Mone welcome aboard Facebook this is Jim BL with Cedric white and if you see up on the screen Dr myy elely we’re here for you today with a really great program about mental health counseling and all that is going on to help you so stand by as we start the broadcast
Now welcome to the veterans impact show where our motto is Charlie Mike continue you the mission I’m your host Jim BL US Navy Vietnam veteran and certified senior advisor join me as we feature veterans who continue the mission of leadership and commitment in our communities after serving our great
Nation why you never know who you’re going to meet or where we’re going to go so welcome aboard hey you’re with us on the veterans impact show my beautiful wife Diane is at a retreat again this is said white he’s new to our show he has become
A very very dear friend he is a minister marriage counselor and I got to tell you last weekend Diane and I went through your marriage counseling Workshop yes it was amazing it was really amazing it we we enjoyed doing it we had about um right at 28 couples there and very
Engaging um and we go through just the steps of of course communication steps of uh commitment and Trust steps of uh even intimacy we discuss all of those things yeah you’re kind of funny in some of that I’m telling you you and your wife cracked me up but I want to say
This is a fantastic program please share this today with all of your friends on Facebook and on uh YouTube as well because we’re going to be talking about some good things and some bad things but this is going to be a really great program with Dr Misty elely now I need
To tell you that a very special thank you to my company Fairway Independent Mortgage I’m a reverse mortgage specialist I’ve been with Fairway about 3 years I’ve been in the business about 20 my NLS number is 311 548 and our corporate one is 2289 and I’m a specialist in Helping
Seniors with Financial Solutions and we are an equal opportunity lender so if you want to know more about us go to Fairway Independent Mortgage and they’re going to they’re going to tell you everything you wanted to know the other thing is I got to SP say a special thank
You to Nathaniel and all you do and setting this up for us also I want to say thank you to dbtv network who puts us on Amazon Fire and Roku who is also lining us up for other networks other people to be able to share with and I I
Just want to say a big thank you to also the aun Network out in California you guys stay dry it’s kind of bad right now so thank you for being on board now we’re through with all of that the attorneys can relax that’s right you bet
Dr elely I have met you a number of times but I really got to meet you a couple of weeks ago with the finishing of the reboot counseling uh work deal that I did with uh Lieutenant Colonel Jinger Simonson and you have a great story to
Tell so first of all tell us about your background you’re a United States Marine and then tell us about your book tell us about what got you into being doctor Misty elely not Marine mely thank you and thanks for having me um of course the graduation ceremony was
Super powerful and it’s just a reminder of how enabling and wonderful veterans can be when they’re healthy and they’re helping one another the peer aspect of Veteran work is so important so I do have a book but a little bit about me I am a Marine Corps veteran I served from
1997 to 2006 so about nine years total I did administrative work so I was an admin uh admin Chief uh separations promotions retirements Awards the good important stuff you want to have um good you’re my best friend you you were my best friend exactly leave papers would
Happened to them who who knows exactly um so that’s what I did in the Marine Corps my first Duty station was okanawa Japan backtrack a little bit I went to Paris Island for boot camp where that used to be the only place we trained female Marines now we’re in San Diego as
Well but I went to Paris Island went to North Carolina for school and then I went to okanawa Japan as my first Duty station from okanawa I requested orders to the West Coast and they gave me Pensacola Florida so I was like it’s close right um kind of and then from
There I went to bufort South Carolina and that’s where I got out of the Marine Corps uh at that time of your duty stations I loved OK I was there for a very short time but I also love Pensacola Florida and I was never stationed there but that is a beautiful
Town so one of the things is you had a you had a great opportunity to travel and see some of the world and imagine out of Okinawa you got to go to Japan maybe the Philippines some of the other places in the South Pacific I got to go to Hong Kong
Um Hong Kong City Hong Kong on a humanitarian relief effort so I was on the USS Fort McKenry for about 30 days that’s when I was really excited that I had joined the Marine Corps and not the Navy being on a ship so that was pretty remarkable I didn’t get to go to
Mainland Japan until years later um in Buford I Married an active duty Marine uh we have since divorced but he was Aviation ordinance bombs missiles rockets on the f-18s is what he kind kind of did so we went anywhere a plane could be stationed essentially and so I
Went to Mainland Japan I went to Iwakuni then um and then North and South Carolina and Virginia so I did indeed get to travel the world along with my two kids how fun is that now how did that prepare you or how did that set you
Up or what did you go through that caused you to want to be um a psychologist so a lot of things I came from a very troubled childhood a lot of veterans uh joined the military to escape their home life and that was definitely my story
And so I moved out of my house my parents’s house at 15 graduated high school early at 17 and joined the Marine Corps and kind of never looked back and so for me it was this wonderful new Brotherhood of belonging and sense of purpose I am fourth generation veteran
