Anne Bland Of Selfishly Happy Revolution: How I Was Able To Succeed Despite Having PTSD
An Interview With Eric Pines
Self-love includes self-compassion and being kind to oneself, having patience with the healing and taking time to do self-care. What brings respite from the pain and suffering? What brings calmness, hope, pleasure, and even happiness? Practising little acts of self-love every day starts building resilience. Love is always greater than pain.
About 5 out of every 100 adults (or 5%) in the U.S. has PTSD in any given year. Many from post-combat. While many people suffer, many people have been able to succeed despite those challenges. What are some things that can be learned from people who have succeeded despite having PTSD? To address these questions, we had the pleasure of interviewing Anne Bland.
Anne Bland is a PTSD survivor who discovered that to thrive with trauma she needed pleasure and other people in her life. That’s why she became the self-appointed leader of the next sexual revolution that she calls a ‘Selfishly Happy Revolution’. Anne is an international Tantric Sex and Relationships Coach and a host of a very open and honest, explicit podcast called ‘Tantric Sex for Lovers and Others’ and travels the world full-time.
https://selfishlyhappyyou.com.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! It is really an honor. Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
It still feels very vulnerable — but yes. I am now ready to embrace vulnerability with the hope that my story might inspire others to have more pleasure and peace in their lives.
Here goes… Little did I know that a bicycle accident that resulted in a fractured skull and cheekbone, three cracked ribs, a concussion, and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) would uncover a much older and more complex trauma… That of sexual abuse in my childhood.
As it all unfolded and I looked back into my life, I realized why I had behaved in certain ways and gotten into certain types of relationships. I didn’t feel I belonged anywhere and never felt good enough. I became a high achiever and very busy. As a Finnish woman, I was raised with an idea that “I can have it all.” And I had it all: a political career, social enterprise consultancy, an eco-house in the country with seven sheep, 10 turkeys, three dogs, three beautiful children and a husband. Externally, it looked great.
But internally, it was so dark that sometimes I could not hold to the thread of life. It was impossible to allow anyone to come too close, yet the loneliness was the most painful of all things. When you feel so ugly and ashamed for most of your life, you want to become invisible. But by becoming invisible, you die inside and learn to make the right “motions” in life for the sake of others.
All of this caused burnout, and at some level, I realized that something had to go. I filed for a divorce and resigned from politics. My ex-husband took the family consultancy with him, so I had no business anymore. I needed to concentrate on my children and my well-being. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough…
Do you feel comfortable sharing with us the circumstances surrounding how you developed PTSD?
Not comfortable, but I’ll try. The cycling one was just a freak accident on a quiet English country lane. There was nothing that could have caused me to fall off my bike: a newly resurfaced road, no potholes or stones, and no traffic. I just fell on my face. I lost consciousness and was taken to a hospital where I was given opiates and other painkillers. I lost weeks of my life; however, I’m deeply grateful for the medical care I received from NHS (National Health Service) Coventry Hospital.
Before the accident, I was finishing my master’s degree in Social Investment and Philanthropy at London Bayes Business School. After the accident, I could not even understand the essays I had written a few weeks before. For someone who has always relied upon her intellect, it was scary.
A few months later, I was diagnosed with PTSD. I had gone into strange terror states, behaved erratically emotionally and started to withdraw. It was difficult to maintain relationships and accept any help. The worst thing was that I was in such denial that nothing was even wrong with me.
Eventually, I did get help. The strangest thing was that two years later when I got back on my bike, I fell off again. The same situation: no reason for it at all. Luckily, it wasn’t as bad. Because of falling on my head again, I wasn’t allowed to move. Whilst waiting for the ambulance on the road, I did something I had learned from Dr Peter Levine.
I had already started studying trauma-informed sex, love, and relationship coaching. Dr Levine’s book “In an Unspoken Voice, How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness” was fresh in my mind. At the beginning of the book, he shares what he did to prevent PTSD immediately after his traffic accident, and I decided to have a go as well.
