While deployed to Iraq in May of 2011 as a member of 2nd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, an improvised explosive device detonated in close proximity to Spc. Sean Goetz. Sitting in the driver’s seat of a Caiman, the pressure of the explosion caused Goetz’s head to clash against the window with enough force to crack the 6-inch glass.
Severe concussion symptoms followed, and the Soldier was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury.
For Goetz, like many with a TBI, doing things most people might consider minor ended up being incredibly challenging when he returned home – things like handling noisy rooms, keeping a steady hand or even being able to hold a conversation with his wife when they went out eat.
Goetz joined Fort Hood’s Warrior Transition Brigade, and after testing out a few of the activities the unit’s Adaptive Reconditioning Program had to offer, such as air pistols and archery, Goetz took up ceramics on a suggestion from the program’s coordinator, Susan Wilson.
Goetz visited Fort Hood’s Apache Arts and Crafts Center, sat down to paint and was amazed at how consumed he became in the creative process.
“You get to be so involved in what you’re doing that everything else just floats away,” Goetz said.
Barbara Newberry, the center’s manager, remembers how Goetz would interact with her when they first met nearly a year ago.
“I know there was nothing he could do about it, but he was very shy at first, and he couldn’t even really have eye contact,” she said.
Artistically, Goetz entered with no experience and had early struggles.
“I would get frustrated because I couldn’t hold my hand steady,” Goetz said, describing the process of painting his first ceramic
project, a gnome. “But I left it like this to remind me that this is where I
started. I’d get mad, step out and then come back inside. Sometimes my hand would go all over the place, but I kept at it.
“Sometimes my body starts shaking, and so I’ll have to step away, come back and then I’ll finish it and it’ll look great,” he said. “That is a blessing.”
Fast-forward to present day, and Goetz’s speech has drastically improved, as has his concentration, not to mention his painting skills. Now, Goetz practically has to be pulled away from the Apache Arts and Crafts Center.
“The difference between his painting skills, from the beginning to now, you would not believe it was the same person painting,” Newberry said. “He’s so creative.”
Outside of the personal gain Goetz has had through the creative process, his wife and kids discovered a way to connect with him, a difficult task since his return from Iraq.
“My wife saw me start enjoying ceramics, and my whole Family jumped on board,” Goetz said. “Once I start with the arts and craft, I can’t get away. I’m in there for hours, and when I get home, my kids will say, ‘Hey, Dad. Can we paint with you?’”
It’s a way for his Family to interact.
“When I came home with my injuries, it was very hard,” Goetz said. “After being in the arts and crafts center, it makes me calmer. Sometimes the whole Family will come up on a Saturday.”
Newberry saw firsthand how ceramics became a healing event for the Goetz Family.
“We were kind of a lifeline that brought them back together,” she said.
The Apache Arts and Crafts Center has partnered with the WTB to bring its selection of creative activities to the recovering Soldiers, but not without behind-the-scenes preparation.
Before the WTB Soldiers stepped foot in the arts and crafts center, Newberry and her team of volunteers went through the process of educating themselves on how to create the best possible environment.
“We’re not therapists; we’re recreation folks,” Newberry explained, “so we had a workshop where some art and crafts therapists gave us some instruction, so that we know what we’re doing right or wrong. They gave us the guidelines we could use to help our Soldiers.
“We don’t want to do anything to hurt them. We don’t want to do anything that would make it worse, not better,” she added. “We wanted to provide something that would be beneficial all the way around.”
The best thing they could do was to provide these Soldiers, especially ones with TBIs and post-traumatic stress disorder, a quiet, small, out-of-the-way area for them to work. In addition, there was to be no instruction, no set project and no time limit.
“They said, ‘If you implement that, it should help them to heal,’” Newberry said.
She now realizes the safe environment they’ve created is the most important part of it all.
“It can’t be where they’re on pins and needles or on edge,” Newberry said. “If that’s what we were providing, not a one of them would stay.”
“I wouldn’t have come,” Goetz admitted.
After reaching a certain comfort level inside this room, Goetz began to challenge himself by changing his work environment to the noisy common area with his back turned to people walking down the hallway.
“Before, that would have been a no-go,” Goetz said, noting the anxiety it would have caused him. “But I’m trying to work through that.”
This has helped Goetz in different avenues of his daily life, including when he has dinner with his wife.
“I’m not as hyper-vigilant,” he said. “I can relax, focus on my wife and enjoy dinner. I still get distracted sometimes, but it’s not as bad.”
For Goetz, frustration builds at the thought of the facility, with all of its opportunities, possibly closing down because of insufficient funds.
“This is my outlet,” said Goetz, who’s poured thousands of dollars out of his own pocket to go toward supplies and keeping the center running.
“No one outside of the arts and crafts community recognizes how important this is,” said Newberry, who said there truly is a funding issue. “Even if it’s just one Soldier that we helped. But it’s not one Soldier. There have been many, many, many Soldiers.”
Goetz is now a vocal advocate for the arts and crafts center, one who wants to share his story to help show other Soldiers this therapeutic opportunity.
“There are those that don’t know about Apache Arts and all that you can do here,” he said. “The main thing is that us with brain injuries, like myself – I didn’t think I could do anything. Then I started painting, and it was so intricate, and the payoff was that when I really did well, it made me feel good.”
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