The Real Lives of TBI Wives

Ep. 54 |
This episode has been in the making since the moment Erika hit record on this podcast.
Jeff Faldalen has been her coach for the last year and a half. He is the person on the other end of the phone calls when the ruts got hard. The one who told her to keep going when she couldn't see past today. The one who asked her the questions she didn't want to answer and waited while she found the answers anyway.
In this episode, Erika and Jeff pull back the curtain on what that journey actually looked like. Jeff shares his own story, a car accident at 19 that nearly killed his sister, a jewelry career that collapsed overnight, seasons of being suicidal, and three and a half decades of doing the inner work that eventually became his life's mission. He walks through his core frameworks, the V, the hero's journey, the four archetypes, the identity codex in plain language that meets a TBI wife exactly where she is.
This is the episode for the woman who has done the therapy, tried the support groups, and still feels stuck in a narrative she cannot seem to break out of. This episode is for the woman who is one straw away from the one that breaks the camel's back. This episode is for the woman who has been in survival so long she has forgotten what it feels like to be in creation.
You are one conversation away from changing the rest of your life and this might be it!
 
You can purchase The Identity Codex by Jeff Faldalen and join his community at  theidentitycodexbook.com - $27
Hear his podcast at The Potential Zone
 
And continue the conversation @ Reclaim with other women who get it!

Ep. 53 |
Nine days before Christmas, Meg Payne got a call from the police while she was at work. Her husband Alan had been T-boned by a truck on his bike.
She was 34 weeks pregnant.
What followed was two months in the ICU and rehab, an insurance company that tried to deny his placement, a baby born without her husband in the room, and a newborn brought to Craig Hospital two days later to meet his dad, who was sitting in a wheelchair and doesn't remember the visit at all.
Alan is now what the medical world calls high functioning. He walks, talks, and on a good day you wouldn't know anything happened. He also has bilateral frontal lobe diffuse axonal injuries, significant memory impairment, and an emotional regulation piece that has required Ring alarm systems, hidden car keys, a zen den built in the backyard, and strict boundaries that both Meg and Alan have agreed to honor.
Silas is four and a half now. And Meg is still figuring out who she is inside all of it - the wife, the mom, the physical therapist, the one holding every plate in the air.
This episode is for the TBI wife who is somewhere in the middle of that figuring out too.

Ep. 52 | You have done everything the doctors told you to do. You have been to the appointments, followed the protocols, managed the medications, and sat across from specialists who looked at your husband and said some version of "this is just how it is now."
What if there were treatments they simply didn't know about yet?
Simone Fortier has had over 50 concussions as a child and six as an adult. She lost her hearing for two years. She experienced suicidal ideation for most of her life without knowing it wasn't normal. And after seeing every top sports medicine doctor in North America and leaving each appointment with a 1% maybe, she did something radical — she built the treatment herself.
In this episode, Simone breaks down the two interventions she developed that are changing outcomes for brain injury survivors and their families: a precision brain nutrition program that replenishes the specific amino acids the neurodivergent brain cannot produce on its own, and a fascia-based manual therapy protocol that reduces compression forces on the brain — decreasing symptoms like chronic migraines, tinnitus, memory loss, and suicidal ideation, often within one to two sessions.
This episode is for the TBI wife who is done accepting "wait and see" as an answer. For the woman whose husband has been to every appointment and still isn't recovering the way the textbooks said he should. For the caregiver who has been quietly wondering if there is something else out there — and just hasn't found it yet.
What I love about conversations like this one is that they open doors. This may not be the right fit for every situation but it might be exactly what someone in your circle has been searching for. Share it. You never know whose life it could reach.
Brain Health Assessment: Email Simone to receive her free brain health assessment — info@simonefortier.com
https://www.instagram.com/fasciatraininginstitute/ https://www.facebook.com/FasciaTrainingInstitute/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonefortier/
and be sure to join us in Reclaim to continue the conversation

