Community Building for Veterans: Susan Davis' Commitment to Healing and Mental Health -41

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Kim [: 00:00:00

Growing up in a small town, Susan Davis never imagined she'd end up in the military, let alone becoming a leading voice in behavioral health for veterans. From struggling through the demands of basic training to finding her path in a field that's often stigmatized, Susan's journey is one of resilience, transformation, and fierce determination. In today's episode, we dive into her story. Why she joined the military, how her service shaped her, and the powerful work she's doing now to support veterans and service members. Whether you're a woman in the military or navigating life after service, this conversation will empower you to to own your journey and break through the barriers that stand in your way. Welcome to Dog Tag Diaries. I'm your host, captain Kim. Our podcast is where military women speak their truths and share the stories that have shaped their lives.

Kim [: 00:01:03

From moments of resilience to hard won triumphs, we hold nothing back. Twenty twenty four was a year of incredible milestones for this community. Our voice were heard in over 33 countries around the world. And we ranked in Apple Podcast's top 200 in personal journeys in The United States. A testament to the power of authentic storytelling. Now as we launch season four, we invite you to journey with us once again. This is more than a podcast. This is a movement.

Kim [: 00:01:40

Let's break barriers, shatter silence, and amplify the voices of military women everywhere. Thank you for listening, sharing, and making this possible. This is dog tag diaries. In this episode, we sit down with Susan Davis, a behavioral health clinician, army veteran, and passionate advocate for mental health support within the military community. From growing up in a small lumber town in Northern California to her service in the army, Susan shares her unique journey through life, the military, and into the field of behavioral health. If you're a woman considering joining or already serving in the military, or if you're navigating life after your service, Susan's story will leave you inspired to embrace your journey with confidence. So welcome, Susan, to Dog Tag Diaries. Thank you so much for being on.

Susan Davis [: 00:02:42

Thank you for having me.

Kim [: 00:02:44

Yeah. Embracing this journey with confidence. That's gonna be the theme. And we have to start at the beginning. Like, let's hear about little Susan and the impact that, you know, your life had when you were younger as you were growing up and then making the transition into the military.

Susan Davis [: 00:03:03

So, yeah, I grew up, very small little lumber town, Northern California, middle of the redwoods, two older brothers who I idolized and I wanted to be like. So definitely considered myself a tomboy. Always wanted to be in jeans and baseball hats instead of dresses and things. And I did not come from a military family. So, I mean, my grandfather was in World War two, as many grandfathers were. And he didn't ever really talk about his experiences. The most he would say was that it was not easy, that it was difficult and that it wasn't, like, a good time in his life, really. He was proud of it, but it wasn't something that he really wanted to relive or share.

Susan Davis [: 00:03:45

So it wasn't discussed a lot. It wasn't being in the military wasn't something that was I mean, an option. Sure. But it wasn't something that was, you know, expected or thought about or definitely not something I ever anticipated for my life. I mean, again, very small lumber town. Everybody knew everybody. Everybody knew who your parents were and who to call if you did something wrong type of place.

Kim [: 00:04:09

So you felt, like, very supported?

Susan Davis [: 00:04:11

I think so. Yeah. I did. I felt very supported and still at the same time, not always as much of a part of the community as maybe some of the other kids. Like, I didn't go to the school with all the other kids. I didn't go to public school. So I grew up Seventh day Adventist. I don't know what everybody knows about that, but I mean, very, very religious.

Susan Davis [: 00:04:30

My mother's family was very religious, and we were put into a private school that was very different from a lot of other kids' experiences in school. There was no competitive athletic opportunities, bible class every single day. It was different. And it was definitely not, again, not something where, like, a military experience would have been applauded or even thought about really. It was academically, I think, challenging and the focus was academics and, again, you know, religion. So a very different perspective, I would say. But still, I mean, growing up, I'm a five foot eleven now. You know, female was always taller than most of the boys in my class until 15 or 16 years old, I would say.

Susan Davis [: 00:05:19

So there was always that understanding of my athletic abilities even though it wasn't in a competitive arena, I suppose.

Kim [: 00:05:27

Well, yeah, and being surrounded by your two older brothers who I'm sure were very athletic as well.

