In this series, we highlight those working in the Veteran and Military communities to help make reintegration and life a little better for everyone. We wanted to ask some of the common questions about how they got to where they are and how they inspire others to do more.
Interviewer: Stacey Ebert, Veteran Support Network
Book Title: WARRIOR: How to Support Those Who Protect Us
Why Veterans? I enjoy working with brave people. Those who serve in our military and first responder populations, as well as those who serve on the frontlines of a healthcare crisis are some of society’s bravest people. The warriors that I serve have a set of values that I also hold sacred – like me, when they thrive, it is because they lead purpose-driven lives, anchored in these values.
What's your favorite thing about working in this field? In addition to working with our society’s strongest and bravest, I also get to meet and collaborate with brave healers – people who are innovators who push for change in how we address the needs of those who suffer.
One of these brave healers is Dr. Eugene Lipov, a world-renowned anesthesiologist who pioneered one of the most promising interventions for Post-Traumatic Stress that I’ve seen in two decades of work: Stellate Ganglion Block (or ‘SGB’). SGB involves injecting an anesthetic medication into a cluster of nerves in the neck, which seems to calm an overactive fight or flight system. We’ve co-treated about 50 patients over the past two years. This has been a game-changing treatment for them. Since 2006, through his practice and research, Dr. Lipov has continually refined this approach.
I’ve seen how SGB accelerates and deepens the work that psychologists, like myself, are doing. Coupled with therapy, SGB can help patients achieve outcomes that when I started this journey, I couldn’t have imagined. I have teamed up with Dr. Lipov and together we are leading a team that will make this new model of treatment available to many more Americans.
As Chief Psychologist for Stella, the fastest growing network of PTSD-focused treatment clinics in America, my role involves helping people understand the promise of this game-changing treatment. Doing this is a large part of how I’m currently working to support military veterans, first responders, and others in society who have experienced traumatic events. Learn more by connecting with us online at STELLA.
How has your experience working with the VA and veterans changed your perspective and shaped your life? I found my way to serve those who protect us when I took a job at the VA. I made an intentional decision to stay at the VA for 8 years. I started at the end of April and ended on the same day 8 years later – the equivalent time of 2 standard enlistments in the military. It made a huge impression on me that the trust a healer develops with his or her patients is sacred. As someone who had not served in the military, I had to earn that trust with all of my patients. When I first arrived at the VA, I was not only the “effing” new person, I was also replacing a provider that my patients had come to trust. Losing that provider set many of them back in ways that were not helpful to their healing journey.
One of the most common things I heard from patients who transferred into the VA where I worked was that they “didn’t want to start all over with someone new.” It takes a lot of courage for anyone to open up to someone new, and it was clear to me that it does real damage when that bond between a veteran and a healer is not treated with the respect it deserves. I realize that most people nowadays tend to change jobs every few years, but I made a decision that no matter what, I would stay for a good length of time, so that I could build and hold the trust that leads people to heal.
Through that process, I’ve learned a great deal about how we, as humans, can build and hold trust with each other. I don’t think I would have learned some of these things if I hadn’t stayed for such a long time, and gone deep in terms of the process of bridging the gap in trust.
What inspired you to write your book? The truth is that writing WARRIOR wasn’t my idea. One of my prior patients – a warrior who served in 5th Special Forces Group – put me up to it. He encouraged me to write WARRIOR in a way that felt sacred, and made the request in a meaningful “hail and farewell” kind of context.
He challenged me to share what I’ve learned, a range of insights gained from the place of uniquely deep trust I’ve held with those in the warfighter community. He expressed to me that writing this would be the best way to honor this trust.
During our final clinical session, he impressed on me that writing WARRIOR would be the way I could scale what I’ve learned – to help warriors understand the challenges they face, and to help military leaders, healthcare decision-makers, military family members, VSOs, behavioral health providers, peer supporters, and healers of all kinds to better support our military community.
At the end of our final session, he left me with these parting words:
“When you write this book, say what needs to be said without pulling punches. I know that you keep your word, so one year from today, I’m going to find you and see where you are in writing the book you promised you would write.”
I could not say “no” to his request. Each time I sat down to write WARRIOR, I did so with this warrior and so many others at my back – holding space there as an invisible force. When I have had times of friction, as any writer does, they helped me remember that this project was not about me, but about the relationship of trust we have held with each other. WARRIOR is about this trust, fulfilled in an urgency of purpose to share insights that can save the lives of their brothers and sisters in arms.
Can you tell us a bit more about how the Warrior Box project came to be and how it works? A Warrior Box is an ammo can that prominently features pictures of loved ones on the outside and inside of the box and also holds key mementos that remind a Veteran of what he or she lives for (e.g. names of brothers and sisters in one's unit, a purple heart medal, letters between Veterans contracting for mutual engagement in times of distress etc.) A Warrior Box is designed to help Veterans remember the people and values for which they choose to live, even in times of distress, or during periods when they are feeling acutely disconnected. A Warrior Box is also meant to create and stimulate ongoing connections between the Veteran and those on his or her designated “fire team” (who may be spouses, trusted civilian friends, parents, even a trusted clinician, as well as with those one served).
