Jen V. Transcript

Hi, my name is Jen Valera. I’m a social worker and therapist in the East Bay, near Oakland and Piedmont. And I just wanted to send a message to folks who are healing from concussion and their friends and their family, and one of the you know that, though a lot of us therapists don’t have first hand experience and we’re still learning so very much about what it’s like to have a concussion and the healing that comes afterwards, there are people who didn’t understand and support you through this journey. I mean, it seems like there’s ups and there’s downs, and it’s kind of unpredictable, and depending how often you’ve been concussed and what’s going on, this stuff can be pretty severe over a longer period of time than we would hope. But, what I want to let you know is that there’s hope, and that there is a lot that we know about healing, and that things get better. And sometimes friends and families are too involved with all that happened, maybe up to the time that you got a concussion, or they can’t listen very well, but maybe that’s why sometimes it’s okay to ask for outside help.

So, I’ve worked with lots of people who have concussions, and we do have to educate ourselves about this and talk to neurologists, and talk to other people who are taking care of you, the people who are suffering. But I do know that in a team, things work much better. There are therapists out there who help you get through it. And that it’s not always like a single deal. It’s sort of like, well, your friend group can change, you feel not like yourself. There can be a lot of things that you loose from a concussion. That’s not even to mention, if it’s a traumatic thing that hurt your head.

Anyhow, I just wanted to kind of offer that: hope but also a sense that there are a lot of people who’ve gone through this who bear it in silence and it’s a kind of a wound that isn’t shown on the outside. No one can really know what this looks like on the inside. And so it kind of makes it doubly hard to get through it. You know, it’s not like a sprained ankle where we can see you hobbling around and make space for you and help you out. It’s a different process. But I want to ask you to be patient with it. Take good care of yourself. Take the advice of people who know what they’re doing and find some community. You know, like this Concussion Box project, pretty amazing stuff. Anyway, this has been Jen Valera. Be well.