Bryon Gustafson

So I decided to go to school.

I was getting my degree in psychology.

I was fortunate enough to work at the Vet Center for the VA, so specializing in PTSD, military sexual trauma.

And they try to stay away from a sterilized feel, if you're familiar with Vet Centers.

while I was there and again I'm just working as a work study right so I'm going to school getting my degree this is how I'm making a little bit of income getting able to do my homework while I was there I noticed the approach for dealing with PTSD and that you know somebody comes in says on the couch you talk about your feelings and your you know your issues and then you leave having also had a major influence in my life that was my father-in-law who was in Vietnam special forces fifth group

um, had some, dealt with some stuff in his time.

And so, um, he had a lot of, uh, a big impact on me.

But at that time, 22 kill was a big number.

I don't know if you remember that, um, veteran suicide.

And that was about 2012 when that was going on.

And so I just felt that there was a

improving mental health for warriors that were coming home and i didn't think that sitting on a couch talking to a counselor at that time there weren't a whole lot of counselors that had combat experience so there was a little bit of a breakdown a lot of times guys and gals don't want to speak with somebody who's never been there right there's a little bit of a you know you aren't there so you wouldn't know uh mentality and so

the idea of getting veterans into the back country and being around other veterans that have had this experience and being able to show them tangible ways in which that you could alleviate like

that chokehold that Bob was experiencing from fear, right?

Like that happens after combat in the civilian world.

And if you don't know how to get through it, you don't know how to get that goal to get yourself re-centered and move forward.

You can get stuck in that loop.

And again, just sitting on a couch, talking to a counselor, didn't seem like it was hitting the mark.

So I felt that there was a better way to go about it.

Also the, the Marine that we were talking about earlier.