Susan Davis [: 00:05:33

They were athletic. I idolized them, so I kind of like, I wanted to do little league, and that wasn't a thing that I could do because I was you know, back when I was a kid, girls didn't really do that. So I had the option of doing tap dance or ballet, and I didn't wanna do those things.

Kim [: 00:05:51

That doesn't sound like it would fit your nature back then.

Susan Davis [: 00:05:55

No. I did gymnastics instead. That was about as close to, like, a hardcore sport as I could get in my school and, you know, being a female. And it served me well, I will say, until, you know, I got it definitely gave me a really good underpinning for my athletic ability to build on later. So growing up, the focus was academics, I would say. The focus was really on doing as well in school as possible to then go to college. What was your dream? It shifted. I think being, again, a kid from a very small town, you know, my dad was a lumber worker.

Susan Davis [: 00:06:32

My mom was a stay at home mom until I was I think she got her first job that I knew of when I was about 12, 13. So, you know, she was mostly a stay at home mom until, you know, I was I was older. It didn't really ever occur to me to do anything grand. When I say grand, I mean, like, the idea of being a doctor was so far beyond me. Like, I wouldn't have even known where to go or thought that I was capable of that, let alone be able to pay for that. And this is kind of a weird thing, I guess, but I was always aware of, like, financial limits even as a as a kid. I don't know if it was hearing my parents talk about it or what, but the idea of student loans was like, no. Not doing that.

Susan Davis [: 00:07:10

Never gonna do that. So I was very like, okay. If I'm gonna go to college, I have to get scholarships. I have to rely on myself. I you know, I'm not going into debt. I'm not doing this. So it was very, like, I have to do as well as I possibly can academically to make this happen. And most of my again, my family, they didn't go to college.

Susan Davis [: 00:07:29

My mom went to a couple of semesters. My dad went to a couple of semesters. I did not have college graduates in my my family really prior.

Kim [: 00:07:37

Did your brothers end up going?

Susan Davis [: 00:07:39

Neither one has a degree. They both went a little bit, but neither one graduated.

Kim [: 00:07:44

Wow. So you were the first one in the family.

Susan Davis [: 00:07:47

In my direct line, yes. I think there were aunts and uncles and cousins and things, but yeah.

Kim [: 00:07:51

Where did you decide to go to school?

Susan Davis [: 00:07:54

I actually stayed pretty close to home. I had some offers and opportunities that were further away. And my oldest brother, who is eight years older than I, his first child was born when I was 16. She was my heart. She was as close to a kid as I thought I wanted, essentially. So I chose to stay close to home and actually got extra scholarships for going to the school that was in my county, in my home county. So I went to Humboldt State University. For those that know, that will definitely pin down where the area I grew up in.

Kim [: 00:08:30

Now was that a culture shock going from the school, the private school that you went to in your small town to Humboldt University?

Susan Davis [: 00:08:39

I mean, a little bit. I had gone to so the school that I went to growing up through I went through tenth grade. It capped out at tenth grade. And at that point, you either had the choice to go away to a a the private boarding school, which was, again, a Seventh day Adventist boarding school, or transition to public school. So I got two years of public school, which definitely was a culture shock. But it was great. And I actually wish that I had been able to experience more public school. It was it was just a whole, like, new set of people and views and opportunities with, again, sports and things like that, that I was like, okay, this would be cool.

Susan Davis [: 00:09:16

But things happen. So things happen for a reason.

Kim [: 00:09:19

Yeah. So you got your degree?

Susan Davis [: 00:09:22

I got my degree. I got two. I actually double majored in undergrad.

Kim [: 00:09:26

What was the undergrad in?

Susan Davis [: 00:09:28

So I started in as an English major just because I was good at it, and it seemed the right path. And then my third year of undergrad, I discovered psychology. I took a forensic psychology class, and I was like, okay. This is what, like, gets me. This is what I'm interested in. But at that point, I was too far into my English major to abandon it. I wasn't gonna just switch.

Kim [: 00:09:52

You could be a writer on, like, forensic files or, like, those TV shows with all the mystery and crime. There you go.

Susan Davis [: 00:10:01

Yeah. Good. Yeah. I've thought about it. That's all, you know, one of my goals, write a book. Yeah. Wow. Okay.

