Meet Tiffany Morgan | Veteran & Mental Health Professional

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tiffany Morgan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tiffany, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I was born and raised in Wyoming – the Equality State – but I will tell you that while equality is something that is thought of as being granted to everyone as a right, in Wyoming it is not just given, it is also earned. Wyoming is a rugged and desolate landscape where determination and hard work are demanded. It is also a place of beauty, wonderment, and adventure. This is where I learned how to be tough and work hard, but also how to appreciate the stillness and rejuvenation of nature. My parents moved there from Illinois after getting married, and several years later I was born. I was an only child but don’t let that fool you – I was not spoiled or coddled – rather it taught me how to be independent. I come from a long line of military service – my dad served in the Navy long before I was born, as did all of his uncles, and my mom’s dad served in the Army during WWII as did all of my great uncles on her side. I am the first woman in my family to serve and the only person from my generation that joined the military. Joining the military was never pushed on me, and in fact, in 9th grade when I asked to join the high school Army JROTC, my parents were a bit dumbfounded. Military culture is where I flourished so when I wanted to join the Navy at 16 years old my parents were happy to support my decision. During my four years active duty I served as an Aviation Ordnanceman Third Class aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, where I did two six month deployments to the Persian Gulf between 1997 and 2001. Being a woman in a very male-dominated environment worked well for me because I am a tomboy at heart. I felt that I needed to earn my place as a woman so that I would be considered an equal, and growing up in Wyoming as a tomboy helped me tremendously. Characteristics like team work, excellence, courage, being detail-oriented, discipline, and loyalty were taught early and often in the military. Rules are thought to be written in blood so taking your duties seriously and approaching them with these qualities was imperative. On the other hand, this environment also taught me not to ask for help with personal issues and to be overly independent, which was not helpful when I transitioned out of the military and into the civilian world. While I can look back on my service with pride and fondness, I experienced several instances of military sexual trauma, which paralleled my expereince as a child being abused. This combination of complex traumas and not wanting to ask for help sent me down a dark road where I considered suicide. As I began to seek help and sort through a lifetime of trauma and poor decision making, I really found my place and my purpose in life. I pursued a degree in psychology and have been working in the mental health space for almost 15 years now. When I get the opportunity to tell my story, I do because hearing other’s stories is what helped me, and still does. It provided me with validation that what I was feeling was normal, that other people have similar experiences, that I don’t need to carry around the shame and guilt that comes with being sexually abused, and that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Now I own my own business called Your Weapon is Your Mind where I teach civilian healthcare workers about military culture so that when my brothers and sisters go to see a therapist, they aren’t turned off from getting help because they feel misunderstood. I also work with a nonprofit called WarriorNOW that serves judicially-impacted veterans and their families, providing mental health and substance abuse support through peer support. I am truly grateful for all of the experiences I’ve had – good and terrible – because they made me who I am today and gave me a unique perspective on how to help others struggling with similar situations.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I took a Psychology 101 class in high school and knew that I was destined to work in the mental health field because I was raised with a heart to serve others. During my second deployment, the command brought a civilian professor aboard the ship for anyone who wanted to take college classes. When it came time to discharge from the military, I signed up for classes at the local community college and began working as an executive assistant at a financial planning company. After my husband discharged from the military we moved from Virginia, where we had both been stationed, to Colorado where we could enjoy the mountains and all of the outdoor activities. While finishing my Bachelor’s in Psychology I began working part time at a shooting range and volunteer mentoring in an at-risk youth program. The experiences I had as a kid, and feeling alone in those situations, led me to my first job as a counselor in a youth residential treatment program in Denver. I remember a professor telling me not to only hang my hat on that specific population because interests change. After working with this population for almost two years I decided that it wasn’t the right place for me so I transitioned into a clinical case manager role at a community mental health clinic in Denver. I worked there for eight years serving people who had severe and persistent mental illnesses like Schizophrenia, Posttraumatic Stress disorder, and Bipolar disorder. It was an extremely challenging job because my clients struggled with homelessness, lack of family support, substance abuse, lack of income and employment, and were living in a broken system that shunned them. During that time I decided that working with veterans was where I wanted to be but I wasn’t sure where to plug in so I started a combat veteran support group on my own. I also began mentoring in the Veterans Treatment Courts (VTC) here in Colorado. From there I transitioned into a new case management position where I was working in a veteran mental health clinic. While this position launched me into where I am now, it presented me with an opportunity to grow personally. As one of my many roles there, I assisted with our phone intake process which was the first point of contact for veterans who were in crisis. They were disclosing to me their deepest, darkest secrets of trauma and thoughts of suicide. While I did similar work in the community mental health setting it affected me very differently because now it was hitting very close to home. These were my brothers and sisters and they were being very vulnerable with me, which triggered my own vulnerabilities around similar issues. This is where my own mental health treatment took a turn and began focusing on the things that negatively affected my mental health that were specific to my time in the military. Among