Navy combat veteran and life coach Dr. Aletha Williams talks about post-traumatic growth on the Tango Alpha Lima podcast.
Growing up in Jamaica as one of eight children, Dr. Aletha Williams knew her path to higher learning and career opportunities meant coming to the United States. Williams forged her resilient success by becoming a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, one of the first women authorized to serve aboard Naval combatant ships, and a mind-body life coach who helps veterans and others heal from trauma-related events.
“I don’t do therapy, I do coaching,” said Williams, the special guest on this week’s American Legion Tango Alpha Lima podcast, about her founding of Inner Starr Compass Healing to help individuals heal through inner wisdom, creativity and intuition. “The reason why I emphasize coaching is because with coaching I can co-create with the individual. I am not telling you what to do, I’m actually asking you with different activities how can you yourself find the solution.”
A cancer survivor and combat veteran with post-traumatic stress, Williams has learned that the body keeps score – pain, hate, anger, regret and shame inflict other parts of your body as she experienced migraines and had both hips replaced while going through a divorce. Through meditation and mind-body wellness, Williams has learned how to let go of things that no longer serve her.
“I would go out and meditate and attach my mind to that area (being affected) and say, ‘I hear you, I feel you. What can I do to let go of you? What can I do to release you?’ When we start to release from those areas, we do eventually release that energetic trauma. So when we talk about post-traumatic growth, we will always have the memories of our trauma. But when we release the energy of the trauma, you’re no longer going to be triggered by it.
“When I do coaching, those are the things I do for physical release, energetic release of that emotion from the body and then call the spirit back. If you think about it, when you had a trauma, think about where your spirit was. A part of your spirit dissociated from you because it was so painful. What I do is I call that part of you back to your body so you can feel whole again. That comes with that energetic release of that trauma. It’s so important to call those parts back because we’re stronger, we’re more resilient, we’re more aware of who we are, we’re more gentle with ourselves.”
Williams credits her resiliency to her culture and community, which she shares in her book “Your Golden Years: 101 Ways to Ignite Your Flame” that helps individuals navigating life transitions.
“If we focus on a goal of finding community and building community, I really strongly believe that will help a lot with our mental health and our wellness,” she said.
And if you’re looking to find that mind, body, spirit connection back to wellness, Williams wants to “co-create with you to get you back to that space.”
“I encourage people to stop, let their brain slow down, bring mind back to body to spirit. Those three need to be together in order for us to feel well. So that is what I continue with my coaching is I teach people to come back to themselves semantically, to get out of their heads, into their hearts more and to connect with community.”
Also, co-hosts Joe Worley and Stacy Pearsall chat about:
• The origins of Alcoholics Anonymous, which is tied to a World War I veteran who had his first drink in the military.
• Police finding a raccoon sitting in the driver’s seat of a car holding a meth pipe in its mouth.
You can also check out the more than 300 Tango Alpha Lima podcasts available in both audio and video formats here. You can also download episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify other major podcast-hosting sites. The video version is available at the Legion’s YouTube channel.
- Tango Alpha Lima