Nov. 5, 2024
Shannon's Resilient Journey: Healing and Empowerment After a Brain Injury
Please tune in as Shannon Freedman shares her harrowing journey of surviving a horrible car crash that landed her in a coma. Shannon details her experience of still being able to hear while in a coma what people were saying and shares what she was able to remember, despite being in a debilitating state. Shannon ended up losing a 1/4 of her brain due to the injury from the car accident. However, do you think Shannon let this stop her from living her life and going after her goals and aspirations? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!
Because of her experiences from the horrific accident, she became a life coach so that she could help others believe in themselves.
Chapters
00:02 - Overcoming Adversity
07:56 - Positive Self-Talk and Recovery Progress
15:59 - Educational Background and Coaching Journey
23:38 - Emotional Healing Through Coaching and Meditation
30:07 - Embracing Self-Love and Empathy
38:56 - Finding Inspiration and Overcoming Adversity
Transcript
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Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of On the Spectrum with Sonia, a podcast where we discuss autism spectrum, mental health and anybody who's overcome any adversity and can leave us feeling inspired and more connected and filled with hope, inspiration, courage, love and connection, particularly in a world we live in, where it is constantly trying to leave us feeling disconnected.
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We are here to help people feel connected With us.
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Today we have Shannon.
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Shannon is a friend of mine whom I met through the Say it Out Loud group, through Vasavi Kumar, and she is a coach and lives out in California and has overcome a fair share of great adversity but also leaves us feeling inspired every time.
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So, shannon Freeman, please welcome her to today's show.
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Welcome Shannon.
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Awesome.
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Thank you so much, Sonia.
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I'm so happy to be here.
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Thank you, we're happy to have you on here.
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So, shannon, tell us a little bit about you.
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What is something that you would love the audience to learn about?
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with you.
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I just want to tell everybody that I am a certified life coach, which is amazing, you know, being everything I've gone through at this point in time.
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You know my whole focus and mission as a coach is to help people overcome an injury, whether it be physical or emotional, and turn around any negative feelings, thoughts or beliefs caused by the injury and transform it into positive energy that helps to motivate and inspire a person to become who they want to be.
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You know, never being held back but being improved and brought forward into the life that they want to create.
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That is so inspiring and so amazing.
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So, shannon, why don't you give us a little bit of a backstory what led you to becoming a life coach?
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Little bit of a backstory, what led you to becoming a life coach, and you know what makes you so passionate about helping others be able to turn their life around, from whatever they may be going through.
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Absolutely.
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You know I had my fair share.
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I had the traumatic brain injury actually in December of 2001.
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What's interesting here about that is that I was just driving to work on the slow lane on the freeway heading northbound.
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The car in front of me slammed their brakes all of a sudden.
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So I slammed my brakes and I swerved into the shoulder, you know, to miss them.
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Of course my right tire caught the ice plants there.
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I got sucked into the ice plants off the side of the freeway and my left tire popped.
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And when you're trying to break in the ice plants, that doesn't work very well, not losing left tire, car started to flip.
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So I'm flying forward in my car, car's flipping, I submarine out of my seatbelt and then my front door opened suddenly, which caused me to fly out of the vehicle out the drive-side window and I landed 20 feet past my car onto the shoulder of the freeway and at that point I had completely blacked out.
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You know, lucky for me, there was a fire truck not too far behind me.
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I remember them trying to pick me up because I came to then and I was swatting at them with my right arm never moved, my left, it turns out it was broken.
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But I was swatting at him and I met these guys later on to thank them, you know, for saving my life.
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And he told me, while I was swatting at him, you know, that he had put his hands under my head, put me on the gurney and his fingers fell through my skull and he touched my brains.
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So at that point in time they took me off to the hospital.
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You know, I was in a coma for two weeks and three days after having brain surgery and at that point, after I woke up, it was just an amazing moment to be able to talk again and be able to tell people hey, I'm alive, I'm here, and I went through a lot of just recovering, you know by me a point to go forward.
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You, a lot of just recovering, you know by me a point to go forward, you know, through that recovery, you know, I got to actually go back to college, only missing one semester.
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So I missed fall of 02, went back.
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Sorry, I missed spring of 02.
