Our story -
My 46 years of experience living with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and 24 years supporting my daughter through her Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) has created this mission. It was difficult to watch my daughter Sarah starting her teen years with a broken brain, and the challenge of navigating through this new and unknown world. But living through years of TBI struggles myself allowed me to better help my child through her ABI challenges. Together, through our years of trials, experience, and education, we have developed necessary skills to better identify and confront those brain injury challenges and the consequential world of social isolation. In the end, we have both fared relatively well. In the process, I have gained valuable knowledge and experience, and Sarah became a subject matter expert. Interestingly, after Sarah’s brain hemorrhage, stroke, brain surgeries, and resulting brain injuries, experts have advised her to reconsider her dream goal of higher education. But she did not give up and we stayed the course, plowing through 24 years of mind-boggling challenges during formative years at school and college, until completing her Master’s and PhD in Psychology with a focus in Neurorehabilitation.
Sarah has just completed her dissertation, internship, and graduated with her PhD in 2023. She is currently working toward her postdoctoral training. Her specialty and experience include treating patients with brain injuries, seizures, stroke, dementia, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, ataxia, motor neuron, and ALS. She also helps patients deal with the impact of medical and neurological trauma, how to navigate and how to adjust to their new normal.
While Sarah has experienced many of the common symptoms of stroke, brain surgery, and the resulting brain injuries for 24 years, her most devastating symptom has been the various seizures, including focal and grand mal. This has prevented her from driving at times, and as a result, she had to navigate through social isolation. But Sarah is also a subject matter expert in social isolation, as she spent years working on her thesis and dissertation on social isolation and introverted behavior. So, as we launch this program to help others through the same, we invite you to come join our journey to end social isolation for patients with brain injury.
On May 2023, United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a new advisory calling attention to the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection. Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, roughly half of U.S. adults reported experiencing measurable levels of loneliness. Disconnection fundamentally affects our mental, physical, and societal health. This is far more compounded in this population with brain injury, and the call for urgency to act now is vital to their well-being.
Our organization is all inclusive and our programs are based on sound research - so come join us to end social isolation...
Please also check out our BrainX podcast and our comprehensive self-help webspace for brain injury survivors and their caregivers, to help navigate the healing journey, manage those challenging symptoms, set realistic expectations, and shed light on essential tools that are needed throughout recovery. Here is the link: Brain Injury Online
The authors - Sarah & Adel Shadi