So everybody before me was in the army and all of them were men so actually when I told my retired grandfather who was Army Corps of Engineers um I told him I was joining the Marines in 1997 he said they don’t even have female Marines that’s why they’re called A Few Good Men
And I was like no grandpa it’s 1997 they have women now and uh so for me it was also about carrying on the legacy of that veteran service um was really important to me but how I got into being um Dr Misty elely not a psychologist I’m a um
A traumatologist which is a little bit more confusing but my degree is in education a Doctorate in Education and Community Counseling so psychologists they just understand the world a little differently but for me a lot of it had to do with my lot loss sense of purpose
I got out of the Marine Corps and didn’t know what I was going to do with my life I left the Marine Corps because I didn’t have a family care plan that handy dandy thing you’re supposed to have of who’s going to take care of your children when
You deploy my ex-husband had come from a troubled childhood I had one too so we didn’t have anybody that could take care of our kids so at nine years of service an E9 I mean not an E9 I was a E6 I left the Marine Corps to be the stable parent
For my children which basically meant I gave up my dream of being in the Marine Corps for 20 years uh and I had to find a new sense of purpose for about six years I did a bunch of different jobs I was a probation officer I worked for the
Federal buo prisons I started doing substance abuse treatment and education with veterans when or Ser active duty service members when we were station and Iwakuni when I was a dependent spouse and we sat around this room and all these veterans would talk about how they had gotten in trouble that’s why they
Were sitting in a class with me they would say like you don’t understand all I did was um walk home from the e- club drunk and I got a ticket or I was shooting my paintball gun outside my Barrack’s room and I got a ticket and
Now I’m here which was true they had gotten in trouble it was their first alcohol rated incident and they’d have to come see me for 16 hours of education and alcohol right so they go around the room like you don’t know what it’s like and you don’t know and you don’t know
And at the end of the I don’t know I said Mr elely former staff sergeant United States Marine Corps I do know and it was this huge Epiphany that I was in this room with all these active duty service members and it was the first
Time in my life in six years that I had felt like I truly belonged because I did understand the Marine Corps taught me to deal with my stress by drinking by you had a good day you got drunk you had a bad day you got drunk you passed Field Day inspection which literally
Meant you cleaned your room you got drunk everything revolved around alcohol and then when you got in trouble you were the worst person in the entire world and so for me that was when everything kind of flipped a switch and I went back to school got a master’s in
Behavioral Medicine and then another masters in social work and so that’s what I did for a long time I was a licensed clinical uh social worker and then licensed clinical uh social worker supervisor now I’m not in practice at all I supervise instead and I educate because for me I’ve always said I’m
Saving the world one veteran at a time but being able to educate other clinicians how to work with veterans I get to save even more you know Misty when I was in the Navy in the 1960s and I got out at the end of 1970 it wasn’t that you go get drunk but
Did you go had it you got you got let the steam blow off you you went and you had a good time and you were you heard rock and roll music you went to the EM Club you went to the O club if you were an officer I remember the stories of the
O club in QB point and the Philippines were pretty amazing and everybody was young and crazy and we had a good time I don’t think we intentionally got drunk till further down the road when it became situations became unbearable and we had a whole lot in 1967 I think about
This for a minute we had a whole lot of veterans who who had been in World War II in Korea and they had some severe pts problems but we didn’t understand that we didn’t know and they treated you went through some of that they treated themselves with
Alcohol and that had become a huge problem now it is my understanding because I know I’ve had I’ve known the last several CEOs of the joint reserve base I have a lot of friends that are Admirals and and as well as uh enlisted that is a different opinion in the Navy
They don’t do that the same way anymore they don’t promote that the way they did I understand some of the O clubs and EM clubs are now people don’t go so they’ve shut down so it’s not the same and that’s a good thing but back your day my day was
Especially and Cedric’s day yeah that was huge self-medication right well and quite often uh J and and Doc quite often it went from like you said it went from just having fun to becoming the coping mechanism yeah absolutely when okay it was fun you hung out with the fellas
With the ladies with whatever right and that was just the norm and then as problems came right I could dull my senses with alcohol and unfortunately eventually drugs uh was the way to do it because we didn’t there was nothing to help us with the trauma that was going
On in our head and in in our lives and I got to tell you Misty moving over into the area that you’ve moved into you had a huge feel because so many went through so much especially Vietnam My Generation now I was lucky I was on aircraft carriers I did go up and
