Bethany L. Transcript

All right. Well, I’m very grateful for the chance to do this. I really do love what you guys are doing and feel like it’s, important. So my name is Bethany Lewis, I am an Occupational Therapist, and I am also a life coach. But I’m also a mom of six kiddos. My oldest is 14, and my youngest is 3 and they keep us very busy. I grew up in Delaware, on the east coast there, and then we live currently in Utah. I really love the mountains really love it out here. It’s so so pretty. But I have a very soft spot in my heart for the East as well. And yeah, I love to play the flute. And I really enjoy that. I love going on walks and hikes and snuggling Babies. I love babies. And yeah, that’s, that’s kind of me.

I graduated from OT school back in 2009 and then worked in a bunch of places, we’ve lived in a few different places and OT has been a huge blessing. I’ve gotten to work in all, like, we lived in three different states and in China and I was able to work in all those places and had some cool opportunities through that. But for the last seven years, over seven years, I’ve been working at a concussion clinic in Provo, Utah, which is where I first got introduced to concussions. And like I’ve heard about a concussion before, I just didn’t know what concussions could do in a person’s life. And so, as you know, in the years of working there, I’ve just become more and more passionate about wanting to get the word out that people can heal from concussions because so many people that I see come in and have been told this is your new normal just get used to it or, you know, at the beginning, they’re told, go sit in a dark room don’t do anything. Like there’s a lot of misinformation we know so much more now. I just want to be part of this wave of people who are trying to get the word out about what concussions really are, and how we can actually recover from them because recovery is possible. So again, I love what you guys are doing, I feel like it’s very aligned with the passion that I feel and feel pulled to at this point.

So that’s kind of my history with concussions specifically and then I have become really interested in coaching, life coaching and kind of the mental and emotional component of things and I see that there’s a big need for addressing that in recovery as well, that isn’t always addressed in the, you know, the more physical, like, let’s get your symptoms under control kind of thing. I’ve recently kind of, within the last couple years, started a concussion coaching practice, which I feel very guided into and very, I really, really love doing it’s a it’s a passion for me. So I have a program that I offer for people to do. They can come and we work on basically I see myself kind of as a guide on somebody’s concussion journey, just to help them know what they don’t know. Because there’s, again, so much that isn’t known. So I like to help people understand and manage their symptoms, and speed up their recovery and get control over their life post concussion. And, as part of that, like, some of the ways that I do that is through helping people understand and befriend their nervous system, because that’s a huge component, knowing when to push and rest, just like strategizing and problem solving, work and school and social related challenges. Giving them tools again to deal with those mental and emotional components of the continued recovery. So that’s kind of what I do.

This is my passion project. I love it so much. I do free consultations, I’m happy to talk to anybody. And even if you don’t do the program that’s totally fine. Come like get in touch with me and we can, chat and I can try to offer some help in that half hour. And I also do a podcast, which again, I feel very strongly about getting good information quality information out there. Very similar to what you guys are doing. Mine are longer than the short stories here, which I think are fabulous. It’s good to have little snippets. Mine are typically an hour-ish of a podcast, and it’s stories of survivors and medical professionals. Lots of good quality information out there. I actually got the privilege of interviewing Eliana recently so I haven’t put it out yet, but by the time people listen to this, hopefully it’ll be out. So look up the concussion coach podcast on any of the major podcasting platforms and on YouTube and you can listen to that interview, she did a great job, and her story is very inspiring. So there’s yeah, there’s the podcast, again, the concussion coach podcast. And if people want to find me, they can go to www.theconcussioncoach.com, you can sign up for a free consultation there and learn a little bit more about me there. I’m also on Instagram and Facebook at the concussion coach. So lots of ways to find me, I just again, I feel very passionate about getting getting good quality information out there and have loved as I’ve dived into this, there’s a whole world of people with a similar passion and feeling pulled in a similar direction. So I think this is really great that yeah, the word is getting out there.

