Def Leppard's Rick Allen on therapies that help him manage arm loss trauma

Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen and his wife, Lauren Monroe, are longtime advocates of mental health awareness and activists in making psychological treatment accessible to people who need it.

Allen has long credited music and the support of his bandmates, friends and family with helping him overcome trauma of the 1984 car accident that cost him his left arm.

In a recent conversation with Q104.3 New York's Jim Kerr and Shelli Sonstein, the couple noted that Allen's recovery from that accident is constant and multi-faceted.

"We're really hands-on people, so we like to meet the people that we're helping," Monroe said of the couple's work on Project Resiliency. "We love to create programs around what we know is healing for us — around drumming and mindfulness and so many other modalities that help. It always helps us, and that's the big message we always send: How to help yourself is to be in service."

When asked what inspired his philanthropy in the mental health space, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer explained that it was Monroe who helped him find treatments to address his longstanding trauma.

"I didn't necessarily know what was going on with me and Lauren, through the work that she does, gave me language that could explain what was going on," Allen said. "And actually the thing that's really helped me tremendously is neurofeedback. That has really sort of calmed down my nervous system. I definitely had issues, and you know I'm still working on those issues today. It just gets easier to manage the more I actually do it."

Monroe went on to explain that neurofeedback helps identify and heal places in the brain where trauma has occurred. It can be used to treat conditions like PTSD and insomnia.

"When you have a traumatic event, it's almost like a skipping on a record...it will keep on a loop in your brain so you'll always be triggered by things," she said. "When you remedy that through neurofeedback you allow your brain to make different choices, so your symptoms subside and for some people you can actually cure some of these things by just helping the brain heal."

Beyond medical treatment, art and music remain a constant focus for Monroe and Allen. Monroe just released a new solo album, Under the Wolf Moon, and Allen has his first in-person visual art shows in over a year coming up May 20 - 22 in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Boca Raton, Florida.

This article was first published on iheart.com and is republished here with permission