Latest / The Trauma Therapist / A Journey of Openness and Healing with Samantha Penrod

Transcript

A Journey of Openness and Healing with Samantha Penrod · The Trauma Therapist

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Speaker 1: Trauma Theverist podcast Plus listeners can listen to episodes early
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Speaker 1: and ad free right now. Become a Plus listener by
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Speaker 1: going to Apple Podcasts, searching for the Trauma Theverist podcast
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Speaker 1: and signing up today. Welcome to the Trauma Nevers Podcast,
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Speaker 1: a show about the incredible people dedicated to helping those
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Speaker 1: who experienced trauma. My name is Got macpherson, and my
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Speaker 1: mission is to raise awareness of trauma and to inspire
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Speaker 1: each of us to help those around us. Ready, all right, Samantha,
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Speaker 1: hear we go? So five, four, three, two and one
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Speaker 1: are folks. Welcome back to the podcast. Very excited to happens.
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Speaker 1: My guest today, Samantha Penrod.
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Speaker 2: Samantha, welcome, Hi, thank you, nice to meet you.
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Speaker 1: Awesome, awesome. So, Samantha is a behavioral health account executive
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Speaker 1: at the Receptionist, helping all of their behavioral health customers. Specifically,
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Speaker 1: she lives in Saint Pete, Florida, with her husband and
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Speaker 1: her black lab Rosa and a baby do in February.
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Speaker 1: Oh my god, I think we can talk about that. Congratulations,
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Speaker 1: that's crazy.
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Speaker 2: Thank you so much. The first one.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, awesome, awesome, Well, all right, before we could
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Speaker 1: go in here, share with the listeners where you're from
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Speaker 1: originally and where you are currently.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. So I'm originally from Tampa. I was born in Tampa, Florida.
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Speaker 2: I moved all over. My dad owned restaurants my whole life,
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Speaker 2: so we kind of moved around a lot. And then
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Speaker 2: after college, I ended up moving to Portland, Oregon for
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Speaker 2: a little bit, and then Denver, which is where I
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Speaker 2: started with the receptionist and where the receptionist is based.
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Speaker 2: And then during COVID they let me move home, so
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Speaker 2: that's how I ended up back in the Tampa Saint
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Speaker 2: Petersburg area.
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Speaker 1: Okay, awesome, And the receptionist was one of the sponsors
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Speaker 1: of this podcast. Just give us a thumbnail what the
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Speaker 1: receptions is and then well, I want to get into
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Speaker 1: your story.
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Speaker 2: Sure. The receptionist, very simply put, is a check in
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Speaker 2: system that practices and other types of businesses put in
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Speaker 2: their lobby so it can greet and check in clients
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Speaker 2: or visitors and then notifications go out to the right
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Speaker 2: provider letting them know they're there.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so automatically. In other words, a person doesn't have
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Speaker 1: to be there to be operating this. Okay, Oh exactly, Okay,
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Speaker 1: all right, so yeah, let's let's how did this start
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Speaker 1: for you.
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Speaker 2: Working at the receptions to mean or what do you mean?
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Speaker 1: I mean your story? Let's get into your story.
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Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, well yeah, So when I moved to Denver,
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Speaker 3: I had just gone through a bad breakup living in Portland,
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Speaker 3: and I had moved from Tampa to Portland, which is
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Speaker 3: literal port uh, polar opposite sides of the country.
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Speaker 2: And when I was in Portland, it was like the
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Speaker 2: worst winter they had in like twenty years. I don't
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Speaker 2: know if you remember twenty sixteen, but the whole city
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Speaker 2: shut down and I couldn't leave, and I worked remote,
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Speaker 2: so it was really difficult. And then I actually kind
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Speaker 2: of fell into a bit of a depression there, and
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Speaker 2: that's when, you know, we decided to break up. And
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Speaker 2: I'd always loved Colorado and so I was like, I'm
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Speaker 2: gonna apply to jobs in Denver, I'm gonna apply to
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Speaker 2: jobs in Florida St. Pete. And wherever I'm supposed to land,
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Speaker 2: I will land. And that was seven years ago, and
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Speaker 2: I've been with the receptionists since.
