Healing Combat Trauma

Gone Fishin' -- with the Veteran Anglers of New York

Veteran Anglers of New York, Inc., according to its website, "is dedicated to the emotional and physical rehabilitation of disabled active duty military personnel and veterans through fly fishing, fly tying and outings."

They are sponsoring a trip to Eldred Preserve on October 17th, with fly-fishing casting practice sessions on October 12 and 26. Click here for more details.

While a fly-fishing outing certainly won't cure PTSD, it is likely to provide a convivial, relaxing break from the day-to-day worries and concerns of a combat veteran. Thanks to organizations like Veteran Anglers that sponsor trips like this for those who can benefit from them. Wonderful stuff. (Thanks, Merri, for the link!)

Virginia Not Just for Lovers This Summer: Also for Vietnam Veterans and Their Families

The Virginia Historical Society is pleased to offer free admission for everyone this summer! From June 6 to August 30, the VHS is displaying three exhibitions about the Vietnam era. The society is offering complimentary admission as a way to honor military personnel who served in the Vietnam War and their families.

On Display / Current Exhibitions:

• Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era through August 30, 2009

Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era explores the issues, actions, reactions, and expressions of life and culture of African Americans as they were affected by the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. Over 160 artifacts, photographs, audio recordings, songs, oral histories, and an original documentary on display in this award-winning exhibition show how events in the 1960s helped frame African American political and social perspectives that extended beyond civil rights. The roles of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Colin Powell, Jimi Hendrix, and many others are explored, as well as the 9,000 women who served as nurses and in clerical and support positions during the war. Soul Soldiers was organized by the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.

• Marking Time: Voyage to Vietnam through August 30, 2009

Marking Time: Voyage to Vietnam features a cache of Vietnam War soldier art of striking importance and poignancy. Soldiers and Marines on the ship USNS General Nelson M. Walker, bound for Vietnam in 1967, inscribed graffiti phrases and images on the bottom sides of canvas bunks in the troop compartments. Men wrote their name and hometown, the date they expected to leave the service, and kept day-by-day calendars to mark the progress of the voyage. Original graffiti-covered canvases—discovered in the process of scrapping the vessel in 2005—display messages of patriotism, politics, humor, anxiety, and love. Marking Time was organized by the Vietnam Graffiti Project in Keswick, Va.

• A Vietnam POW's Story through August 30, 2009

Bring Paul Home: Phyllis Galanti and Vietnam War POWs is based on the collection given to the Virginia Historical Society by Richmond resident Phyllis Galanti. Her husband, Paul, was a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy when his plane was shot down over Vietnam on June 17, 1966. Mr. Galanti was a Prisoner of War (POW) until February 12, 1973. Pictures, letters, pamphlets, buttons, and posters from the donated collection show Mrs. Galanti's efforts, and those of the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, to publicize the plight of their loved ones and to secure their release. "I think these exhibitions will be of interest to visitors, especially those who lived through the 1960s and 1970s, because they will be able to personally relate to the topics covered in all three shows," Levengood said. "It is the perfect opportunity for parents and grandparents to bring their children and grandchildren to learn about events that had a huge impact on American society, politics, and culture—and they can see it all for free!"

The Virginia Historical Society is located at 428 N. Boulevard, Richmond, VA 23220 Tel.: (804) 358.4901. The Museum is open from Tuesday–Saturday 10–5 and on Sunday 1–5 (galleries & shop only).

The Story of Virginia, An American Experience, a 10,000-square-foot exhibition with more than a thousand objects covering all of Virginia history from prehistoric times to the present is featured in the Robins Center for Virginia History. Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 10 am–5 pm and Sunday 1 pm–5pm (Museum Galleries and Shop only). Admission: $5/adults, $4/seniors 55+ ($2/Tuesdays–galleries only), $3/children and students, free/members. Admission to the galleries is free on Sundays. For group tour information, call (804) 342-9652. For more information, please call (804) 358-4901 or visit www.vahistorical.org.

Editor's note: For further information about these and other exhibits at the museum, please click here. (And thanks, Merri, for letting me know about this!)

Upcoming Seminar on Warrior Health: PTSD, Depression and TBI

The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc., presents:

A Center for Deployment Psychology Training Program:

"Addressing the Psychological Health of Warriors and Their Families: PTSD, Depression and TBI."

When: Mon 22 Jun 2009 through Fri 26 Jun 2009.

Where: The Cheyenne Mountain Resort, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

What: This intensive course, which is comprised of 4 modules, will train civilian mental health providers to better address the behavioral health needs of military personnel and their family members throughout the deployment cycle.

Who: The intended audience is civilian mental health providers who provide behavioral health care to the military population or military family members, including veterans and their loved ones.  This training is NOT intended for active duty military providers, but rather for civilian or private practice/community providers.