Susan Davis [: 00:10:08

Continue. Yeah. So I I basically instead of just switching majors at that point, I said, okay. I'm just gonna stay in school for an extra year and get both. So I got two undergraduate degrees in English and psychology with the intention of then going into a master's program as soon as possible in forensic psychology. That was, at that time, again, like, CSI was all the rage. Everybody wanted to be a a CSI person. Yeah.

Susan Davis [: 00:10:35

So I was just like, yes. This is this is gonna be my career. And then I started having, you know, okay. I don't wanna just be a CSI analyst. I want to be a profiler, essentially. I wanted to go into the FBI and be a forensic psychologist in the FBI, and that was the whole goal. So at that time, during my undergraduate foray, my time, I'd had the opportunity to start working in a local casino as a blackjack dealer.

Kim [: 00:11:03

I did not see that coming. Really?

Susan Davis [: 00:11:08

It's an interesting fact about me. Yes. I dealt blackjack and other yeah. And that absolutely helped me, you know, extra year of college, whatever. It helped me pay everything without going into debt. I didn't have any student debt in my undergraduate year years, which was great. So, yeah, I spent time I think my last couple of years in undergraduate, I was dealing blackjack and working ridiculous hours and getting very little sleep. And, you know, my intention in upon graduation was, alright.

Susan Davis [: 00:11:35

I have this certain skill set. I'm gonna move to Las Vegas. I'm gonna work at a casino, and UNLV had a forensic psychology program for a master's. So I was like, okay. This is perfect. This is the plan. Moved to Las Vegas, got a job eventually at a casino dealing blackjack. They taught me how to, you know, do roulette and all these different things and never ever was able to scrape enough money together to actually enroll and get my like, go to my master's program and hated it.

Susan Davis [: 00:12:04

Hated Las Vegas. I mean, personal thing, some people love it. It's a great place for a weekend for me and just not the place I wanted to be at that time in my life and, you know, a poor wanting to be a student again. I made the decision after about a year in Vegas to move back home. Went back to Humboldt County, got a job back at the casino that I had been working at before, but was basically like, I don't wanna deal blackjack anymore. I would rather be a it's called a pit boss, which is essentially the person that just wanders around behind and makes the difficult calls about things and stuff. And so went home, got an apartment, got a job as a pit boss, and lived that life for another couple of years, still trying to figure out how to get my master's degree and kind of move forward with life. And it didn't seem to be going anywhere.

Susan Davis [: 00:12:56

And I finally was like, all right, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna try to see if what my options are in the military because I'm physically capable. I'm fairly certain I'm mentally capable. Like, you know, I was like, I can do anything for five years or whatever it's gonna be. I I can do it. Because, yeah, it was a way of, number one, getting money for college. I knew that. Getting money for my master's program and getting out of what felt like a very stuck situation.

Kim [: 00:13:25

How did the military come into your vision? How did you discover it? Was it through college or, like, a billboard? Remember the billboards back then? We seem to be the same age.

Susan Davis [: 00:13:35

Yeah. I mean, there was definitely a lot of advertising prep I don't even know. Yeah. There was definitely a a very specific push for people. A lot of reasons, I think. I mean, nine eleven had happened when I was in my undergraduate years, so there was always that kind of sense of patriotism and, like, what is it I can do? I had always had a respect for and, you know, I again, wanting to go into federal law enforcement, it was like, this also makes sense. I could have this, you know, on my resume that would help boost that. And I thought it was, you know, a good way to prep me for all that.

Susan Davis [: 00:14:13

I was like, I mean, if anything is gonna get me rigorously in shape and mentally prepared for what I will probably have to go through in, like, FBI Academy training, that would be it. So and, you know, I I mean, I I obviously knew people who had been in the military and and hearing their experiences, and it was sort of rumbling around, I think, in the back of my head as a potential option ever since I got out of my undergrad years. It wasn't an option out of high school, but it became an option out of undergrad, like I said, kind of just in the back of my head.

Kim [: 00:14:47

Well, yeah, it looks like this passion of yours is evolving, and you chose the army. What made you chose the army?

