Survivors thrive, build resiliency with creative arts, spirituality

Survivors of fallen service members gathered at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall April 9 for a daylong seminar on building resiliency through creative arts and spirituality.

Retired U.S. Army Chap. (Maj.) Kristi Pappas, Survivor Outreach Services support coordinator for JBM-HH and organizer of the event, said the goal was to help these spouses and family members do more than just survive.

"I believe in thrivers," she said. "My goal is to thrive. We need to overcome."

Pappas, a Kansas City, Missouri, native and music therapist, is an Army veteran who retired in 2014 after 23 years of service in the Army Chaplain Corps. During that time, she was stationed at Fort Belvoir, Walter Reed Military Medical Center and on a yearlong deployment to Kuwait.

The seminar consisted of a lecture from Pappas on resiliency, followed by a day of activities such as quilting, yoga, meditation, poetry writing and much more, before wrapping up with a concert from The U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own," part of the band's Therapeutic Outreach Program.

Pappas has experience with post-traumatic stress, and not just from her work as a chaplain for more than 20 years. She also witnessed the tragic walkway collapse at the Hyatt Regency Kansas City hotel in 1981, a freak architectural failure that killed 114 people and injured more than 200 others.

"I went through nightmares, I went through flashbacks, you name it," she said. "Back when I went through it, there wasn't a lot about PTSD that they knew. They were still learning. When you're dealing with traumatic stress, it impacts our bodies, it impacts our minds and it impacts our brains. The answer to it is resiliency."

A holistic approach

Pappas said that survivors can cope with their post-traumatic stress and their grief -- that they can build resiliency and thrive -- with a holistic approach that focuses on spirituality, creativity, exercise and work.

"God made us creative beings," she said. "He did not make us doorstops. He didn't make us birds, and even birds sing. He did not make us not to be creative."

These creative outlets, whether it's baking, writing, sewing or drawing, do more than just fill a survivor's time, according to Pappas, who has undergone surgery for a brain tumor and is educated in neuroplasticity. Creativity actually helps to build resiliency through retraining and rewiring a person's brain, she said.

"It helps to build resiliency," Pappas said. "What it is is the capacity of the brain to bounce back, to get back into sync, to be able to have a vibrant life."

Survivors also have to be mindful of their grief, according to Pappas. That means being present and aware of one's feelings to combat harmful thinking patterns and depression.

"If you're mindful about your grief, you're aware of it," she said. "You can help to change it by doing little things. It may be a 30-minute walk and refocusing your brain."

A network of support

Seminar attendee Melinda Jefferson helped raise her niece and nephew after her brother-in-law died in the line of duty in 2005. In the years since, Jefferson said she has worked with a number of SOS offices and has always benefited from their support.

"That's the great thing about SOS: They open it up to all family members," she said. "It's definitely not a club that you want to be in but it's like another family."

Jefferson said she agreed with and appreciated Pappas' notion of thriving, and thought that creative arts could be a constructive outlet for survivors.

"Each family here has a different definition of what that is," she said. "Not everybody is going to share their story…but we're creating new stories by being here and that's the most important thing. It's whatever you want to take from it. I feel safe here."

In addition to the creative courses, the seminar also included sessions that helped survivors identify lines of support in their lives.

Family members, old friends, military community members or any of the military's many outreach services are all viable support options, according to Pappas. Survivors just have to be willing to ask for help if they need it.

"It's taking that first step and understanding that you're going to have good days and you're going to have bad days," she said. "You're going to have days in between, understanding that there are other people who have gone through it also."

Not just for family members

Pappas' ultimate goal is to found a creative arts and spirituality program for active duty service members.

The key is to offer these service members non-threatening outlets in a confidential setting. When she was a chaplain, Pappas said she would work with Soldiers, allowing them to be creative, to color or play music, and that it would help them open up.

"Their stress levels were going down, their self-esteem was going up," she said. "We forget that Soldiers in a unit can be survivors also."

For more information on SOS on the joint base, call 703-696-8846/8847. The office is located in Building 203 on the Fort Myer portion of the joint base.

Pentagram Staff Writer Guv Callahan can be reached at wcallahan@dcmilitary.com.