BRAD YOUNG

COUNSELOR / FATHER / VETERAN


Brad was born to a Mormon family in Utah. He saw the military as a way of accessing a college education but he needed to serve his religious missionary duties first. “I think I started shedding religion while a missionary, I was questioning life”. At 22, when Brad returned home, he saw it as his duty to enlist, but it was also a way to escape social and family pressures.

On the ground the reality hit home. His unit was told “You’re going to cross the border, call your family. I remember putting body bags into the basket - packing them for ourselves.” They drank a lot to deal with the constant stress and adrenaline - “you couldn’t sleep because of all the gunfire.” Coming home, he was told it would be easy to get a high-paying civilian job, but that was not the case.


He found himself questioning the meaning in his life, but eventually, with support from his wife and family he earned his bachelors in Psychology and a Masters of Science in Mental Health Counseling and a Masters of Arts: Special Education Applied Behavior Analysis. Now he’s a licensed mental health counselor and behavior analyst. To find peace he spends time outdoors. Looking back, he longs for the days in the military and the connections forged. “I view them as my family. Even though we vastly disagree on things these days, these are my people.”