“Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over.” Guy Finley
“You were born to win, but to be winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win and expect to win.” Zig Ziglar
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” Alice Walker
“We are all here for some special reason. Stop being a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.” Robin S. Sharma
“Cherish your visions and dreams as they are the children of your soul: the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.” – Napoleon Hill
Understanding who We are after our Brain Injury
Understanding who you/I are after our brain injury is so very important so that you/I do not believe. Do not believe what other people want us to believe. Believe about who you/I are in our mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions. Believe who you/I are by what family members, friends, peers, human or AI systems may want/need us to believe about ourselves.
Want or need you/I to believe so that they may/can stay in control. Control of what they think they understand, but do not understand. Stay in control so that they can “manage” what they do not understand. So that they can manipulate you/me to stay in command. So that they can stay in command, so that they do not have to own their responsibility.
Own their Responsibility
Own their responsibility to support and not use you/me for their gain. Gain by staying in control, because you/I are unaware of our identity. The identity of understanding who you/I are in our mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions. How you/I think, learn and reason. Our brain/body connection. How you/I connect to the God of our understanding and ourselves.
How to we use our time and energy. How to interpret what is going on in our lives, relationships and well-beings through our emotions. How to understand and own what is our responsibility. How to keep the focus on ourselves and let other people keep their sides of the street “clean”. Their sides of the street “clean”, so that they do not feel a need to manage or control us.
Control you or me through shame, blame and by making you/I responsible for their choices. Responsible for how and why they chose to treat us as they do. Whether they react of respond to us.
Understanding Who We are after Our Brain Injury and Why it Matters?
After a brain injury life enters a confusing time. Once our external wounds heal and we look normal, challenges begin. The challenge of trying to make sense of what we used to be able to do. The way we are treated by family and friends, for no apparent reason to us. Our experience with isolation and feelings of alienation, that does not make sense to us. What we cannot see or understand, yet keeps getting in our way. In the way of experiencing the lives that we had planned for ourselves, before our brain injury.
This was my Experience
I had the above experience for 39 years after my open skull fracture and traumatic brain injury. The traumatic brain injury that I sustained in a car accident when I was 10 years old in 1967. The confusion once my external wounds healed and I looked normal. The experience of being being blamed and shamed by family members, peers and even professionals. The experience of anguish, isolation, alienation and having my hopes and dreams. Having my hopes and dreams being thwarted again and again, despite my consistent efforts.
Consistent efforts, both academically and vocationally. But I am glad that I did not give up and would encourage you to also not give up. Give up despite feeling baffled, confused, blamed, shamed, isolated and alienated because of your brain injury. As I benefited from being baffled, confused, blamed, shamed, isolated and alienated, let those frustrations work for you. Let being baffled, confused, blamed, shamed, isolated and alienated motivate you. Motivate you to examine how to use you mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions to excel.
Let being compressed, reduced, minimized, marginalized, dismissed, discounted and patronized motivate you. Motivate, not discourage you. Motivate who you are as you express yourself through your gifts, talents and abilities.
“Insist on yourself, never imitate. Your own gift you can present with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation, but of the adopted talent of another, you only have an extemporaneous half-possession. Do that which is assigned to you and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.” Henry David Thoreau
“I was told over and over again that I would never be successful. That I was not going to be competitive. And the technique was simply not going to work. All I could do is shrug and say, “We’ll just have to see.” Dick Fosbury (Inventor of the Fosbury Flop and winner of the gold medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City).
Define who You are after Your Brain Injury
To excel in defining who you are after your brain injury. Who you are in your mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions now that you are living with the impact of a brain injury. Define yourself through growing in the understanding of how your mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions. How your mind, body, soul, spirit and emotions impact your life, well-being and relationships. Discover how to thrive in life by working to improve your ability. Your ability to use your mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions. To use your mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions.
Use your mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions to create hopes and dreams. Use your mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions work to work for you, not against you. Work for you (instead of getting in your way) to create and thrive in your life. To create a life worth living, despite being blamed, shamed and made to feel the responsible. Responsible for what you are powerless to change: the impact of your brain injury and invisible disability. Instead be encouraged by changing the things you can in your mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions.
Focus on What you Can Change
Focus on what you can change, instead of focusing on what you cannot change. Change the course of my life through excelling in your mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions. Change the course of your life by using your time and energy. Your time and energy, despite the impact of your brain injury and invisible disability. Despite how you may be treated by family members, “friends”, peers, professional as well as human and Artificial intelligence systems. Systems, that many times, are designed to benefit their own agendas and outcomes.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” Steve Jobs
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards…You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever – because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path.” Steve Jobs
Despite how family members, “friends”, peers, professionals, as well as medical, vocational and artificial intelligence systems chose to treat you. Despite whether human or artificial intelligence systems seek to extract from you, instead of supporting you in deed, not just in “words”. Support you or me as an individual living with the impact of a brain injury in life. And realize that you have more power, time and energy than you may be using. My encouragement to you is that what other people think is about them, not about us.
