S5E7: PTSD Is Treatable: Simone Swartz on Healing, Service Dogs, and Reclaiming Your Life

Content note: This episode includes candid conversation about military sexual trauma, PTSD, substance use, and childhood sexual abuse. Please listen with care and step away if you need to.

What does healing actually look like — not as a concept, but as a lived, embodied, decades-long journey? In this powerful episode, Morenike sits down with Simone Swartz: U.S.

Army veteran, published author, Reiki practitioner, and co-founder of Service Dog Strong. Simone knows the weight of undiagnosed PTSD from the inside.

She also knows what it looks like when healing — finally — takes hold. After surviving military sexual trauma in the Army and spending nearly a decade managing her pain through self-medication, Simone found her way to recovery through counseling, holistic healing, faith, and an extraordinary bond with her service dog, Gunner.

Today she advocates globally, writes, coaches, and speaks the truth she wishes someone had spoken to her sooner: PTSD is treatable. This conversation is honest, hopeful, and deeply human.

Morenike opens up about her own journey as a survivor, and together these two women model exactly the kind of courageous, bridge-building dialogue that this podcast exists to hold. In this episode, you'll hear: How a single incident in the military set off a decades-long domino effect — and what finally broke the cycle Why Simone reframes PTSD as a post-traumatic injury , not a disorder — and why that distinction matters for healing The surprising way Simone discovered her own PTSD (hint: she went to therapy to help someone else) Why healing must be physical , not just mental — and what martial arts, Reiki, bodywork, and exercise have to do with it The science behind why service dogs can reach sexual assault survivors in ways that even therapists sometimes cannot What it means that "shame must switch sides" — and how speaking out becomes the last step of the healing journey Simone's vision of a beloved community: a world where darkness has no place to hide About Simone Swartz Simone Swartz is the author of PTSD and What Helped Me: A Step-by-Step Guide to Start Your PTSD Recovery Journey , a practical guide written from inside lived experience.

She has contributed research to Elsevier, one of the world's leading medical publishers, and co-founded Service Dogs Strong — one of the first nonprofits in the country dedicated to providing trained service dogs at no cost to survivors of sexual assault living with PTSD. She is a speaker, coach, mother of three, and a tireless advocate for trauma survivors everywhere.

Connect with Simone PTSD and What Helped Me — book and workbook available on her website 💬 Simone is currently accepting a limited number of coaching clients Facebook Resources mentioned: Vet Centers (free counseling for veterans and their families) — vetcenter.va.gov Service Dogs Strong — Simone's book includes a comprehensive list of FDA-approved and holistic PTSD therapies — Eastern and Western modalities Additional resources: National sexual assault hotline: 1(800) 656-4673 Veteran’s Crisis Line: 988 Crisis text line: 741741 Crisis line for kids and teens: 1 (877) 968-8491 Enjoying Elevating Good Podcast? Share, follow, and review if you like what you hear so more people can discover EGP! ⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to additional content on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠ Shop for EGP merch: