All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
This is Veterans Radio.
Welcome to Veterans Radio.
I am Jim Fossone.
I'm the officer of the deck today.
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We want to welcome to VeteransRadio today, Navy Veteran, Lee Bedot.
I'm sure I didn't get that right.
Help me out on the French pronunciation of this Louisiana girl.
It's Lee Biot.
Everything's silent.
It's very French.
And Lee, you grew up in Louisiana and ended up in the Navy.
How did a nice girl like you end up in the Navy?
Great question.
I was in college.
I was in college in New Orleans when 9-11 happened.
And I think when you're a teenager, you're very, very self-involved.
And whenever that happened, it just sort of woke me up to the idea that there's so much
going on in the world outside of myself.
And I felt called to serve.
So I dropped out of school and gave up my scholarship and enlisted in the Navy.
How did the family take those two decisions?
They did not take them well.
My parents called a friend at the Pentagon and tried to get me out of the contract.
It was hilarious.
But it all worked out very well for me.
I ended up taking the D-Lab and becoming a linguist, an Arabic linguist.
And it was an excellent decision for me personally and professionally from the jump.
And you spent six years in the Navy from 2008.
Tell us a little bit about what you did.
Sure.
So, you know, as a linguist, we actually spent a couple of years, almost two years
in school in California, which, guys, if you're going to enlist in the military, go for languages.
Not a bad tour if you can get it.
Yeah.
So I spent a couple of years doing that and then was based mostly out of the D.C. area
at the National Security Agency, which was a little funny as a sailor.
I never really spent time on a ship.
And most of the time I went to work in an office with civilians.
So I was one of the only enlisted folks in my office on our particular target.
And then in 2007, I was given the opportunity to TDY with team seven and ten and spent about
a year attached to those teams and we deployed into Fallujah and spent some time over there
and again, an excellent opportunity for personal growth and professional growth.
And that led to the decision, you know, everybody has to make.
Is it time to get out of the service and you did an O8 and it looks like you immediately
transitioned to the next three letter agency in the government?
Yeah.
You know, so it was towards the end of that deployment, actually one of the one of the
seals that I was working with was asking what I was going to do when I got out.
And I knew when I enlisted, I had to finish my degree.
So I worked on my degree while I was in, you know, every opportunity I was able to take
night classes and stuff.
I was continuing my education.
So I was close to finishing by the time I got out of the military.
In any case, this man that I worked with sort of suggested that I look at actually, this
kind of funny conversation.
I said, well, I'm thinking about finishing my degree and joining the State Department.
Not to bash the State Department, but his response was, oh, the State Department is
a bunch of nerds.
You should join the CIA.
So, you know, he had worked at the CIA prior to becoming a seal.
He worked at the CIA in the 90s and then went through buds kind of at an older age.
So he was able to give me a little bit of insight into what that would look like.
And he gave me some confidence too.
You know, he said, hey, you're a female.
You've got combat experience.
You've got this language ability like you'd be a shoe in.
So I went home and applied and honestly, I was shocked every time they called me back
for another interview or hiring process, you know, saying every time I was like, really,
I can't believe this is happening.
But then it did.
So over the course of a year or so while I was finishing my bachelor's degree is whenever
I was going through that hiring process.
And we should mention that you did get your bachelor's in Middle East studies from George
Washington University in Washington, D.C. and again, with that combination of study
in that area, the linguistic skills, the overseas experience that the Navy gave you,
it kind of sounds like you fit right in at the CIA.
Yeah, I think I guess another kind of anecdote was they'd called to put me in a particular
class and I hadn't finished my degree yet.
They were like, hey, we want to put you in, you know, the January class.
I said, well, I don't graduate on May, am I going to lose my slot and the hiring official
was like, I don't know if I can guarantee you a slot later or something like that.
And I remember saying, starting to sound like a Navy recruiter.
What I said, I said, I'm the perfect candidate for this position.
And it, you know, Jim, it came out of my mouth and it was the most, I think it's the most
confident thing I've ever said in my life and I don't have that kind of confidence.
It just came out of my mouth and I'm so glad I said it because she was like, okay, we'll
put you in the, you know, the next class or whatever.
And yeah, so boy, I wish I still had that same confidence that I did back then.
I go get her.
Well now as a mother of two, your confidence level is in a whole other area.
So, but, but let's talk about, you know, give us a thumbnail of the six years there and
then I want to transition to what you did afterwards.
Sure.
Oh, but so, okay.
So while, so while I was in this acting, I can't talk a whole lot about what I did there,
but my focus was Middle East and North Africa.
And it's a, it's kind of a lonely job in a way because there is a lot of having to misrepresent
who you are to achieve certain goals.
And I feel like I worked with some amazing people and we worked on some amazing operations,
but at the end of the day, it's a pretty lonely job.
And so after about five years, I think I started thinking this might not be the right place
for me anymore.
And I really wanted to have a family and the pace at which I was operating didn't really
allow for that.
So I took some leave without pay and came home for a little while and I tell you what
the plane touched down here in Louisiana and I spent about a week here before I was like,
I'm not going back.
Well, that's part of the transition I want to talk about you had spent, you know, better
than I don't know what it all adds up to, but, you know, 10 years in the DC area and
and going back home to rural Louisiana.
We were talking before we started recording about St. Landry Parish where you're at and
it's all 3000 people of it.
A big change of pace in life is was that transition something that you were yearning
for or it finally smacked you in the face and said, this is what you need.
Wow, that's a yeah, that's a great question.
I think it kind of smacked me in the face.
I really grew to a point where I was not happy in DC and you know, as much as as amazing
as that town is, it is very transitional.
It is very selfish in a way, very egotistical.
People are climbing the career ladder and I felt a lack of a sense of community there.
And, you know, I found whenever I wasn't overseas, whenever I wasn't deployed, whenever
I was in the city, I was constantly seeking to get out all of my hobbies involved, being
outdoors, trail running, orienting, which is like a kind of a hobby form of land navigation.
So I was always kind of out of the city anyway.
And that's not to say again, I think DC is an amazing city and boy, if you ever get the
chance to live there, so many free things to do in so much culture and that's amazing.
But as far as the opportunity to connect with other human beings, I felt that that was lacking.
I would make friends and everybody was T.D.
Wying and moving to a different job, moving to a different city, kind of coming in and
out.
So there wasn't a stable sense of community and that's what I needed and that's what
I have here in Louisiana.
And one of the things that you did was obtain your Masters of Clinical Mental Health at
Louisiana State University and you are now a licensed professional counselor working
with folks, you know, working their way through trauma of various sorts.
But part of your story was you had also experienced trauma during your careers in the Navy and
at the CIA that you were working and processing through.
And I think one of the challenges everybody has is kind of making that first step of,
you know, maybe I need to talk to somebody.
Help us understand how you got to that point and what you're doing now for folks.
Okay, yeah.
So yes, one of the traumas that I experienced while I was in the CIA actually, it took me
almost a year to seek help for it.
And I think what I found was that, you know, so I'm also a licensed addiction counselor,
I'm not sure if you knew that, but it's funny, someone will come to me and kind of say, my
wife left me, my dog doesn't want me to pet him, you know, lost weight.
Like all these things, like, well, maybe you should stop drinking, you know, right?
But as a therapist, it's really not my job to say that.
Well, as a veteran's disability lawyer, we call that self-medicating.
It sounds a lot better than, but that's what they're doing.
Yes.
Right.
So I think, you know, for me, that's what kind of drove me to seek help was sort of
feeling like, wow, everything, it almost felt like the world was out to get near, like
everything just kind of kept going wrong.
And one day I was kind of like, ooh, maybe it's not them, maybe it's me, you know?
So like maybe it's not the world, maybe it's me.
So I did, you know, I did kind of reach out and get some help.
And what I thought was so neat was part of that process with one therapist in particular
in DC was processing a pretty significant trauma.
And then after that, I kept seeing her and I laughed because this poor woman, and I e-mailed
her here and there and say, thank you.
But this poor woman listened to me kind of come in and vent, I guess, for lack of a better
word about the same stuff over and over.
And she just kept offering emotional support, emotional support.
You know, every couple weeks or every month or so when I'd go in.
And so finally one day I said, I think I might need to resign from this job.
Like I'm not sure if this is a healthy place for me to be anymore.
And then she was like, okay, well, let's, you know, let's talk about that.
You know, what are the pros and cons?
And she's thinking, why did it take you so long to get there?
Exactly, exactly.
And that's, you know, I mean, I feel like that's kind of part of what, like, you know,
as a therapist, I feel like people make the mistake sometimes of thinking that therapists
either don't talk at all or they tell you what to do.
And that's not what it is.
It's you come in and you tell me what you need from me.
Do you need me to be emotionally supportive?
Are you trying to make a change?
What are your goals and how can I get you to those goals?
Right.
And, and sometimes you don't even know what those goals are.
So I'm going to sit and I'm going to listen and be empathetic and provide that safe space
where you can be vulnerable until we figure it out.
Why did it go back to this issue that I think many veterans have, which is we don't want
to ask for help.
Yeah.
Can you enlighten us a little bit on how to get through that?
As you said, it took you a year to even say, well, maybe I need it.
Help us understand how we can get over our own emotional hurdles there.
Yeah.
I think, well, so some of the myths around therapists, you know, just knowing, I don't
know if that's answering your question or not, but this idea that all therapists are
alike, I think you have to get over the idea that you might have to go see more than one
to see who's a good fit for you.
