Scott DeLuzio:    00:00:03    Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast, where we talk about issues affecting Veterans after they get out of the military. Before we get started, I’d like to ask a favor if you haven’t done so already, please rate and review the show on Apple podcast. If you’ve already done that, thank you. These ratings help the show get discovered so it can reach a wider audience. And while you’re there click the subscribe button so that you get notified of new episodes. As soon as they come out, if you don’t use Apple podcasts, you can visit Drive On Podcast.com/subscribe to find other ways of subscribing, including our email lists. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio and now let’s get on with the show. Hi everyone. today, my guest is Kevin Rose, who is the founder of The Catalyst and author of the book, The Catalyst Experience, How Rescued Tigers Heal Trauma Scarred Souls. So, Kevin, welcome to the show. I think I may have gotten some people’s attention when I mentioned tigers and the title of your book. So maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background and what it is that you do.

Kevin Rose:    00:01:09    Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Scott.  So, I am a manual therapist. I’m licensed as a massage therapist and I’ve been doing that for about 25 years. And I noticed many years ago that I could help people relax but there was something missing. And I’m going to take you through a really quick rundown.  I started a program, started actually right after 9/11 when I felt like I was called to do something for those returning home from war and the program eventually became The Catalyst and The Catalyst is a human-animal interaction experience where we bring people face to face with tigers to help them relax. Now I know that sounds perhaps a little reverse, but it actually works.  The way it works is I work with a rescue animal sanctuary in the town where I live and I teach a very simple technique to help people relax.

Kevin Rose:    00:02:17    So when someone shows up, I’ll have them think of something stressful, be able to feel it in their bodies. And then what we do is we work through the animal sanctuary and we go from enclosure to enclosure and as the person is feeling whatever they’re feeling, whether it’s anger, fear, whatever the emotion is, the animal will literally begin to mirror whatever that emotion is. They may start pacing, growling, moving away. Then I teach this really simple technique and as soon as the person begins to ground, which is what this is called a grounding technique, when they begin to ground into the present moment and settle, they watch the animal mirror that as well. So, it’s literally a live biofeedback, but we’re working with all kinds of animals. And what I found was, I started working with alpha predators, in order to match the dynamic that I experienced working with combat vets.

Kevin Rose:    00:03:22     I had the opportunity clinic where I worked many years ago.  The doctor provided free programs for returning Veterans to help reintegrate. And what I noticed, as I mentioned earlier, was I could help people settle down. I could help people calm down, but then when they got up, it was like the stress just shot right back up. So I thought there’s gotta be some way to change this dynamic and long story short, it was actually working with tigers working with wolves first that brought me that awareness, but then working with tigers that really helped to change that dynamic in the brain literally.

Scott DeLuzio:    00:04:07    Okay. So, this might just be me but the thought of working with some of these large animals doesn’t give off much of a Zen or ca...