As I’ve, worked with people, and listened to stories and talk to people, I feel like I’ve gotten a good I’m learning all the time, from people who are dealing with this and so some of the things that I’ve really appreciated and in learning is working with, I have one client who is a teenager, she’s in high school right now and she and her mom, come to the coaching sessions, and we have a lot of really good conversations, like a lot of strategy kind of sessions like, okay, you know, choir is too loud. So where do I go? Like, what kind of hearing protection can I use? Where do we like, and like, her math class is really challenging because of, again, the fan in the background, it’s like, it’s so interesting to see the things that come up that if you haven’t dealt with a concussion, or talked to a lot of people who deal with a concussion, you’d have no idea how impactful these kinds of background things can be. And how challenging it can be. Recently, her choir took a trip to New York City and so we spent a good full session just planning that, like figuring out, okay, where are quiet spots in the city to go like, what are you going to do if this happens, and like, we just had a really good session about that. I think I’m going to be interviewing them on the other side of it, so that they can share some of the learnings that they had from that trip, because I think planning and executing a vacation or trip and travel can be very challenging for people.

There’s just, there’s so many, so many things that I’ve learned from people and I guess some of the advice that I would love to share based on all the conversations that I’ve had with people and observing is: first, just know that you’re not crazy, and you’re not lazy, all of a sudden, your brain and your nervous system are working on recovery from a brain injury. So just having all the self compassion and self love and patience along the way and I know that that can be really challenging, especially a lot of times people, you know, have been really go getters and very motivated and very able to do a lot and to have that kind of that rug pulled out from under, you can be very disconcerting but I just want to, again, let people know, there is hope for healing. This isn’t this isn’t your forever, this isn’t “your new normal” that you just have to get used to. There are things that you can do treatments that can help and on the other hand, a part of that accepting where you are, is also really important towards that recovery. So it’s, there’s a lot of balance to be had, with all of the things a lot of paradoxes like you, you want to be working towards, towards recovery and recovery as possible. But the way to do that is through accepting where you are right now. And I think that’s, that’s challenging, but really important. Just remember that, that your your recovery is it matters you matter and even if things feel totally upside down and backwards and inside out and insane. It’s going to be okay, like breathe. You matter and what you’re doing to take care of yourself is important, and it matters. Something else that I’ve heard from people that I think is important, especially this is from somebody who has been on the healing journey for a while.

One of the things that she said like she could go back in time to tell her early self was that your body is your teammate, like your brain and your body are on your side. They’re not the enemy. And I think that can be a thing that happens a lot of times is people feel like I’m fighting my brain and body like these symptoms that just appear out of nowhere seemingly. They’re like you’re always on alert, and like never sure what’s going to happen and so it feels like feels like they’re not on your side but they are the reason those symptoms are coming up is because your brain and your body are trying to protect you and just remember that it’s going to be again, a lot of stuff compassion, self care and loving yourself through this is going to be really important. Something that I think is can be really helpful to understand is the nervous system piece. Again, this is something that I didn’t, realize until much later in my learning about concussions, but how key our nervous system is, and it’s so common for the nervous system to get dysregulated with a brain injury, and as well as those underlying vision, and vestibular auditory processing issues, like all of these things, that are kind of underlying background processes that we don’t think about, and that people often don’t even realize have been compromised from a concussion. Those things send signals to the brain of threat, if they’re not working properly. If your eyes are taking, if it’s taking a lot of effort for your eyes to focus on something, if it’s taking, if you’re not sure where sounds are coming from that is very disorienting, and the brain and the body again, even if we’re not consciously aware that those systems aren’t working, the nervous system recognizes it and feels threat because it doesn’t know. It wants to know what’s happening around it and if it doesn’t, then it puts us into that kind of more anxious, hyper aroused state that people can feel stuck in. So again, you’re not crazy, if you’re having all of these these issues that may seem unrelated and surprising, like, the heightened anxiety that people don’t always recognize is part of concussion. You can have digestive issues, you can have temperature regulation issues, and blood pressure issues, like all of these things that people don’t necessarily recognize as being related to concussion can be impacted by a concussion and, again, you’re not crazy, this is just a thing that happens and, it can be worked through, so I think that’s important for people to know. The nervous system, the brain and the nervous system, take care of everything and so if those have been compromised, like anything’s on the table, really, you’re not crazy. So, seek help, please and for the people, I think sometimes it depends on the severity, or whatever, you know, like, where you’re at how capable you are of seeking that help, can vary from day to day, probably month to month. So it is really helpful, if possible to get some good people in your corner.