Susan Davis [: 00:14:55

I had actually applied for air force officer training and was denied. I was told that I did not meet their criteria, that I don't know, you know, for whatever reason, for whatever reason. And upon, like, leaving the interview and all of that kind of stuff, they were like, you could still enlist. And fun fact about me, I hold a grudge sometimes. So I was like, if I'm gonna enlist, I'm no. I don't wanna I wanted to be an officer for you. I'll go enlist in the army. So I went and talked to them, and my initial intention going in to talk to the recruiter was psy ops because psychology major, like, made sense to me.

Susan Davis [: 00:15:36

And at the time, they were looking for other intel positions that they were recruiting heavily for and giving some pretty big bonuses. And they talked me into a different kind of job, which I'm not mad about. It actually has served my current my choice in becoming a a behavioral health clinician. It definitely has served me well, all the training that I received in my in AIT.

Kim [: 00:16:00

What was your MOS or your job?

Susan Davis [: 00:16:03

97 echo or turn into a 35 mic, so human intelligence collector. So, yeah, essentially, trained in how to talk to people. Then becoming an LPC and a CDC, it's served me well, I will say. So I chose to enlist mainly so I went to talk to the army recruiter. They were like, you have your degree. You could go to officer training. And if you go to officer training, you don't get to choose where you go, like, what your job is going to be. I said, no.

Susan Davis [: 00:16:32

That's not cool for a couple of reasons. Like, number one, I want to choose where how I'm gonna be trained and what, you know, what kind of unit I'm gonna be with. And number two, like, I don't know anything about the military. Who am I to tell other people what to do in the military when I don't know anything about it? Like, it didn't make sense to me at all. So I chose to enlist and went through all of the all the stuff. As at the time, I was 25 when I went and talked to the recruiter, twenty six before I actually shipped to basic. So as an older, you know, female, I wanted, I would say, a difficult route.

Kim [: 00:17:08

Well yeah. Yeah. But, however, you had college credits, so you probably went in, what, as an e three or e four?

Susan Davis [: 00:17:16

E four. I went in as an e four, which when they told me that was what was going to be happening, sounded great. I was like, oh, okay. I come in with some rank. I make a little bit more money. That sounds fabulous. There's an expectation of knowledge when you go in as an e four. They think you know what something about what you're talking about.

Susan Davis [: 00:17:35

And that again, I had no understanding of military structure or anything. So I think I had there was a very quick turnaround. Like, the learning curve had to be very short, and I still got, you know, yelled at and hazed quite a bit. I mean, I think everybody does. Everybody gets the typical army. Well, military. We'll say military. I don't know what other basics are like.

Susan Davis [: 00:17:58

But, you know, everybody goes through it. And there was definitely an expectation from drill sergeants and officers that I was going to know stuff that I did not know. So I got again, my academic abilities served me well in being able to learn and memorize things quickly. Yeah.

Kim [: 00:18:20

Where did you go to basic training? And then where was your AIT? Which for the listeners, AIT is advanced individual training, which training soldiers need, in order to become qualified for their job.

Susan Davis [: 00:18:34

Their MOS, their job. Exactly. So Basic was in Missouri, Fort Leonard Wood.

Kim [: 00:18:39

Yes. Fort Lost In The Woods misery.

Susan Davis [: 00:18:41

Fort Lost In The Woods. And I shipped out on Presidents' Day weekend. So February in Missouri, long weekend. We showed up, and everything was shut down because it was a long weekend. So we're stuck there without I think they gave us our PT uniforms. So we had, like, sweats and shorts and T shirts, and that was it. Like, we had nothing else, so we were, like, basically wearing our PT uniforms all weekend, doing PT, running in the snow for a long weekend. Our drill sergeants were pissed because they were there over the long week.

Susan Davis [: 00:19:15

You know? Yeah. So that was a fun intro to basic, and we were initially put again, for the long weekend, we were put in just these kind of large, incomplete barracks because they hadn't prepped our actual, like, long term barracks yet. So it was definitely, you know, an interesting, like, oh, this is okay. So it's a lot of hurry up and wait, which is a standard military, like, thing. I think everybody in the military understands that. There's a lot of hurry up and wait, a lot of, like, okay. We're just gonna roll with the punches. Everything's subject to change.