the many roles I had at this clinic, I helped with outreach in the community. Through this I was frequently asked to provide training on military culture to civilian clinicians so that they could practice from a place of competence that would allow them to better understand military culture and how it uniquely affects veteran’s mental health. The nonprofit that I worked for was not as trauma-informed or culturally competent as they initially represented so I decided that I didn’t want to work for an organization that insisted on hiring veterans but did not take into account that veterans working with other veterans, while extremely important, meant that we needed a certain extra level of support. My supervisor encouraged me to pursue small business ownership where I could teach this training regularly. I also began researching veteran-specific mental health issues so that I could speak to them from an informed vantage point, not just from personal experience. I remember hearing a female veteran talk about transition stress and the light bulb turned on for me. She spoke about how the military provided us with structure, camaraderie, and purpose, which we immediately lose upon discharging out of the military, and how losing these three key components can lead to feelings of hopelessness and defeat. I generally provide this training in a classroom setting but occasionally I partner with Michelle Kaye, equine therapist and founder of Operation Equine. Horse behavior tends to parallel military culture because horses work and live in a herd, they are very situationally aware of their surroundings, and they function in a hierarchy, so by partnering with horses we provide training on military culture with an experiential component. Around this same time I was also approached by a fellow VTC mentor who had just started a nonprofit serving veteran mentors and veteran participants in the VTC and he asked me to join the team. Being part of a veteran-owned, veteran-run organization dealing with mental illness and substance abuse is where my life and experiences have led me and I couldn’t feel more blessed to be part of this diverse and compassionate team.
There have been many lessons that I’ve learned along the way. Throughout my time in the military and my civilian career, I have been exposed to sexual harassment and people who did not handle it appropriately. Like I said, while equality is thought of as something we should be given, I have had to fight for mine, and in that fighting I have connected with others who have experienced sexism, racism, religious persecution, and other factors that, while initially caused trauma, ended in perseverance and personal success. These are the people I want to surround myself with because they understand what it means to struggle, what it means to persevere, and the importance of grace and connection. In this community, your struggles aren’t what defines you but what has built you into the person you are: successful rather than victims of circumstances. In my small business and in the work I do with this nonprofit, I endeavor to be a bridge between veterans and mental wellness, as well as to bridge the military-civilian divide.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
About three years ago I moved from the Denver Metro area up into the mountains on the Western Slope of Colorado. While I lived in Denver for almost 15 years, what drew my husband and I to this state was the beauty and serenity of the great outdoors. Up here it is quiet, there’s no traffic or pollution, and people are more friendly and interested in the importance of community. When I lived in Denver I loved visiting all of the local coffee shops, and my all-time favorite is still Weathervane Café near downtown on 17th Avenue. Nowadays, I invite family and friends to our home in the mountains where we live adjacent to the wilderness and lots of wildlife, where there is an unfiltered view of the stars and mountains, where the sound of birds chirping and the breeze blowing through the aspens is the primary sounds heard throughout the day, where there is an abundance of handmade and homegrown items, a plethora of back country roads, hiking trails and camping spots, and a spirit of adventure is in the air. Being able to work remotely from this beautiful and peaceful place allows me to find a perfect work-life balance.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
WarriorNOW is all about veterans helping veterans, and the idea that it takes a village. Over the years I have had several mentors who have helped me personally and professionally. The first was my high school JROTC instructor, 1SG Nicholas B. Hill who taught me the importance of embodying who I am and what’s important to me. The second was the supervisor I had at my first civilian job, Bradford N. McDonald, who had just retired from the Navy as a nuclear powered submarine Captain. We both transitioned out of the military at the same time and were a support to each other. I referred to him as my ‘dad away from home’ because while he was my boss, his spirit of mentorship and nurturing gave me solid guidance during one of the most difficult times in my life. Twenty years later he is still in my life as a business coach and dear friend. Another important influence in my life was my supervisor when I worked in community mental health, Stephen Fisher. He guided me through working with clients who had a lifetime of severe trauma and taught me how to separate my own struggles from theirs so that I could be successful at setting healthy boundaries and healing from my own trauma. I then transitioned into the veteran nonprofit world where I worked under the supervision of Dr. Gillian Kaag, the clinic director in a veteran mental health clinic. She saw the potential I had outside of being a Bachelor’s level case manager and mentored me around being in a position of leadership and responsibility. She also encouraged me to start my own business and not let the lack of letters behind my name stop me from achieving more in the mental health world. Currently, but certainly not the last mentor I will have in my life, is one of the founders of WarriorNOW, Brian Johnson, an Army combat veteran, former law enforcement officer, and entrepreneur who has believed in me more than I believed in myself, and has given me an opportunity to be a leader in the veteran community where I feel a sense of belonging that can never be duplicated. And last but certainly not least is my higher power who walks alongside me, protecting me and guiding me through my purpose in life.

Website: https://www.yourweaponisyourmind.com/ -and- https://militaryculturalcompetence.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-morgan-28974770/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJJIxh8DxCan5HWaD0bTu2Q

Other: https://warriornow.org/ https://operationequine.org/

Image Credits
Lynn Shore (horse photos)