I allowed myself to focus on the kindness of people who helped me, especially the women who held my hands and spoke softly and reassuringly. I let my emotions take their course: the fear, the shame, the anger, the grief, the gratitude, and the love for my children. My body started to tremble, and my hand wanted to protect my head from the fall. It was as if the body didn’t know the accident had already happened! I ignored when people said I was going into shock and just welcomed anything that my body needed to do.
I don’t know where the consciousness to do this came from in such a stressful and scary situation. The Jungian analyst, Marie-Louise von Franz, says: “The divine psychic core of the soul, the self, is activated in cases of extreme danger.” I feel so happy and grateful that I had the information and the awareness to surrender and allow my body’s primitive wisdom — or is it divine wisdom? — to take over and to tremble. Some old wisdom teaches us that trembling is good such as Qigong and Kundalini Yoga, and even the Bible says: “God is found where you have trembled.” We tremble and shake involuntarily when we are cold, frightened, angry or have an orgasm — so I figured it must be a good thing!
This second accident wasn’t bad, and the quick recovery gave me hope and courage to look at the deeper causation of my lifelong suffering. I had also started to develop migraines that I had never had before. I noticed they coincided with something I didn’t want to do sexually.
One day, I was shown a photo from my childhood. I knew it well. However, this time, my body reacted strongly and started to shake and tremble. My heart was racing, and I got sweaty. I knew by now that I was going into a fear and trauma response. Again, I allowed that to take its course without panicking. I knew it would pass. By trembling, the experience would not be re-traumatizing and getting locked into my nervous system.
The photo was about my parents in their friend’s house taken by the 6-year-old me. It is a bit wonky and taken at a child’s height. I remember so vividly how heavy the camera was and how proud I felt of the opportunity to take the photo on my father’s new camera. After the photo shoot, the son of the family, aged 16–18, asked if he could take me out to the forest and search for “the pink elephants”. Again, I felt flattered for being asked, and we left excitedly, leaving the adults cooing and smiling about the imaginary elephant hunt.
Soon enough, I knew what he meant by a “pink elephant” … Afterwards, he made me promise that I would never tell anyone because “it was our little secret.” And I didn’t. The next time we went to visit them, it happened again. I don’t recall why I didn’t speak up or even how I felt. It’s like it was all swiped clean from my memory. I have had difficulties remembering much about my childhood after that age but have felt it wasn’t good. Until I had done enough trauma healing work from the accident, started having migraines linked to sex, and had the stress response when I saw that photo again, I hadn’t connected the dots.
I understand now that the secrecy, silence, and self-judgement caused my PTSD, not the incident itself, and the shame cemented it in my nervous system.
What mental shift did you make to not let that “stop you”?
Because of my deep unhappiness, I have been interested in personal development and growth all my life. In many ways, the cycling accident was the final wake-up call. I wanted to lead a very different life where I’d feel ALIVE. The one where I felt more empowered to make my own informed decisions without them being reactionary impulses — and where I felt I am lovable just as I am.
But I knew what that meant: going back to the root cause. And for that, I needed help.
In terms of your question, I understand what you mean about not letting PTSD stop me, and even though I didn’t know I had had PTSD all my life, I pushed forward. But it hadn’t worked. All my relationships had ended, I had no close friends, and my children had suffered, but I was considered successful. For me, success has become synonymous with healing and all the beauty that comes from that — and that’s what I was happy to stop pushing for and be still.
Through therapy and trauma-informed Tantric Sex Coaching and eventually certified training, I started to heal deeply. In many ways, it is still a work in progress, but on most days, I feel alive and happy. I have beautiful friends and relationships. I am showing up in the world in a more authentic, raw, and vulnerable way. If there are bad days, I know what to do now. Not being afraid of the “bad” days has been a game-changer for me!
My biggest realization on this healing journey has been that I lacked pleasure in my life. When you are depressed and feeling numb because you are terrified; doing the ‘motions’ of life and achieving everything you are expected to; building a happy façade to keep everyone else happy and not allowing them to see your “ugly truth,” you eventually don’t feel anything.
Numbness is a blissful thing in many ways because you don’t feel the shame and the ugliness of yourself so acutely. It’s nature’s great way to protect you — and she is ever so clever. Our nervous system is wise beyond understanding, and it makes me so humble to realize that. But numbness also meant that it was difficult to feel and find happiness and pleasure, especially sexual pleasure in my case. I didn’t feel worthy of it. It all became disconnected and compartmentalized: happiness in one box, pleasure in one — and shame in a thick iron chest behind a lock and key in my lower belly.