Volunteer and work on the flight deck at night but I got to tell you the sound the noise you cannot imagine what it’s like to be on a combat aircraft carrier that’s doing flight operations 247 a day for about 30 days it’ll it’ll make you it will really disturb you plus you have
Hearing problems you have other kinds of problems but we’ve also had so many people who were severely injured or or even moderately injured but we didn’t know how to take care of that so a lot of what was being done both in the military world in the VA and in the
Civilian world is those things got treated with drugs and you couldn’t sleep at night to give you a drug absolutely you you were depressed to give you an anti-depressant and I had a close friend that I really really cared about and he started he had some depression problems
They put him on anti-depressant then he couldn’t sleep they gave him sleeping then they gave him this then they gave him that he was taking a pharmaceutical cocktail and 3:00 one morning I got a phone call from his wife and we won’t go any further but let me just say he ate
The Magic Bullet that was 150 caliber I’m telling you that this is a thing that is not only in the military but it’s in the civilian world as well agree and so part of what has always been is the military has led the way so the military now is more into counseling
Into all of these things that were talking about so you’re doing marriage counseling yes they’re they’re supporting that so in doing that can you tell us a little bit about well who you’re with symbios who I’ve become very familiar with I’m very close friends now with Dr Ashmore but what is symbios your
Company that you are head the director of clinicians correct and education Clinical Director tell us a little bit about what symbios is but what you do in symbios so I’m The Clinical Director of 11 clinicians so symbios and NHL they get a referral from the VA there’s a
Process they see the medical doctor head to toe and then basically after a psychological evaluation is done they are recommended for therapy based on what their diagnosis is so some veterans will come in and their diagnosis will be pts anxiety depression those kind of things right or a substance use disorder
And my job is to pair them with the right clinician based on what their specific needs are are and then once I pair them with the clinician the clinician starts individual practice with them um so they’re usually seen once a week if the client is in active
Um crisis they might be be seen twice a week like if there’s a lot of suicidal ideation and such so we do that one of the first things I did when I came on to symbios in June was like any good leader sit down and get to know my team and
Then ask him what they needed from me because for a while there was there had never been a Clinical Director so we had clinici without Direction so I asked all of them what is it that you need from me and all of them said training hey I’m an
Educator I love that right so I said okay what do you want to learn and that’s what makes symbios so unique I think compared to a lot of CCN out there is my clinicians are all trained in in different things so first they have to go through military cultural competency
Training they go through moral injury training they go through military sexual assault training so they can understand these dilemas when a client comes to them when a when a veteran is in need they also go through training on um suicide either counseling to less lethal means access or how to differentiate
Between suicidal adiation and then also how to deal with post um vention so prevention preventing the suicide postvention is after a suicide has taken place how to help the family and how to how to deal with the veterans when they go through that process because a lot of
Veterans have lost very good friends to Suicide so for me that’s the biggest kind of um amazing part of my job is being able to help these clinicians understand what really their clients needs are to get them the education that they need and the training that they
Need to better equip them to deal with the everchanging veteran population there was a lot more substance use that we worked with in the beginning um now there’s less substance use but there’s also a lot of no healthy Co coping skills which is something we touched on
A little bit ago that’s actually why I wrote my poetry book because poetry was how I learned how to cope and doing art instead of drinking I think this is phenomenal so we’re going to continue this conversation in a minute right after we have the word from our sponsors
But in doing this what we’re talking about is mental health to save lives absolutely that that’s the bottom line and this is highly needed people are really sometimes don’t recognize that they need it I know know how many times a wife has dri driven a guy to the
Clinic and said you go in there and you work with him or you’re on the street so when we come back Cedric you’ll bring us back let’s talk about saving lives more and let’s go in let’s talk about moral injury and some of these other things so people understand you’re watching the
Veterans impact show we’ll be right Back welcome back to the veterans impact show and thanks to our sponsors Fairway Independent Mortgage and Lone Star wealth strategies now let’s continue this great conversation well welcome back I am Cedric white co-host for the veterans impact show here with Jim B uh Diane is
Out today and we have as a guest today the great Dr M Misty elely Dr elely is with uh symbios integrative healthc care and Dr elely you said something um before the break previously you talked about coming from family trauma going to uh the Marines to get away from
That family trauma what happens a lot of people do do that exact thing they follow that pattern the problem is they go from family trauma to uh the military where they experience some level of trauma which causes pts PTSD right and quite often um they have to seek help
