STAPLETON, Ala. (WKRG) — A woman who lost her husband in Afghanistan nearly 15 years ago is using her experiences with pain and trauma to help other families and veterans going through the same thing.
Brittany Lawrence is now an intern at a horse therapy facility in Alabama, working toward her degree, and helping others with grief.
Lawrence showed NewsNation affiliate WKRG how she leads a horse at Equine Therapy Group in Stapleton. She’s a mental health therapist intern, getting a degree in clinical mental health — struggles she’s had herself.
“Not all wounds are visible, and I want to help break that stigma of mental health,” Lawrence said.
“Just because [you have something to work through] doesn’t make you a bad person,” she continued. “I swear, their four hooves got my two feet moving forward.”
It was a long road to get here. In 2011, her husband Joshua Lawrence was killed in action in Afghanistan. She was 26 at the time and said it crushed her world.
“It’s so easy to get stuck in a tunnel where you feel like there’s no light, and I had an opportunity for people to give back to me,” Lawrence said. “I feel like that’s something Josh would have wanted.”
Most of the interns who come here are fresh out of high school or maybe in college. Lawrence is unusual, in that she’s an intern at the age of 40.
“I think it’s very hard to really connect with someone if you don’t have somewhat of a similar experience to what they’re going through,” Kari Whatley with Equine Therapy Group said. “So I think when people find out, ‘Oh, she really understands what I’m experiencing,’ it goes a long way.”
Lawrence says her experiences give her perspectives that help her empathize with her clients.
“Being able to sit with people that are younger than me, or even older than me, I can say, ‘Dude, I’ve sat right there on the front seat.’ I know what it’s like to have unhealthy vices to overcome trauma. I know what it’s like to feel like you’re alone in the world,” Lawrence said.
Her goal is to be a mental health therapist and she hopes to finish her licensure by December.
“I think the best way to honor those that we’ve lost is to continue living and there is hope. There’s always hope, even when the demons are talking and screaming and telling you there’s none,” Lawrence said.