(upbeat music playing)
- My name is Esmeralda Real-Gutierrez.
I was in the Navy, and I was in from 2016 to 2019.
I was a corpsman.
I needed to get treatment when I got out.
I developed PTSD after like an assault,
and it's difficult
to wanna come back into the VA
just because it looks like the military.
Wanna get as far away as possible but it's difficult
to receive treatment while running away. (chuckles)
- My name is Shalo Alberto,
I am with army, and I was a medic.
Transition to the civilian workforce was a hit and miss.
I was angry a lot,
but I didn't realize that I was,
or it took me a while to acknowledge that.
I had a double pulmonary embolism.
I died twice.
They did CPR on me for, I don't know,
I think maybe 45 minutes.
Since I woke up from being in a coma,
I've gone through depression, anxiety, anger,
suicidal thoughts, and once I acknowledged that
I kinda look for places to go to see if I can get some help.
- My name's Suzanne Deisher.
I'm an Art Therapist here in the Trauma Recovery Program.
Art therapy you know, utilizes our neuro pathways
in different ways that verbal processing alone can't do.
Which allows us to look at traumatic events
and challenges in a deeper level,
and find ways to approach them in a different way.
Sometimes verbal processing can only get us so far
and we have to take it on a deeper level.
We have to get in our bodies, into our souls,
and our individual authentic makeups,
and using the creative process really helps with that.
Watching Esmeralda utilize the art therapy process
was just, (inhales) it's what draws me to this profession.
Seeing how somebody could come in, closed down,
not functioning as well as they could be,
and her tapping into her inner self
through the creative process, her willingness to explore.
Esmeralda had the willingness
and the desire to have a better life.
- I already had experience with painting
and was doing it on kind of my own.
But being able to be in a space
with someone who holds a space for you and listens to you,
and not just listens to the words that you have,
but also like what you created with your own hands,
it held a part of me that I don't think I've ever
experienced it being held before.
They kinda helped me get regulated again.
And they kinda helped me like, find who I am again,
spend some time with myself,
like, get in tune with my feelings,
and like, develop more interpersonal,
like relationship skills with myself and with others.
- I couldn't draw a stick figure if I tried, right?
But I knew that art was a good mode for therapy,
but I didn't realize how helpful it was
until I went through my rehab.
As I am learning how to draw, we have a discussion.
And as I focused on creating the art,
it kinda opened up my mind more to conversations
and discussions of what I'm feeling in the moment.
Be mentally present and actually express that.
It was actually very powerful for me.
It was very empowering to have something in control.
You know, to control whatever it is I'm feeling,
to identify what that is,
and be able to do something about it.
And the love that I received while I was in the hospital
at the VA Palo Alto, at the ICU, at the rehab centers,
I am forever grateful for what they did for me.
They were fighting for me and they didn't even know me.
I'm here today because of the people that fought
to give me a life,
and you know, fought to get me get stronger
so I can go home and be with my family.
(soft music playing)