“I was part of a female engagement team, and we were helping an all-girls school that had been blown up by the Taliban rebuild,” recounts Yoland Poullard, an Army veteran who came to Operation Mend for help with her survivor’s guilt. “I was transitioning to Kabul when my team went out on a convoy to the school. I remember the phone call like it was yesterday when they told me my team got blown up. This was my family, and it was really tough. The guilt was tearing me apart. When I got out of the military andcame home, I had my 7-year-old little girl. I was there for her physically, but I mentally wasn’t. Sometimes the inner wounds are worse than the outer wounds because they’re invisible. I came to the Intensive Treatment Program with Operation Mend, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. One phone call to them ended up giving me back my life. They gave me a tool kit to deal with PTSD. They taught me was that it wasnot my fault. They helped me accept the new me. It’s a tough program, but it’s well worth it. It gave me a life where I could be a mother to my child.”
Healing the Invisible Wounds
