Healing is often discussed in terms of treatment: what happens before it, what happens during it, and whether it works. But for Chris “CT” Thompson, Director of Community Engagement at VETS, some of the most important work begins after someone comes home.
CT knows that from both sides.
Before joining VETS, he spent most of his military career on active duty as a Green Beret, followed by contracting work for another special operations unit. Years later, while searching for answers in his own healing, he found VETS and became a grant recipient himself.
Nearly five years after treatment, many of the relationships that helped sustain CT through that period remain part of his life. He still talks with members of his treatment cohort. He still returns to the VETS men’s integration call. He still connects with the preparation and integration coach who supported him before and after treatment.
Today, his role at VETS is centered on helping create those same points of connection for other veterans and their families.
For Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and VETS’ Sit With Someone campaign, we spoke with CT about what it means to heal in community, why support after treatment matters, and the value of having people in your life who continue to show up, not only during moments of crisis, but through the long, often nonlinear work of building a life afterward.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q: Before you worked at VETS, you were a VETS grant recipient. How did you find your way here?
CT: I was really in search of my own healing.
After contracting, the next eight years were this really deep healing journey for me. I tried a lot of things–everything inside the VA, outside of the VA. I went to the Cleveland Clinic. I tried all kinds of different things, and I spent a lot of time researching what other people had gone through and what they had done to heal, whether they were veterans or not.
In 2019, I came across a blog someone had written about experiencing a lot of trauma in their life and then going down to, I think, Peru and doing ayahuasca. From there, I started looking into psychedelic-assisted therapy in general. Anything I could read about it–psilocybin, ayahuasca, ketamine, MDMA.
I started pursuing that path, and then COVID happened and everything shut down. In 2021, I was supposed to leave for an ayahuasca retreat. I had my negative COVID test, I was about 72 hours out from flying, and then Peru shut down.
The guy who had been helping me with that later told me about an opportunity to do ibogaine. At that time, I had no idea what ibogaine was. I had spent a lot of time reading about all kinds of other treatments, but somehow I had never come across it.
Ultimately, I applied to become a grant recipient through VETS. A couple of weeks later, I found out I had been accepted, and then I went through treatment.
We’re actually just a few weeks away from it being exactly five years ago.
Sometime after treatment, one of the guys who was in my cohort was a sponsor for the first VETS Gala. He had a table and invited my wife and me to come out. At the gala, we had a chance to thank Marcus and talk with him, but we didn’t get a chance to grab Amber. Both of them were being pulled in a million different directions, as usual.
So afterward, I sent Amber an email thanking her for accepting me into the program and for everything VETS had done. That ultimately led to Amber wanting to talk with me about some of the internal needs of the organization. I started helping out, and that eventually led us to today.
Q: When you think about your own experience after treatment, who were the people who helped you through it?
CT: There are a couple parts to that. The group of people I went through treatment with had a mix of backgrounds because this was still kind of in the early days of all of this. But that same group continues to stay in touch even after five years. Not everyone in the group was a VETS grant recipient, but everyone continuing to check on each other and support each other has been a huge piece.
The other enormous piece was my wife.
At the time, we really had no idea how things were going to go post-treatment. We didn’t really know what to expect during treatment, either. VETS is so different now in terms of what the programming, preparation, and integration look like. Back then, there were just so few people who had done this.
There was nobody I personally knew who had gone through it. I didn’t even know somebody who knew somebody who had gone through it.
My wife was just extremely supportive of me seeking out this treatment. And at the time, we were very private about it because of potential judgment someone might have. There wasn’t all of this legislative work happening. You didn’t see these conversations in the news the way you do now.
My plan was basically to get whatever benefits I could get from treatment, go live my life, and not really say anything about it. But after a while, that started to change.
There’s a Chinese proverb that I really like: If you know of something of value, you have a duty to share it with others.
That became a big part of my life.
I just couldn’t not say anything when so many people were suffering and slugging it out, sometimes just trying to make it through the moment or the day.
Eventually, I reached a point where I thought, I don’t care how this affects me. At that time, I was thinking about career implications or whatever else might come with talking publicly about it. But I felt like I had to start sharing this with other people.
And then there was the men’s integration call.