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Speaker 1: What kind of work were you looking for?
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Speaker 2: I've always been an entrepreneur in some format loved working
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Speaker 2: for myself. I worked with my ex boyfriend's friends who
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Speaker 2: started a CBD company helping cancer patients, and so I
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Speaker 2: was there for support and salesperson. So that's what I
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Speaker 2: was doing out there, working around so.
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Speaker 1: You land with the receptionist.
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Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, So I got started with the receptionists in
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Speaker 2: December twenty seventeen, and I was there for about, you know,
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Speaker 2: three years before COVID happened. The start of COVID was
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Speaker 2: just crazy, right for everybody, but coming from Florida, where
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Speaker 2: it's basically the wild West and everybody's allowed to go
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Speaker 2: outside and do things polar opposite in Colorado, right, it's
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Speaker 2: like it's you, we can leave your houses again. So
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Speaker 2: like I was isolated in Portland and then I was
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Speaker 2: isolated again. So it definitely brought up some stuff for me.
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Speaker 2: And I've always been like an open book, so I
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Speaker 2: was very honest with the receptionist about that and I
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Speaker 2: was just so thankful they. I mean, the receptionist treats
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Speaker 2: us very well. So definitely a safe space as far
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Speaker 2: as like work goes and mental health goes. So it
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Speaker 2: wasn't until June of twenty twenty that I was like,
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Speaker 2: you know what, I can't leave, I can't do much.
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Speaker 2: I might as well get in really good shape. So
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Speaker 2: I signed up to go to a personal trainer. And
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Speaker 2: I was went to the personal trainer and when I
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Speaker 2: was about to leave, he was like, are you okay?
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Speaker 2: You look a little cross eyed, and I was like, yeah,
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Speaker 2: I'm fine, But I just felt like maybe I was
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Speaker 2: dehydrated or something. And I went to leave and I
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Speaker 2: got my car and all of a sudden, my hands starting,
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Speaker 2: my right hands are tingling, and I like it looked
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Speaker 2: like a cockroach. I like started losing control over my
6:07
Speaker 2: whole body. Whoa craziest thing. I thought I was dying.
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Speaker 2: I pulled over. I begged a guy to call nine
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Speaker 2: on one for me. He was like, no, I'm good
6:16
Speaker 2: because it was COVID and he was like, you know,
6:18
Speaker 2: but he realized that I needed help, and so he
6:20
Speaker 2: called nine on one, and then when nine on one
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Speaker 2: got there, he was like, then the paramedics they were like,
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Speaker 2: you're having a panic attack. I was like, what what
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Speaker 2: do you mean. I've never had a panic attack. I
6:34
Speaker 2: have no idea what you're talking about. So that's how
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Speaker 2: it started. That's how this part of the story started.
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Speaker 1: That sounds like a pretty severe padic attack. I mean,
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Speaker 1: you were having like.
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Speaker 2: Muscle physiological effects. Yeah, at that point, and I didn't.
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Speaker 2: I was so scared. I had no idea what was
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Speaker 2: going on. And now I've learned so much that I
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Speaker 2: understand now that the stress, even if it was good
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Speaker 2: stress from the work out, put my body into fight
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Speaker 2: or flight, but it skipped right in Like I guess
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Speaker 2: I worked out way too hard and put me right
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Speaker 2: into a full blown panic attack. But at the time,
7:12
Speaker 2: because I was a I'm a relatively healthy person, my
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Speaker 2: doctor wanted to test me for multiple sclerosis and all
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Speaker 2: these different things, which kind of began my health anxiety journey.
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Speaker 1: Oh okay, I want to touch on that that something
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Speaker 1: about that rings a bell with me. But first of all,
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Speaker 1: I'm kind of, well not kind of, but I'm really
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Speaker 1: impressed with what you said about the receptionist in terms of,
7:43
Speaker 1: you know, you said it's a good place to be
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Speaker 1: and you were able to be open with them that.
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Speaker 1: I mean that speaks a lot to any company. But
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Speaker 1: how did you know you were able to do that
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Speaker 1: in the first place.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think I definitely try to live authentically.
