Not Always a Joyful Season

Dec 18, 2019

Qualified Listeners, Greg and Barb Goettsch

Not always a joyful season

For Greg Goettsch, the Founder of Qualified Listeners, the holidays haven’t always been a season of joy. We met Greg and his wife Barb quite a few months ago. We wanted to learn more about their business, Qualified Listeners (more on that in a minute), and have another resource in the communities we serve to help Veterans and their families. So, when starting our LIV Health Local Spotlight series, we knew we wanted to share more about their company, their experiences, and just them in general. With all of the holly jolly happening in the wonderful world of social media, especially this time of year, we wanted to share the real, the raw, and the fact that the holidays are not always a joyful season for everyone, but there are people out there who care, and who are ready and willing to help.

Now, on to Greg’s story…

Veterans and the Not always joyful Holiday Season

written by Greg Goettsch, Founder of Qualified Listeners

For many of us

the holiday season tends to be one of the more emotionally charged times of a year. This phenomenon repeats itself every year, regardless of how we work to lessen its impact on us. For me it is like the changing of the seasons, I know it is coming, I may not like it, but I realize I cannot change it and that I need to adapt to it. Now in my 69^th year on this spinning globe, I finally can accept the fact that I cannot change the coming of the seasons or the coming of the emotions during the holiday season.

Through the years of operating Qualified Listeners, I’ve had the honor to spend about 1,000 hours listening to Veterans and their family members share pieces of their lives. From great joy to intense pain and everything in between. I never predicted the amount of diversity in the stories people have to share. Even now I know I cannot predict what I might hear, every person is unique in their experiences and I’ve come to develop a great respect for that uniqueness.

December is a very difficult month for me as I lost my best friend and my brother in a plane crash on December 22, 1996, at 6:05 pm, EDT. My world will never be the same without him and it took me a full year to begin to internalize the positive from our relationship instead of only focusing on the pain of losing him. It took my wife and I 10 years to even put out any decorations at Christmas, and even now they don’t get put out every year.

I know the season is coming

I know the season is coming and those pesky thoughts begin at Thanksgiving or the traditional “start” of the holiday season. The power I have now is I recognize it is coming, and I know pain is coming down the track again, but I have the power to control my reaction. For a few years, most of December was absolutely devasting for me. I felt down in the dumps, I felt bad, I felt sad, and there are many others who have emotions that arise this time of year for a vast array of reasons. I can now process and deal with it because I have talked about it a great deal, and I continue to every year.

Talk to someone

There are people in my life, I can talk to very candidly about what I feel when the train arrives. It’s important that you too, find someone to talk to. Someone who will listen, and understand what you’re going thought. If you don’t have that someone in your life please give us a call at 720-600-0860 and we would be happy to be that person for you. It is imperative you talk to someone and share your feelings and thoughts. You may be amazed by how much better you feel if you just open up to someone who won’t judge what you feel, but listens from their heart.

After all, this is what this season is about, loving, caring and sharing. It should not be about giving gifts, it should be about giving love, kindness, understanding, and compassion.

There are thousands of us who care about you, you are not alone!

Qualified Listeners: Services for Veterans and their families

Now for a little more about Greg’s company, Qualified Listeners, who they are, how they can help, and all the ways to find them!

They are a Veteran and Family Resource hub, providing a variety of services and connections to Veterans and their families. They are one of the most active Veteran Support Programs in Northern Colorado and Southeast Wyoming and interact with 300 Veterans each month, and offer programs related to their mission of supporting Veterans.

Learn about all of the programs offered,

Click Here

THE VISION:

The vision of Qualified Listeners is to help Veterans and their families find more peace in their life.

THE MISSION:

Their mission is to meet the needs of the Veteran Community through outreach, listening, resource vetting and referrals, and being their collective voice.

Here is a song, by Toby Keith, that Greg says is exactly why Qualified Listeners do what they do!

The act of non-judgmental listening, combined with their team of resources, can bring you back to being happy again. Listening can strengthen your relationships in marriage, family, workplace, and just life in general. It can start the healing of moral wounds and help deal with PTSD.

Lessen anxiety
Minimize irritability
Manage emotions
Reduce self-medications
Improve sleep
Decrease family stresses
Improve your child’s performance
Improve comfort in public places
Strengthen coping skills
Gain confidence
Relax more
Enjoy the fellowship with other Veterans, people you can relate to. They strongly
support the PAMVET breakfast club program. Click here to learn more

Qualified Listeners even has a Directory, a Resource Guide, a place to find referral sources, and help!

We are grateful to be part of their directory (link below). We try our absolute hardest to provide the best care for all those we serve including Veterans.

If you are a Veteran and haven’t heard of Veteran Directed Care, click below to learn more!

Veteran Directed Care