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I went back fall of 02.
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And I graduated May of 03 with my bachelor's degree.
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Wow.
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So tell us what was your experience like.
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So the car suddenly slammed the brakes.
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You slammed the brakes, but then your car toppled.
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I mean, what was it like for you at the moment?
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Do you like what was going on in your head that you could remember at that time?
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Oh yeah, no, it's hard to forget.
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I mean, really, when anyone goes through a traumatic injury, it's kind of glued in your mind, you know.
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But it's amazing.
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I was, you know, in shock, of course.
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I'm hitting the brakes, trying to steady the car and then all of a sudden, you know, the car starts to spin around and around.
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You know, when I flew out, I actually remember flying out of the vehicle and watching the horizon pass before my eyes as I'm flying through the air.
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I was just thinking, oh no, what am I going to do?
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I was just completely just amazed and scared, of course, and then slamming into the ground, of course very, very painful, you know, and having these guys in front of me, you know, trying to work on me, and I thought they were hurting me.
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Literally.
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I told him, I met him and he was like well, we didn't try to look.
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Of course, you saved my life, thank you.
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It's amazing, just like having to deal with that.
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And I was in the coma.
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You know, I actually reviewed that in my mind a lot and when I came out of it, you know, all I could think of was like, okay, this is what happened, but it's not the end.
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You know, I must go forward.
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You know I was very close to completing my bachelor's degree, so I use that as motivation for myself to say, okay, you are one semester away, you're going to go back and finish.
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So I began telling myself in my mind, you are going to go back and you're going to finish this.
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It's going to happen.
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So, regardless of everyone saying, oh, you should slow down, you know you've been through this traumatic brain injury and I'm like, yes, no, I am going back.
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You know I made a plan I took only two classes in fall and two classes in spring, instead of a full four classes.
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So I, you know, moderated it enough to make sure I was, you know, productive and I did succeed.
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You know, that's the best thing about, you know, recovery is that you moderate it in a way that you will succeed.
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You know, set yourself up for success.
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So I wanted to ask you know you had said that you had suffered the traumatic brain injury In what ways did the traumatic brain injury affect you?
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Because I know that brain injury affects everybody differently and everyone experiences it differently.
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So what was that experience for you in how you were able to live your life before and after brain injury?
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Absolutely.
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Anyway, it's amazing because the extent of the brain injury you know, because I actually had a hematoma.
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My brain was actually bleeding and during the brain surgery they had to go in and remove a fourth of my brain.
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So in removing that, of course the doctors and nurses were assuming that I wouldn't be functioning as well and at this point in time, when people are hearing that in the coma too, it's very negative.
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It fills your mind through negative thoughts.
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Lucky for me, I had some professors come in and see me in my coma and were speaking very positively to me and I feel like that made a huge difference in my motivational level.
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People speaking to me positively while in my coma and were speaking very positively to me and I feel like that made a huge difference in my motivational level.
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People speaking to me positively while in my coma.
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It helps me come out with a feeling of motivation, like, yes, I'm going to go back.
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My professors offered me extra credit if I came out of my coma, so that was motivating.
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It was having the motivational thoughts in the beginning so important and having that determination and say, okay, this is my goal, setting a plan, and I feel like that really helped me to overcome, you know, the issues of my functioning and I had to go through physical therapy, I had to go through speech therapy, you know, and going through that it was more like okay, focus on what you need to do, on on what you want to say, on walking, and just being consistent with all those therapies, functioning through them in a way like okay, I didn't do it perfect the first time, but I'll do better every single time, every single time, keeping that positive influence in my mind, that self-talk, so important to be positive when you're going through that and I progressed and was able to get through it successfully.
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So I really feel like, you know, talking to myself positively, saying okay, you know, that's okay, it wasn't perfect, you'll do better next time.
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You know you can do better next time.
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Just encouraging myself.
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The self-talk, I think, made a huge difference to start with so the corner of the brain that you that got removed now, was that affecting your walking, your talking?
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Was that affecting just any kind of like daily living functions?
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at first, Well, yes, it was the right temporal lobe in my brain.
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So my short-term memory was severely affected.
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So I noticed you.
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You know memory was not working so well.
