Healing America’s Heroes offers outdoor therapy programs for veterans
Many veterans deal with pain and suffering caused by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, also known as PTSD, on a daily basis. Now, a nonprofit is offering therapy and counseling for veterans suffering from PTSD in an outdoor setting, including horseback riding and fly fishing.
“The therapy that we do is horses and fishing and outdoors,” said Robert Crain of Big Spring. Crain's father, Vietnam veteran Eddie Crain, is president of the New Mexico-based non-profit organization Healing America's Heroes. “It's a five-day program. You get a horse assigned to you at the beginning of the week, and then that's your horse for the rest of the week. Some people go in there and they'll be talking to their horses. These horses are gentle. They sit there and just brush the tail or brush the mane or rub them down.
Some people want to go on a trail ride.”
Crain said the camp is located at Lincoln Pines, which is actually a refurbished youth correctional facility near Fort Stanton, N.M.
“Fort Stanton is right outside of Ruidoso, Capitan, Lincoln...it's all in that area. Southeast New Mexico,” Crain said.
The organization's goal is to help heal combat veterans and active duty service members who suffer from PTSD, Military Sexual Trauma, and Traumatic Brain Injury, and to reduce the suicide rate of veterans and service members. The program is staffed by experienced horsemen and fly fishermen, a fly-tying expert, and life skills counselors and therapists. The services are provided free of charge to eligible applicants.
What do horses and fishing have to do with trauma suffered in combat?
“Through the interaction with horses, the veterans experience a calming of their mind and body,” according to promotional material provided by the organization. “They also develop a close and harmonious relationship with another living being. They often find it easy to talk with