Life after a Brain Injury

Sara Swift, Psychotherapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner worked with patients who had traumatic brain injuries, but when she experienced a TBI herself, it gave her a whole new insight. While riding a bike in Boulder, Swift was hit by a car. Instantly her life changed. For the past 5 1/2 years she has been dealing with the impact of the accident.

“No two brain injuries are the same”

In a single year, 3.5 million people in the US get brain injuries. Swift stresses that, “No two brain injuries are the same,” and her symptoms ranged a considerable amount. “You know you’re not the same, but you don’t know why,” her motor skills changed, and at times, she had a stutter. She had to learn to talk again by visualizing her words first before she was able to speak them. Most surprising was her foreign accent syndrome, very rare condition in brain injury patients, where her speech starting sounding as if she were from Scotland, Ireland, and/or South Africa.

This injury left an permanent impact on her personal life as well. Her partner said he missed the old Sara, and could not fall in love with the current one.

She will give a presentation on will explore how a TBI changes the landscape of our brain, nervous system, body, relationships, career and our sense of identity on Friday morning in Boulder as part of the Interface series Reimagining Ourselves: Healing From A Traumatic Brain Injury.

Details:

Date: May 18th, 2018

Location: Naropa University 

Time: 7:15 AM coffee and tea and 7:30 discussion. 

Hear more of Swift’s story here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download