Until I learned the power of ‘negative thinking,’ I wasn’t going to open it. Instead of telling everyone that my childhood was okay — and some would even say it was indeed happy — and that I’m fine and that all children explore each other physically — especially in liberal Finland where sex and nakedness are seen as natural, I might add proudly! — I acknowledged that it was not okay. It wasn’t okay for nearly an adult to expose a young child to adult sex for his gratification. It was not okay that I was sworn to secrecy. It was not okay that nobody noticed.
Little by little, with the acknowledgement of the negativity and not bypassing it with positive thinking, I started to accept help and had more courage to look at that rusty iron chest and even open it a little. Through loving support and compassionate coaching, I was able to face what was in there; acknowledging that it was not my fault. It was NOT my fault. And it was not going to rule my life or identify me in any way. The emotional roller-coaster, endlessly finishing the trauma cycles, re-parenting myself, and re-wiring my nervous system with pleasure felt sometimes like a full-time job!
I can stand here today and say it was all worth it. I have so much pleasure, happiness, and peace in my life. I reclaimed what was taken from me when I was only 6 years old.
What strategies, techniques, or resources have you found most effective in managing your PTSD symptoms on a day-to-day basis?
I have so much respect for my body now. My mind can trick me, but my body never lies. If I have an uncomfortable sensation in my body, I get curious. I allow it to share its wisdom by expressing it through movement, sounding and breathing. Often it can mean trembling and shaking but sometimes free-flowing dance. Occasionally emotions can emerge, and I allow them to take their course. A good cry or punching a pillow can do wonders! There is so much energy that gets released from suppressed emotions!
Initially, this was scary, and I needed a certified coach or a professional breath worker to hold space for me. When the trauma was more acute, I was afraid that I couldn’t get out of the process alone. A skilled person was able to help me to pendulate between the release experience and the consciousness that I am safe. I still have a network of people I can reach out to and close people who know how to hold space for me. I have also trained in breathwork and find it one of the most therapeutic modalities I’ve ever tried.
I also try to meditate, but I am not very good at that. Sometimes it’s just enough to tune in for what I am grateful for and celebrate how far I have come.
Through my lived-in experience, I have concluded that the healing, releasing, and clearing path is crucial. However, it’s not enough to feel fully alive. Parallel to that Healing Path, I’d love to suggest a Pleasure and Self-Love Path. It’s like having two tracks for my inner train to move forward and not get stuck again. I consciously find pleasure in my daily life through my five senses: what I taste and smell, what I touch and feel on my skin, and what I hear and see.
Being in my five senses helps me to ground and be present in the moment, not dwelling in the past and not being anxious about the future. I love being in nature and spending time with my dearest ones, online or face-to-face. I have self-love and self-appreciation practices where I’m learning to be more kind to myself, and going with the flow instead of pushing myself or needing to be in control.
The Pleasure Path also means sexual pleasure for me now. It can be solo or partnered sexual play. I use the word “play” very deliberately here. Innocence and playfulness of a child’s sexual exploration were stolen away from me. Through molestation, I got exposed to the adult’s way of sex. For instance, I never felt I had the teenage exploratory phase where on my own or with a partner, I’d explore what feels pleasurable and ecstatic to me or us. I never felt that there were true honoring and respect for sex and sexuality when I was already a grown-up.
But now, I am reclaiming healthy sexual development where that respect and even sacredness of sex and sexuality are present. Sexual Pleasuring is play; it’s a process and even a practice. It’s a beautiful, healthy and natural part of humanity, and even, our spirituality. Our sexual energy is the one that makes us feel alive. It’s our creativity — we create new life! — and according to Tantra, also our Spirituality. And that’s what I mean by having a parallel Pleasure Path!
Can you tell our readers about the accomplishments you have been able to make despite having PTSD?