Susan Davis [: 00:19:46

Right. Right. Embrace the suck, essentially. Right? Yes. So Fort Leonard Wood, 5 Weeks. Basic is five weeks, I believe. Five weeks of Fort Leonard Wood through the end of winter and then shipped to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, right down by the border, High Desert right at the beginning. Again, springtime, so it wasn't so bad.

Susan Davis [: 00:20:08

It was like, you know, get you get a little warmth, which was nice after Fort Leonard Wood. Found out, we get there, and we find out that our AIT, which is already I wanna say, the second longest or the longest military, like, MOS training, was going to be pushed back even further because, again, they were, they were recruiting for this particular MOS pretty like, really heavily at this time, and they were bringing in a lot of National Guard and Reserve people and pushing them through faster because on the state dime at that point rather than the federal dime. So we got to do a lot of PT. We got to fill sandbags. We got to do a lot of motor pool and really anything else that anybody on the base needed to happen while we waited for an extra six months before we got into actually doing our training, which was six months. So I was essentially in a training environment, the initial sort of training environments for a year and weeks, you know, whatever, basic weeks. So, yeah, being in the military was a lot of PT, which definitely took on my 26 year old body, which doesn't sound old, but when you're 26 and you're going through, you know, PT twice a day and, you know, all the push ups and all the everything.

Kim [: 00:21:19

Flutter kicks and front back goes and oh my goodness.

Susan Davis [: 00:21:23

Yeah. It takes a toll. It takes a toll on the body. So there were some injuries and things that happened. And

Kim [: 00:21:29

Yeah. And then how long were you in the military?

Susan Davis [: 00:21:33

So I was in for three years.

Kim [: 00:21:35

Okay. And after your first year, did you transition to another job?

Susan Davis [: 00:21:41

No. I stayed in the same job that well, yeah. I because I had just gotten trained in that job, so I was still in the same job. So while in AIT, while in Arizona, met my now ex husband, but we met in AIT, which anybody who's been in the military will know that that, I mean, there's all sorts of jokes about, you know, AIT love and marriages and things like that and how they're they're doomed. Don't regret it. Absolutely don't regret it, obviously. But we met and got married while we were still in Arizona and went together to our first duty station in Alaska. So, yeah, it's cold.

Susan Davis [: 00:22:20

Alaska's beautiful. So we went I'm trying to remember all the dates right now. So we shipped up there in, like, March, I wanna say. So it was, you know, we decided to drive from Arizona up through California, stop, see my family, and then make the trek up through Canada to Alaska. And, you know, March usually is you know, it's getting to springtime, whatever. Going through Alaska, it is still very, very, very snowy. So we definitely got to see this kind of transition, I guess, from being in the desert and being, you know, where it's hot, and March is already pretty summery down there up to right back in the middle of of winter. And sometimes, you know, going along the Canadian roads, it was snow piled six feet up on either side.

Susan Davis [: 00:23:08

Wow. Yeah. So Alaska was, I mean, overall, it was beautiful and brutal and a really, I think, good duty station, amazing people, and difficult, I think, as a newly married couple, trying to navigate what that's like in the military is a whole thing.

Kim [: 00:23:32

Yeah. What was it like?

Susan Davis [: 00:23:34

And my only experience as a single person in the military was in training. So, you know, take it all with a grain of salt, But everything is provided for you. Right? It's like you're in the barracks. You have your living situation as long as you keep it clean, you know, all of the things. When you are married, all of a sudden, it's like, okay. They will provide you with housing on base, or you can buy a house, or, like, you have all these options again, but then you gotta figure out how to navigate them. So it's very interesting, like, the stark contrast between being a single soldier and being a married soldier, I think. And the amount of actual, like, adult choices that they give you just based on that one thing.

Susan Davis [: 00:24:16

Just based on whether or not you're married, which makes sense as to why so many people choose to get married even if, like, it's so quickly. It's like, okay. I wanna be an adult. I'm committing myself to this thing where I'm, you know, I'm potentially giving my life for my country. I wanna be treated as an adult. Therefore, I'll get married, and I'll have an adult life. So I think we were able to have a more relatively normal, I guess, quote, unquote, normal life because we were a married couple and got to buy a house and live off base. And it seems like a more normal job being able to leave base every day and, like, transition back to a regular, you know, again, quote, unquote, regular life versus you get off work and you walk up three flights of stairs to your room in the barracks, and you're still sort of on duty all the time.

