JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Back in the fall of 2021, First Coast News covered a Clay County woman who killed her husband in their home.
Melissa Gholson confessed to fatally shooting her husband, 36-year-old David Gholson.
Since she’s been charged with second-degree murder, David Gholson’s family has been left with a hole in their family tree, leaving behind more than symptoms of grief, but PTSD.
"I remember when the moment we found out, I didn't realize the impact that it would cause," said Haley Rothweiler, David's sister-in-law.
Even though Rothweiler wasn’t there at the time David was murdered, she was left with symptoms that made it difficult to go through everyday life.
"Everything was impacted, with family, with friends, my marriage," Rothweiler told First Coast News. "Focusing at work was very difficult. I had trouble just doing my daily tasks and not breaking down. I was having severe nightmares and flashbacks."
When Rothweiler finally found a therapist to treat her anxiety symptoms, she was in shock to learn she was suffering from PTSD. It's something she thought only impacted first responders and military personnel.
"It had gotten so severe, I felt like I couldn't cope anymore," Rothweiler said.
To get her life back, Rothweiler relied on RTM therapy, a fairly new approach for PTSD patients that reconsolidates traumatic memories.
“Essentially sitting in a movie theater and learning to separate the feeling from the trauma, and it [the PTSD] really lost its power and it was probably after the third session, a light bulb went off,” Rothweiler explained.
Separating feelings from trauma doesn’t happen overnight, but for many patients like Rothweiler, it’s allowed her to go back to her lifestyle before her trauma.
"The ultimate goal is that the event moves away from the trauma aspect and moves into an event that happened," said Jenny Lehman, RTM Protocol therapist. "And it's from a third-person perspective and visualizes it very differently."
RTM therapy not only decreased Rothweiler's PTSD symptoms, but is inspiring her to become a therapist to help others. She is now working on her clinical social worker license and plans to get certified in the delivery of RTM therapy; her golden retriever, Kaya, is currently under training to become a therapy dog.