I also think with veterans in particular, there's this idea of, if I go see a therapist
about my trauma, all we can talk about is the trauma.
And I guess I want to reassure veterans that sometimes real life can be harder than deployments.
I know that sounds strange, but it's like, I don't know.
For me, I know I really struggled with the idea of feeling like, how did I do all of
these things?
And then when I'm not deployed, like when I'm back in DC or even now today with the
kids, you know, how did I do all this stuff where there are like life and death situations
and serious things happening and I handled it with grace and then real life is so challenging
sometimes.
And I think sometimes that's embarrassing for veterans because they're like, well, I
want to go get help, but I feel silly because really what I'm struggling with is I'm irritated
with the everyday stressors.
The job, the kids, the wife, the spouse, whatever it might be is sort of the closest
issue.
You know, you kicked the dog that's closest to you.
Yes.
But there's probably an underlying moral injury and that's one of the areas that you focus
on in trauma is trying to get to that moral injury.
Can you explain that word a little bit?
Sure, yes.
So moral injury is the idea that, you know, we grow up with a certain set of beliefs about
the world around us and about ourselves as human being.
You know, so often times, so you think about things like as a veteran, for example, you
might go into a war zone thinking I'm brave, I'm a soldier, I'm brave, I believe in this
mission, I believe in, you know, the United States government's mission here, et cetera,
all those things.
And then you might come out of that deployment on the other end feeling like, ooh, I'm not
as brave as I thought I was or perhaps this mission is a little bit fuzzier than I thought
I was.
And as a result of some of those experiences, it can make you feel like it can make you
feel shame about yourself.
It can make you feel like a monster.
I mean, I've had people talk about experiences where, or vice versa, Jim, I've also had veterans
that kind of come and say, hey, I'm really struggling with, as an example, I'm really
struggling because I really enjoyed the violence and I kind of don't know what to do with that
now, right?
I mean, that's a moral injury in and of itself.
Like, so, so according to your beliefs, it's okay to be violent when you're in a war zone
and when it's directed, but now kind of what do I do with that in my civilian life?
Yeah, we, you talked to a lot of guys who the adrenaline junkie part of it was something
that the Russia that is something that they can't replicate or they're trying to replicate
and can't in civilian life and that turns them kind of upside down as well.
Yes.
Yeah.
It's about your personal experience of kind of the actions that you've taken.
So when you talk about moral injury, there are different types.
So it could be, you know, I don't want to go into the whole kind of continuing education
credit on it, but, you know, it could be that you an act that was violent and kind of against
your beliefs and didn't reward it a kind of moral injury or it could be something where,
you know, you committed some sort of violent act that retrospect you feel like was not
who you and then you're left feeling a lot of shame.
You're left feeling a lot of disconnect from other people.
It can leave you feeling very isolated.
We talked to a lot of veterans also who struggle with the transition.
You know, when you're in the military, you've got that very structured, the Navy has you
on a very structured program or the Marines do, you know, what you're wearing every day,
you know, what time you're doing it, you know, who's the boss, all those sort of things.
When you get into the civilian world and particularly as you're maybe going through two or three
different jobs trying to find out where you fit, transition turns out to be hard for a
lot of people.
Is that something that you see in the work that you do and I know you're involved in
a veterans alliance and maybe you can talk about that as well.
Sure.
Yeah.
Wow.
I love the idea of like, I feel like that's that would be my wheelhouse.
If I could pick specific veterans to work with would be like veterans coming out of,
you know, multiple deployments that are trying to figure out what to do with the rest of
their lives.
Um, yes, I kind of, well, just for a second, a caveat to that, I guess would be, um, back
to this idea of deployments.
I hope people don't hate me for saying this, but I felt as if sometimes deployments can
be almost selfish.
And when I say that, especially if you're in a relationship, because when you're deployed,
selfish means maybe not the right word.
But yeah, when you're deployed, it's like other people are taking care of your laundry,
people are cooking, you're not worrying about bills.
You kind of have this built in social network because you have to lean on your buddies because
like who else do you get?
I mean, you know, it's like, because you're all going through this together, right?
So there are a lot of things that are almost sort of taken care of for you.
And then when you go home, you have to deal with the minutiae of daily life and all of
those things like paying bills and cooking and, um, getting, uh, you know, people back
and forth and, and investing time and relationships, all of that, um, takes a lot out of you and
it can be really, it can be challenging and chaotic.
So as far as the trend though goes, I think what happens is get out, people don't ask
the right questions of themselves.
And this is really related to like choosing a career.
Do you want to work with people?
Do you want to work outside?
Do you want to go to school?
Do you not want to go to school?
