KENDRA SIMPKINS Dedicated To Serving Fellow Veterans Kendra is a LCSW and MSW who works at MindSpa in Sarasota. Her specialty is as a Rapid Resolution Therapy (RRT) Master Practitioner. She’s also a trauma-informed yoga instructor. A U.S. Army veteran, Kendra also co-founded the nonprofit Operation Warrior Resolution, a veteran-run organization with the primary mission of providing RRT and other holistic approaches to veterans and family members at no cost. In addition to offering therapy, she created trauma-informed yoga classes and personal retreats —all to help veterans gain back their lives, freed from PTSD. 16 WEST COAST WOMAN OCTOBER <strong>2020</strong>
Is it time to rebalance your retirement portfolio? TSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is defined as a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault. Different wars and conflicts produce different percentages, but broadly speaking, PTSD affects the military at a rate of 10-12 per cent. It takes a dedicated practitioner to work with and effectively treat the men and women with these special concerns. That’s where Kendra Simpkins comes in. You can call her many things: veteran, social worker, yoga instructor, CEO, researcher, healer and more. Put it this way, her “elevator” speech might require a building with many floors because she has done so much. Kendra is a LCSW and MSW who works at MindSpa in Sarasota. Her specialty is as a Rapid Resolution Therapy (RRT) Master Practitioner. She’s also a trauma-informed yoga instructor. And, as you’ll read, she’s also pretty generous and caring, though those aren’t jobs per se, they’re how she conducts herself. She grew in Sarasota, was a Riverview grad, and attended then MCC (Now SCF). She joined the U.S. Army at 26, influenced in part by her grandfather who had served in WW2. Kendra had a successful career as an Army Military Intelligence Analyst in South Korea—something she says she “loved”— that is until things “became difficult.” During that time, she lost her dad and her grandfather and experienced other emotional challenges making it difficult to do her duties, she explains. She received an honorable discharge in 2010 after a year and a half in the Army. But things continued to deteriorate back in the States, where alcoholism, a divorce and other issues led to a suicide attempt followed by hospitalization that included a coma lasting three days. She recovered and found support not at the VA, but with a student veterans group at USFSM, a place where she would get her degree in psychology. Kendra felt the VA wasn’t serving veterans adequately and she wanted to help her fellow veterans. She decided to pursue her studies and earned a Masters in Social Work from Columbia University in New York City. She missed Florida and came back. In 2017 Kendra opened her practice offering Rapid Resolution Therapy (RRT). She was trained by RRT founder Dr. Jon Connelly who created the breakthrough treatment that has shown to be quite effective with treating trauma. On Dr. Connelly’s website, he says, “Research shows that without proper soothing and deactivation of the nervous system, patients can stay in a triggered state and unable to access the parts of the brain needed to remain in the here and now. ” In her therapy sessions, Kendra asks what clients are thinking and keeps them present. That means they don’t need to relive their trauma. Hypnotherapy is part of the regimen, but is actually more like “guided imagery” as she explains it. Cognitive therapy is also employed, but there’s no one treatment plan for everyone - it’s flexible to meet an individual’s needs. In layperson’s terms, trauma can get “stuck” and needs a pathway out. The goal is to open up a neural pathway and be in “a state of ease.” The mind’s natural reaction is “fight or flight” in which cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline are released. In very simple terms, the goal is to open pathways so that the traumatic memory is released. Kendra also provides RRT to individuals experiencing not just PTSD, but also sexual trauma, grief, depression or anything troubling associated to prior experiences. According to the Harvard health newsletter, “Research suggests that chronic stress contributes to high blood pressure, promotes the formation of artery-clogging deposits, and causes brain changes that may contribute to anxiety, depression, and addiction,” thus showing how PTSD affects both the mind and body. As an example of how RRT can help, Kendra relays how a veteran texted her about his July 4th experience writing, “no ducking…. and heart rate fine.” The noise from fireworks that are so typical of July 4th celebrations can be quite traumatic to someone who has military-related PTSD. Thus that veteran made it through the holiday thanks, in part to RRT, but also through Kendra’s working with him. In 2018 Kendra co-founded the nonprofit Operation Warrior Resolution, a veteran-run nonprofit organization with the primary mission of providing RRT and other holistic approaches to veterans and family members at no cost. As President and Chief Operating Officer, her goal is to oversee the organization and get funding to make sure all veterans can receive those services. From her website: “Operation Warrior Resolution (OWR) was created in response to the reported 22 military veterans tragically committing suicide each day in America. Unfortunately, the numbers of veterans lost to suicide each day is not decreasing.” And she has expanded OWR’s programming in innovative ways. Part of her practice and an important part of her own life has been the study of yoga. Operation Warrior Resolution offers free yoga classes for active-duty and retired military personnel twice a week at MindSpa located off Bee Ridge Road. The classes are called “Combat Conscience Yoga” and photos show men and women of all ages and shapes moving into fluid and deliberate yoga poses. Veterans’ healing retreats are also offered and there will be on for women this January. The goal is to heal and return veterans to a post-military world free of PTSD. RRT is not lengthy and she again emphasizes, does not require reliving painful or traumatic experiences. COVID-19 has been especially hard on those dealing with PTSD creating or exacerbating substance abuse issues. COVID also affected Kendra’s travel to India to deepen her Hatha yoga knowledge. She had left the U.S. and arrived in India early March <strong>2020</strong>, “basically when the world shut down,” she laughs at her unfortunate bad timing. She was headed to Rishikesh, the self-proclaimed yoga capital of the world to expand her knowledge. What should have been a retreat to relax the mind and body became lockdown as the virus spread quickly spread around the world. India allowed no planes to enter and the borders were closed and thus no planes were going out. It was a three-week extension. “It was such a blessing,” she comments and adds, “I got everything I needed by being there.” Now that is someone who definitely practices what she teaches. In 2019, Kendra was named Sarasota Female Veteran of the Year by the Sarasota County Veterans Commission. But the reward comes in knowing how many veterans — men and women — she has helped regain their lives. For more information on RRT and Kendra’s practice, visit https://sarasota rapidresolutiontherapy.com. To learn more about Operation Warrior Resolution, visit operationwarriorresolution.org or call 920-840-3327. There you can find out more about the upcoming Female Veteran Healing Retreat in January <strong>2020</strong>. 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Offices: Bradenton/ Lakewood Ranch 756-6600 The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisements. Before you decide, ask us to send you free written information about our qualifications and experience. OCTOBER <strong>2020</strong> WEST COAST WOMAN 17
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