I Always Sit with My Back to the Wall: Managing Traumatic Stress and Combat PTSD

Dr. Harry A. Croft (Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association) is board certified in Adult Psychiatry, Addiction Medicine and Sex Therapy, and has been in private psychiatric practice in San Antonio, Texas for more than thirty years. He is Medical Director and Principal Investigator for the San Antonio Psychiatric Research Center, where for 25 years he has participated in the development of many of the psychiatric medications which are now in use for depression and anxiety disorders. Dr. Croft's interest in PTSD began in 1973 when, as an Army physician, he served as the medical director of drug and alcohol treatment at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas at the height of the Vietnam War - an experience which paved the way for his medical evaluation, during later wars, of more than six thousand veterans with PTSD. Dr. Croft's lectures have enriched and enlightened more than 1000 medical audiences in all 50 states and 7 foreign countries. His publications in major medical journals such as Psychiatric Annals, JAMA, Psychiatry and the American Journal of OB-GYN (to name only a few) reflect his dedication to the advancement of best practices in modern psychiatry. But his greatest joy is in providing education in the public interest. As one of the first medical experts in America to appear in a regular television segment, Dr. Croft became known to all of San Antonio through his award winning show, "The Mind Is Powerful Medicine", which aired for 17 years. Transitioning with ease into the era of digital communication, he now serves as medical director of HealthyPlace.com, the world's largest consumer-driven mental health website. Scholar, writer, speaker, author, researcher and gifted physician… all are terms that describe Harry Croft. The words he, himself, would be most likely to chose, however, are "family man". He considers himself greatly blessed to be a devoted husband of 46 years. Harry and his beautiful wife Benay enjoy traveling t destinations where they can appreciate the grandeur of the natural and animal worlds. They take great joy in their two children and two granddaughters, and in the countless friends who are fortunate to partake of the warmth, the abundant humor, the compassion and the rare "common touch" that all combine to create the inimitable, remarkable Harry Croft . Rev. Dr. Chrys Parker is a clinical chaplain, pastoral counselor and trauma therapist who has provided care for over 2500 traumatized persons since entering the field in 1998. Working both as a clinician in medical institutions and as a civilian in the service of the US Army, she specializes in the spiritual and psychological care of those who suffer from PTSD as a result of combat, critical burn injury and sexual assault, and provides professional consultation and education to physicians, surgeons and psychiatrists. Chrys is well known for her passionate enthusiasm for life, her devotion to charting new pathways in the care of others, and her multi-dimensional and holistic approaches to trauma, involving mind, body, and spirit. In addition to mental health, her practice embraces the fields of theology and spirituality, longitudinal trauma research, non-profit care for indigent trauma survivors, and service as an Allied Health provider and academic educator . She has served as the pastoral director of numerous hospitals and medical facilities, and is a former volunteer field medic. She received her license to practice law at the age of 23, and after a lengthy trial and appellate career, retired to pursue new endeavors in the fields of ministry, medicine and mental health. Today, she continues to donates her time and unique combination of skills as both a lawyer and trauma specialist to providing legal advocacy on behalf of trauma victims. Chaplain Parker is the Executive and Clinical Director of the Burn Recovery and Research Foundation in San Antonio, Texas, and the Co-Director of Spiritual Fitness Ministries. From 2006 to 2010, she joined the Allied Medical Staff of the University Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, where she was a member of its pediatric critical burn team, and was Program Director of the nation's first comprehensive program for the long-term integrated medical, psycho-social, and spiritual care of PTSD-affected burned children and their families. She has served since 2006 as an adjunct faculty member of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, first as a Clinical Instructor, Department of Rehab Medicine, and later as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School Of Healthcare Professions, where she continues to teach students today. As the creator of over 60 courses in the field of trauma, she has served as educator of over 4500 students and professionals, including physicians, nurses, counselors, therapists and chaplains, and she lectures at burn conferences both in the United States and internationally. Many of the protocols which originally created by Chaplain Parker for the treatment and management of trauma and PTSD in the burned were later successfully redirected by her to the needs of warriors and veterans. In 2007, she became a postgraduate instructor of combat and medical chaplains for the Pastoral Training Office of the US Army Medical Command Center and School of Allied Sciences, headquartered at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, and she has since traveled to military posts and conferences throughout the United States as a trauma educator of over 1,000 active duty and reserve Army Chaplains. In 2010, in response to invitational orders from the Commanding General, US Forces-Iraq, she deployed to the Iraqi theater to work with warriors and troops, and became the first civilian chaplain to be inserted into a combat theater of operations. She and her husband, Joe ( a Texas cattleman and rancher) have been married for 27 years. Their family includes three adult children, a daughter in law, and two grandchildren.