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You know I'd forget things you know quite quickly unless I reviewed them in my mind consistently, just like after something would happen or something we'd said.
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I'd review it in my mind, say it again and again.
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Through repetition I was able to transfer things from short-term memory to long-term memory and that made a huge difference.
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So I went back to school.
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I took notes, of course, for every class I was in and then reread those notes.
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I feel like that made a huge difference for me, making sure that to take those notes on paper and reread them consistently at least three or four times to really get that information in my mind.
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And how do you feel like your short-term memory has improved over the years?
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Oh, I continue with the tools to build up my mind, you know, because the short-term memory being so affected, and of course you know I had to do, you know, physical therapy and speech therapy, but lucky for me, I was talking just fine, I was walking just fine, but I had to.
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You know, the muscles had to come back because they had atrophied, some from being in a coma.
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of course, you know, and that actually didn't take too long because I remained consistent in doing it and the short-term memory I just improved more and more by reading books that's a huge thing and taking notes, like I mentioned before, but reading books I really kind of helped, I think, helped my brain just to refocus again on what I'm doing and through refocusing my thoughts it helped to increase my search and memory in huge ways.
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And you talked about.
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When you were in the coma, you were still able to hear what was being said to you.
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You were able to understand where, like what people were saying, what they were saying about you, what they were directing to you.
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So tell us a little bit about that, if you can reflect a little bit on what that was like.
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Also, you were in that state to hear all that.
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Absolutely.
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I always tell people, you know, if you meet someone in a coma, be nice to them.
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They can hear you.
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Yeah, cause it's.
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It is true.
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I remember people talking to me negatively and I was like screaming in my body no, that's not going to happen to me.
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And that was very frustrating and that was a deterrent really.
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It was like making me feel like, oh, okay, well, what's happening here?
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You know, I felt that negativity from them saying, oh, she's not going to make it or she's going to be a vegetable when she comes out, and those kinds of words were not helpful in my recovery.
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You know, when I woke up, I would think of those again and it would make me angry, you know, and sad the same token.
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So I'm like no, this is something I would like to educate people on.
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You know, if you're a nurse or a doctor, don't say negative things in front of your patients that are in a comatose state.
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They can hear you by saying more positive things, you know, like they're healing, they're doing better, they're going to get through this.
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You know things of that nature.
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It's going to help.
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Those thoughts are going to help their body heal.
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You know, with their brain, I are going to help their body heal, you know, with their brain.
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I feel like that.
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I feel like that makes a huge difference.
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You know, it's amazing One of the nurses that went with my coma had just come back from New York and she was telling us all stories you know all of their nurses.
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But I was listening, of course, telling us stories about being in New York and standing at the base of the statue of Liberty, and so I had this picture in my mind and what she was explaining.
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I'm standing at the base of the Statue of Liberty and I had never been in New York, but when I woke up I remembered it like it was my memory and it's very interesting.
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I actually asked my mom I'm like I'm so sad I don't remember New York because I couldn't remember being there, but I had these pictures in my mind.
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That's when she told me this nurse was telling them all stories about her trip to New York and I was like wow, really, you know, in reflection now about that particular story, if that just her painting a picture of her, her time in New York, met such a huge impact on my memory, why couldn't we tell our patients in hospitals you know you were healing so well you know you're going to be much more improved after this.
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You know you are healing so well you know you're going to be much more improved after this.
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You know things like that to put these kind of pictures in their mind so that they feel it when they wake up.
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And it seems like you got a mixed bag when you were in the coma, because you had professors coming and visiting you and giving you words of encouragement and saying, hey, you're going to make it, and when you get out, you know you get this extra credit right, like going to what you were saying earlier.
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But then you have other people and I'm taking it people in the medical profession who are saying you're going to just be a vegetable relegated, you know.
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So it's like you got like kind of like a tale of two cities type of thing oh yes, I have family members too and friends just assuming the worst, and that was like extremely frustrating because I'm in my body yelling and screaming no I'm fine in here, you know I'm gonna get out of here, kind of a thing, but no one can hear me.
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Of course I'm fully trached feeding tube, you know, of course, but I did not enjoy that and even now, looking back, I feel that same frustration I had in my body, in my coma, hearing those words educate the medical profession, family and friends that you know, speak positively to your loved ones in a comatose state.
