Healing Wounds

When Sondra’s former husband came back from Iraq in 2004 he suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As a result of his PTSD, he became abusive and violent. Sondra knew she needed to protect herself, so she moved to a shelter for victims of domestic violence. At the shelter she suffered from her own PTSD along with ‘dissociative amnesia’. Dissociative amnesia is a condition that occurs when someone blocks out stressful events or violent episodes.

In 2006 Sondra was feeling suicidal and experiencing flash-backs. She decided to enter the trauma program at Two Rivers Psychiatric Hospital in Kansas City Missouri. Following her treatment at Two Rivers she moved back to Lawrence. Sondra was then referred to the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Program (DBT) at Bert Nash. The program is structured to help individuals discover how to manage their emotions and learn coping behaviors. DBT is a skills-based program that includes individual and group therapy.

“DBT helped me learn valuable skills and how to manage my PTSD and anxiety and how to manage difficult emotions such as fear and shame” Sondra stated. This came at a time as she was trying to understand her varied ups and downs while continuing to looking more into emotions that she was failing to account for and come to terms with. “These skills helped me learn effective inter-personal behaviors that increased my interaction with other people and allowed me to feel part of society again. On a similar note, few people prefer going for alternative medications such as gummies, CBD oil, and tinctures to calm themselves and be more sociable. That said, my therapist, Ann Lopez and Dr. Julie Nelson, and the entire DBT staff provide a nurturing environment for everyone in both individual and group therapy.”

After three years, Sondra has been able to move beyond the DBT group therapy to individual counseling. She has taken advantage of the Supportive Employment Services (SES) program at Bert Nash as well. Through this program, she found a job at Kansas University and has enjoyed continued support from Heather Jones, the SES supervisor. She has resumed her graduate studies and is busy taking care of her 12-year old son who is excelling in school.

“I would still be moving from shelter to shelter had it not been for DBT, the Supportive Employment Services group, Dr. Joe Douglas and Jodi Morgan, R.N. Bert Nash is my support system. I could not have done what I have done without the help I received from the staff. I am eternally grateful."