Afterwards to avoid the alcohol the drugs as the coping system you provide that at at symbios help us to understand because there’s a there’s a process before a vet or a military guy will just allow someone to speak into their lives there some some things has to happen
Tell us about that Dr El you’re absolutely right and uh there’s two biggest predictors of if mental health therapy is going to be successful number one client and therapist Rapport and number two clients willingness to change yes so our job at cbos my job specifically is to pair that client with
The best suited therapist for their specific needs some clients come in and they say I only want to see a female therapist and that has to do with their female veteran and they have military sexual trauma they only want to speak to a woman some veterans come in and they
Say I only want to see a veteran therapist because they’re going to understand me better so I pair them with a veteran so my first step is to figure out what the veterans needs are and knowing my clinicians as well as I do I pair them together so that helps build
Step one building that Rapport right and then step two if a client by the time he gets to us normally he’s either in crisis or he’s about to lose everything and for a lot of US veterans admitting that we’re wrong and that we need help extremely difficult right and so it
Could take months and a lot of pressure and pain from family systems from the job from being involved in the criminal justice system before and actually decides that they want help and then once they walk through the door because they’re ready and they want help usually
They’re pretty deep into the hole and so our our process is to to get them safe and stable before we can even start processing the trauma but a lot of our the work that we do is safety and stabilization which takes a little longer when it comes to Veterans because
We don’t easily trust um I’ve taught a lot of classes in the civilian world and I often talk about how trust is very different and a lot of civilian CL clinicians will say how do I get the veteran to trust me and I say okay well
Trust is earned but let me give you a perspective of what it’s like to be a veteran so in a classroom I would have 20 clinicians right and I’ll say how many veterans are in the room and there might be two and I say okay so if
Somebody opens the door to our classroom and throws a grenade in here who’s jumping on the grenade to save everybody else’s life and usually those two veterans will raise their hand right and I say that’s what trust means to us trust means that I’m willing to die to
To save your life I’m willing to do anything it takes to be able to be that person that is there for you and so that trust and that sense of belonging is so important to Veterans sometimes having a veteran clinician is the very first step
Of getting them to open up so that’s you know pretty important right it uh I love what you said in reference to um the Rapport building right that takes time uh we call it peer right that peer-to peer uh quite often when we have clients to come in we’ll we’ll share our story
First so that they know okay uh you’ve been through something so you’re not uh and as I hear you saying you don’t do cookie cutter clinician right you’re not just just we have a a pattern and you come in and we step you through no it’s
A case by it’s a caseby casee situation which again builds trust because it shows you listening to them yes sir let’s talk just a second too to add to this symbios doesn’t just take somebody and say okay you need you need counseling you need help they you go through and
I’ve been through it a rather extensive um check with a medical doctor you go through um the the I’m trying to say what is it I’m trying to say you go through a process to determine what’s going on evaluation evaluation thank you and some of that may be pain management
Some of that may be alcohol management some of that may be be you know you got to have a behavioral assessment you got to figure out what’s going on one of the things I learned some time ago is that people who have problems can’t sleep at night they have insomnia it’s terrible
It drives them crazy yes so one of the things is symbios has a vector which is a an emerging technology that’s FDA approved that’s AMA approved it really works and what it does is it causes through non-c contct electrical stimulation I think it’s called microcurrent where it enables blood
Increased blood flow it’s amazing because every guy that I’ve been in there and talked to says well after using the vector I can sleep at night once you can sleep at night you got your head about you then you can begin to get help in understanding the problems so it
It’s part of a total process it’s what I’m trying to say it’s not just one aspect right so you’re working with that pain management is huge this thing is amazing I have seen pain management and I’ve experienced it myself total body healing I had um reduced kidney function
In one of my kidneys from years and years ago I started using the vector I get blood work because I’m I’m trying to monitor because I also have very early stages of cancer in my uh uh prostate guess what my kidney function after the use of the vector went back up to
Normal so it’s not just one thing that symbios does it’s a Whole Health so when we come back I want to dig more though then about what’s going on in taking that whole health and making that veteran whole again making that veteran strong again making that veteran able to
Function in his family and in his community and let me tell you I’ve interviewed a whole bunch of them and it is amazing what they’re saying about the changes that have come about thanks to all of the things that symbios is doing and I hope this is an emerging way that