Supported by: Fort Carson Soldier Readiness Center, National Organization on Disability, Operation TBI Freedom and Regis University.

For more information about this upcoming seminar or to register online, click here.

Kenny Carnes' One Man Show, Three Generations of Soldiers: "Pieces of War"

Kenny Carnes is a unique individual.  A New Englander and former Army attack helicopter pilot, now with a masters in holistic counseling, he has a one-man show, currently touring the U.S., that talks about three generations of soldiers, called "Pieces of War." (It's also available in book form from Amazon.com).

From the promotional material about the show:

No words can relay the experiences endured while in a combat environment. But, through public performance and open recognition we attempt to capture meaning in order to mend the wounded warrior.

Written largely in rhapsodic verse "Pieces of War" is a one-man show delivering a rapid fire cadence of rhyme and rhythm to weave a portfolio of stories from three generations of American war fighters. As a son returns home from Iraq his grandfather recalls his victories at Normandy while a father becomes lost in his voiceless shame trying to forget Vietnam. Inspired by true stories, Carnes live theatrical performance makes meaning through conflict, captures understanding through provocative contemplation and unites audiences in common dialogue surrounding the universal journey of the hero in all.

Our post-show interaction forum invites soldiers to dialogue with audience and artists so theatre can become a gateway to community recognition, healing and personal reintegration. Our partner programs in attendance offer unique training options helping soldiers and their families to reunite and read just upon home coming.

During a recent post show discussion a Vietnam Veteran ("Sgt. Jon Doe") was able to disclose his traumatic wartime experience for the first time in 35 years! "Sgt. Jon Doe" was so physically shaken from the catharsis energized by "Pieces of War" that it marked the beginning of his therapeutic process. Thanks to the well trained staff like those at Brown University, men and women like "Sgt. Doe" begin to heal from the embracing support of a caring, listening community.

"We do not fight to end the war."
"We do not fight to bring them home."
"Our fight begins when they get here."

Many of our war veterans experience an often silent, but always serious readjustment process upon their return home from the warfront. This workshop provides a unique opportunity to reestablish oneself back into the fabric of family, the workforce and the social position. Participation in intensive workshops, trainings and extended programs provides veterans, soldiers and family members an alternative to the traditional combat decompression process. Designed by combat vets for combat vets as an effective training and experiential retreat, facilitators bring those enrolled to a new level of managing life, career and family roles. Working with other combat veterans soldiers will strengthen coping skills, secure re-alignment and foster leadership for post-war recovery periods. 

For a link to Carnes' veteran readjustment workshop, click here.

Carnes' book, Pieces of War, is available on Amazon.com, and is linked here.

http://kennycarnes.com/video_warpeace_6mins_dialup_WMA.WMV

Editor's note: For more information about Kenny Carnes, see below:

Kenny Carnes (SAG, AFTRA) is a theatrical artist, story teller and performance poet who stages an array of original solo-plays to create thought provoking arts-based dialogues built upon current events. As a “Master of the Monologue” his theatrical creations act as sharp instruments that examine the human condition shape-shifting himself through a portfolio of archetypal characters that transport audiences on an existential journey toward their own richer understandings and internal truths.

Carnes has been called, “…a powerful messenger” by NY-Theater.com and praised for his oral poetry which artfully unites polarities and diversities. Appearing on hundreds of notable stages such as the Woodstock Historic Theatre, The Carnival Center for the Arts, The Admiral Theatre and St. Michael’s Playhouse his solo performances touch thousands each year. “His provocative playwriting has an enormous capacity to heal and transform us,” Brown University and his rapid fire rhapsodic verse deemed him "the EMINEM of Theater” by The Providence Journal.

Since training at the American Conservatory Theater his original monologues have gone on to educate, enlighten and heighten social awareness at universities, theaters, performing arts centers and on corporate campuses. With a Master of Arts in Holistic Counseling with a thesis concentration on Expressive Arts Therapies from only one of three graduate programs of its kind in the United States, Carnes meets the growing need for integral solutions through his action-based workshops for students, executives and artistic leadership. Kenny Carnes recently received united praise from southern New Englanders for his radio show “Voices of Freedom” on WPRO News Talk 630, has appeared on National Public Radio and has worked as creative talent for Twentieth Century Fox, NBC-Television, Citadel Communications, Clear Channel and KLRU-PBS. He lives in New England where he develops, writes and produces new works for the stage.