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Speaker 2: We all, everyone that works at the receptionist has a
8:11
Speaker 2: small bit of equity in the company, and so you
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Speaker 2: act as if it's your own company, right like you care.
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Speaker 2: Everyone knows, we work hard. There's no micromanaging, you know what.
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Speaker 2: We all trust each other and that's very true. That
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Speaker 2: that aligns very much with my values. And that just
8:33
Speaker 2: allows a safe space to the space, safe environment to
8:38
Speaker 2: be to happen. And I had been there, you know,
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Speaker 2: for three and a half years at that point, so
8:45
Speaker 2: you know, I reported to the CEO for a while
8:47
Speaker 2: before we hired our sales director. Uh and then you know,
8:51
Speaker 2: now I report to the sales director. So I just
8:54
Speaker 2: I was the eighth employee started pretty much when soon
9:00
Speaker 2: after they got started in tales and fifteen. I started
9:02
Speaker 2: in Tales in seventeen and there was only eight employees
9:05
Speaker 2: by that point. So yeah, they just it's just a
9:09
Speaker 2: very it's a place where they really care about their
9:10
Speaker 2: about values and being authentic. And you know, I was
9:14
Speaker 2: in my early thirties at that point. I'm like, I
9:17
Speaker 2: only want to work for somewhere that aligns with my value.
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Speaker 2: I just that's the kind of person I am.
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Speaker 1: That's amazing. I want to work there. Yeah, so okay,
9:26
Speaker 1: so you experience what you were calling this kind of
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Speaker 1: health anxiety. Talk to us about that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it was the first time in my life
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Speaker 2: that I felt fear because of not having control over
9:43
Speaker 2: my body. So when you know, my arms, I looked
9:48
Speaker 2: like a cockroach, like my arms shriveled up, my legs.
9:53
Speaker 2: I felt my lips getting tingled, so I knew I
9:55
Speaker 2: was about to lose consciousness. Yeah, that was like the
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Speaker 2: first time in my life, in my whole life, that
10:02
Speaker 2: I didn't have control over my body. And so naturally,
10:05
Speaker 2: when they start testing me for MS and all these things,
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Speaker 2: and I'm in my early thirties, I'm like, oh my god,
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Speaker 2: I'm gonna die. Something's wrong with me. Mind you, my
10:16
Speaker 2: dad was also sick at the time, and he had
10:18
Speaker 2: been sick for a long time with congestive heart failure,
10:21
Speaker 2: and he was like, he was my best friend, so
10:25
Speaker 2: understanding he was dying and now I'm losing contilder in
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Speaker 2: my body. There was a lot of maybe crossover anticipatory
10:32
Speaker 2: grief going on that I didn't really know about because
10:37
Speaker 2: we're in COVID. I mean, you know, you just you
10:39
Speaker 2: don't know untill like now, I'm on the other side
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Speaker 2: of it. I didn't know at the time.
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Speaker 1: No, when you were going through that, what you now
10:49
Speaker 1: know is a panic attack. I mean you described the
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Speaker 1: physical sensation, but were you anxious mentally? Cognitively? Was that
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Speaker 1: going on for you? Were even work?
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Speaker 2: I think the first time it happened, I was terrified.
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Speaker 2: There was definitely like I didn't feel anxious, but I
11:10
Speaker 2: felt like, what the heck is happening to me?
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Speaker 1: You know?
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Speaker 2: I the next week, I was like, I'm going to
11:20
Speaker 2: go back to the personal trainer and I'm going to
11:22
Speaker 2: try again. And it happened again. So that's when I
11:26
Speaker 2: was like, but not as bad. But I was at
11:28
Speaker 2: the home and had to pull over and a cop
11:31
Speaker 2: happened to be behind me and he was like, here's
11:33
Speaker 2: some crackers. He's really nice and he helped me. But
11:36
Speaker 2: that's when I was like, Okay, maybe I need to
11:38
Speaker 2: go see a neurologist, like I need to figure this out.
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Speaker 1: So what do they what do they say it was
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Speaker 1: just panic attack? Cause no, you know what a thing
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Speaker 1: about extreme working out or something.
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Speaker 2: No, you know the thing. The thing that's amazing is
11:53
Speaker 2: that healthcare and maybe it's different, right, Like again, I'm
11:59
Speaker 2: in Florida. I think different parts of the country are different.
