CLEVELAND — Ohio has a large veteran population, and it's why News 5 is focused on veteran issues, including health care.
According to the Pentagon, the U.S. Military saw a 1% increase in sexual assaults last year. The Army was the only service branch to see a decrease.
Sexual assault and harassment in the military can have devastating emotional and physical impacts that are long-lasting.
"Healing for me is being able to get up in the morning and brush my teeth, wash my face," said Lisa Edwards. "Wanting to do at least one thing that I used to do."
Edwards and the professionals at the VA in Cleveland want survivors to know they are not alone, help is available, and healing is happening.
"This means hope to me," said Edwards, looking at an art installation. "Yeah, a lot of hope."
Inside the Center for Women’s Health at the Cleveland VA Medical Center, you’re greeted by artwork titled "Rising Water."
Hope is rising in Edwards.
“When I first got here, I could not tell my story,” said Edwards. She was in pieces and parts.
"Scattered," she said. "I felt untethered.”
Edwards is a survivor of sexual trauma both in childhood and in the military.
"Just having to talk about it was debilitating,” she said.
Edwards said the help she’s received at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center saved her life.
“My thing here is to trust the process," she said.
"It's the invisible wounds,” said Nancy Lueschen, chaplain at the Cleveland VA in the Women’s Health Annex. "You’re not alone. We see you. We hear you. We’re here for you."
She co-leads an art therapy program for female veterans like Edwards, where they create individually while together, through different therapeutic prompts.
"We always connect it back to mind and body," explained Lueschen. "Where do you feel that in your body? Where does that emotion present itself? And then they’re also practicing emotional tolerance in the space, and it’s developing this amazing resiliency."
"The thing is, it’s not just art," said Edwards. "You learn that you can do things that are hard."
In the end, it all comes together as a masterpiece.
"You can’t believe that everybody worked on something on their own because it all comes together," said Edwards, standing in front of "Rising Water," the mural she and the other female veterans created.
Their fragments coalesce.
"Someone used their military braid that they put on their uniform to put in there — that’s so cool," Edwards pointed out while looking at the composite.
Their pieces and parts unite as one.
When Nancy looks at the artwork, she says she sees "beauty amidst the struggle."
In the meantime, Edwards said it feels good to feel solidly grounded, “and to feel that there’s life on the other side,” she smiled.
She said she is still working on it, but the healing for her is happening.
"Learning that there are no bad emotions and to learn how my body reacts to my emotions and to accept and allow that," Edwards said. "It’s incredible. Even just saying it, I can feel it all over - it is incredible!”
Art therapy is just one of the many programs at the Women’s Health Annex available to female veterans who are survivors of intimate partner violence and military sexual trauma. Both Edwards and Lueschen encourage people who are struggling to reach out and get connected to services.
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