The idea for the Warrior Box was generated by my observation of a critical discrepancy in the themes of stories patients tell about their "near death experiences." The observation is this: Vets who nearly lose their lives in battle often see the faces or hear the voices of their loved ones. Many times, these people urge them to fight for life - to fight for the things worth living - whether that is a spouse they love or a child they are missing while deployed. In impulsive suicide attempts, there is a different narrative – in most cases, there is only a tunnel of darkness and despair - not the faces and voices of loved ones urging one to fight for precious life. When I realized this discrepancy in these stories, I thought that since the faces and voices of loved ones have helped many a soldier "come back from death," maybe we can tap the same force to prevent self-destructive action. So the WARRIOR BOX PROJECT is based on this fundamental insight: The people and sacred values that warriors would die for in battle are the same things that they are often willing to live for in the valleys of mental warfare.
Brian Vargas personally experienced the potential of the Warrior Box concept. He offered to partner with me and together we have shaped the concept. Brian’s contributions as a Marine Corps Veteran and social worker have been critical in making the concept translate to the culture and language of the Veterans it is designed to serve.
In a poll of 70 college-enrolled Veterans (across three local college campuses), over ¾ of the sample felt that a Warrior Box could substantially decrease the number of impulsive firearm suicides among Veterans. We are actively deploying this intervention.
What other projects do you have going on that could change the game for veterans? I am collaborating with Jennifer Tracy, who is also a respected authority in the mental health field. Jennifer has come through her own trauma and has developed a set of insights that are critically needed within our military and first responder communities. Jennifer and I are developing a guided learning experience that will bring the content in both of our books to those who want to take a deeper dive. This includes videos from each of us, summaries of key points, questions to drive further insights, and exercises to apply the content in our books. We’ll be launching this project through www.mission2021.com.
I’ve also just launched an Audiobook for WARRIOR – available here. Recently, a company reached out to let me know that they are going to allow their Veteran employees to purchase, as each employee chooses, either the paperback or audiobook of WARRIOR and submit the receipt for reimbursement. As a writer, this is such an encouragement – to see my work have the positive impact I hoped it would have.
For my next book, to share his stories of frontline trauma and his recovery journey, I’m teaming up with Michael Sugrue, a Retired Police Officer. His stories perfectly illustrate the complexity of trauma and how making the decision to confront the pain and heal is always possible. Our book is tentatively titled “Frontline Trauma and the Path to Recovery.”
As a sneak preview, here is an excerpt from the first chapter:
“ …These daily occurrences that all of our first responders face have their own unique challenges - while this is Michael’s story, many of our first responders have had their own equally challenging traumas. Those in dispatch roles – like the dispatcher in Michael’s department, get calls of distress and listen to the sounds of people in agony or great fear, without being able to directly intervene themselves. This is a trauma.
Firefighters put their lives on the line to save others and they never know how the story ends – whether the person they risk it all to save has survived or not. Emergency Medical Technicians are often witness to sudden, traumatic deaths, and many EMTs ask themselves, “Did I do enough? Did I miss something I should have done that could have saved them?”
These are also traumas.
A trauma event that transpires over a few terrifying moments – can leave us locked in a state of helplessness and horror for many years. Trauma tattoos itself onto our retinas and plays itself out in grotesque private movies – disrupting our sleep, leaving us agitated and exhausted at the same time.
Those who suffer from trauma that is not addressed can become suicidal. When we do not receive the support we need, we can begin to feel that Post-Traumatic Stress is a life sentence. For many of the warriors I’ve supported, this feeling of trauma as a “life sentence” is paired with a vague feeling of being morally tainted – in just the ways Michael is describing…What Michael and I understand is that with the right insights and support, trauma, and moral injury, can be overcome. Healing after trauma is possible, as you will see in the chapters that come. This is a story of hope, but like all stories of hope, we have to walk some valleys first to ascend to the place where hope lives.”
What, in your opinion, is the most important thing soon-to-be-Veterans and their families should consider before leaving military service? In 2019, Jason Roncoroni and I published a nearly 400-page book focused on military transition. Our work is grounded in this understanding: Military transition is not about finding a new job—it is about discovering the full potential of your life. BEYOND THE MILITARY challenges military leaders to consider the possibility that their best days as a leader are not behind them—but lie ahead in life beyond the military.
Our book, BEYOND THE MILITARY, is a comprehensive, interactive resource that addresses the deeper psychological, cultural, and relational aspects of modern warrior reintegration. The purpose of this handbook is to create an integrative strategy for civilian reintegration, continued growth, lifelong success as a veteran leader in civilian society, and help service members and Veterans forge stronger, healthier bonds with the people they care about most.
The Identity Crisis is the greatest challenge of transition and reintegration, and our book includes an 11-Step process for Identity Analysis using the military decision-making process to help Veterans uncover their unique identity story and intrinsic potential in life after the military. There are also more than 30 completely original, innovative exercises to help readers apply the insights they gain. These are not found in any other books on transition.
Anything else you would like us to know about you, your past experiences, or advice for veterans? I don’t like to give advice without a specific focus since human relationships and mental wellness are such complicated topics. However, I will share that one of the opportunities in development right now, through a major media outlet, is an “Ask Doc Springer” weekly advice column. If and when this launches sometime in 2021, I will have the opportunity to share advice on a wide range of topics related to mental wellness, the healing journey, and relationship success.
How can people find you? My books (WARRIOR and BEYOND THE MILITARY) can be found on Amazon and information about my paid speaking and training offerings can be found on my website.
Why this person? Doc Springer is a deeply trusted advisor and an ardent supporter of the veteran community. Investing time, care, concern, and heartfelt active listening with all those she supports, she is a dedicated ally and a uniquely gifted healer. Working in a variety of facets of the healing profession, Doc Springer offers a wealth of new insight and provides healing tools to Veterans and first responders around the country.