That call existed at the time, and I still love going to it from time to time. Knowing I could show up somewhere every week and there were other guys like me–people who had experienced something similar–was incredibly valuable.
I could share. They could share. It’s a place where people understood. That became a really meaningful part of my integration.
Q: You’ve said, “Without connection there is suffering.” Why do you think community is so important in long-term healing?
CT: I think there are a couple of reasons. The first is that we know being part of a community is one of the best ways to support long-term results. But the second reason is more basic than that: without connection, there is suffering.
We’re social creatures. We need some form of interaction with other people.
I think that can be especially important coming from the military, because regardless of your branch or your job title, you were part of some kind of team. You were in an environment that was very purpose-driven and very mission-oriented.
One of my favorite things about the military is that it’s one of the greatest forms of love you can experience on Earth. It may sound odd to say that, but that’s how I experienced it.
The people around me–it didn’t matter what color your skin was, who you voted for, who you prayed to. None of that mattered. We were all coming together because there was one common thing we needed to achieve together.
People were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for each other. To me, there’s something really beautiful about that.
Then you leave an environment where you had those incredibly deep connections and that tight-knit community, and depending on where you send up after the military, it can be really hard to find anything similar.
So being surrounded by other people who understand that experience matters. And then, in this particular community, there’s another layer: these are people who may also understand something about treatment that very few other people in your life have experienced.
That connection is important for healing, but I also think it’s important just for being human. I think about it like exercise.
I’ve been active most of my life. There have been periods when I’ve worked out as part of a group or class, and there have been periods when I’ve worked out by myself. Both can be beneficial. But when I’ve been part of a group, there are days when I might not have wanted to show up. And then I think, I’m meeting my friend. I told them I’d be there. I have to go.
If I’m going to the gym on my own, it’s much easier to say, “I’m not feeling it today. I’ll take a break.” There’s an accountability piece to being in community.
There’s also the fact that on a day when you’re not really feeling it, somebody else can bring you up. I think healing works the same way.
If I’ve signed up for a workshop or a call through VETS, I’ve committed to show up. People are expecting me to be there. And so many times, just like going to the gym, you get to the end and think, I’m so glad I came.
If the day isn’t going well, there are other people there who can help lift you up. And then there are days when you get to be that person for somebody else.
Q: What does that kind of support actually look like inside the VETS community?
CT: The men’s integration call is a good example. Right now, it happens every Monday evening, and it’s open to the people who have gone through treatment as part of the VETS program.
Sometimes guys have literally gotten home from treatment the day before. Maybe their heart has been totally opened. Maybe they’ve had one of the most powerful experiences of their entire life.
And then they come home and realize there may not be anybody in their regular life they can really talk to about it. That’s a big thing. Sometimes the call is simply open for people to share. Other times, there’s a topic guiding the discussion.
But what’s important is that healing isn’t linear. Life is still going to happen after treatment. People in your life still get sick. People still die. Relationships still go through challenges. People lose jobs. There are setbacks.
Sometimes somebody comes to a call because something is happening in their life and they feel like they’ve taken a step backward in healing. Maybe they need advice… maybe they don’t. Sometimes they just need to be able to say what’s happening to a group of people who get it.
That’s the value of having a place you can continue to return to. And that extends beyond the men’s call. The VETS community platform has really grown into a place where people can connect with each other, access resources, and find events that support both preparation and integration.
There are recorded meditations, nutrition workshops, written materials, books and PDFs, weekly calls, quarterly workshops, spaces for spouses and supporters, couples programming, and other ways for people to connect.
Last year, I believe we had close to 700 events created within the community platform. So on most days, there is some kind of opportunity to engage, and on some days there are multiple options.
Future grant recipients also get access once they’ve been accepted. There are parts of the platform carved out specifically to help them understand what they need to do before treatment, what the steps are, and where to find things like their pre-retreat call.
And the participation is very high now. There have been quarters where we invited 119 people and all 119 activated their accounts. This past quarter, we invited 95 people and 83 activated. To me, that shows people are looking for that support.
Q: Is staying deeply engaged with VETS forever the goal?
CT: Not necessarily. In some cases, becoming less active can actually be a sign that someone is doing well.