Kim [: 00:25:10

Yeah. So what were some of the complications that you had that led to the separation? From the military, yes. And if you wanna talk about it, your ex.

Susan Davis [: 00:25:22

So separation from the military was very when I when I said, you know, being in training for a year plus led to a lot of injuries. That was a huge chunk of the reason I I was separated from the military. I ended up having to have shoulder surgery, foot surgery, on, like, permanent profiles. Couldn't do a lot of the things that were going to be required of me long term. So it was yeah. The decision was made to, separate me from the military. It was sad at the time. I definitely felt like I had not lived up to my obligation and definitely led to later on not feeling super great about talking about the military experience, about referring to myself as a veteran, about taking advantage of benefits, even disability.

Susan Davis [: 00:26:12

You know? I get I have a 30% disability rating that I get money for every month. That that still sometimes is like, that feels weird. Like so, yeah, complicated for sure.

Kim [: 00:26:22

So you ended up getting separated from the military, and your husband stayed in?

Susan Davis [: 00:26:28

Was still in. Yeah. So he was in, he actually was in for another couple of years after I was separated from the military. So we were still in Alaska for that time period. He deployed. When he deployed, I was pregnant with our son. So, definitely, I mean, getting to, I guess, experience the military spouse and what that was kind of like. It's a whole different experience seeing it from that that side.

Kim [: 00:26:58

You were experiencing a lot of firsts from your support system. And so, yeah, how are you navigating through all that?

Susan Davis [: 00:27:07

Oh god. Day by day. And I will say, at the time, it was good to experience and, you know, the amount that I was willing to accept the help that was offered. There were a lot of supports that were offered through the base, you know, as a spouse, as a, you know, a person who is pregnant and and, you know, having a baby. There were people there were the support networks that were reaching out and checking in. This was middle of winter in Alaska. So where we were at, it gets very I mean, negative 60 is definitely, like, a a yearly experience at least, I would say.

Kim [: 00:27:44

A couple hours of daylight. Couple hours of daylight.

Susan Davis [: 00:27:48

So and I can't, again, can't speak to any other base, but I know that one was very, intentional about making sure they were reaching out and especially after I had my son, like, you know, are you feeling they didn't I don't know if they ever said depressed, but, like, asking about stuff and saying, like, do you want anybody to come visit and, you know, attempting to build that community.

Kim [: 00:28:09

Did that help in all of that? Because right? Like, you're separated from the military. Your husband gets deployed. You're having your first baby. Your hormones are right. It takes a year for your hormones to recoup and go back. So sometimes we develop postpartum depression. You're away from your family.

Susan Davis [: 00:28:30

And, again, lived off base, so that social connection wasn't as built in, I guess. Like, if I was gonna get it, I had to either accept it. I had to say, yes. Sure. Come out, which they were willing to do, or, like, leave home and go get it, which when it's negative anything outside, and then you don't really wanna especially with a baby, you don't wanna leave the house, really. So, yeah, I mean, I think, again, part of it was my own need or willingness to accept the help. There were definitely times when I was just like, no. I'm good.

Susan Davis [: 00:29:00

I don't want anybody to come out. I didn't feel like showering or whatever. There were times when I definitely was just like, yes. It would be good for me for somebody to come out and just talk or let me know what's going on with the unit. Like, are they coming back anytime soon? What's happening? You know? Because, yeah, I don't know. Anybody, I think, who has had a loved one deploy, that communication is difficult. Like, knowing when to when you are gonna be able to text or call or at that time, when there was no video calls, that wasn't a thing. And, you know, calls are sporadic.

Susan Davis [: 00:29:34

Texting is difficult and confusing sometimes because you can't read, you know, emotion and things like that. So especially, again, when your hormones are raging.

Kim [: 00:29:44

And the unknown can be super scary. So did all these experiences that you had lead you into what you're doing now? Like, you do really powerful work. You create, like, effective behavioral health programming for veterans and service members.

