The Trauma Therapist Project: The Military Series By Guy Macpherson

The podcast, The Trauma Therapist Project- The Military Series by Guy MacPherson with Lt. Eric Strom gives listeners an inside look on what it's like to be a trauma therapist and how the interviewee became an expert in the field of trauma. Let's take a brief look into who Eric Strom is, why he became interested in social work, why he chose to specialize in trauma with veterans, challenges he faced while working in the field, and valuable advice he has for non-veteran therapists and new upcoming therapists.

Lt. Eric Strom served active duty in the United States Marine Corps for five years. In 2009, he received his master’s in social work. A year later, he became a behavioral health officer with the Minnesota Army National Guard. Presently specializing in trauma with veterans, he now works in private practice in Northern Minnesota. After the United

Strom expressed that his military experience directed his decision to specialize in trauma. While beginning to work as a therapist, Lt. Strom noticed that most of his clients' issues were related to trauma. From that point on, he figured that if he wanted to be competent in serving his clients, he needed to improve his professional knowledge in the area of trauma. That's when he began researching and learning more about trauma and working more with the trauma population. Lt. Strom also expressed challenges he faced since he has been working in the trauma population. One major challenge he faced is feeling as though he always need to know more, and having uncertainty of do he know enough to impact a change. When he was faced with this issue, he explained that he talked with the client, processed what had happened, and continued with trauma therapy. Regarding Lt. Strom challenge, Dr. Guy expressed that we may not know everything, but there is a level were clinicians have to be to be able to effectively help clients. With that being said, clinicians always have to strive to improve knowledge and