Upcoming Seminar: The Warrior's Journey: Healing PTSD (with Edward Tick)

The Warrior's Journey: Healing PTSD (6 CE hours)
Tuesday, April 28, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuition: $150 general public; $130 Antioch alumni, faculty, staff

War's violence is so severe that it can cause the true self to become distorted or lost for life. Untold numbers of veterans from old and new wars suffer Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Newest estimates are that 20-40% of Iraq returnees come home with PTSD and its multitude of disabling symptoms. Countless more return with severe, disabling wounds to body and mind. Contemporary society and the institutions meant to serve veterans are in crisis and at a loss as to how to respond to this massive wounding.

In this workshop, gain insight into the psycho-spiritual approach to healing from war. Learn how PTSD is not just a stress and anxiety disorder. It is also an identity disorder, soul wound, interrupted initiation and social wound. Examine various forms of psycho-spiritual interventions and community activism that rebuild veterans' identities, shrink trauma and restore wounded dimensions of soul. Develop a deeper understanding of PTSD treatment philosophies and strategies that can bring hope and healing to veterans and their families. Explore the spirituality inherent in war and learn how to use it to heal veterans and society.

Instructor: Edward Tick, Ph.D., is a holistic psychotherapist, writer, educator, journey guide, activist and veterans' advocate. He has been working with veterans and survivors of war, violence and trauma since the late 1970s. He specializes in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural and international reconciliation practices to help veterans, communities and nations heal. He is founder and executive and clinical director of Sanctuary: A Center for Mentoring the Soul, and of Soldier's Heart: Veterans' Safe Return Programs. Tick is adjunct professor in both Communication and Global Studies at the Sage Colleges. Tick is the author of War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

Editor's note: for further information about the program, click here and scroll down until you see this particular seminar.

"The Frontiers of Trauma Treatment" - Seminar

Bessel A. Van Der Kolk, M.D., and Dana Moore will be presenting "Frontiers of Trauma Treatment" at Kripalu in Western Massachusetts, from January 9-11, 2009.

The program is designed, according to the informational material,

For licensed therapists, yoga instructors, and other individuals interested in studying the nature and processes of trauma.

Traumatic experiences alter people’s relationship to their bodies in ways that leave them feeling uptight, helpless, disconnected, hurt, on edge, frantic, and at odds with themselves and their environment. Research is demonstrating that physical sensations and action patterns are the very foundation of consciousness. The experience of physical mastery that yoga and other body-based practices provide is often necessary in order to initiate new ways of perceiving reality. By learning to pay close attention to internal experience and working with the felt sense, people can reclaim authority over their lives.

In this weekend, we will explore recent developments in the neurosciences, attachment research, and new psychotherapeutic treatments. This course is not meant to serve as personal trauma treatment but as an introduction to the neuroscience of trauma and attachment. It offers a chance to be exposed to an array of body-centered approaches for dealing with trauma, including EMDR, yoga, theater work, and tai chi. These approaches help in dealing with hyperarousal and processing traumatic memories, and promote mastery over the posttraumatic legacy of constriction and feeling lost in the world.

CE Credits

This program is eligible for :

• 8 credits for nurses (CS, NP, RN, LPN), $20 additional charge
• 8 credits for social workers, $20 additional charge
• 8 credits for certified counselors (NBCC), $20 additional charge
• 8 credits for physical therapists (PT), $20 additional charge
• 8 credits for athletic trainers (BOC), $20 additional charge
• 8 credits for psychotherapists (APA), $20 additional charge
• 8 credits for yoga instructors (YA), $20 additional charge

For further information about the weekend or to register, click here.

In Honor of Veterans Day: Community Acupuncture Clinics for Veterans

In honor of Veterans Day, Acupuncture without Borders is holding community acupuncture clinics for veterans in the following cities:

Newark, CA;

West Los Angeles, CA;

Stamford, CT;

Ft. Lauderdale, FL;

St. Augustine, FL;

St. Petersburg, FL;

Tamarac, FL;

Boston, MA;

Cambridge, MA;

Albuquerque, NM;

Santa Fe, NM;

Carson City, NV;

New York, NY;

Glenside, PA;

McLean, VA;

Longview, WA;

Seattle, WA; and

Racine, WI.

For more information on these clinics, click here.  NOTE: Do not assume that they are each being held on Veterans Day itself.  Most are held on a day either before or after, so check the schedule first several days in advance by clicking the aforementioned link.

Editor's note: For more on why acupuncture might be a suitable or interesting treatment modality for combat trauma and/or PTSD, click here.

Go to War, Do Art - Afghanistan and Iraq Combat Art Show Opens in DC

You are invited to visit the new show opening on "Afghanistan and Iraq: Combat Art," from the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps Combat Art Programs.  

Pictured here is USMC Warrant Officer and Combat Artist Michael Fay, with his unfinished canvas for "Between Sunset and Moonrise, Wazir Pass, Afghanistan" (oil paint on gessoed watercolor paper). 