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Speaker 2: But at the time, the healthcare wants to fix you
12:09
Speaker 2: by your symptoms and they're not necessarily taking in the
12:13
Speaker 2: trauma or PTSD or what's going on in your personal life,
12:18
Speaker 2: how are you emotionally side of things. So like there
12:22
Speaker 2: wasn't really talk in my even though I loved my
12:25
Speaker 2: doctor of the but like in their practice, there wasn't
12:28
Speaker 2: like this could be a physiological effect of stress in
12:32
Speaker 2: your life, right, like they wanted to figure out And
12:36
Speaker 2: at the time, I thought, yeah, like I must have
12:40
Speaker 2: something wrong with me because I am not. This has
12:44
Speaker 2: never happened before. I hadn't learned this yet. So a
12:48
Speaker 2: lot of my tests came back normal, and then you're like,
12:51
Speaker 2: what's wrong, Like nothing's telling back like that anything's wrong,
12:56
Speaker 2: which is great, but at the same time, it's like, well,
12:58
Speaker 2: I'm not making this up, and I know for a
13:00
Speaker 2: fact there's so many other people in the world that
13:03
Speaker 2: deal with exactly that. So I to continue the story.
13:10
Speaker 2: I moved on. I did my best to move on,
13:13
Speaker 2: but I was like hyper aware of looking at my
13:15
Speaker 2: Apple watch and seeing how high my heart rate was.
13:18
Speaker 2: They thought I had pots. I thought maybe it was
13:21
Speaker 2: because the altitude in Colorado and me growing up on
13:24
Speaker 2: the beach, you know. M yeah. So then November, so
13:34
Speaker 2: that was June when the first panic attack happened. In November,
13:38
Speaker 2: the night before Thanksgiving, I was I didn't get We
13:43
Speaker 2: have a big Thanksgiving every year in North Carolina, and
13:48
Speaker 2: again my dad was sick, but because of COVID and everything,
13:53
Speaker 2: no one flew home. So I was in Colorado and
13:57
Speaker 2: I was really sad. Probably subconscious lead to not be
14:00
Speaker 2: going home, and so I went to sleep, and about
14:08
Speaker 2: an hour into sleep, the night before Thanksgiving, I woke up.
14:14
Speaker 2: I had a sharp shooting stomach pain. I saw black
14:18
Speaker 2: flash boom right into a panic attack. My legs started shaking,
14:23
Speaker 2: my arms did the thing again, and I was like
14:26
Speaker 2: call nine one one. I called nine one one. They
14:31
Speaker 2: came and I was like, just take me, take me
14:36
Speaker 2: to the hospital. I don't care, like you know, I'm terrified, terrified.
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Speaker 2: So as soon as I'm in the ambulance, I was
14:44
Speaker 2: around safety, right. So I started feeling safe immediately, and
14:48
Speaker 2: I was like, wow, this is crazy, Like I was asleep,
14:51
Speaker 2: like I didn't this is crazy. So that next morning
14:56
Speaker 2: was the morning that I realized that I might need help.
15:02
Speaker 1: I just paused for a second. I just want to
15:06
Speaker 1: say that I am so like, I don't want to
15:11
Speaker 1: stay impressed, but inspired and kind of in awe that
15:16
Speaker 1: you coming on here and sharing this story, you know,
15:21
Speaker 1: and being as vulnerable and open. I mean, come on,
15:26
Speaker 1: it takes a lot of friggin' guts to do that,
15:29
Speaker 1: and it just speaks to how I think really strong
15:36
Speaker 1: you are as a person. I just want to say that, Oh, thanks, No,
15:40
Speaker 1: I'm serious, it really does, so go please continue.
15:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that next morning I woke up and it
15:48
Speaker 2: was Thanksgiving. My main doctor prescribed me. She had prescribed
15:55
Speaker 2: me a little bit of xanax, and so she's like,
15:57
Speaker 2: if you feel panicky or whatever, just you know, take
16:00
Speaker 2: one of these very small dose. But at this point,
16:03
Speaker 2: like I wanted to go on a hike that day
16:06
Speaker 2: with my friends, and I made them turn the car
16:09
Speaker 2: around because I didn't have the xanax. And you know,
16:11
Speaker 2: it was because I was fear. Fear was leading me, right,
16:15
Speaker 2: And so that's when I realized, Like I had a
16:19
Speaker 2: conversation with my friends there saying I think I either
16:23
Speaker 2: need to fly home and spend some time at home
16:28
Speaker 2: or I need help because I cannot live like this.
16:31
Speaker 2: This is not who I am. I don't want to
16:34
Speaker 2: live in fear. And I started kind of thinking about
16:41
Speaker 2: it and brainstorming and realized that my one of my
16:45
Speaker 2: best friends from Colorado, her mom had gone to a
16:49
Speaker 2: residential treatment center in Arizona for depression, and so I
16:56
Speaker 2: ended up calling her and just like picking her brain
17:00
Speaker 2: and I ended up like so that was. That was Thanksgiving.
17:04
Speaker 2: On December first, I checked myself into uh, oh, gosh,
17:12
Speaker 2: what's it called. It's in Tucson, Arizona. Anyways, it's a.
17:19
Speaker 1: It's yeah, a big one for depression, for panic attacks,
17:27
Speaker 1: for panic attacks, yeah.
17:30
Speaker 2: And because again I thought I needed help figuring out
17:35
Speaker 2: maybe if I needed to go on zoloft or you know,
17:37
Speaker 2: something to help me rebalance my chemistry. So I wasn't
17:42
Speaker 2: having these panic attacks and figure out what was going on.
17:46
Speaker 2: And I have a very sensitive I'm a sensitive person,
17:52
Speaker 2: very in touch, like somatically with my body in sensations
17:57
Speaker 2: and feelings and things like that, and I didn't feel
18:01
Speaker 2: like I wanted to be in a safe place where
18:03
Speaker 2: I could figure it out and maybe start a small
18:07
Speaker 2: amount of zol off or something to balance myself out
18:10
Speaker 2: and care and yeah. So I so I checked myself
18:15
Speaker 2: into into I guess rehab panic panic rehab. And what's
18:22
Speaker 2: cool is the day before I did this, I called
18:26
Speaker 2: my boss and I was like, sorry, Tom, but I
18:30
Speaker 2: have to do this for myself. And the receptionist ended
18:32
Speaker 2: up paying for my flights.
18:34
Speaker 1: Wow.
18:35
Speaker 2: They were like, go, it's fine, and they let me
18:38
Speaker 2: take the time off and pay for my flights. Mm hmm. Yeah.
18:44
Speaker 1: Wow. So you get to this facility m hm. I'm
18:58
Speaker 1: trying to find out which was it Sierra Sierra Tucson.
19:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, Sierra two Sons.
19:05
Speaker 1: So what happens when you get there?
19:11
Speaker 2: So at this point, like flying there and everything, I
19:14
Speaker 2: was just happy to be there, but again had really
19:16
Speaker 2: no idea and I didn't want to tell my dad.
19:20
Speaker 2: Something I kind of failed to mention was I think
19:24
Speaker 2: in November earlier in the month, hospice had been called
19:29
Speaker 2: in and they said he had about like maybe a
19:32
Speaker 2: month to three months to live. But at the time,
19:36
Speaker 2: like me telling a story, even I didn't connect the
19:39
Speaker 2: dots at all, like as far as panic and anything
19:42
Speaker 2: about family and grief going on. So I got their
19:46
Speaker 2: December first, when they when you check into uh huh up.
19:53
Speaker 1: To this point, had you seen any type of therapist?
19:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, talk therapy, okay, therapy for.
20:00
Speaker 1: Sure, helpful at all. Yeah, but.
20:06
Speaker 2: I don't think talk therapy does does it for me?