Define Yourself
So, define yourself through growing in your understanding of you can uses your mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions. Use your mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions to improve the quality of your life. The quality of your life, well-being and relationships after your brain injury. You and I are not our brain injury or our invisible disability. We are how we define ourselves through using our mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions after our brain injuries. And the good news is that opinions and attitudes no longer need to slow us down or stop us.
Related Reading
Neuroplasticity, Corpus Callosum, Crossing the Center line and Changing the Way
Martial Arts, “Chi” (Life Energy) and How I Create through Second Chance to Live
What Life taught Me after my Traumatic Brain Injury Presentation
Facing Struggles After a Brain Injury and Having a Good Life
The Second Chance to Live Trauma-Informed Care AI Collaboration Model™
Support, Not Extraction: A Trauma-Informed Care Lens for Human-Centered AI Design
Why AI Needs Trauma-Informed Care: Changing Who Carries the Weight
Be the Architecture of your Life to Avoid Developing a Learned Helplessness
Artificial Intelligence (AI) System Harm and Divorce — How AI Developers can Fix this Harm
Brain Injury and Discovery — Do Not let Anyone put You in a “Box”!
Brain Injury Awareness Month — What does it mean to You?
Living with a Brain Injury is a “We” Experience, not a “They” Experience
Hope and the Progression of Living our Best Life After a Brain Injury Keynote Presentation
What Opens the Door for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Harm Individuals
AI Safety Is Missing a Critical Risk Layer: Relational Harm Under Asymmetry
Resource Sharing Disclaimer
All writings and resources I share through Second Chance to Live are part of the Second Chance to Live Trauma-Informed Care AI Collaboration Model™. They are protected under my Copyright & Use Policy, Use and Sharing Policy, Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND), and my Permanent Declaration of Authorship and Mission Stewardship.
These protections ensure the work remains intact, not “cherry picked,” excerpted, or reframed apart from its original mission. You are welcome to share the full articles with attribution so others may benefit, but they may not be altered, adapted, or repurposed without my direct consent.
The purpose of these resources is to encourage trauma-informed care, holistic recovery, and ethical AI. Thank you for honoring these boundaries as you share.
Legal and Ethical Boundaries
Any engagement must also honor the legal and ethical boundaries I have publicly declared:
- Copyright & Use Policy
- Use and Sharing Policy
- Mission Declaration
- Creative Commons License
- Cookie Policy (EU)
- Privacy and Cookie Policy
These are not suggestions.
They are required terms of use.
This work did not come from funding.
It came from persistence and personal cost.
Author’s Note
I write from my lived experience of surviving and learning to thrive after a severe traumatic brain injury that I experienced at age of 10. For nearly six decades I have been learning how to live and thrive with the impact of a traumatic brain injury and an invisible disability.
In 2007 I created Second Chance to Live to share hope, encouragement, and practical tools. My motivation has always been to encourage a whole person recovery. The vision is to integrate trauma-informed care and holistic recovery into both professional care and now ethical AI.
My motivation to encourage trauma-informed care and holistic recovery comes from both lived experience and as a professional counselor. My mission is not abstract. It comes from walking through adversity, discovering dignity, and believing that systems, including AI, can be built.
Built to heal and not to harm. My hope is simple. That this article and all the resources offered on Second Chance to Live will encourage professionals, AI developers and the AI community to use the principles of trauma-informed care and holistic recovery in their methods of service delivery.
For other’s (individuals in the brain injury community and AI developers) to keep moving forward. Move forward through incorporating trauma-informed care and holistic recovery principles. A holistic recovery process that encourages recovery in mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions.
“Ideas do not always come in a flash but by diligent trial-and-error experiments that take time and thought.” Charles K. Kao
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, to learn more, to do more, to become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams
Authorship Integrity and Intent
This article stands as a timestamp and testimony — documenting the lived origins of The Second Chance to Live Trauma-Informed Care AI Model™ that shaped its foundation.
These reflections are not academic theory or repackaged material. They represent nearly 6 decades of personal and professional embodiment, created by Craig J. Phillips, MRC, BA, and are protected under the terms outlined below. They are not open source and not to be used in anyway with out the expressed written permission of Craig J. Phillips MRC, BA.
Closing Statement
This work is solely authored by Craig J. Phillips, MRC, BA. All concepts, frameworks, structure, and language originate from his lived experience, insight, mind, body, spirit, soul and emotions trauma-informed care vision.
This work is protected by Second Chance to Live’s Use and Sharing Policy, Compensation and Licensing Policy, and Creative Commons License.
All rights remain with Craig J. Phillips, MRC, BA as the creator, human author and steward of the model.
Individual living with the impact of a traumatic brain injury, an invisible disability, professional rehabilitation counselor, author, advocate, keynote speaker and neuroplasticity practitioner
Founder of Second Chance to Live
Founder of the Second Chance to Live Trauma-Informed Care AI Collaboration Model™
Leave a Reply