Susan Davis [: 00:30:01

Oh, yeah. It absolutely led there.

Kim [: 00:30:03

How did you get there?

Susan Davis [: 00:30:07

So leaving the military, I mean, my husband was still deployed. I had a new baby. I but, again, I always knew I was gonna go back to school. So I started my master's program in Alaska. My son was couple months old at the time, and I was like, okay. We're actually I never mind. I reversed. I had started the master's program when I was still pregnant.

Susan Davis [: 00:30:26

I was still in the military. I was I I went I was like, alright. I'm just gonna start this thing. I'm gonna we're gonna get we're gonna get the ball moving, and then I'll take a break while I, you know, have my son, and then we'll go back. So I had started the master's program, took a little hiatus, started in again after I had my son part time because, you know, new baby. And then when we had my ex husband finished his service and we decided we were going to move to Connecticut because we had never been there and it seemed, you know, hey, that this moves on the army's dime, we might as well go all the way from one side to the other. Why not? So we moved to Connecticut. Also, there was a school that we could both use the Yellow Ribbon Program.

Susan Davis [: 00:31:10

For those who don't know, Yellow Ribbon Program, basically, the school agrees to only charge what that highest undergraduate tuition for a state college would be. Anyway, we could go to school for with our GI bills and not have to pay any extra at the school that we had chosen. He was working on his undergrad. I was working on my master's, Transferred over, long story short, ended up with a master's in community psychology. And at that point, you know, once we had both finished school, I told him, alright. I wanna be back on the West Coast. That was sort of always an understanding between us when we decided to get married was that, eventually, I wanted to be closer to family, closer to home. So we ended up back in or well, ended up in Oregon.

Susan Davis [: 00:31:53

And after a a few years, I during that time, I was helping him build up a business that he had started in Connecticut. We moved it. We were building it back up. And then I got a job at the state forensic hospital.

Kim [: 00:32:07

Full circle. Full circle.

Susan Davis [: 00:32:11

Exactly. Exactly. I saw the opportunity. It was, you know, the hospital was, geez, five minutes away from where we lived at the time. So I was just like, well, okay. It's time for me to actually use my education and not just do this other thing. So, yeah, I and my foot in the door to that hospital was working night shift as what we call floor staff, which is essentially, yeah, you're there. You're with the clients.

Susan Davis [: 00:32:35

You're talking about whatever they wanna talk about. But it was such a great experience in terms of, like I don't wanna say I mean, yes, thrown in the deep end of working with the forensic population, which I had never done at that point. Like, I knew it was fascinating to me, but I had never done it. I had never actually worked with people with serious mental illness who were committed to a state hospital. So it gave me the opportunity to really just like, okay. This is what this is like. Like, this is what it's like to work in a forensic hospital, %, which was great. I actually really enjoyed it other than working the night shift, which at that point, I was in my thirties.

Kim [: 00:33:14

I was just gonna ask if that was fulfilling for you.

Susan Davis [: 00:33:17

It was an amazing experience that I will absolutely never regret. And working night shift, working overnight in your thirties, very different than in your twenties. Like, it's rough. It's rough. After about a year of that, I was like, I I gotta figure out how to change. I mean, I I wanted to stay in the hospital. I wanted to keep working with that population, and I was like, okay. I gotta do something else.

Susan Davis [: 00:33:41

I know. So at that time, I was able to get into the psychology department, started doing individual and group therapy, did that for several years and kind of built up, got my licensure, got my credentials. And after a amount amount of time doing that, decided I wanted to move into higher level programming and got a I mean, I still worked for the state at the time, but got a different job with the state where now I focus specifically in veteran behavioral health and and either finding programs and helping fund their programming and the work that they do or developing programming where, you know, a a need isn't being met.

Kim [: 00:34:17

You are a force here in Oregon. I have to say it is amazing to have you on seriously, on military, not just military women, but because we're about military women, but about veterans, you are creating space for them and allowing them to learn about themselves and the different programming that we wouldn't know about because a lot of us have PTS. And so we as we know in the in the military, you have to dig for information for those programs that are out there. So thank you for being that force.

