Tragedy leads Veteran to grief counseling and mindfulness

Tragedy, loss and grief can bring us to our knees. Sometimes we rise to an unexpected new path. Eighty-one-year-old Army Veteran Michael Charzuk faced a trauma that initially wrecked him, but ultimately put him on a path to bring hope and healing to other Veterans as a Whole Health peer facilitator.

Five years ago, Charzuk and his daughter Janet were chatting with his 22-year-old grandson Michael. The young man had just returned from a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Poland and had graduated college. As they were talking, the young man collapsed and died from a ruptured brain aneurysm.

There had been no reason to think that he was anything but healthy with a bright future ahead of him. “Michael was just getting settled in back at home, and he’d found the love of his life. They were planning their future,” Charzuk said. He and Janet, Michael’s mother, were traumatized and “absolutely devastated.”

VA grief counseling introduced mindfulness

Charzuk felt overwhelming shock and grief. “I knew I needed help. I wasn’t going to be able to handle this. I was taught guys don’t cry. That was my generation,” he said. His primary care provider referred him for grief counseling at Northport VA where he was introduced to mindfulness.  “I’d never heard the word mindfulness before. But I’ve embraced it and tried ever since to make it a guiding force in my life.”

He enrolled in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction clinic. He continues to meet regularly with a group of Veterans who have completed the clinic to practice mindfulness and support each other.

Charzuk says mindfulness helps him acknowledge the sadness he feels about Michael and replace it with comforting thoughts. “I can think that, even though Michael didn’t live very long, he accomplished so much. And we had him for 22 years.”

Focused on his Whole Health: Body, mind and spirit

Through mindfulness, Charzuk was able to make other positive changes. “I learned about mindful eating. The facilitator mentioned the MOVE program, how I could lose weight or learn about nutrition. I signed up for chair yoga. It’s all part of Whole Health,” he shared. Mindful eating and exercise helped him lose 35 pounds and now, “I weigh what I did in the Army!”

Charzuk’s enthusiasm and success in Whole Health led to an invitation to become a Whole Health peer facilitator. As a volunteer, he teaches the two-hour Introduction to Whole Health course and recently completed training to be a facilitator for Taking Charge of My Life and Health classes to support Veterans on their own Whole Health pathway.

“After five solid years of VA helping me get through one thing after another, the least I can do is try and give back a little bit to VA and the Veterans that are coming behind me,” he said.

For more information about Whole Health services at your facility, contact your Whole Health facility coordinator.