Like those are some of the kinds of questions to ask as opposed to, you know, what career
is prestigious or I don't know, or what career did your parents do?
I think a lot of people make the mistake of falling into careers because they're either
related to what they were doing in the military or it's because what their, because what their
friends are doing, you know, as opposed to really kind of taking some time to look at
what it is that fits your personality.
Are you introverted or extroverted?
You know what I mean?
I don't know.
Kind of feel like I'm babbling.
No, no, I think that's, that's exactly right.
And again, it's part of this is having, if you're, if you're really struggling with this,
having a third party to talk to and even just sometimes just articulating it out loud, you
answer the question for yourself.
Yeah.
One of the things I want to talk about because I think there's so many more opportunities
to get help these days.
This is getting into see a licensed professional counselor and addiction specialist such as
yourself or somebody who works in this broad field, it doesn't, you don't have to be a
millionaire to do this.
There are a lot of services available, free services, lower cost services, insurance.
Talk to us a little bit about what I think is probably a financial worry of, I know
I need, maybe I ought to go talk to somebody.
Oh my God, I can't make my car payment.
How can I go do that?
Sure.
I mean, you know, like a veteran specific, I'll give a plug to like, giveanhour.org is
an organization where it's a collective of therapists across the country who volunteer
hours.
Now, of course, you may not be able to see someone indefinitely, but it's called giveanhour.org.
And if you're a veteran, you can see a therapist for free.
Obviously, if your service connected or have some sort of deployment status, you can go
to the VA and see that as well.
Yeah, it can be a little bit of a barrier.
I know that's something that I do with AVAC.
You mentioned the Acadiana Veteran Alliance, which I guess I'll give a brief kind of overview
of that.
We provide a service, we don't provide the treatment, but we send referrals.
So I do a PTSD assessment and send a referral for the Stalate Ganglion block, which is an
injection in a bundle of nerves in your neck that helps to treat post-traumatic stress.
But beyond that, something I'm really passionate about through AVA is when each of these veterans
come to us for that treatment, I say, hey, are you seeing a therapist?
Some of them have no interest in seeing a therapist.
That's fine.
But if they want to see a therapist, how do we get through those barriers to see one?
And yes, some of it is insurance.
If you don't have private insurance, that's okay.
I kind of refer them to those given hour or other LPCs that kind of volunteer their time,
send them to the VA, et cetera.
But an easy kind of an easy resources psychology today and you can filter by whatever insurance
you have.
It can be a barrier if you have no insurance, but again, that givenhour.org and the VA are
good resources.
Yeah.
We don't want people sitting there thinking, well, I need to do it, but I don't have the
resources to do it.
As I say, today in almost every jurisdiction, there's somebody somewhere who's going to
step in and help you out, finding them is kind of a challenge.
But that's where you start at your local veteran service officer or local veteran organization.
And they're going to probably point you somewhere.
We're talking to Leah Beall, who's a licensed professional counselor down in Lafayette,
Louisiana.
But she's giving you advice that's broader than just, hey, if you're in Louisiana, we
can find you some help.
You really do find this all over the country, don't you, Leah?
Absolutely, Jim.
And we actually get outreach from veterans out of the state of Louisiana with those
types of questions.
So I am available as a resource.
And our email address for that is heal at supportav.org.
And honestly, if there's a veteran out there that's like, I need to see a therapist.
I don't know how to go about finding one.
I'm happy to help you.
We've had veterans from Wisconsin email us and I'll help you navigate that.
Yeah, you just need somebody to point in the right direction, Leah.
And that's a wonderful service that you're doing.
I read your story and what you were doing on some news aggregator that caught a NOLA.com
article.
I said, wow, I got to talk to this lady and actually use psychology today to reach out
to you and got a quick response.
So I do appreciate that.
You've had an interesting career both in the Navy and the CIA and now as a mother of two.
But I think the work that you're doing helping people through their individual struggles
and trauma is maybe one of the most important things that you're going to do in life.
So we really appreciate you taking time today to talk to Veterans Radio.
Jim, I appreciate you having me on.
I'm very passionate about mental health.
I wouldn't be doing this job if it didn't matter to me.
I feel like I found my calling.
So thank you again.
Thank you.
And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today.
I am Jim Fossone.
It's been a pleasure to be your host.
I'm a Veterans Disability Lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans and you can reach us at
800-693-4800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web.
You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio
shows by visiting us at veteransradio.org.
That's veteransradio.org.
And until next time, you are dismissed.
If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for
Veterans at 1-800-693-4800.
They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
Your number again, 1-800-693-4800.
We again want to thank our national sponsors, the National Veterans Business Development
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We appreciate all your support.
You can go to veteransradio.net, click on the sponsor level, and continue to support
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And until next time, you are dismissed.
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