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Photo courtesy of Sojourn Counseling
Beau Armistead is a nationally board certified counselor who provides specialized trauma treatments at his nonprofit, Sojourn Counseling.
Beau Armistead has dedicated his life to helping people heal from their trauma.
As the founder of Sojourn Counseling, a nonprofit counseling practice located in Vestavia Hills, he specializes in treating trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder through micro current neurofeedback and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing.
MCN is a treatment that uses gentle electric signals to target the nervous system and rebalance brain wave patterns. EMDR encourages the patient to focus briefly on a traumatic memory while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation (typically eye movements), which is associated with a reduction in the vividness and emotion associated with the trauma memories. Armistead is a licensed professional counselor and is certified in both of these treatment methods.
“The thing with trauma is that our brains can’t process trauma the way our brain can process anything else,” Armistead said. “So we experience normal life experiences, and go to sleep at night, and during our rapid eye movement sleep, our brain is able to process the events of the day. If we experience traumatic events during the day, those things get stuck. So all the sights, sounds, smells, physical sensations, emotions and everything connected to this particular trauma get stuck in our brain.”
Armistead said that when trauma stays unresolved for long enough, that is often when people begin considering suicide. With September being National Suicide Prevention Month, he encourages people to seek help for mental health issues.
“Trauma changes how your brain functions,” he said. “It makes things hard because you’re living with hyper-vigilance, sometimes you’re living with flashbacks, nightmares, certainly increases in anxiety, insomnia, oftentimes anger, oftentimes memory and concentration issues. … When things become bad enough, some people feel like they can no longer go on having to deal with the implications of the trauma that they carry in their body and their brain.”
In order to process this trauma, Armistead said it takes certain types of treatment or therapy, and having open conversations about mental health and suicide can help encourage people who are struggling to seek the right help.
“Oftentimes, people don’t know that there’s actual specialized trauma therapy,” he said. “They think, ‘Well I’ve been to counseling for it, it’s not done any good.’ Well, you have to have specialized therapy in order to heal from trauma, … so I think helping people understand that if you haven't experienced counseling or therapy that helped, maybe you haven’t done the right thing [yet].”
Research shows that those who seek treatment and learn coping mechanisms are less likely to think about or die by suicide. However, he does note that trying to force someone to seek help when they don’t want it is not helpful. Instead, he suggests normalizing the conversation around those dark emotions and providing them with a safe space to talk.
“Don’t be afraid to say the s-word. People are like, ‘I don’t want to ask if they’re suicidal because that might give them the thought,’” Armistead said. “No, it’s not gonna give them the thought. You’re not planting a seed in someone’s mind by asking, ‘Hey, do you feel suicidal? Do you feel like taking your life when it gets this dark?’ That can be so incredibly freeing for someone to hear that, because they can say ‘Yeah, you know, honestly I am, and it does get that dark for me.’ If no one says anything and that conversation never happens, then that person is left alone with those thoughts.”
Photo courtesy of Sojourn Counseling
Beau Armistead is a nationally board certified counselor who provides specialized trauma treatments at his nonprofit, Sojourn Counseling.
What you need to know about suicide
One person dies by suicide every 11 minutes in the United States, according to post-COVID-19 data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC’s most recent Fatal Injury Report found that over 49,000 people died by suicide in 2022, and the World Health Organization reported that the pandemic triggered a 25% increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide.
With these issues becoming more prevalent, the conversation around them has also increased, chipping away at the stigmas surrounding mental illness and suicide.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness and the CDC both report that one in five U.S. adults experience a mental illness each year, and one in six U.S. youth ages six to 17 experience a mental health disorder each year.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for people aged 10-24 in the state of Alabama. Based on the most current verified CDC data from 2021, it is the 13th leading cause of death overall. Of recorded deaths, 75% of suicides were by firearms, and 47% of firearm deaths were suicides.
In 2023, 75% of Alabama communities did not have enough mental health providers to serve residents, according to federal guidelines.
Alice Churnock, the founder of BrainCore Birmingham and a licensed professional counselor who is certified in Neurofeedback, notes that mental health issues, and specifically suicide, have such a large impact on youth populations due to brain development.
Churnock said that the human brain is formed from the back to the front, and the prefrontal cortex (which is responsible for logic, decision-making and impulse control, among other things) does not fully develop until around age 25. Prior to that development, the amygdala limbic system, or the emotional center of the brain, is responsible for all decision making.
“When you’re an adolescent, we know that you have about a 15-second timeline in making a decision,” she said. “All the decision, all the future planning is done within that 15 seconds, so naturally, you can see how that impulsivity a lot of times is what happens with an adolescent.”
While research shows that brain development is important in understanding youth suicides, Churnock emphasizes that all people are unique and develop differently. Some younger individuals may be more logical or possess a calmer, less emotional response to stressors, and being 25 or older does not guarantee an absence of impulsive choices.
In fact, recognizing individuality is essential in addressing mental health issues and preventing suicide. While we’re often told to look for common warning signs like increased isolation, mood swings, substance abuse, giving away belongings and changes in sleeping habits, both Churnock and Meesha Emmett, the Alabama area director for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, stress that people can be struggling without exhibiting any of these signs.
“What we the public see as a potential cause that might lead someone to death by suicide is oftentimes not; it’s never the full picture,” Emmett said. “Research has shown that it’s a combination of environmental factors, biological factors and historical factors all converging at the same time to create that moment of despair.”
Churnock also emphasizes that there are wonderful parents and individuals who have lost children or loved ones to suicide, and the worst thing we can do is blame those who are already dealing with the guilt.
“All we’ve grown up hearing is the phrase ‘committed suicide.’ The word ‘committed’ in and of itself, we usually use that word to describe things that are negative, like you commit crimes,” Emmett said. “It perpetuates a stigma and implies judgment, and that’s really dangerous, particularly with loss survivors. … We just don’t need to assign that kind of judgment to something as complex as suicide because we never know the full picture.”
On top of being aware of the way we speak about these topics, Emmett said the most important thing you can do is be kind and show up for people in your life, let them know you care and are ready to listen.
If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health or contemplating suicide, call the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or visit 988lifeline.org for help.
Suicide prevention resources
This list was provided by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Find the complete list at afsp.org/suicide-prevention-resources
- 24/7 Crisis Hotline: If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. Veterans, press one when calling.
- 24/7 Crisis Text Line: Text TALK to 741-741 to text with a trained crisis counselor from the Crisis Text Line for free. For more information, go to crisistextline.org.
- Veterans Crisis Line: Send a text to 838255 to access the hotline or go to veteranscrisisline.net for more information
- Vets4Warriors: Visit online at vets4warriors.com
- SAMHSA Treatment Referral Hotline (Substance Abuse): Call 1-800-662-HELP (4357) to access the hotline or go to samhsa.gov/find-help for more information
- RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline: Call 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) to access the hotline or go to hotline.rainn.org for more information
- National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline: Call 1-866-331-9474 to access the hotline or go to loveisrespect.org for more information
- The Trevor Project: Call 1-866-488-7386 to access the hotline or go to thetrevorproject.org for more information
By the numbers
- Suicide is the third leading cause of death for people aged 10-24 in the state of Alabama.
- Based on the most current verified CDC data from 2021, it is the 13th leading cause of death overall in the state.
- Of recorded deaths, 75% of suicides were by firearms, and 47% of firearm deaths were suicides.
- In 2023, three-quarters of Alabama communities did not have enough mental health providers to serve residents, according to federal guidelines.
This story is part of our September series for suicide prevention month. Read our stories on how local schools are addressing mental health issues, suicide rates among senior citizens and suicide rates among veterans for more information.