The programming is available to grant recipients and their spouses and supporters for life, but those first few months after treatment are definitely a heavier integration period. That’s when someone may get the most out of the resources we provide.
Once you get further out–six months, a year, beyond that–ideally, you don’t need VETS quite as much anymore. You’re building your life. You can leave the nest. But you can always come back if you need to.
I still love coming back to the men’s integration call from time to time. Sometimes it almost feels like revisiting this gift you’ve been given. It gives you an opportunity to reflect. And sometimes life is just tough. You might need to come back to a community you know is going to be supportive and check in again. There are other reasons people may disengage, though.
I think expectations can play a role. Even with all the work that gets done around preparation, some people may still have this expectation that treatment is going to make them better and there won’t be any work to do afterward.
That’s not the case.
Or maybe they had an expectation about what treatment itself would look like. They expected certain visuals and didn’t have them. Maybe their experience was really difficult. Maybe they’re hearing somebody else describe this incredible experience and thinking, “Mine didn’t look like that.”
The same thing can happen in integration.
Somebody may not immediately feel like they’re in a great place, or they may not have this sense of peace. And then they think, “I don’t want to show up on the call and be the person bringing everybody down.” But the community is there for them regardless.
If those people showed up, they would see that they’d be wrapped in support, love, and compassion. You don’t have to be doing well to belong there.
Q: What did integration look like for you personally once you came home?
CT: I was pretty regimented about it. I don’t expect anybody else to do all of the things that I do. Really, one or two things may be plenty for somebody.
But when I came home, I felt so good that my mindset was basically: I want to do whatever I need to do to keep this moving forward.
So I became extremely disciplined around certain practices, and a lot of them are still part of my life today.
My number one is meditation. I didn’t start with some incredible meditation practice. Sitting for five or ten minutes was tough. During those five or ten minutes, I’d be thinking, When is this going to be over? When can I get up? I have stuff to do.
I had actually taken a medication course around five years before going through VETS, but after about six months I stopped. Then I had a four-and-a-half-year break where it wasn’t part of my life at all.
After treatment, I took another meditation course through VETS, and then that led to another course, and I kept building the practice. For a couple of years now, there have been stretches where my goal in the morning is to sit for about an hour.
Journaling has also been a big one for me. I use some prompts based in positive psychology, and really a lot of it is taking five minutes to think about what you’re thankful for.
A big part of my treatment experience was destroying this negative version of myself, this negative voice I had inside myself. So afterward, I looked at it as an opportunity to change the direction of my thinking. If I could shift my mindset toward gratitude and toward what I was thankful for, that changed my whole outlook.
Sleep became another huge one.
For at least eight years, my sleep was wrecked. It was hard to fall asleep and to stay asleep. And when your sleep isn’t right, it starts becoming a domino in so many other areas of your life–irritability, cognitive function, your ability to focus, your hormones, your ability to recover just from being a human being.
I’ve become very protective of my sleep hygiene. I go to bed around the same time, and I wake up around the same time every day. I pay attention to what I’m doing before bed. I don’t spend time on screens right before I go to sleep.
When you haven’t had good sleep for a long time, being able to get a good night’s sleep feels like such a gift.
And then there’s one thing I think is incredibly important that can sometimes get overlooked: what you’re putting into your mind. Yes, pay attention to the food you’re putting into your body, but I”m also talking about what you’re looking at on social media, watching on TV, what podcasts and music you’re listening to.
I think that has way more of an effect on people than they realize. Before treatment, a lot of the music I listened to was really dark. People talk about getting a chorus stuck in their head all day. Well, if I’m repeating something over and over, I’m reinforcing something.
People can say it doesn’t affect them, but it does.
None of these practices came from me figuring it out on my own. This all started with the wraparound support VETS provides, which has built the life I have now.
I’m deeply and forever grateful for VETS, for what this organization has given me when I needed it the most, and for the opportunity to now support VETS as others take this same path.
Understanding the Healing Journey at VETS
VETS approaches psychedelic-assisted therapy with the understanding that treatment is only one component of a much broader healing process. Preparation, education, medical safety, integration, family support, community, and long-term practices all have a role in helping veterans navigate what comes before, during, and after treatment.