Shauna ‘Doc’ Springer on close relationships, critical life decisions, and healing from trauma

Shauna ‘Doc’ Springer is a licensed psychologist with expertise in trauma and close relationships who has become a trusted Doc to our nation’s warfighters and first responders. She is an award-winning podcast host, frequent media source, and best-selling author of three books focused on our military and first responder communities.
The first 10 years of Springer’s career were focused on close relationships. As part of this, in 2008, she polled a sample of more than 1200 women, mostly Harvard alumni, who were establishing their lives just after graduation from college. In this episode, she explores these survey results with her Harvard College roommate, Carmen O’Shea. They discuss participants’ views on marriage, their ratings of relationship satisfaction, decisions about having children or not, attitudes towards work, and the most personal challenges facing this sample of recent Harvard graduates in 2008. Throughout the conversation, Shauna and Carmen openly reflect on their own career and personal life decisions.
Shauna also shares insights on trauma and healing based on her work at the extremes, with individuals exposed to unimaginable trauma. She discusses the cutting edge of innovation in trauma care, as part of her co-founding role in a company that has launched more than 50 trauma-focused treatment clinics across the United States, Australia, and Israel. Finally, she considers her greatest lessons learned and her individual perspective on what creates real wealth and a deeply meaningful life.

 
BIOS

Shauna ‘Doc’ Springer is a licensed psychologist, keynote speaker, award-winning podcast host, frequently requested media source, and one of the world's leading experts on psychological trauma, military transition, suicide prevention, and close relationships. She married her Harvard College sweetheart (Utaka Springer, class of ’99) and they are raising their two children in the California Bay Area. Shauna remembers her time at Harvard as some of the best years of her life, and contributes to Harvard in diverse ways, as a “resident class psychologist,” reunion planner, 20th reunion panel host, alumni interviewer, and now executive producer of the “PERSONAL VERITAS” podcast series in honor of the Class of ’97 25th reunion.

Carmen O’Shea: After graduating from Harvard, Carmen was commissioned as a Lieutenant and spent 7 years with the Air National Guard part-time while simultaneously beginning her business career. For the first two decades of her non-military career, she worked as an executive in the corporate world, in senior consulting, strategy, marketing, and HR roles. 2 years ago, she pivoted to seek more meaning and purpose. As part of this, she co-founded a consulting firm called Parent Resource Advisors, focused on supporting parents as they navigate the journeys of their neuro-diverse and gender diverse children. Carmen describes herself as a language geek who loves music, dance, travel, and spending time with her family and friends. 


CREDITS

Interviewer: Carmen O’Shea
Executive Producer: Shauna Springer
Technical Producer: Jen-Chun Chao
Music: Rachel Garlin
Art: Kate Isenberg