My biggest accomplishments are my three beautiful and amazing children, whom I have mostly raised alone. Their mere presence on this Earth has kept me going, providing me with infinite sources of happiness and love. They are all adults now, and I hope my trauma healing will be beneficial for them one day. I know they have all suffered in their ways. Somehow, I have always felt that despite everything I’ve gone through, I am a very good mother. Not in a perfect way but lovingly and imperfectly.
Before my healing started, I was the Deputy Leader of the Green Party in Finland when the Party was in Government, and I was the founding leader of the Rural Greens movement. I was trained as a Climate Reality Leader by Al Gore in Johannesburg, South Africa, and represented our Party on the political delegation visit to the United Nations General Meeting in New York. As a social business consultant, I lead the knowledge exchange program between Finland and the UK working with hundreds of social enterprises, local authorities, several national departments, and ministries, organizing events and programs and creating publications.
After my healing, my greatest accomplishment has been putting that figurative oxygen mask on myself first before helping others. If I burn out again or go into a full-blown trauma response, I am no good to my children or anyone else. And pleasure is that oxygen mask!
I even had a dream that told me to start a ‘Selfishly Happy Revolution — Healing the World One Orgasm at the Time’ and to write a book about it…What a shock it was! Now, I am convinced pleasure is the key to successful healing. It complements the usual, more talk-based and somatic healing modalities, making the transformation faster and more sustainable. Did I mention the fun?!
For six years, I have been a Tantric Practitioner, and now, I am an international Tantric Sex Coach for men, women and couples and a trending podcaster about the subject called ‘Tantric Sex for Lovers and Others’.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about having PTSD? Can you explain what you mean?
I am only a trauma-informed coach, not a trauma coach, therapist or expert on PTSD and can only share my lived-in experience on this.
- “It’s all in your head.”
PTSD is true for that person, and they need to be met where they are at. They don’t necessarily understand why they are behaving or feeling in a particular way. Judgement or criticism will make the shame of not being able to be and function as before even worse.
2. “It wasn’t that a big thing.” Or “It was such a long time ago. Just get on with it.”
Logic and reasoning won’t work because trauma and fear are felt in different parts of our brain and nervous system. Childhood trauma seems to have a tighter grip on a person, and they are also prone to having more traumatic events in their lives. In any case, even if they wanted to “snap out of it”, they simply cannot without professional trauma help.
3. “You can only get PTSD from a bad incident.”
Based on the most recent studies, it seems that PTSD is not about the event or incident itself but about how the person can cope with it and release it without shame from their nervous system. According to Dr Brené Brown, shame is the emotion that locks trauma in our nervous system because shame is always silent, unlike a quilt. Shame is about the person ‘being bad.’ Guilt is about having ‘done something bad’. She defines shame as an “intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging.” People are different, and for some, a seemingly small thing can be extremely traumatic, and for some, it is more like a cumulative effect of enduring years of something that they cannot cope with that causes PTSD. Dr Gabor Maté claims that there isn’t a person on this Planet who hasn’t experienced trauma. We just cope with it differently.
4. “If I just love her/him/them enough, she/he/they will get better.”
This is wrong. Whilst your love is crucially important, it’s not enough, and you’ll hurt yourself. Please get help, both professional and that of the wider support network for yourself, and also, for your loved one if they are already at the accepting help stage.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
There are so many! And you are right, we all need other people to thrive, but I didn’t realize that at the deeper level and felt I must ‘soldier on’ on my own. And yet, I have had a very rich life and with every person I meet, I can learn something from and become a better person because of them.
But it must have started with my paternal grandmother. She always had time for me. As a child, I spent summers with her and my grandfather. We weren’t religious, but once, I had an issue and wanted her advice. She replied to the 4-year-old me: “Anne, all you need to do is to treat that person how you would like yourself to be treated.” That Golden Rule has helped me to rise above my issues ever since — even though I didn’t understand it then.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Because of what my grandmother modelled for me, I have always wanted to uplift, support, and celebrate others — give them time and attention. I don’t believe in competition and mudslinging because we have bigger, more wicked issues globally that we need to solve collectively, such as climate change, poverty, plastic in the ocean and gender issues. Even during my political years, I focused on bringing people together, not dividing them, listening deeply, and then using my voice for them.
