West Coast Woman October 2020

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 2020, “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 2020.
STORY: Louise Bruderle
IMAGES: Evelyn England
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Amanda E. Stiff, MBA
Financial Advisor
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OCTOBER 2020 WEST COAST WOMAN 17