What does it take to transform from sleeping on park benches to helping others heal? In this deeply moving episode, Anthony Brown shares his remarkable odyssey from childhood trauma through addiction and homelessness to becoming a psychiatric nurse practitioner and author of "From Park Bench to Park Avenue."
Anthony's story begins with a devastating childhood marked by poverty and witnessing his mother's shooting. By fourteen, he had run away to join a carnival, beginning decades of substance abuse and eventually spending most of the 1990s incarcerated. The turning point came at age 37 when sobriety allowed him to begin rebuilding his life from the ground up—teaching himself to read in prison, earning his GED, and gradually accumulating education and professional credentials despite his background.
The heart of Anthony's transformation occurred during a profound spiritual experience at the very park bench where he once slept homeless. There, he received three life principles that have guided him for 25 years: don't hurt anybody, don't hate, and always finish what you start. This spiritual foundation propelled him through seemingly impossible barriers—from securing nursing credentials despite his criminal record to purchasing and renovating an abandoned 1916 mansion in Ohio named "Brown Manor."
What makes Anthony's approach to homelessness revolutionary is his focus on identity transformation. "You believe who you are by what you believe who you are," he explains, noting that calling someone "homeless" reinforces that identity. Through Brown Manor and his nonprofit, he's developing a program that addresses homelessness as a problem of ineffective coping skills rather than just housing.
Anthony's parting wisdom resonates powerfully: "If you're not moving forward, look at what's holding you back." His journey reminds us that transformation is possible at any point in life, and that our pasts need not determine our futures.

Anthony Brown:

Website: https://anthonyhowardbrown.com

Order "From Park Bench to Park Avenue": https://a.co/d/fjNl7nc

Brown Manor: https://anthonyhowardbrown.com/brownmanor

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