My podcast, ‘Tantric Sex for Lovers and Others’, not only educates about sex and sexuality but also aims to inspire more pleasure, happiness, and peace on Earth because I believe strongly that pleasure-positive and happy people don’t start wars! When you heal through pleasure, you want to become a force for good in the world. And one day, I hope to be able to focus on writing that book about Selfishly Happy Revolution.
Here is the main question of our interview. Can you share “5 things I wish people understood or knew about people with PTSD” and why.
Video: https://youtu.be/vx5ebJ90CQc
- GET INFORMED
There is so much that we still don’t know about PTSD but try to find as much good information as you can. The world is traumatising, and I fear that there are more people around you with PTSD than you think. If it is you or your loved one, the first step is to acknowledge it and get information on it. PTSD is real for the person, it’s not imaginary. And, if you are a legislator, please update your laws based on new science, especially in sexual abuse cases, to bring justice to the victims and prevent new cases.
I find it fascinating that some of the oldest philosophies, such as I Ching and Tantra, knew about trauma and how to heal from it thousands of years ago. Now, the most modern neuroscience is starting to confirm that wisdom.
Trauma lives in the body, and the body keeps the score. It has a memory. Initially, the body will take over as an automatic response to fear by fighting or fleeing. If either is successful, the body will release the stress by trembling and shaking it off. Just like animals when they have escaped their predator and go on living without trauma.
However, if it isn’t successful, the nervous system freezes. The body ‘paralyses’ and can even go floppy. It is a wise, protective mechanism designed to avoid more harm and even death, and it’s never a consent! Neither is fawning, which is the least well know of the four stress responses. Fawning means trying to please and negotiate to avoid harm. These reactions to stress can become chronic if the stress cycle cannot be finished safely and lovingly.
2. RESILIENCE AND HEALING
The good news is that humans are resilient, and healing is possible! It will take time, though. The physical side of things tends to heal quicker, but the emotional impact is longer-lasting and can be one of the most painful processes. It can be a roller-coaster of emotions from anger and despair to frightful freeze states with nightmares and flashbacks. And then there are times when there is respite and even light and hope. The fluctuation is a natural process of healing. Rushing or judging the process will not help and can push the freeze response deeper.
Tantra teaches that even though we are humans with bodies, we have emotions, feelings, and thoughts, we are so much more. We are all those things but also consciousness. When there is pain or trauma, i.e., the experience, it can be impossible to separate that from the experiencer, the human. However, the trauma or the diagnosis does not identify anyone and bringing consciousness into the picture through mindfulness and grounding practices can be helpful.
The second step is to get and accept help, not just from a medical professional, but someone specializing in trauma healing too. It can be, for instance, a cognitive and talk-based therapy, a body-based modality such as somatic experiencing or a more mindfulness-based approach like Tantra. Accepting help is a huge step and is always worthy of celebration. It requires courage and vulnerability to admit that life didn’t go to plan and help is needed. But it is so worth it.
3. FROM SURVIVAL TO THRIVING
A trauma survivor is — surviving. There is a new base level where mere existence is still possible, albeit not like before and not like it could be. The third step is to thrive again, and it can only be done with other people. We need others who can create safe and welcoming environments and accept whatever might be coming up from moment to moment. Emotions and feelings are a normal part of life, and communities and societies need to become comfortable with them and not sedate people as a first step.
Within a family situation, it’s helpful to learn what the emotional triggers are. This brings awareness to what is happening and how to deal with it. For instance, taking responsibility for one’s emotions, naming them, and understanding that pain and suffering do not make them more valid than other people’s emotions can start the process of thriving.
Finishing the stress cycle by using strategies that work, such as physical activity, breath work, a good cry, self-care, primal screaming, pillow punching, or affection, will communicate to the nervous system that danger is over and the “fleeing” was successful. Someone who can “hold space” without any judgement or needing to fix anything, has a calming presence and says words such as: “You are safe. You are loved” can make all the difference. This is ideally done by a professional, but space-holding is a skill anyone can learn.
However, supporting someone with PTSD can be very hard. To avoid being overwhelmed and burned out, self-care and a support network are important to the supporters too.