Ep. 51 | Before his brain injury, Rob Baugh's life revolved around two things: playing piano at church and making elaborate cakes inspired by Cake Boss — a hobby that started as a dare from his wife Sheila and turned into a thriving side business. Then, six years ago, a bee flew past his head while he was coming in from feeding the fish. He ducked and hit a metal screen door and in less than a minute, everything changed.
In this episode, Rob shares the full story — getting staples in his head with no numbing because the burn hurt worse, the first neurologist who slammed his pen on the desk and brought him to tears, and when he drove to a job he hadn't worked in years because his brain sent him to the wrong side of town entirely. He talks about the daily, six-years-and-counting migraine that gets worse with the rain, the short-term memory loss, the strange aphasia-like symptom that turns "38" into "three, eight," and the unexpected blessing of suddenly being able to play piano in three keys instead of one.
Rob also opens up about what it actually took to go from isolated and sleepless to building a podcast, writing a book, and creating a free resource hub for brain injury survivors and caregivers — all because he couldn't find anyone online talking about brain injury from lived experience instead of a clinical chart.
This is a story about persistence, about a wife who became the planner, the advocate, and the protector all at once, and about what's possible when you decide your pain might actually help somebody else.
Be sure to check out Rob's website to access tons of free resources, as well as purchase his book.
And subscribe to Rob's podcast to stay in the know.
Donate to Brain Injury Alliance and get Rob and Ashley shave thier heads - last day is June 30th!
As always, join us at Reclaim to join other TBI wives in reclaiming themselves after their husbands traumatic brain injury!
 

Fifty episodes. In this solo episode, Erika takes you back to where it all started — the woman who had never shared her story publicly, who hit record scared and unpolished because she knew someone needed to hear it. She walks through what fifty episodes has taught her about TBI wives, identity loss, and what it really means to disappear inside the role of caregiver.
And then she shares the wall she hit this past year, he isolation, the weight. The moment she was one straw away and what she chose to do instead.
This episode is for the woman who is done surviving but does not quite know how to come back yet. The one who downloads every episode and still puts herself last. The one who is waiting for the right moment to matter.
Erika has a message for her 
Come join the Reclaim community for a group of women who get it!

Ep. 49 | You have been performing strength in public while quietly disappearing in private. And if you are honest with yourself, the exhaustion you are carrying as a TBI wife goes deeper than the caregiving itself. It goes all the way back.
In this episode, Erika Brouillette gets honest about the worthiness wound, the deep, quiet belief that your needs come last, that your worth lives in your usefulness, and that wanting more makes you selfish. This is the belief that started in childhood, long before your husband's brain injury ever happened. And caregiving, the relentless, identity-swallowing reality of life as a traumatic brain injury spouse, has a way of making it louder. Of making self-abandonment sound like strength.
Erika walks you through where that belief started, how it gets amplified after a TBI, and what it actually looks like to question the programming you inherited. Because caregiver identity loss is real. Caregiver burnout is real. And the ambiguous grief of loving someone whose brain injury has changed everything,  including who you are inside of it, deserves more than survival advice and self care checklists.
This episode is for the TBI wife who has stopped dreaming. Who says she's fine when she's drowning. Who cannot remember the last time she wanted something just for herself and felt okay about it. Who has been told, by the world or by her faith community, that wanting more is ungrateful. That good wives give everything. That strong women don't need much.
It's time to question that story.
If you are ready to stop disappearing inside the caregiving and start reclaiming your identity, your selfworth, and the life that still belongs to you, this episode is your starting point. Join us at Reclaim to start putting this all into action!
 
Reflection Questions From This Episode
Pause the episode and sit with these, or grab your journal.
What did you learn about your worth when you were little?
What did love require of you growing up?
What version of you felt the safest to be?
Where did you learn that your needs come last?
Where did you learn that asking for help means weakness?
What would actually happen if you let something fall?
Where did you learn that wanting more is selfish and was that actually true?