20:09
Speaker 2: I just I just didn't know what other kind of
20:12
Speaker 2: therapies were out there yet. So so I get there December. First,
20:20
Speaker 2: they put you in like a like a I don't
20:24
Speaker 2: want to it's not like a psych word, but kind
20:26
Speaker 2: of is where they just like make sure you're stable
20:28
Speaker 2: because they don't know who you are and they don't
20:30
Speaker 2: know what your situation is, and there's people coming in
20:32
Speaker 2: for you know, alcohol, drugs, depression, all kinds of things really,
20:37
Speaker 2: So you go there first they get to know you,
20:41
Speaker 2: and then once you basically pass or you're stable enough,
20:47
Speaker 2: then they let you go into they sign you like housing,
20:50
Speaker 2: and then you go actually into the program where you
20:53
Speaker 2: go to see different therapists, which I can go into
20:56
Speaker 2: different types of therapy, And they also had a naturopathic program,
21:01
Speaker 2: which honestly changed my life. The naturopathic program changed my life.
21:05
Speaker 2: So I think it was like two days I was
21:08
Speaker 2: in the first part and then they assigned, you know,
21:12
Speaker 2: assigned me and I and I didn't want to tell
21:13
Speaker 2: my dad what was going on. I didn't want him
21:15
Speaker 2: to worry. But he had my location, you know, and
21:18
Speaker 2: so he's like, where what are you doing? I was like,
21:19
Speaker 2: I'm on a health retreat. I just didn't want to
21:21
Speaker 2: break around.
21:23
Speaker 1: Were you going in there? Excuse me? Smith? Were you
21:25
Speaker 1: going in there for a month? What was your what
21:27
Speaker 1: were your thoughts? Or playing?
21:29
Speaker 2: A month is what insurance covered. I did pay a
21:31
Speaker 2: bit out of pocket, but like not nearly what it
21:34
Speaker 2: is to pay without intern So okay, yeah, I thought
21:39
Speaker 2: thirty days.
21:40
Speaker 1: Okay, so you do that and you discover this naturopathic
21:48
Speaker 1: I'm really excious.
21:49
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, so basically you it's like camp. Honestly, I
21:53
Speaker 2: think everyone should go to rehab. I think rehab should
21:55
Speaker 2: be in corporations, like I think it's I don't I
21:58
Speaker 2: know rehabs kind of has a negative connotation, but I
22:02
Speaker 2: think it would be healthy for everyone to go to
22:04
Speaker 2: rehab based on what I learned in my experience. So
22:09
Speaker 2: they give you, you get checked into a room, they
22:13
Speaker 2: give you a schedule, and so you see a therapist
22:17
Speaker 2: one on one, you go to group therapy E M
22:21
Speaker 2: D R Sematic experiencing Wow. And then you have a
22:26
Speaker 2: rotation of equine therapy, so of course therapy, you you
22:31
Speaker 2: might do it like once a week, and then they
22:34
Speaker 2: have like yoga and then I hate additional for the
22:39
Speaker 2: naturopathic part where you get the bodywork part of it,
22:43
Speaker 2: so acupuncture, taichi uh, cranial sacral massages, all different types
22:54
Speaker 2: of massages. And then they also do blood work and
22:58
Speaker 2: see what's off and figure out how your trauma or
23:03
Speaker 2: stress is associated with your blood work and then help
23:10
Speaker 2: you figure that out, which I just thought was the
23:13
Speaker 2: coolest thing because I had just gone to my doctor's
23:17
Speaker 2: office and stuff like back in Colorado, and no one
23:19
Speaker 2: could figure out what's wrong with me, and no one
23:21
Speaker 2: was looking at like the trauma side or the emotional
23:25
Speaker 2: side of it. So now I'm in a place where
23:27
Speaker 2: they're looking at that. And I was just in like
23:31
Speaker 2: we talked about like just doing talk therapy, and now
23:34
Speaker 2: I'm exposed to all these different types of therapies. Right.
23:39
Speaker 2: So about a weekend weekend to the program, my mom
23:49
Speaker 2: tells me that my dad fell. My dad was a
23:52
Speaker 2: really big tough guy. He was a marine in Vietnam.
23:55
Speaker 2: He was a race car driver, He owned restaurants, my
23:57
Speaker 2: whole life, like cool, Like really, he was such a
24:00
Speaker 2: cool guy, you know. So when he falls, I'm like, okay,
24:04
Speaker 2: I think I need to tell him, So I say, Dad,
24:09
Speaker 2: I sent him a text and he's like, just let
24:10
Speaker 2: me know you're okay, my dad. I'm okay. I was like,
24:13
Speaker 2: I checked myself into rehab because I I've been having
24:18
Speaker 2: panic attacks and I just didn't want you to worry.
