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Army Veteran Samantha Juan: PTSD, Addiction, Psychedelic Therapy & Creative Healing
Description
What happens when a highly decorated Army Veteran stops performing strength and begins confronting the trauma her body has carried for years?
In this powerful episode of This Sober Vet Podcast, Joe Yurick sits down with Samantha Juan, a Filipina-Persian American writer, artist, speaker, Bronze Star recipient, Pat Tillman Scholar and the 2026 DAV Veteran of the Year.
Samantha served ten years in the U.S. Army as a signals intelligence analyst and Cultural Support Team leader attached to Joint Special Operations Command in Afghanistan. She shares the hidden emotional cost of high-level military service and what happened when the identity, discipline and survival mechanisms that helped her succeed in uniform followed her into civilian life.
Joe and Samantha have an honest conversation about combat trauma, PTSD, dissociation, addiction, alcohol use, motherhood and the pressure Veterans feel to appear strong even when they are struggling internally. Samantha explains how trauma can remain stored in the body, why destructive coping mechanisms often develop after military service and what it means to finally reconnect with the parts of yourself you were trained to suppress.
They also explore Samantha’s experiences with psychedelic-assisted therapy, Veteran mental health treatment, creative healing, writing and painting. She discusses how art helped her process experiences that were difficult to express through traditional conversation and how creativity can become a powerful tool for trauma recovery, sobriety and personal transformation.
This episode is for Veterans, military spouses and families, trauma survivors and anyone who has ever questioned who they are when the mission ends.
Connect with Samantha here
Topics discussed include:
Army Veteran mental health, women Veterans, PTSD recovery, combat trauma, military sexual trauma, dissociation, Veteran addiction, alcohol and trauma, sobriety, psychedelic therapy for Veterans, creative healing, post-traumatic growth, motherhood after military service, JSOC, Cultural Support Teams, Afghanistan Veterans, identity after the military and healing through writing and art.
Our mission is simple: Normalize sobriety with Veterans.
Learn more at www.thissobervet.com
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