This is done Across the Nation to be able to help veterans through the va’s community of CARE program it’s a great program we’re going to be right back after these words from all of our partners Cedric you bring us back again and you get us going cuz you asked some
Great questions thanks sir all right we’re going to be right back this is Veterans impact show welcome back to the veterans impact show and thanks to our sponsors Fairway Independent Mortgage and Lone Star wealth strategies now let’s continue this great conversation well welcome back Jim blight Cedric white here missing Diane
Today we have uh Dr elely with us from uh symbios uh and and uh integration Health Dr Elie I want to ask before we go any further because uh Jim has been telling me about symbios he’s been telling me because I’ve been complaining about a lot of the symptoms that he’s talking
About the sleep and the pain management how does someone uh connect to get involved with uh have their first session with simos how does somebody contact you guys great question so number one is right now the refer the way the referral process works is the veteran goes to their primary care
Physician at the VA and requests a community care work referral to symbios um and then I believe uh Jim probably has our our Ein and numbers all those um important numbers that they need to have in order to go into Tri West and get that referral but basically that’s the
Very first step is to say these are the things that I’m struggling with and I would like to see symbios because I know they can help with those things Jim before the break you said something super profound and I just want to piggy back on that you talked about insomnia
So a lot of people don’t understand that sleep is as important to your health as eating and drinking water so those masar Mas maslo hierarchy of needs of sleep eating um food all those things if you’re not sleeping how long do you think you’re actually going to be able
To live and not have delusions or hallucinations and that kind of stuff sleep is such an important Dynamic of our every single day life and you’re absolutely right there’s no way to get better with treatment if you can’t get any sleep so Vector is one of those
Things that really help helps with that and and just like with counseling it’s all individualized so do you want me to talk about how um how Vector works and how we go through that please because a lot of people don’t understand it and they see it and they get a misconception
That’s one of the problems that’s led up to a problem we have right now which we can get into in a little bit but it’s a lot of misconceptions let me tell you I live with that every day because in what I do in the mortgage field with seniors
The misconceptions about what I do are amazing and at half the time I’m not counseling people I’m helping people just understand what isn’t what is wrong what is not true so please jump into that Misty so one of the things that happens when you come to symbios you
Start off by seeing the medical doctor like we talked about before you can get a referral for pain management you can get a referral for Vector you can get a referral for psychological evaluation in which you come to see our side of the house therapy which with the vector
Referral you’ll go through something called ANS and neuros scans which basically there scans the palms of your hands the the balls of your feet are your feet and then there’s this cool looking cap with all these little things on there that do your um your neuros scan and then after that there’s three
Different documents that are created based on your results of those scans and I’m sure Dr Ashmore has talked about this while she’s been on but I’m going to give you the Layman’s perspective from what it was like for me so I did my ANS and I did my neuro I am
100% disabled veteran severe PTSD and a lot of injuries um neck injuries uh feet back shoulders you name it so I have a lot a lot of pain and arthritis and different things like that so I did my ANS and my neuros scan and what they showed was problems with my heart and
Problems with my circulation and neuropathy so all this time as a veteran I have been going back and forth with the VA because the last few years in a row I have had severe chest pains uh the December before before last I was actually rushed to the hospital thinking
I was having a heart attack and um I had something they call it a micro heart attack but essentially my blood’s not pumping the right way in my heart of course the VA does the stress test blah blah blah things come back and my doctor
Says you just need to find a job that’s less stressful it’s just environment it’s just environment and that’s all I’ve heard for several years but I’ve had these hard ISS issues for several years so I get this report from symbios that says a whole bunch of medical
Jargon but what it said to me was Misty you’re not crazy there is something wrong with your heart and you have neuropathy that’s why your feet are always numb and cold and your fingers are always tingling and you’re in all this pain and so with that the doctors
At symbios set up my Vector treatment to treat my heart problems and to treat my neuropathy and my feet so the first time they did the scans um I forget what the Imaging is called but when you when you said down for Vector treatment they do scans that that show
Your blood flow yeah I had no fingers on my hands and I had no toes wow so it showed very blatantly how much I had no circulation in my body and and one of the first things that they kind of process is like okay let’s give her a
Blanket and warm her up when you sit in the VOR chairs right yeah they use blankets a lot right but for me it was so empowering to be able to say this is what’s wrong and there is treatment and I can feel better um so I did 12 treatments straight and immediately it