24:21
Speaker 2: But I'm okay. And he told me how proud of
24:23
Speaker 2: me he was and my resolve and that it was
24:27
Speaker 2: going to be the best money I ever spent, and
24:31
Speaker 2: so I felt so much better at that point. But
24:34
Speaker 2: at that point he started declining quickly. He fell again.
24:43
Speaker 2: So now I'm kind of realizing I'm not just there
24:46
Speaker 2: for panic attacks, that my dad's about to die, and
24:48
Speaker 2: I'm also there for grief. And I got lucky because
24:59
Speaker 2: they had their grief therapist on the payroll. There was
25:04
Speaker 2: like he's one of the top three grief therapists in
25:07
Speaker 2: the country, and so at this point, I'm like, I'm
25:11
Speaker 2: right where I'm supposed to be. I had facetimed my
25:15
Speaker 2: mom and she showed me my dad and stuff, but
25:17
Speaker 2: he wasn't awake. So yeah, I got there December first.
25:25
Speaker 2: My dad passed away on December fifteenth, and I left
25:31
Speaker 2: on New Year's Day, so it was like, you know,
25:33
Speaker 2: it was like the middle, exactly the middle of when
25:36
Speaker 2: I was there he passed away. So I truly think
25:41
Speaker 2: it all happened just the way I was supposed to.
25:47
Speaker 1: I mean, it's an incredible story of how it's easy
25:55
Speaker 1: for us not to be aware of what's going on
26:00
Speaker 1: to the surface that's causing our symptoms, the symptoms we're experiencing. Right,
26:05
Speaker 1: it's so easy to look at a panic attack and
26:09
Speaker 1: think one thing. But and again it's even easier for
26:13
Speaker 1: someone from the outside to look in. But oftentimes we
26:17
Speaker 1: don't take stock and we're not aware of what the
26:20
Speaker 1: hell is going on with ourselves, and it.
26:26
Speaker 2: Can take a lot of time to process too, Like
26:29
Speaker 2: maybe I thought I understood what was going on, but
26:32
Speaker 2: maybe it takes a little longer to process than I realized.
26:36
Speaker 1: Samantha, as we kind of wind down here, can you
26:40
Speaker 1: kind of dial in on what your experience was like
26:44
Speaker 1: and what the process was like for when the people
26:46
Speaker 1: at Sira Tu soon were able to connect the dots more.
26:52
Speaker 1: You talked about the blood and maybe asking questions about
26:57
Speaker 1: certain traumas and maybe how they were related, curious about that,
27:00
Speaker 1: what that looked like.
27:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I think, you know, the talk therapy was fine.
27:06
Speaker 2: The group therapy was great because you meet all kinds
27:08
Speaker 2: of people who all kinds of walks of life and
27:12
Speaker 2: realizing like how beautiful their souls were, you know, like
27:16
Speaker 2: I just that's why I don't really like having a
27:18
Speaker 2: negative connotation around the word rehab, because these people all
27:23
Speaker 2: had lights within within them, even if they were addicted
27:28
Speaker 2: to heroin or you know, had other issues, you know.
27:32
Speaker 2: So so yeah, group therapy was was was nice. Em
27:40
Speaker 2: DR didn't really work for me personally, but I know
27:44
Speaker 2: it didn't for a lot of other people. But the
27:45
Speaker 2: somatic experiencing really was what did it for me. I
27:52
Speaker 2: still well, I'm five months pregnant now, but I was
27:57
Speaker 2: in a lot of yoga, a lot of yoga because
28:01
Speaker 2: it's all it's very somatic practice afterwards, but the SEMAC
28:05
Speaker 2: experiencing and learning those techniques and tools, you know, now,
28:10
Speaker 2: I tell everyone about samat experiencing in my experience there,
28:15
Speaker 2: and then the body work part of it, understanding that
28:18
Speaker 2: chemical residue is left in the body from emotions. Emotions
28:25
Speaker 2: leave chemical residue in the body. So with the body work,
28:29
Speaker 2: the acupuncture, the massages, I started to feel better. I
28:34
Speaker 2: started taking fifty milligrams of Zoloft and that definitely helped
28:38
Speaker 2: for a little while, you know, helped, and then the
28:43
Speaker 2: blood work and everything came back, and I had I
28:46
Speaker 2: did test for a few bands of lime in epstein bar,
28:50
Speaker 2: So the epstein bar and lime can activate when you
28:56
Speaker 2: go through a lot of stress or a weakened immune system.