Fay is one of the combat artists featured in the exhibit, and we've written about his powerful work before on this blog: here,  here, and here, among others.  Marine Sgt. Kristopher Battles is another U.S. Marine Combat Artist whose work will be featured in the exhibit.  Both come from a long tradition of those told to "Go to War, Make Art" -- both in the Marine Corps and in the other branches of the military.

See the superb PBS series, "They Drew Fire," for more on combat artists.  Abbott Laboratories has its own magnificent collection of war art.  For more on the Marine Corps combat art program, and its permanent inclusion in the new Marine Corps Museum, click here.  For a look at Mike Fay's personal blog, Fire and Ice, click here.

We're going to assume that the combat art show is going to be in the same place the opening for it is: in other words, the (irony) Cold War Gallery, Building 70, at the Navy Museum, in the Washington Navy Yard.  My guess is it's moving later to the permanent digs at the new Marine Corps Museum. If this information later on turns out to be different, I'll update it when I know for sure.  In the meantime, here's a link to the Cold War Gallery: there does not seem to be a page up yet for the show itself (bummer).

In the meantime, at right is a look at Fay's finished work for "Between Sunset and Moonrise, Wazir Pass, Afghanistan."  His artwork, which the BBC and the Wall Street Journal have both profiled, contains any number of extremely moving images, particularly his sketchwork, and recently his bronzes.  Amazing stuff.  If you're in the DC area, do yourself the favor of catching this show, and acquainting yourself with the rich tradition of combatants who clarify through art what it's really like to be a veteran of war: the bad, the good and the ugly.

And while you're at it, be sure to check out our extensive collection here of links to art and war, and also art therapy -- a modality that doesn't work for everyone, but for those whom it helps, including combat veterans, a true blessing as a way to process the images lodged in the subconscious through a means that releases them therapeutically (i.e., catharsis).

Combat Trauma & the Arts

Don't you hate learning about things after the fact that you really wish you could have gone to, if only you'd known?  Today's contender for that is an original play performed in 2006 at the Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island. The play is called "Boots on the Ground," and it's a 90 minute docudrama, "built around the words of nearly 70 soldiers and their families, medical workers, journalists, ministers, ethicists and teachers, who shared stories of courage, sacrifice and dedication, in Iraq and here at home."  The play was written and conceived by Laura Kepley and D. Salem Smith, the Rep's artistic associate-resident director, and playwright in residence, respectively.  All reports are that it was extremely moving and powerful, especially because based on actual personal experiences, artfully elicited and woven through the story.  Sure wish I could have seen it when it played.  If I learn more about its availability in any recorded form, I will post that information here.

The Sacred Brotherhood of Veterans

This is a post I've been meaning to write for a while - because the incident that spurs it, while still a few weeks old, didn't get nearly the coverage that it could have, so it's still going to count as "news."

It seems clear that if returning combat veterans end up getting better treatment (and hmmmn, we're still waiting for that) these days, from the VA and from society at large, it will in large part be because of what earlier veterans -- in particular, Vietnam veterans -- experienced.  The Vietnam vets' unfortunately "bad" experience will somehow work to create a noticeably "better" experience for current combat veterans.  At least, that's the hope.  And not just ours, but many Vietnam veterans as well, who frankly have suffered enough, and if there's any benefit to their suffering whatsoever, want to see that it means the next generation might suffer a little bit less, in trying to uncoil themselves from combat and readjust to civilian life.  When I think of this phenomenon, I really do picture a bridge, or chain of arms -- from one part of the sacred brotherhood of combat vets to another -- reaching out, to make sure that they make their way across what can be very troubled waters.  Of course now the "sacred brotherhood" also includes women veterans as well, but rather than get lost in some murky, cumbersome language, let's just call it the brotherhood and realize it includes women vets as well.  Whoever's been through combat, innately understands what it took to live that experience, and instinctively can help others going through that, and ideally help them come to terms with their loss.

The point of bringing this up -- the focal point of this post -- is to introduce one great example of a  Vietnam veteran who, despite his rank, really didn't "forget" what it was like to go through combat, no matter how many years ago.  When General Peter Pace stepped down in early October as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he apparently went straight from his good-bye ceremony to the Vietnam Wall.  And at the Vietnam Wall, to the shock and surprise of many onlookers, who came across these tokens over the next few weeks, he left three index cards, laid against the wall.  With his four stars rank pinned to each of them, and a handwritten note to each of the three buddies he'd lost, in the Vietnam War.  The notes each said something like, "These are yours, not mine! With love and respect, your platoon leader, Peter Pace"

Here's a couple of photos of General Pace's mementos, close-up and in place; and a link to a video at CNN, describing what happened.  Props to blogger Old Sarge for pointing this out, and giving us permission to republish the photos.  For a link to the Wikipedia entry on General Peter Pace, click here.