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You know cause that will make all the difference?
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Cause I really feel like the professors that came in that were so positive, you know, made a huge difference in my recovery and I appreciated that.
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Sure.
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So you said that after so you, you get out of the coma, you get out of the hospital, you go to physical therapy, you go to speech therapy.
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And so in physical therapy it was you were learning to kind of walk again, correct, yes?
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And then with speech therapy, it was more about focusing on what you were going to say.
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Did you have to relearn how to speak some words?
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on what you were going to say.
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Did you have to relearn how to speak some words?
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I was very fortunate, I really didn't have to relearn any words.
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It was just more of like the memory, like what is the word I want to say?
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It's on the tip of my brain.
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I feel like I'm going through a file cabinet in my brain trying to find the word I want to say.
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You know, and the more I talk over the years, that's gotten better.
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You know, it's interesting.
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When I first got my trach capped in the hospital, the nurse asked me you know, can I read what's on the wall?
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And I looked at it and I said, you know, this is January 2nd 2002.
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And I read her name on the wall and everything and she was like, wow, you can read that.
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And I said, well, yeah, can't you?
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I had just woken up.
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So I was feeling sarcastic like my old self and just being me, you know.
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So it wasn't until they got more extensive into the therapies that I started noticing that slowdown of.
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Okay, what's the word I want to say?
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You know, reading, I was doing just fine at reading.
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It wasn't very fast, but I was reading doing just fine in reading.
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It wasn't very fast but I was reading, so very fortunate in that.
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And the more I did it, the better I got.
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Same thing with speaking, the more I got to speak again the more I remember the words I wanted to say much quicker, so that repetition made a huge difference.
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And how often were you going to physical therapy, to speech therapy.
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Well, they actually had kept me in the hospital because I had been through brain surgery and I had the coma, of course.
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So they kept me in there and by April 2002, they literally kicked me out.
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They're like there's no reason for you to be here.
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You got to go and I said, no problem, I'm ready.
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You know, and that was actually very uplifting to me.
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That was like the most positive words I had heard.
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Like you're, you're too good to be here.
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I'm like really, yes, and that motivation really kind of brought me forward to I can go back to school, I can finish this, you know I can do it.
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So that's positive self-talk that I would tell myself, just got greater through little accomplishments like that, like going through therapy and graduating from it.
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So what did you go to college?
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To study.
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I actually majored in physical sorry, majored in public relations.
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So I graduated.
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It's a.
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What was it called?
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It's a bachelor's of arts in liberal arts and communication, with emphasis in public relations okay, and did you work in that field for a bit too?
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you know I did not.
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Unfortunately I didn't have all the tools I have now as a coach.
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After I graduated, I had a lot of negative talk from family members, you know, telling me things like oh well, just if, just if you get your bachelor's degree, you can never use it because of your brain injury.
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So words like that really stung and I remember exactly who said that and I'm like yeah, no, I look back going.
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I understand you're a family member, but for you to say that really just hindered me.
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I had no plan past having getting the bachelor's degree.
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I was like can you get a bachelor's degree?
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Well, I can't use it.
00:18:41.421 --> 00:18:51.251
If it was in my mind, you know, rather than being implanted with the thought of, okay, great, what would you like to do with this, you know, letting me, allowing me to like, look beyond the bachelor's degree.
00:18:51.251 --> 00:18:54.553
You know I really wasn't encouraged to look beyond it.
00:18:54.553 --> 00:18:57.035
You know, even I was not encouraged to go back.
00:18:57.035 --> 00:18:57.755
My family.
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They told me oh, you know, it's going to be too hard for you and I was like I'm going back.
00:19:01.217 --> 00:19:05.240
So I already pre set myself up for that encouragement to go back.
00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:08.642
And so while I was in the degree, I got told the negativity.
00:19:08.642 --> 00:19:15.605
You know I was like oh so it just hindered me from even establishing a plan of what I could do after the bachelor's degree.
00:19:15.605 --> 00:19:16.586
Bachelor's- degree.
00:19:16.605 --> 00:19:18.007
So I did not work in that field.
00:19:18.007 --> 00:19:25.275
I got to a point where I was like, well, I have a bachelor's degree, what am I going to do with it?