Ep. 48 |
In this episode of Real Lives of TBI Wives, Erika sits down with Greg Hayward, a traumatic brain injury survivor who shares his honest and often humorous perspective on life after TBI. Greg spent 35 years in the oil and gas industry, a career built on hard work, the outdoors, and mechanical skill, until one unexpected night changed everything. What started as a normal evening with a friend before a hunting trip ended in a devastating fall down a basement staircase during a sleepwalking episode, leading to a traumatic brain injury that altered every part of his life.
Greg opens up about the long recovery process, from waking up months later with only pieces of memory, to navigating vision and hearing loss, fatigue, balance issues, and the frustrating reality of not always being able to find the words he wants to say. He shares what it was like moving through hospital care, brain injury rehab at Glenrose, and the slow process of relearning his body, his limits, and the way his brain now works.
This conversation also dives into life beyond the hospital. Greg talks about the challenges of returning to work, the ways TBI affects relationships, the isolation survivors can feel, and how everyday tasks like going to a restaurant or sitting in a noisy room can suddenly become overwhelming. He also shares the creative ways he has adapted, from using assistive technology to finding new purpose through his Haywire Dry Rub business and his dream of becoming a gunsmith.
What makes Greg’s story so meaningful is his honesty. He doesn’t sugarcoat the losses, but he also brings humor, grit, and perspective to the conversation. His story is a reminder that life after brain injury may look very different than before, but there is still room for purpose, creativity, growth, and connection.
Be sure to order your Haywire dry rub today! 
And we would love for you to join us in Reclaim where there are women who get it and want to do this life along side you!

Ep. 47 | In this powerful episode of Real Lives of TBI Wives, Erika sits down with Carrie Pullaro, coach and creator of The Whole Woman Method, to talk about the hidden emotional weight women carry long before tragedy ever touches their lives. Carrie shares her deeply personal story of body shame, addiction, secrecy, abortion, herpes diagnosis, destructive coping patterns, and the exhausting cycle of trying to fix what was showing up physically without ever addressing what was happening emotionally.
Through years of personal development, recovery work, coaching, and deep emotional healing, Carrie discovered that her struggle was never just about food, fitness, or the number on the scale. It was about the pain she had buried, the parts of herself she had abandoned, and the stories she kept telling herself about her worth, her body, and her identity. She opens up about what changed when she stopped running, started facing her truth, and gave herself permission to heal at the root.
Carrie explains how the Whole Woman Method was born from that transformation, a process that weaves together empowered mindset, emotional groundedness, and physical fitness to help women become more whole, more confident, and more connected to themselves. This conversation will resonate deeply with women who know what it feels like to carry emotional pain in the body, feel isolated by their stories, and wonder if healing is really possible.
This episode is an invitation to stop abandoning yourself, stop shrinking, and begin rewriting the story underneath the struggle.
You can connect with Carrie on instagram
To go deeper and connect with women who get it, join us at Reclaim

Ep. 46 | Host Erika Brouillette shares her experience of facing a life-or-death decision, then becoming an overnight caretaker, provider, and single parent to three boys while managing specialists, therapies, insurance, and daily care tasks like feeding tubes, medications, and hygiene. Overwhelmed, isolated, and unsure of next steps, she held onto a belief she could help others and began learning how to reclaim her life over years of struggle. Because she couldn’t find the support she needed, she created Reclaim, a community for TBI wives focused on reconnecting with self and higher power, rebuilding boundaries and workable systems, and reclaiming identity and needs while being supported monthly without judgment.
 
Join the Reclaim community!

Ep. 45 | In this refreshing and much-needed episode of Real Lives of TBI Wives, Erika sits down with her friend and podcast mentor, Teri Holland, to talk about something so many caregivers desperately need but rarely allow themselves: rest. While the conversation may feel a little “off topic” from brain injury at first, it quickly becomes clear that intentional rest is one of the most important survival tools for women carrying the emotional, mental, and physical weight of caregiving.
Teri opens up about her own experience walking beside her husband through PTSD, the fear and hypervigilance that came with loving someone in crisis, and the way that trauma quietly took up space in her own mind and body. She shares how therapy helped her recognize the impact this was having on her, and how her healing journey eventually led to the creation of “Sloth Day”, a full day intentionally set aside for rest, stillness, comfort, and nervous system recovery.
Together, Erika and Teri unpack the guilt many women feel around slowing down, why rest is not laziness, and how taking breaks actually makes us more productive, more present, and more capable of carrying what life asks of us. Teri also explains the three different kinds of rest, why our brains need quiet space to function well, and how even starting with a few hours of intentional rest can make a huge difference.
If you are a TBI wife, caregiver, or woman who feels stretched thin and like there is never enough time to stop, this episode will feel like permission to exhale. It is a gentle but powerful reminder that your body, your brain, and your spirit all need rest too.
 
Be sure to follow Teri at Success in Mind and purchase your Sloth Day swag!