I attended the three-week brain wellness Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) in September 2024. Those three weeks allowed me to unclench my shoulders, my fist, my thoughts, my fears and unclench the breath I have been holding in for years.

I served in the United States Navy for 24 honorable years. Throughout that time, I operated in survival mode. Surviving each duty station, each deployment, each mental and physical injury. After my last sea duty deployment in 2008, I noticed a change in who I “used” to be. My anger, temper and tolerance were not the same. My smile was not the same, I did not recognize myself. My headaches turned into migraines with no explanation.

Six months after I retired in 2021, I was diagnosed with a neurological condition that left me with more questions than answers. This led me to finding Dr. Silliman to manage my care. He was the blessing that I did not know I needed. As his new patient, sharing with him my military career and my symptoms. He looked at me and said “I think you can benefit from The Leon Haley Brain Wellness Program”. I did a brief overview of the site; it left me in awe. The description alone fit what I have been battling with for years, anxiety, depression, hypervigilance and a host of other invisible wounds of my time in service.

Attending the three-day assessment was the mirror that I needed to face. The mirror that showed me the things I have hid, the problems that previous providers overshadowed with medication that masked the underlying causes. The providers of this program individualized my care, they LISTENED to every anxious thought of mine. They provided reassurance that I was not alone, that I was not “making up” symptoms they assured me it was not “in my head”.