I think a lot of times, the caregivers are very curious to know what they can do to be helpful. And so some, again, advice that I’ve gleaned from working with patients, as well as talking to caregivers and talking to people who are brain injury survivors. Here’s here’s some of the summary of the things that I’ve learned for caregivers. So I would say, first, again, you matter, your emotional state, your needs, your cup needs to be full. So please take care of yourself too and again, here’s the paradox, you also do matter to your loved one, and you do play an important role. So we want to find that balance of being there for them, because I know you want to be there for them and it can be really hard because they don’t even know what they need half the time, maybe more than half the time. But make sure that you’re taking care of your nervous system, and your emotional needs. So that you can have something to give. I know that’s sometimes easier said than done, but please do that. I was talking to someone recently and their their advice, which I thought was fabulous, was to help the least amount possible and I thought that was so good because it you like you do want to be there, you want to provide the support but you don’t want to do everything because people do need to be working towards improvement themselves as well. I think, again, it’s hard to find balance and figuring these things out but the role that you play is important and what you’re doing matters. I would also say to believe your person, when they tell you what’s going on. Just again, knowing the nervous system piece of it and how much the brain impacts everything be at least be open to the possibility that what they’re expressing to you, could be true for them because I think a lot of times that is something that people feel very lost in is even from the medical community, they’re being told now that that’s not, you’re not real or you’re not really experiencing that or it couldn’t be really do a concussion. Just believe them? I think that’s key and then helping them to find resources and advocating for them.

Again that mother and daughter that I work with the daughter went to a vision therapist, which again, super helpful that underlying system that needs to be worked on and fixed is fixable in a lot of ways. But these sessions that she was going to were really, really hard for her and she was getting really overwhelmed and overstimulated and she was saying that, you know, in these sessions, I can’t even say anything, I can’t, I can’t advocate for myself, because I can’t even think straight. So the mom came with her to like, I think her third one, and she had a conversation with the therapist and the therapist was like, well, I’ve told her that if she starts feeling dizzy or nauseous, we can totally stop and take a break and the mom was like, those are not the symptoms that she experiences, she doesn’t get dizzy, she doesn’t get nauseous. So she’s not going to say that to you. These are the symptoms that she experiences. This is when you need to take a break. And again, that therapist, I’m sure, you know, had a lot of experience and was was very well intentioned, but she didn’t know what this particular client needed. And so being there as an advocate for your loved one can be very key, and very life changing. So those are some of the thoughts as far as caregivers, things that, that again, I’ve heard and have spoken to people about and I guess just as, as I’ve worked with people and talk to people, some of the things that have just been really surprising to me about concussions is how impactful it can be, again, you hear “just a concussion” and you just think people tend to think, oh, okay, there’ll be out for a day or two, or maybe a week or two and they’ll be fine.

That’s a lot of times what people are told is, yeah, just wait it out, see what happens but it can actually like completely turn somebody’s life upside down, I had no idea about that or how you could have that kind of experience without even hitting your head and then it doesn’t matter how “bad the injury was” to that doesn’t necessarily equate to how bad the post concussion experience can be. So you know, a harder hit to the head may or may not result in a harder recovery period. There’s so much so it’s so individualized and every injury can be different. It just, you just don’t know exactly how it’s gonna play out until you’re playing it out. So it’s also shocking to me again, how, little the medical community is aware still of these things, and how frequently I hear people tell me, things that make me want to like scream, like “No, this is not accurate”, so well, hopefully, things are changing and I do see things changing and people, you know, the word getting out, which is huge and so important and I guess yeah, that the last thing that I would say as far as things that were surprising to me is just the how that dysregulation of the nervous system kind of like I mentioned before can be can be so impactful, and can seem like so surprising the things that can be impacted, that don’t seem to be related to a hit to the head. It’s a real thing. This is a thing that people deal with and they’re I think that so many more people are out there that are dealing with this and realize it and you know, some of these symptoms can come up post injury that you don’t even necessarily attribute to the injury and so I think it’s just really, really important to get the word out there and I feel so passionate about it and so grateful that I get to share this, these thoughts today.

Thanks for letting me kind of put together some of the things that I’ve learned from the experiences of so many people who are so inspiring to me, I just want to say that to like, all of you who are out there are dealing with this.

I love you and I appreciate you and I see you and I am so grateful for you pushing forward. I’m gonna get emotional about it because I do I just I see people struggling so much and people don’t see it. Nobody else knows, so I want you to know that it’s you’re not alone and people care and people want to help you. So please reach out for help. You are worth it. Thank you! Sorry, I get emotional sometimes.