Was probably the third day I was sleeping better I’d gotten my first eight hours of sleep and I don’t even know how long my chest pain had finally lessened where it wasn’t all the time now it’s just kind of sporadic back and forth and I had feeling in my feet I
Could actually feel my toes and so I know that there’s a lot of um stories and there you know the education behind Vector but for me just being a person that is a veteran has been told over and over it’s just it’s just your planner fasciitis there’s nothing wrong there’s
Nothing wrong to be able to see a document to see my own scans and say there is something wrong and it was so validating to me it made me feel like somebody listened to me and was actually going to help me with those specific
Things now if I came in and I said I want to work on my anxiety I want to work on this and that there’s different Vector settings for different things that the client needs like um their settings for dementia their settings for depression their settings for anxiety I
My treatment protocol was to treat exactly my heart conditions my heart issues and my feet but yeah that was my experience with Vector there was a couple in there the other day and he’s a veteran and his wife is there with him and she’s getting treated as well but
He’s got early stages of Alzheimer’s and after I talked to him he’s got it together now now I have a good friend who was in a terrible automobile accident hit head on had tremendous uh traumatic brain injury it took several months before it manifested and I have a
Class 4 medical laser which is FDA approved the vector is FDA approved and AMA approved and I treated the guy I sent the guy to Phoenix thilay and I treat then I treated him as well and had a total total recovery and comeback now these things don’t don’t cure we can’t
Say it cures but you can have recovery it enables your body to recover in the way that the vector works is total body right where a laser is very very specific and isolated but the main thing that both do it’s new integrative and the term is integrative meaning these electronic uh Technologies basically
Increase blood flow and you really don’t understand how that works till you experience it right now it’s different from every for everybody every human body is different everybody I have talked to in treatment there in as well as myself who’s been treated has amazing Stories uh Billy who’s the office
Manager now was a ranger he was command master sergeant Army his last jump he fell in a hole he didn’t see what he was jumping into and messed up his legs he he told me he could barely walk when he went to symbios he was suicidal when he
Went to symbios he was so depressed because he he just in so much pain and taking so many pain pills now he’s off all the pain pills he can Jog and he’s office manager he’s doing a great job so this helps people to restore their life this is a tremendous Heat in as
Part of a total system that is monitored by medical doctors and monitored by test throughout after 10 sessions you go through the test again on the U ANS machine to see where you are and I made substantial improvements but on top of that for many people just like you know
In marriage counseling you need more than just this so this gets you off of drugs this gets you out out of pain but get your brain where it’s working and you can then reason and think right that’s what I think and we got a problem
Right now so let’s go ahead and bring it up in that there is a misunder understanding in the VA in north Texas that has cut symbios off and we’re working with that to get that resolved because there’s some really really outstanding people their whole deal is to make sure everything is right and
That the veteran is safe all of the things that symbios is doing is beyond safe correct Misty yes sir all of our clinicians are you know licensed and trained we have social workers and we have licensed professional counsellors um we also have licensed chemical dependency counselors so our side of the
House is well trained and well versed to work with this population the there are several concerns right now and my very first concern is of up most importance and we talked about this earlier about the Rapport so here you have a veteran or we have several veterans that are
Working with a clinician and actively working through their trauma stories trauma cases some may be in EMDR therapy which is extremely difficult to go through and then they receive a phone call that says symbios is no longer a provider and you can’t see them anymore and then that client is told that
They’re not allowed to come back in for therapy so that is traumatic for not only the client because they’ve now trusted this individual they’ve started trauma treatment now they’re being told they can’t come to him anymore that leads to lots of feelings of institutional betrayal and and distrust
In the system but then that also leads to a lot of clinical concerns for my own counselors so as a counselor you have um practice ethics and guidelines to do no harm and there is effective way to terminate clients you have to talk about termination sessions well in advance you
Have to talk about how the sessions are going to end what are their coping mechanisms what is the game plan safety plan things that have to be put into place before you terminate a client there’s a whole list of things in our practice guidelines of how to successfully terminate a client or refer
Them to a new clinician none of those things can be done when a client is told immediately effective immediately you can no longer see the clinician you are seeing or sending you to somebody else so I feel like there’s a great harm being done to the clients that are in
