Episode 744
Her Story, Her Healing: Women Veterans After TBI
Why watch: Seven women veterans share their journeys through brain injury, resilience, and healing — and why their voices matter.
In Her Own Words centers women service members and veterans as they describe traumatic brain injury in their own voices. Created through a digital storytelling workshop with StoryCenter and supported by the VA Palo Alto Health Care System Polytrauma System of Care, these seven short films make room for experiences that can be overlooked because women remain a minority within the veteran community. Across A Miracle Can Happen, Different Me, Hope, Ready or Not, Stronger, The Advocate, and Wounded Trust, viewers encounter personal paths through injury, changed identity, resilience, advocacy, trust, and healing. In Wounded Trust, Jeanette shares the struggle of rewiring her brain to trust people again and the path toward healing. For veterans and families, the program offers recognition and community; for healthcare providers, veteran-serving organizations, funders, and broadcasters, it demonstrates why recovery must be heard from the women living it.
In this program
- In Her Own Words A Miracle Can Happen
- In Her Own Words Different Me
- In Her Own Words Hope
- In Her Own Words Ready or Not
- In Her Own Words Stronger
- In Her Own Words The Advocate
- In Her Own Words Wounded Trust
Sound Tips™ Companion
During this broadcast, the Sound Tips™ ticker explains that military noise, blasts, and traumatic brain injury can affect more than hearing thresholds: veterans may experience hearing loss, tinnitus, difficulty understanding speech in noise, sound sensitivity, dizziness, or other auditory-processing problems even when a standard hearing test does not tell the whole story. Research also shows that tinnitus commonly co-occurs with TBI, PTSD, anxiety, and depression; these are associations, not proof that one condition causes another. The ticker encourages veterans to report every hearing and communication symptom, protect their hearing from further hazardous noise, and seek a complete evaluation. Veterans enrolled in VA health care can contact VA Audiology directly without a referral for testing, hearing technology, rehabilitation, tinnitus education, and counseling. Because women remain underrepresented in much veteran hearing and TBI research, listening to their individual experiences is essential to better care and a stronger community.
- Source: In Her Own Words: Women Veterans After TBI (Disability and Rehabilitation, 2022)
- Source: VA: Auditory and Vestibular Dysfunction Associated With Blast-Related TBI
- Source: DoD: Aural Blast Injury and Acoustic Trauma Clinical Practice Guideline
- Source: Speech-in-Noise Difficulties After TBI (Frontiers in Neurology, 2020)
- Source: Tinnitus Severity and Mental Health Symptoms in Veterans (Military Medicine, 2021)
- Source: VA Audiology: Access and Getting Started
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