Susan Davis [: 00:34:54

It's on I mean, it and I say this with a % sincerity. It's been an honor to actually step into the role and be able to do what I think is the most important, which is creating networks and creating, like, the community and informing everybody of what everybody is doing, which I mean, this population can get very siloed, which is super weird because we are a very community based group. We have a tendency again, it's embrace the suck, push forward, get the job done, and we don't always talk to each other about what we're doing.

Kim [: 00:35:25

Yeah. Because we're so conditioned.

Susan Davis [: 00:35:28

We're so conditioned to just get her done. Right? So being able to be in a again, being in a position where I can focus on getting everyone connected to each other and saying, like, okay. They're doing this. They're doing this. This person is saying they need information for somebody that they're working with. I know this other person who can provide like, connecting everyone together has been so much more, I think, rewarding than I would have thought it was.

Kim [: 00:35:58

Well, it's so needed. It's part of mental health. Right? Like, community is part of mental health.

Susan Davis [: 00:36:05

Yeah. And that's the stuff that has always rung true for me since I be since I became a clinician, the things that have just made sense and rung true, again, like peer services, like that always made sense to me. Like, of course, people who have lived experience are going to be able to communicate and have those conversations and build rapport and have trust in a way that people who have not experienced that aren't ever gonna have. Like, as a clinician, I don't have the same kind of relationship with somebody who has a substance use disorder as another person who is in recovery. It just made has always made sense to me at the hospital, and now it's such an integral part of the programming that I I get to do, and it's so valued. Again, it's part of that rewardingness that it's such an accepted and valued part of the veteran and service member community, And it just makes sense to everybody that yeah. I mean, obviously, if you're a veteran and or a service member, like, we just have an an understanding of, like, what that means, and there's already that at least a little bit of built rapport, at least a little bit of, like, already there's some trust there that anybody else isn't gonna have necessarily.

Kim [: 00:37:15

And I love that you were so brave to follow your path and even pivot along the way, but you still stay true to what you wanted to do and just allowed the universe to kinda guide you even though sometimes it probably felt a bit scary.

Susan Davis [: 00:37:32

Oh, for sure. And, yeah, there was definitely some times when it was like, is this the right path just because it makes sense? Like, does that mean it's the right one?

Kim [: 00:37:42

So what advice would you give then to military women, ones that are thinking of going in or that are in already?

Susan Davis [: 00:37:50

I mean, definitely just have that confidence in yourself. Know that what you bring to the table and what you bring your experience, again, like your lived experience, bringing that in is valuable, and you don't have to fit the standard mold either as a military person, as a soldier, as an airman, as a whatever, like, whatever you're coming into the military with, or as a veteran. Like, you don't have to fit the standard role of what a veteran is to be a veteran or to be a, you know, be a service member because you bring valuable, integral experiences and skills that maybe other people don't. So the confidence in yourself, the cockiness. Right? We see it in our male counterparts all the time. They walk with the swagger, and they have confidence in themselves. As service members, as veterans, they hold pride in that. And it's, I think, difficult for females sometimes to have that same level of confidence and cockiness and pride in their service, and we should.

Kim [: 00:38:54

Yeah. We should. And so I wanna thank you so much for being on because, Susan, like, you have worn so many hats from, like, blackjack dealer to I love the the pit boss to army veteran, a wife, a mom, going back to school when you had a child. And there are so many reasons why you could have given up. And I just love that your perseverance, your strength, and your passion, you were just so driven. So thank you for all that because you're making a difference for all of us, all of our military members. So thank you again for being on Dog Tag Diaries.

Susan Davis [: 00:39:38

Thank you. Kind words. Thank you so much.

Kim [: 00:39:42

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Dog Tag Diaries, where military women speak their truth and share their true stories. Every story told here is a step towards understanding, healing, and connection. Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. And remember, your voice matters. Together, we're building a community that empowers, uplifts, and inspires. Stay connected with us. Follow Dogtag Diaries. Leave a review.

Kim [: 00:40:15

And let's continue to amplify the voices of women warriors around the world. Your voice matters. Share your thoughts and reviews to help us grow, improve, and continue making an impact. Until next time, stay strong, stay true, and keep sharing your story.