The Meeting of the Dogs

A veterans advocate from Washington meets our Dr. Phil Leveque to talk about PTSD.

Photo from blackdogfoundation.org

(CURLEW, Wash. ) - Blackdog foundation is an outreach service to veterans and others in the community that are incapable of calmly dealing with the bureaucratic expectations of those in place to provide them help.

Our services are domestic/community violence intervention, PTSD reduction, anger management, peer accountability. We do MMJ conflict resolution and mediation for patients, providers, clinics, and families.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Dr. Phil Leveque last week and it was wonderful to be able to find humor in what we do helping others. The doctor had me laughing so much at his perspective of things shaped by all the pain in his life. I know that is an odd statement but it fits such a unique man as the doctor.

He was kind enough to drive up from Portland to meet me half way from Olympia for lunch. We sat in a little restaurant in castle rock, feeling each other out, making sure in our hearts the other can understand the importance of our work. Well within five minutes everyone in the place was listening to our laughter and grinning in our direction when we would let out with another burst.

It was then obvious by the time we were done eating that we were only after the same thing, service to those hurting, and an opportune to meet like minded people.

After I had told Dr. Leveque about Tracy and our boat program of taking veterans and their families out fishing crabbing, and cruising on our little navy the foundation was building. His response was laughter then "let’s goes see Tracy".

I stammered that he may not want us just showing up, to laughter of, "nonsense lets go. You take point."

Well, we drove up to Tracy’s mountain home to talk some more on how we go about calming the anger and frustration in folks.

We were warmly welcomed and after sitting down on the couch I noticed that Tracy, having been a long time follower of Dr. Leveque, sat quietly in awe across from the man.

Tracy sat mute longer than I had ever seen my friend be quiet. Finally Dr. Leveque asked a couple questions of Tracy and the damn broke. It was a wonderful experience for Tracy and I to meet and share stories with the doctor.

A couple hours later when the doctor was leaving, he asked if I would share some of our stories with the Salem-News.com on using MMJ to stop violence and calm repair those that need it.

Please visit blackdogfoundation.org to learn more about this group dedicated to helping veterans.

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Wolfe November 14, 2009 2:38 pm (Pacific time)

I'm proud to be a part of BDF and really appreciate seeing avenues and communities open up not only to us, but to support our mission to help vets. Thank you

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rick November 12, 2009 9:07 am (Pacific time)

the picture used in the story was from one of our deliveries to madagan army hospital of comic books.
To date BDF has given out over 5,000 comic books to veterans, battered kids, and others.
bd

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