injury, I think it makes you more

sensitive. And that I think we need more

support. And more acceptance

without judgment. Love that. What I hear in

that is the fundamental need that all humans have to

be seen. Yes. As you

are. Yes. Seen and accepted as

who you are, whatever that looks like. Whatever that looks

like. Yeah. So what is

the last thing you want the audience to remember?

And there's support out there. Don't try to do this alone.

And I think there's more than medical to be able to treat things.

And, you know, especially, yes, you might've had a physical injury,

but there's also an emotional component to it that can

affect not only your brain, but also your

heart and your gut. And that just getting in touch with

our own intuition is a really, really

critical piece. This is something too, I talked to my

clients about. I was talking to somebody the other day and her dog kept coming

up and pushing her hand up. And he's like trying to push him

away, push. I said, no, he's alerting you. You're getting

anxious. Notice how your dog actually may be

helping you, noticing your energy,

and that they're there to calm you if you use them in that way.

Wonderful message. Thank you so much

for being with us today, Joanne. It has been delightful.

And thanks to all of you for being here for

Brain Health and Healing: Receiving Adversity's Gifts. We'll see you

again next time.

Bye. It was so wonderful having Joanne with us

talking about trauma therapy.

And how it's really a similar experience

for people with brain injuries and people with trauma,

PTSD, whatever it is that's going on that

leads to this experience of chaos

and disintegration and not knowing how to regulate and

not knowing how to be in yourself, in your life,

and just being calm and centered. And balanced.

So there's so many different ways to help yourself,

so many different people who are able to provide

support. So it was wonderful to bring Joanne in and get

her perspective on that. Thank you very much. So

what practical things did you take away? What

gems did she offer about how you

can support yourself? Whether you have a brain injury

or any other trauma, what practical things

can you draw from this that you can put into your life today?

And if you have a brain injury or, you know, receiving adversity's

gifts, adversity that you've overcome, if you wanna talk to me

about your story, I would love to talk with you. I

invite you to a 10-minute share your story call with me,

complimentary. It's not a sales call. Oh, good. It's just an opportunity to

share your experience. And then if you wanna work with me, we can talk about

that later. So I look forward to talking with you

sometime soon. Oh, and if you want to know more

about the messages your body may be giving you, maybe through

anxiety or through upset, then I invite you to

receive my audio gift, Imagine What's

Possible, helping you tap into your body's

messages. So that's shinewithsandra.com.

And to, for the Share Your Story call. It's

shinewithsandra.com/brainstory.

Thank you. Your brain heals itself

every day of your life. Imagine what's possible.