Clinical treatment right now as well as to the clinicians who are trying to help them we had a meeting with several very very prominent men who talked to about a dozen veterans who’ve gone through this total program and they all were telling the same thing and uh Dr Ashmore
Provided all of the FDA approvals the AMA approvals the letters from the the various people in the VA who had actually been to the facility and saw what it is one of the biggest mistakes and we talked about misunderstandings is a lot of people think oh this is shock
Therapy this is not shock therapy you can’t do that you have to do that in a hospital facility using an anesthesiologist so this is not that at all they do use microcurrents and you can’t even feel it you you cannot feel it and so it’s no needles no
Pins no drugs and it’s getting people off drugs what is one of the biggest initiatives that the VA has come out with in the last few years to help veterans get off the drugs exactly and how do you get off the drugs well you got to get rid of the pain you
Got to be able to sleep at night and this is a system an Integrated Health System that enables that to happen so we’re trying to work with the VA to get this misunderstanding taken care of it is still approved by Tri West if you were in another city in another area you
Want to you want to get help go to excuse me Cedric my allergies go to symbios website Sy ymb IO Integrative Health that’s Sy ymb iOS Integrative Health and take a look and they have um hotels that they work special deals with we’re also putting together a 501c3 to
Help pay for people let’s say that you are military but you have less than an honorable discharge and you are not entitled to VA benefits we’re raising the money to be able to have you get those benefits for free the other thing that we’re trying
To do is work with spouses as well you may be uh a widow and and I’ve got a couple right now that need some help so we’re setting up to be able to treat people for free and in the meantime while we’re getting this problem ironed
Out with the VA in north Texas and only the VA in north Texas is where this has come up and I don’t think they did this to be mean I think they did it to try and protect veterans and they misunderstood what’s going on so we’re going to get that fixed because there’s
Some great people that I have had great great um success with in the VA I don’t want you to think the VA VA is bad it’s not but somebody’s got a misunderstanding and we’ll get it fixed but in the meantime if you’re here and you need help call
Symbios call them look it up online symbios Integrative Health um do you have that phone number in your head Misty I don’t I can’t think of it real quick um I do not have it in my head sorry okay let me look it up we want
People to know hey this is where you go to get help this is is symbios Integrative Health the telephone number is 469 9833 the phone number is 469 983 1300 you have offices in tarant County down in Arlington you have an office in Sherman so if you’re in Oklahoma you
Could go to Sherman if you’re in Oklahoma and you want to go to symbios go through your VA in Oklahoma and ask for symbios and you can go to Sherman uh and then Dallas it’s on monin bird near Love Field give them a call 469 what was that number again6 983
1300 and they’re going to help you we’re not going to turn anybody away is what dd Ashmore Dr Ashmore has said to me and again it’s integrated it’s Total Health medical doctors doctors clinicians like Dr Misty elely and people working to save lives right right one of the things
Is 22 kill which is now the tribe and so many people have been talking about the fact that 22 veterans a a day commit suicide correct Dr elely yes sir okay this is a way to stop that y this is a way to stop that and as we make that
Successful and I have seen it be successful then you’re going to see the the civilian Community embrace it as well because we have an epidemic in teen suicide we have an epidemic in suicide around the nation and Dr elely you are an integral part of what they do in a
Total health system so we’re going to take a break to hear from our sponsors we’ll be right back after these words again I want to say a special thank you to Fairway Independent Mortgage who sponsors me and help sponsor this and also dbtv Network for putting us on
Amazon on fire in Roku as well as a out in California we’re very appreciative and we’re here for you you want to contact me just 21452 4600 look us up we’re here for you we want to have every veteran be treated and be successful this is Veterans
Impact show we’ll be right back after these Words welcome back to the veterans impact show and thanks to our sponsors Fairway Independent Mortgage and Lone Star wealth strategies now let’s continue this great conversation guys I got to tell you Dr elely this is fantastic because so many people I I didn’t know till I went
Through the combat reboot I didn’t know and Diane and I have the greatest marriage in the world but unfortunately I’ve had others that I got got hurt and they got hurt right and everybody I I think everybody in this nation’s gone through at least one divorce unless they were blessed beyond belief getting
Counseling M you said it a lot of US military are scared of that or I can’t do I don’t need that that was me hey that was you that was me being a counselor I plead I plead guilty too how about you Misty absolutely um I am uh I’ve been divorced for about
Eight years and I’m actually getting married next month and so it’s scary and exciting and I look at things now as going through my own trauma treatment and going through my own help I think Cedric said this earlier a lot of us join you know I joined as a traumatized
Individual and the military traumatized me some more um and so I had to get healthy and I had to figure out what normal was to me I had to figure out what love was to me and and how did I Define those things and then I had to be