00:19:25.275 --> 00:19:27.324
So a year later I had a couple of friends who told me that you know, I could teach.
00:19:27.324 --> 00:19:27.705
They were teachers.
00:19:27.705 --> 00:19:30.771
They're like you can take the um, yeah, what is that?
00:19:30.771 --> 00:19:35.035
The CBEST exam and become a substitute teacher because you have a bachelor's degree.
00:19:35.035 --> 00:19:36.817
So I was like, you know what?
00:19:36.817 --> 00:19:39.118
Okay, okay, I'll do it, I want to use a bachelor's degree.
00:19:39.118 --> 00:19:44.423
So I actually went, took the c-best, I did pass, and was it gosh?
00:19:44.423 --> 00:19:48.846
In 03 it was a fall of 03 I took the test.
00:19:48.846 --> 00:19:56.541
So by spring of 04 I was a substitute teaching, you know which I did and enjoy for sure.
00:19:56.541 --> 00:20:02.080
And I got to the point where I was like, well, I feel bad to be teaching and not having a degree in that and knowing what I'm doing.
00:20:02.869 --> 00:20:04.236
So I actually went back to school.
00:20:04.236 --> 00:20:06.457
I went to Cal State San Marcos at that point.
00:20:06.457 --> 00:20:14.498
So I graduated from San Diego State University and I went to Cal State San Marcos to get my education degree, and that was in 08, when I graduated from that.
00:20:14.498 --> 00:20:17.198
So I got a second degree afterwards.
00:20:17.198 --> 00:20:28.448
So I got a second degree afterwards so I can be well versed in how to teach and to substitute teaching from there.
00:20:28.468 --> 00:20:29.049
I think that helped as well.
00:20:29.049 --> 00:20:43.205
Like putting myself back into school was a huge support in my recovery because it helped my brain to start functioning again, helped my brain to start thinking properly the way I wanted it to again, by putting myself in a situation of learning, you know, and being able to go in that schedule like, okay, I've got to learn this by this date.
00:20:43.205 --> 00:20:48.230
You know, let's read this, let's do this, and it just really helped the functioning patterns of my brain.
00:20:48.230 --> 00:20:56.215
I feel like that was a huge, just therapy that people don't are not often recommended after brain injury and that was a definite big turning point for me.
00:20:56.215 --> 00:21:08.472
So I'd recommend that to anybody who has experienced a brain injury to put yourself through school or a program that you're passionate about, you know to help improve the functioning of your brain.
00:21:10.615 --> 00:21:11.657
So you went back to school.
00:21:11.657 --> 00:21:16.986
You got a degree in education.
00:21:16.986 --> 00:21:18.492
You graduated in 08.
00:21:18.492 --> 00:21:22.663
Did you actually go ahead and become a teacher then afterwards?
00:21:23.549 --> 00:21:26.477
Yeah, that was my second bachelor's degree, right In 08.
00:21:26.477 --> 00:21:27.941
First it was 03, then 08.
00:21:27.941 --> 00:21:32.499
And I was subject teaching for a while, but I didn't want to do it full time.
00:21:32.499 --> 00:21:37.703
I was like, well, it's a lot of work, you know, there's a lot that goes into it.
00:21:37.703 --> 00:21:39.730
I had a great time substitute teaching.
00:21:39.730 --> 00:21:42.598
It was awesome being with the kids and helping them out.
00:21:42.598 --> 00:21:45.031
You know, as a substitute teacher, you don't get a lot of respect.
00:21:45.031 --> 00:21:46.777
So I made a plan.
00:21:46.777 --> 00:21:56.317
I had a little bag, you know, decorated with, like what happens, a Disneyland bag, and so I had put items in it and I was giving away super tickets to the kids, you know, which is very fun.
00:21:56.317 --> 00:21:57.540
I was like, you know, help each other out.
00:21:57.540 --> 00:22:31.338
No-transcript, my injury, you know as motivation and encouragement to help others.
00:22:31.338 --> 00:22:34.124
And that's when I found coaching.
00:22:36.951 --> 00:22:43.491
Yes, and you know it's so beautiful that you're using what you've been through as a way to go and give back.
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