4. SELF-LOVE AND BOUNDARIES
The fourth step is the power of self-love and boundaries. Trauma survivors have a fair amount of self-loathing and self-criticism. The amount of unspoken shame that the trauma causes is why PTSD gets such a stronghold in the first place. Shame cannot survive once it’s out and spoken and met with loving compassion.
Self-love includes self-compassion and being kind to oneself, having patience with the healing and taking time to do self-care. What brings respite from the pain and suffering? What brings calmness, hope, pleasure, and even happiness? Practising little acts of self-love every day starts building resilience. Love is always greater than pain.
Setting healthy boundaries is not easy when there has been a tendency to bypass one’s needs and desires due to disconnection. It’s impossible to say a consented yes to something if there isn’t an awareness of what the no would be. Starting again with baby steps is more sustainable than reactivity to something bigger that might be regrettable later. Changing patterns of behaviour takes time, needs loving compassion, and starts from within.
5. PLEASURE PATH
What I love about Tantra is that it doesn’t exclude or judge anything but transforms everything. It is a philosophy of life, based on principles, and has specific mindfulness and spiritual practices as well as embodiment and pleasure-based processes. The fifth step is to re-wire the nervous system to better health, happiness, pleasure, and peace. It is doable because PTSD is never about the incident itself — we wouldn’t be able to heal if it was about that! — but the ways in which the person couldn’t cope with the incident. Because trauma response happens in the nervous system, it makes sense that healing happens on that level too.
Through, for instance, self-pleasure practices, the nervous system can be de-armoured. Because of what had happened, the person started building walls and protections around them. Since there is no danger anymore, the defences can come down now. It doesn’t happen by just wanting it. It takes time to create new neuronal pathways that help the body to accept new levels of safety, pleasure, love, and whatever higher vibration emotions are desired — but it’s possible to enjoy your body, emotions, feelings, and life again with others.
Tantra describes human bodies as temples. They are honoured, cherished, and worshipped as sacred and divine. It is a radical idea, especially for someone with PTSD, because trauma has caused a deep-seated disconnection from the body. Tantra brings that connection back again. It helps to feel fully alive and be present in the moment.
Healing can be exhausting. And it’s okay not to be okay… Hence, we also need pleasure to move forward with fun and joy. Just like two railway tracks side by side, Healing and Pleasure Tracks balance the train so it doesn’t get stuck again, but instead, keeps moving forward to the desired future. Life is back in the flow again and living from one’s truth, authentically, is possible.
Has your experience with PTSD influenced your relationships with others? How did you navigate those changes?
Absolutely. And not well. I never felt good about myself and lacked self-confidence. I didn’t feel I was lovable and worthy of unconditional love. Looking back now, it’s clear that I attracted controlling partners that I ended up fighting with because there was still some spark left in me that wasn’t just going to accept the way I was treated. I ended up fleeing or they left me. Was it all just a fight-flight response of the stress cycle? I understand now that I had developed a complex attachment style that didn’t feel secure and safe.
I don’t feel the need to fight or flee anymore. I have beautiful relationships where I feel safe to be vulnerable and be myself — and even feel loved for being me. However, it started with me loving and accepting all of myself first. It took a long time. Being alone was always an easy option because I knew I could survive. But being alone didn’t make me happy, and I needed other people to thrive.
What advice would you give to other people who have physical limitations?
I don’t feel qualified to advise on this. The only thing I can say is that you are more than your body. Just like I am more than my emotions. We are all so much more. We are consciousness.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this :-)
I’d love to meet Drew Barrymore! I’ve seen some of her movies and always sensed something amazing about her. Was it because ET was the first film I ever saw in the movies? I don’t know. She has the kind of depth and wisdom that I have not often seen in other actors. My kids grew up with Ever After where Drew’s version of Cinderella is not a victim but an empowered, happy agent of her world.
Only recently, I learned about her very unorthodox childhood, the struggles she has had and the difficult choices she has made. And yet, she is courageously vulnerable and empowered at the same time — and so much fun! Also, she seems to be such a conscious parent in her self-confessed imperfections!
Thank you so much for the time you spent with this interview. We wish you continued success and good health!
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.
While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.
Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.
Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.
