Jeremy Brewer, LCSW, served two combat tours in Iraq with the U.S. Marines and came home with significant trauma. He credits mind-body medicine with helping him heal. Today, Jeremy is helping his fellow veterans heal, too.
Jeremy describes his training experience in powerful words. He says it was:
“The beginning of my coming home from the war.”
We are honored to be a part of his journey home.
When we first met Jeremy, he was finishing his Master of Social Work degree at Tulane University. In response to devastating 2016 floods in Baton Rouge, CMBM Faculty and Staff presented a mind-body medicine workshop at a resilience conference. Jeremy was in attendance.
Soon thereafter, Jeremy started work with a friend and fellow veteran, Dylan Tête. Dylan is the Executive Director and Founder of Bastion Community Resilience, an intentional community where wounded, ill, or injured veterans live alongside retired military and civilian volunteers. On his second day at Bastion, Jeremy boarded a plane with Dylan headed to Minneapolis, where they would participate in CMBM’s five-day Professional Training Program in Mind-Body Medicine.
Jeremy knew that the Professional Training Program would be a powerful experience for him—and it was. He describes feeling more raw emotion in the span of five days than he had ever felt before. A slow burn of healing had ignited inside him.
Six weeks later, Jeremy traveled to Portland, Oregon for CMBM’s five-day Advanced Training Program in Mind-Body Medicine so he could begin sharing the skills with others. Soon, he began facilitating Mind-Body Skills Groups with veterans at Bastion under CMBM supervision. In 2019, Jeremy completed the requirements to become certified in mind-body medicine. He went on to join the CMBM Faculty and has facilitated numerous trainings since.
Jeremy continues to support veterans in his work, and has worked with the Veterans Health Administration to bring CMBM’s model to hundreds of their staff. Today, Jeremy integrates mind-body medicine into his work at a Tulane University clinic that serves veterans with traumatic brain injuries.
“This work truly changed my life. I want that for other people.”
Jeremy Brewer, LCSW
Jeremy appreciates how mind-body medicine helps individuals heal from trauma, but it is the collective impact on communities and institutions that truly inspires him. He sees CMBM as a sort of “special forces” for healing: Each new person trained in CMBM’s model is a catalyst for community healing and transformation. One trainee shares the skills with ten others. And then ten more, and ten more… And soon, hundreds of people experience healing, deeper understanding, greater wisdom, and more compassion. This is how CMBM helps communities around the world heal population-wide trauma and build resilience.