An healthy individual in order to be able to accept love from somebody else and so I think it’s absolutely spot-on and for a lot of military veterans it’s one asking for help but two bringing the the the spouse in so that they can understand what PTSD looks like what
Triggers look like what moral injury looks like what are some of the words you shouldn’t say to your spouse really the education behind what’s going on in the mental health of their veteran is so important so Cedric I’m so happy that you’re doing that work because it is
Greatly needed um I feel that a lot of Veteran families split up because of the simple not understanding not understanding how to help that spouse that’s that needs so much but can’t communicate what they need right we have a saying the relationship is in the knowing right the more I know about my
Mate not mind reading but just the the uh physical aspects the body language the things that triggers the more I know and the more I care then the more I pay attention I’m aware and again we go together to get the counseling we so that we can learn about one another um
We’re seeing more of that but more people need to get it you know one of the things I told you guys are going to laugh at this I went through every firefighting School the Navy ever could give me and I’ve told Diane and I’ve told others whatever you do I may be
Sound asleep I may be on the couch or something like that you think it’s funny clap your hands or yell but for crying out loud do not say the word fire MH because I’ll come up like a bat out of hell and I’m ready to fight that fire
Right and you could get hurt because I’m not paying attention to you I’m looking for the fire and that’s one of my triggers and I think too the the previous marriages I married some really great people I didn’t do them any favors in vice versa but we did
Did not know each other what you’re talking about we did not know each other and there’s a huge communication gap that’s where again marriage counseling counseling so if you’re one of those crusty old Vietnam guys or a few of the guys I’ve talked to from Korea or from
Any of the uh 911 post 911 I highly recommend highly recommend even if you don’t want to go through the VA or you’re not signed up for the VA call symbios yes call them we gave you out the number we’ll give it out again give it out Cedric 469 983 130 and
Tell them Jim blle said I need to call and get an appointment because they’re gonna help you they’re gonna help you and they’re going to make it where uh you can afford it Whatever It Takes because we’re raised and money to do just exactly that uh Dr elely it’s
Amazing you were a marine you are a marine you’re never not a marine what would you say to a young man or especially a young woman very quickly who might be interested in they’re graduating from high school graduating from college and might be interested in serving our nation what would you say to
Them I would say figure out why you want to go what is it that you want to do with with your life and how can the military Propel you in that way to help you pursue your Ambitions and dreams um I wish somebody would have said that to me because I
Would have maybe picked a different career field but still the Marine Corps for me uh my son actually we had this conversation over Christmas break because he is thinking he’s a nursing school now but he’s thinking he might join the Coast Guard or the Navy and the
First question I asked him was why and he said I think I would like to carry on the family tradition of serving our country and then he said and also so I would love to be able to do my medical practice to be a nurse and be able to
Travel and see the world so I think the very first step is figuring out what it is that they want and how the military can help them pursue those dreams if if that’s really what their dream is and I think more people need to be educated
About what um what the military is all about and the different skill sets and what we do and that we’re not trained Killers essentially that’s what most people think we we do have that training but we’re so much more than that and I think passing that on to younger
Generation is very very important I think it’s not only service but they learn leadership they learn to work as a team they learn skills and they get you know when I got out of the Navy I thought oh my God I’m four years behind all my contemporaries and my fraternity
Brothers from SMU you know what I went way past them because I had skills that they didn’t get and I got them while I was in the Navy the Navy and Marine Corps they share a much of the same training in schools it’s amazing what you can learn so thank you Dr elely
Thank you again for representing symbios which I have become very very very close friends with because they’re helping me let them help you Cedric we like to close this with a prayer yes sir so you’re the minister but I’m the chaplain so can I do all right Lord God of the
Universe we are so eternally grateful for all you do that all you have created for us and bless us and we thank you for that thank you for your hedge of protection around our active duty military and our First Responders those who run into the fire instead of away
From it thank you dear God for our veterans and protecting them and guiding them so they may help us to bring this nation back together again one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all in your holy name we pray thank you Lord God amen amen Dr
Heely it’s been a blessing to talk to you I’ll see you soon at symbios nice me you thank you nice to meet you all right thank you again this is the Veterans impact show share this get this word out we want to save lives we want the 22 kill statistic to
Go to zero yes by helping veterans with their medical challenges and their
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