29:00
Speaker 2: So the symptoms that I was having, the panic attacks
29:03
Speaker 2: were most likely a mix between the reaction from lime
29:06
Speaker 2: and epstein bar and my nervous system being completely over
29:12
Speaker 2: like it was not. My nervous system needed a lot
29:16
Speaker 2: of help. So that's kind of what I ended up learning.
29:19
Speaker 2: And I still go to acupunctorry. I still get a
29:21
Speaker 2: massage once a week, and people might not be able
29:25
Speaker 2: to afford that necessarily, but I do think that they're
29:29
Speaker 2: not necessarily just nice to have. I think when you
29:32
Speaker 2: take care of the body work part of it, whatever
29:36
Speaker 2: type of therapy works for you, that at least for
29:39
Speaker 2: me in this over stimulation so much stimulation world, hyperstimulation,
29:48
Speaker 2: that's what helps me regulate my nervous system to keep
29:51
Speaker 2: it healthy.
29:53
Speaker 1: Now, Wow, after we're through with this, I'm gonna go
29:58
Speaker 1: book a massage. Good Man, Samantha Intent.
30:06
Speaker 2: I wouldn't change it because I learned so much about myself,
30:08
Speaker 2: I bet.
30:09
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I'm just thinking, like, the receptionist is
30:11
Speaker 1: so lucky to have someone like you. You really to
30:15
Speaker 1: be there and to be I have gone through this
30:18
Speaker 1: and to be open to share this. I mean, it's
30:21
Speaker 1: really an incredible story. Wow. I want to thank thank
30:26
Speaker 1: you again for doing this. Yeah. So all right, So
30:30
Speaker 1: if people want to learn about you, maybe they want
30:32
Speaker 1: to learn about the receptionist. What's the best way for
30:34
Speaker 1: them to get in contact.
30:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely check out the receptionist. We do I specifically
30:40
Speaker 2: help all of our behavioral health practices because probably because
30:44
Speaker 2: of what I've been through myself and just relating and
30:48
Speaker 2: trying to help folks. But yeah, the receptionist dot com
30:52
Speaker 2: is where you can learn about us, and then you
30:55
Speaker 2: can reach me there as well. Sam at the receptionist
30:58
Speaker 2: dot com on LinkedIn.
31:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I'll have all this linked up here at
31:05
Speaker 1: the show notes page at the Trauma diaperspodcast dot com
31:08
Speaker 1: and one other thing. Sorry please.
31:11
Speaker 2: In March, I started a behavioral health success in Session
31:16
Speaker 2: newsletter to try to help connect some of the operational
31:20
Speaker 2: UH dots for practice owners and people as well. So
31:24
Speaker 2: if you want to sign up for that, you can
31:26
Speaker 2: and I'll provide that in the so you can put
31:29
Speaker 2: it in the show notes too if you want.
31:30
Speaker 1: Okay, just what is it? What is the name of
31:33
Speaker 1: it or the r L in session success in Session
31:41
Speaker 1: in session dot com.
31:44
Speaker 2: No, it's it's on the receptionist website. You sign up there,
31:49
Speaker 2: all right, we'll link that up. The monthly newsletter we
31:52
Speaker 2: talked about last month, we talked about addressing the weight stigma,
31:55
Speaker 2: mental health care taxes, the business of private practice. Yeah,
31:58
Speaker 2: just trying to help conect a lot of the dots
32:01
Speaker 2: for people doing the hard stuff to help America heal
32:05
Speaker 2: from mental health.
32:06
Speaker 1: So definitely awesome. Congratulations on the baby and let the
32:11
Speaker 1: book with that. You're talking to you, Thank you so much,
32:14
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me